Connect Your Base-Line To Your Upper Body.
From Base-Line support, movement of the upper body should begin from your lower trapezius muscles, extending upwards and out towards to your arms and the back of your head.
The whole of both trapezius muscles should be free to fully extend in all directions, without pain or tension, connecting us with nuchal and supraspinous ligments our secondary guide for alignment in relation to the linea alba.
Keeping it simple...
your trapezius muscles
trap-EE-zee-us
The most superficial muscle layer, the trapezius muscles extend from the back of your head whole length of your neck to mid-back. From shoulder to shoulder.
They are thin muscles, sculpted shape froming kite-like blanket. They curve and bend as they extend down each side of your neck towards your shoulders.
Put your hands on your ears and feel for the bump at the back of your skull. The trapezius muscles meet in the middle here.
Slide your fingers of each hand towards your ears a little. (there is a ridge but I couldn't feel mine). That is where the trapezius attaches like a sheet hanging down from your skull.
'Engagement' of these muscles is about extension and expansion, smoothing of the kinks of a sheet.
Look at the pictures, appreciate the curvature and extent of the trapezius muscles.
Upper attachment: base of the skull Find the midline bump on the back of your head, + either side.
Midline attachment: The left and right trapezius muscles meet midline of the back and neck, attaching to the nuchal and supraspinous ligments on the median plane.
The scapula (shoulder blade) is an strange-shaped bone.
- Do you have any connection to your trapezius muscles?
- Can you activate them from midback up? Push your shoulders up from under, not pulling them up from above.
It took a couple of weeks of focused concentration before I could even start to activate my lower trapezius muscles at all. I don't think I'd ever used them before.
Working from my Base-Line and then imagining I had wings to lift and spread.
My upper body was rigid. My shoulders fixed in a hunch. My neck immobile. I had no idea how badly until I started to heal. From having no connection to becoming aware of my misalignment where I could feel the crumples and folds, twists and compressions.
My healing took over 2 years. Releasing the tensions was hard work but every day was better than the last even if pain levels were high.
Movement should be easy and smooth.