Have you ever struggled to find the talus bone? Either your own, or on one of your clients?

On today’s episode of Movement Detectivery I’ll be answering a recent question I received from a listener and Anatomy in Motion student who’s got a case of talus bone palpation frustration. Can you relate? I can.

And OH how important it is to be able to understand the position someone’s talus is in because of how much information this one bone gives us about the whole body’s movement potential!

I’ve also personally struggled with finding the talus bone, so I wanted to share some stories about how I overcame my palpation ineptitudes, why knowing where the talus bone is is so dang important (so don’t give up on it!), and some practical tips to help you with your boney landmarking.

And to my fellow movement detectives who aren’t movement/manual therapy professionals, this episode will be insightful for you to learn about how your feet might be impacting the movement of the rest of your body. It might inspire you to go speak with your body-detectivery team to get your own talus landmarked and see what new information that gives you on your journey.

Hopefully this helps! Or at least reminds you that its OK to not know stuff, and be in the process of improving. Sometimes you just have to suck at stuff for a while until you get enough reps to feel competent.

Naturally in this episode my AIM bias will shine through as this episode is dedicated to answering and AIM studet question. A big component of learning AiM is to experience it in your own body. If you are interested in exploring AiM in your own body, you might like in checking out my program, Liberated Body, which takes you through four, 90 minute movement exploration sessions covering the spine, feet, hips, and upper body.

I’m opening up the program for a new cohort, which includes pre-recorded content and 1:1 guidance and support.

Go to https://www.monikavolkmar.com/liberated-body-workshop if you’d like to join in and express your interest in the next cohort coming up SOON.

You can also study AiM professional courses for movement and manual therapy practitioners online and in person. Go HERE for more info and the most up to date course schedule.

I hope you enjoy this episode and find it useful. And if you’d like to ask a question that I can address here on the podcast, please shoot me an email (monika@monikavolkmar.com), comment below, or message me on Instagram (@monvolkmar). I’d love to feature your question, next :)

Movement Detectivery is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Oh boy, this interview was a long time coming- I am thrilled to have finally interviewed one of the most influential movement educators I’ve had the privilege to learn from on my own personal and professional journey, Gary Ward.

Gary is a movement educator and creator of Anatomy in Motion. Gary dedicated the past few decades of his life to understanding the truth of human movement- A boss level Movement Detective. Gary now teaches his model of closed chain joint mechanics online, in-person, and works with folks ranging from high level professional athletes to the average person recovering from a hip replacement.

Gary’s brain child, the Flow Motion Model of gait (FMM), has helped myself and countless other movement and therapy professionals understand how to more clearly observe and work with the human body in motion. The FMM started as a realization that when you change how the foot moves on the ground, it affects everything else in the body, and he would not stop until he’d mapped the movement of every bone, joint, and muscle in the body through the 0.6-0.8 seconds it takes to complete a footstep.

Now I have to state my personal bias- In 2021 I became an instructor for Anatomy in Motion. It is a huge part of the work that I do in my own private bodywork and movement coaching practice. Keep that in mind as you listen to our conversation.

In our conversation, Gary and I discuss:

* Gary’s journey from ski boot fitting to developing the Flow Motion Model

* How Gary set about developing the Flow Motion Model as a personal journey of movement exploration, and his belief that he could heal himself with movement.

* Why it is so important to make sense of someone’s injury history timeline to understand how to help them most efficiently with their chronic pain

* The paradigm shift in Gary’s thinking- Its not about strengthening and stretching, its about helping the body to unconsciously find its own best sense of centre by helping it access the movements it is missing.

* Why knees are so misunderstood in the evidence-based models of movement because it doesn’t account for the movement of the foot in the closed chain.

* How head positioning can be at the root of toe pain (and just mobilizing toes isn’t the solution)

* Debunking common misconceptions about navigating your own journey from chronic pain to well-being

* How using a force plate helped Gary develop his model of closed chain biomechanics

* Why foot pronation is one of the most high-value movement in the human body because of how it wakes up so much potential for the rest of the body.

And much more.

I really loved getting to speak with Gary. I hope you took away something useful for your own journey with your body!

Where to find Gary online:

The Finding Center Website: www.findingcentre.co.uk

Instagram: @garyward_aim

Substack: Gary Ward Gary’s What the Foot? book: What The Foot?

Where to learn more and take courses online: AiM Online Courses

Here’s a little more about Gary Ward:

Gary Ward has no qualifications and yet fancies his chances at taking down an established industry known for maintaining chronic pain and pushing people down the line towards surgical doom. Not standing for such a travesty he created weird jazz hand style moves that convince the brain anything is possible and moves away from pain and towards peak performance.

(Ok that bio was a piss-take… Because Gary doesn’t actually have a formal bio anywhere online and he gave me permission to copy/paste the above two paragraphs from a message he sent me when I asked him for a bio. Personally, I think it’s perfect. And actually, Gary has plenty of qualifications, but his best one is his Diploma of Real-Life Experience, decades of time in the trenches working with bodies and figuring things out through experimentation and consulting with many mentors along the way).

We recorded this podcast the day after her book was released, and I' am really looking forward to learning some of her insights about the spine (some common misconceptions), posture, and how the body is supposed to move based on her decades of experience and research.

I wanted to speak with Jenn because she is a like-minded movement detective that I think has a lovely, wholesome, intelligent approach to movement education.

Jenn takes a client-centered approach to movement coaching and personal training, meaning that she values having a tool-kit of movement approaches that helps her to meet her clients where they are at, whether they need a movement practice to help them get out of their busy minds and connect with their bodies to feel more at peace, or they want to improve their fitness while also managing frustrating niggles.

Her academic credentials in exercise science, kinesiology, and movement theory, combined with her love of movement exploration and real-life experience working with bodies of all types and abilities make her an excellent person to interview. I wanted to learn about her approach to working with bodies, her journey with her own body and what worked for her, and get an insight into what people will learn form her latest book.

In our conversation, Jenn and I discuss:

* Her new book, Spinal Intelligence (which you can buy HERE)

* Her position lecturing on mindfulness for the US Navy

* What Jenn’s learned about the intersections between mental health and movement

* Her journey overcoming chronic pain, and what helped her the most

* Myths about the spine

* Why you don’t need to worry about “Tech Neck”

* A better way to think about improving your posture than just trying to stand up straighter

* Jenn’s opinion about toe spacers, should you use them?

* Our experience studying with the Postural Restoration Institute

* The origins of Vladimir Janda’s upper and lower cross syndromes

* The importance of “neutral spine”

* A common myth about strength training

And much more.

I learned a lot in our conversation and felt like I was speaking with a kindred spirit.

I hope you enjoy this interview with Jenn Pilotti, and if you want to learn more, I hope you’ll check out her new book (and any of her three previous ones).

Where to find Jenn online:

Jenn’s Website: www.jennpilotti.com/

Instagram: @jenn_pilotti

Substack: Jenn Pilotti Spinal Intelligence book: www.jennpilotti.com/books

Here’s a little more about Jenn Pilotti

Jenn Pilotti, M.S., takes a comprehensive, client-focused approach to fitness that emphasizes movement quality, holistic well-being, and the integration of mind and body. She integrates principles from various disciplines such as strength training, flexibility, dance, parkour, yoga, and mindfulness to create fitness programs that facilitate a mind-body connection.

Jenn has a strong educational foundation in exercise science, kinesiology, and movement theory, which informs her practice. She stays updated with the latest research and trends in the fitness industry to provide evidence-based training methods.

She takes a client-centered approach in her work, taking into account each person’s goals and needs. Her diverse experience coaching and teaching allow her to take a creative lens when designing classes and programs.

In addition to her work with private clients, Jenn teaches workshops internationally, leads corporate wellness programs, and hosts two fitness and movement podcasts. She also teaches mindfulness for the US Navy Leadership Seminar.

Jenn is an avid learner and mover. She regularly participates in movement workshops and has a daily movement practice.

Thanks for reading Movement Detectivery! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Now just a standard disclaimer that the answers I provide here are not meant to replace personalized advice from a medical or health care professional, and my thoughts and opinions are just that, OPINIONS, and do not constitute a practitioner/client relationship.

I’d also like to mention that my answers are grounded in many philosophies for looking at the human body in motion, the most impactful one being Anatomy in Motion. AiM is a movement system that looks at how the body moves through the gait cycle and uses specific movement assessments and interventions to teach the body how to couple together closed chain joint mechanics in a way that is more ideal for efficient movement as per the Flow Motion Model taught and created by Gary Ward. This model is theoretical, but I have had great success using it both with myself and my clients to help with a multitude of movement restrictions that were at the root of their primary complaints.

The answers to the questions in this episode will be through my AiM lens, and if you are interested in learning more and exploring AiM in your own body, you might be interested in checking out my self-paced online workshop, Liberated Body, which takes you through 4 90 minute movement exploration sessions covering the spine, feet, hips, and upper body.

Go to https://www.monikavolkmar.com/liberated-body-workshop if you’d like to join in.

You can also study AiM professional courses for movement and manual therapy practitioners online and in person. Go HERE for more info and the most up to date course schedule.

I hope you enjoy this episode and find it useful. And if you’d like to ask a question that I can address here on the podcast, please shoot me an email (monika@monikavolkmar.com), comment below, or message me on Instagram (@monvolkmar).

I wanted to speak with Melissa because of how embarrassingly ignorant I am about concussion rehabilitation. Nearly everyone has bonked their head at some point in their life (I ask everyone who comes in to see me…). While not all bonks lead to concussion, many small-medium bonks over the decades can still create appreciable brain and body symptoms. Ask me how I know…

I met Melissa in Toronto when we both shared clinic space. I’ve seen first hand Melissa’s dedication to studying and treating concussions and seen the positive results she has with her patients.

Whether you’ve had a concussion or not, you probably know someone who’s had one. Maybe you want to understand more about how to make your brain and body more resilient to the inevitability of bonking your head on that cupboard 1000 times a day. Or maybe you work with athletes who are at risk of concussion and you’re curious about the standard of care. Like, is the advice to not go to sleep still what’s recommended? And what are some red flags to watch for?

In our conversation, Melissa and I discuss:

* Melissa’s story about sleep medication leading to dementia-like symptoms and inspiring her to learn about the brain

* What constitutes an “ideal” recovery from concussion

* How many Gs of force it takes to create a concussion

* The challenges of concussion diagnosis due to its subjective nature, and what are the diagnostic criteria for concussion

* How to help your body and brain become resilient to concussions, especially if you are an athlete

* The important role of a movement practice focusing on spine and neck mobility, alignment, and decelerative capacity (strength) for concussion prevention

* How hormonal status in females at time of injury is important

* How sub-concussive symptoms are worth considering, and how craniosacral therapy, neck and spine mobility, and eye movement tracking/exercises can help

* The vestibular-occular motor screen Melissa mentions you can use to check your vestibular system health: Vestibular and Ocular Motor Screening

* What dietary strategies are shown to aid brain health and concussion recovery

* Melissa’s recent PhD research on the use of virtual reality as part of concussion rehab

And much more.

I learned a lot in our conversation and, as a craniosacral therapist who touches skulls for a living, I was validated to hear Melissa mention how helpful CST is in the treatment process.

I hope you enjoy this interview with Dr. Melissa Biscardi.

Where to find Melissa online:

Melissa’s Website: www.concussionrehab.ca

Instagram: @concussionrehab.ca

YouTube: www.youtube.com/@concussionrehabBrain Toolkit App: braintoolkit.ca

Here’s a little more about Dr. Melissa Biscardi

Melissa Biscardi, RN, PhDc is a concussion clinician, educator and tech innovator.

She has been a registered nurse since 2006 and has remained a student of the majestic brain ever since, adding various degrees and letter to her name. Melissa maintains a curiosity for the road less travelled.

In her clinic, appropriately called “Concussion Rehab”, in Toronto Canada, she has maintained a brain-wise practice for over 10 years. Beyond patient care, Melissa is a dedicated mentor, guiding new clinicians to adopt best practices in concussion management (education.concussionrehab.ca).

Melissa has training from the Carrick Institute, completed a Master of Science that focused on women specific outcomes after concussion and recently completed her PhD on eye movement interventions in VR for adults after concussion (fun!)….officially making her Dr. Brainy.

Melissa has published 4 book chapters and numerous research articles which are all linked on her website (www.concussionrehab.ca/)

As an advocate for integrating accessible technology into rehabilitation, Melissa developed the Brain Tool Kit app for Android and iPhone (www.braintoolkit.ca). This accessible app is a one stop shop for eye movements, reaction time, balance and cognitive assessment and training.

When not tied up being as Brainy as she can be, Melissa love hiking and climbing in the mountains and spending time with her family and 3-legged cat.

Awards:

* Toronto Rehabilitation Institute Scholarship (2024 and 2025)

* Brain Injury ISIG Deborah Lee Price Girls & Women with ABI Task Force Poster Award (2024)

* Scholar in Women’s Brain Health Award (3 year award) from Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, University Health Network (2021-2024)

* Mitacs 3 year Fellowship in collaboration with NeuroFlex (2022 to 2025)

* 2nd Degree Black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and previous world champion (2009, 2010, 2011, 2013)

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We both studied Neurokinetic Therapy, Anatomy in Motion, and other continuing education courses together, and have collaborated on working with experimental bodywork “protocols” together that blend our love of exploring mind-body healing.

I wanted to speak with Ajna because of how well she is able to articulate her understanding of how our psyche affects our bodies. How unconscious beliefs, agreements, and behavioural patterns can be factors that cause and perpetuate our pain symptoms. Factors that aren’t always addressed in conventional manual and movement based approaches.

In my 20s I was very resistant to the notion that my emotional state- The ways I might be lying to myself, and my beliefs about myself and the world around me could have anything to do with my back pain. But in hindsight, though I credited my explorations of “healthy movement” as the primary thing that resolved my pain, I now see that it was through the journey of exploring movement and manual therapies that I indirectly began to encounter the ways in which my psychological conflicts were perpetuating my symptoms. 10 years later, I now see that, while movement helped reduce the mechanical strain on my body, the resolution of much of my body pain truly happened when I was able to move through these psychological conflicts and live in a state of less burden due to cognitive dissonance and unconscious emotional stress.

Ajna is dedicated to studying how the body, nervous system, and psyche impact on one another through her training in PDTR, manual therapy, and her work with the Dhyan Vimal Institute.

In 2022 when I was having foot problems I got immense benefit from enlisting Ajna as one of my trusted practitioners. She helped me to understand the unconscicous patterns and beliefs that were a component of what was keeping me in pain, and helped me to understand the changes I needed to make in my world to resolve it.

I think this interview will be beneficial for you if you are interested in somatic-based approaches to working with chronic pain that acknowledge that there is more going on than joint compression, muscle tension, and “bad” posture (though these are real considerations, too).

In our discussion, Ajna provides some background into the work she does and how it works. She also shares a lot of real life stories from her practice, and gives some practical tools you can use whether you are a practitioner or simply looking for tools to feel better in your own body.

In our conversation, Ajna and I discuss:

* Do emotions always have a role in physical pain?

* How pain is an “alarm system” alerting us to larger patterns in our lives that need attention.

* How our symptoms may be manifestations of many broad, uninvestigated themes in our lives: Belief system, damaging values, lack of authenticity, and agreements we didn't know we made.

* Ajna’s discovery of the Dhyan Vimal Institute for Higher Learning, and how implementing the knowledge she’s gained through her studies with him have informed her personal and professional practice.

* The ABC meditation, which she feels to be one of the most effective, foundational ways to begin to build awareness of our reality an become less affected by external triggers.

* How our bodies need truth for well-being, and how she uses muscle testing to understand whether someone’s body is working from a state of “honesty” or “corruption”.

And much more.

While I understand this conversation might fly under the woo woo banner for some folks, I strongly believe in what I’ve learned from Ajna and the information she shares connecting the psyche with our physical experience.

I hope you enjoy this interview with Ajna Samadhi and come away with some practical tools and insights for working with your body, and with others.

Where to find Ajna online:

Ajna’s Website: www.ajnasamadhi.com

Instagram: @ajna.samadhi

Dhyan Vimal Institute: DV Institute for Higher Learning

Here’s a little more about Ajna Samadhi:

Ajna started studying Thai Massage in 2008 and opened her practice in 2009.

She has studied many different modalities including NeuroKinetic Therapy (NKT) Anatomy in Motion (AiM), and Proprioceptive Deep Tendon Reflex (P-DTR).

She combines different techniques based on neuroscience, biomechanics, anatomy, and more subtle techniques to bring the body into a more balanced state. Her work helps restore the inherent integrity back into the system.

Her approach to the body is founded in the work of Dhyan Vimal, and her practice is constantly evolving as her learning continues.

Thanks for reading Movement Detectivery! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Thanks for reading Movement Detectivery! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Hello Movement Friends! The video in this post is a lesson I filmed wayyyy back during COVID times for my online community, Movement Detective School (which no longer exists, but all the videos still live in an archive!). As a follow up to my latest interview with Helen Hall, last week I thought it would be nice for you to experience a tidbit of what we discussed.

In this movement exploration video, I take you through a bit of theory and exercises to experience the developmental movement patterns associated with a few select spine movement reflexes- The early movements that would develop your spinal mobility and body functions related to the spine’s movement capability.

What functions might those be? Healthy development of spinal movement is associated with:

* Digestive function

* Vestibular system function

* Visual field

* Core musculature development

* Circulation of cerebral spinal fluid

* Scoliosis

* Autonomic nervous system adaptability (switching from sympathetic to parasympathetic back and forth as needed)

And more!

This exploration focuses primarily on movements in the sagittal plane, i.e. forward and backwards movements: Flexion and extension of the spine. I filmed a part 2 which focuses on rotation and lateral flexion of the spine as well. Perhaps I shall share that one too if enough of you reading this ask nicely ;)

What might have interfered with little you’s spine movement development? A lot of things, including:

* Bonks on the head and concussion

* Birth challenges such as C-sections, suction or forceps deliveries, cord around the neck, etc

* Any sensory motor deprivation, such as being confined in the NICU, or an early injury requiring immobilization

* Premature birth

* Lack of crawling

* Illness and use of antibiotics in infancy

And more!

In essence, anything that might have disrupted your malleable, adaptive, little body/mind/brain system to a point beyond which return back to homeostasis was challenged and this required a new coping strategy that changed your movement potential.

These spinal movements I guide in the lesson are a response that we, as infants, would have made to our environment for survival and physical development of the brain and body. The environmental stimuli that cue us to move in a particular pattern involve all our senses- Touch, hearing, visual stimuli, and proprioception (change of position).

In spite of possible disruption to these early movement patterns, we can re-train them at any age to the point that they become a part of our system again, and create the foundation for all upright movement we do as adults, like walking, running, and higher level sports and activities.

I hope you enjoy this lesson! If you are interested in learning more, please get in touch! It is such a fascinating world, and this work has helped me a lot.

If you have a history of spine mobility trouble, pain, or other issues you suspect could be linked to spine mobility and early movement development of the spine, I think you’ll really get a lot out of this movement lesson :)

To learn more about the source of these movement patterns, see the MNRI website (where I’ve studied this work): Svetlana Masgutova Educational Institute

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Helen has a vast toolkit that allows her to observe peoples’ movement problems over the spectrum of their entire movement lifespan. She’s come to understand that our early movement development has a massive, yet underestimated implication in many pain and movement problems that persist in spite of trying everything. Everything, that is, except considering what insults to their systems may even have happened before even leaving the comfort of the womb…

Helen has helped me tremendously with my own body. We met in 2019 in London when I was there for an Anatomy in Motion course. She invited me to come over to her clinic in the country side to have an assessment with her new, high-tech motion analysis treadmill X-ray device (Doris). The impact of that one session was transformative for me (and its a story I describe to Helen in this interview).

She asked me a question that truly changed the course of my personal and professional movement explorations: “Did you crawl as an infant?”. This led me down a fascinating path of studying infant reflexes, or, as Helen prefers to describe it, early movement development.

Helen inspired me to learn more about the impact that infant reflex development has on our options for movement as adults. Understanding our early movement development can help to make sense of why people get stuck in chronic pain cycles that don’t resolve in a linear way, in spite of doing everything that logic suggests should help.

In our conversation, Helen and I discuss:

* What are some tell tale signs that investigating early movement development might be a missing link?

* Hussein Bolt’s interesting movement habits that Helen wishes she could test

* The impact of not crawling on movement patterns

* How Helen uses the most advanced motion sensing technology currently available in her clinic to help athletes with in depth movement analysis

* Why concussions can negatively affect movement patterns

* Importance of testing reflexive foot movements as hypo or hyper-responsive and how this can impact on gait (an why you might wear a hole in the big toe of all your socks)

* So many stories of peoples’ mysterious pains understood through Helen’s holistic, movement based approach

* Helen’s “Lego block” analogy for understanding early movement development

* Is there a link between early movement development and ADHD, and how could retraining specific movement patterns help our sensitive nervous systems?

And much more.

I barely scratched the surface of my list of topics to discuss with Helen, so hopefully I’ll get to have a chat number two with her in 2026.

My favourite part of this interview was when Helen validated my goal in life to be average, as she states (and I paraphrase), “The best we can hope for for our child at birth is average. Not exceptional, but average”. Why? Because it sets them up for the best possible set of options, not limited by being exceptional on either end of the developmental spectrum.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this interview with Helen Hall.

Where to find Helen online:

Helen’s book: Even With Your Shoes On

Instagram: @helenhallpfm

Youtube: @ThePFMWay

Website: www.helen-hall.co.uk

Helen’s courses on Thinkific: Rethinking Movement Efficiency The PFM Way

Here’s a little more about Helen Hall:

I have a lifelong habit of both enjoying movement and of analysing it, and I use my passion to help those stuck in chronic pain and injury patterns. I believe bodies are amazing and capable of Perpetual Forward Motion, - PFM - and I apply all my movement understanding to our innate movement patterns of walking and running.

Using the most advanced motion analysis technology in the world, I combine objective clarity with over 4 decades of experience and study in the field, to seek out root causes of chronic pain and injury that seem resistant to standard treatment protocols.

I call it The PFM Way to Movement Efficiency; I’ve written a book called ‘Even With Your Shoes On – Discover your Natural Path to Smooth, Efficient, Enjoyable Running’.

I was presented with the Sash of Honour at the Queen’s Annual Royal Air Force Awards, 1982 and following over 6 years serving in the Royal Air Force as an Air Traffic Control Officer, retrained as a fitness instructor and remedial massage therapist.

Continuing therapist training evolved into a specialisation in vascular and lymphatic circulations through Dr Vodder Manual Lymph Drainage and Professor Leduc Medical Lymph.

Working with lymphoedema patients then athletes led to progressing my already long-term focus on Efficient Movement – particularly in the context of walking and running – to the road and triathlon cyclist.

This resulted in founding both Ten-Point: The Efficient Running & Cycling Studio and Perpetual Forward Motion Ltd – The PFM Way to Movement Efficiency.

Ten-Point taught bike-fitting to UK and European bike-fitters using the most advanced bike-fitting tool in the world – the GURU bike-fitting system.

The PFM Way rethinks conventional wisdom surrounding movement, pain and injury, approaching the problems of chronic pain and injury from ‘non-standard perspectives’ and enabling “lost causes” — those who have tried ‘everything’ — to find a way to break their pain/injury cycle. Supported by objective data provided by the most advanced gait analysis tech in the world and the first of its kind in the UK, I have created online courses – PFM PILOT – to share this knowledge, because I feel passionately that these ‘non-standard perspectives’ should be standard, conventional and widespread.

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I share two cases: JJ who had a primary complaint of eye strain and shoulder pain, and Elizabeth, who had left hip pain.

In both JJ and Elizabeth’s case history were indications that at an early age they’d had something significant causing restriction of the movement of the bones in their cranium. And in both cases we could trace these early insults to their mouth to the development of their current complaints in a completely different part of the their bodies.

JJ had a worn a maxillary denture for decades, after smashing her face and losing all but one of her front teeth as a child.

Elizabeth had worn a palate expander as a kid due to crowding of her teeth and never felt that it was comfortable.

I love cases like this because it really allows me to use my two main tools: Craniosacral therapy and Anatomy in Motion, to make sense of how the whole body can adapt over decades to a small restriction of the motion of the facial bones.

I hope you enjoy this short episode! I’d love to hear if you have any personal experience with wearing a dental appliance or have had dental history that you suspect had an impact on how things feel in your body- symptoms or movement limitations, today. Please shoot me an email or message if you’d like to chat!

Here are a few things I referenced in this podcast:

The image below is a great cross section of cranial anatomy, showing the connection of the maxilla, vomer, and sphenoid bones. Notice how the sphenoid connects with the occiput, which connects to the neck, which connects to the spine, etc… Showing us how movement restriction within the cranium can have an impact on the body below if allowed enough time for the body to adapt.

Cast partial maxillary denture: The image below is a decent representation of what JJ was wearing- A metal cast of her hard palate with partial denture. Although hers included more metal coverage of the surface of her upper palate.

Palate Expander: I don’t know the exact variety that Elizabeth wore, but the photo below is the essence of where it sits in the hard palate, so you can visualize it.

Barral Institute Listening Technique: The video below is from a presentation by osteopath Ron Mariotti, speaking about what listening technique is.

Thanks for reading Movement Detectivery! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Thanks for reading Movement Detectivery! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Margy Verba is a Californian computer nerd turned pilates instructor who now identifies as a rehabilitative movement specialist. You’re in for a treat because Margy is one of the most knowledgeable people I’ve met in the world of human movement.

Margy works with folks in-person in her local community (the small village of Mono City), and online to help them with movement and pain related problems. She is a huge believer in giving people tools to help themselves through better understanding how their body’s are set up to move.

She teaches for Anatomy in Motion as well as teaching her own movement workshops for non-movement professionals. Her attention to detail and ever-questioning mind makes her an incredible movement educator. Her desire to understand anatomy, and her commitment to exploring movement to support her own body continues to impress me, and is why I wanted to interview. her.

Whenever I have a biomechanics question, Margy’s the first person I think of to ask because I know she’ll be able to answer in the level of detail of a PHd, even if her conclusion is “I don’t know”.

Margy and I have collaborated on some teaching projects online and in-person for the AiM community, and I’ve also had the pleasure of spending quality time with Margy as a guest at her home (although she did once make me sleep outside in her unheated caravan in October in the freezing cold…).

Margy has witnessed me getting the worst, most embarrassing sun-burn of my life. She took my pilates reformer virginity, helped me a lot with my foot pain back in 2022 when I couldn’t walk, and she’s taken me on some of the most breathtaking hikes in the Sierra-Nevada and Yosemite park. I’ve been inspired watching her as a role model of a woman who takes care of her body and, into her 60s, still can hike mountains in minimalist footwear.

In our conversation, Margy and I discuss:

* What is massage therapy good for?

* Her experience with a total knee replacement.

* What makes knee replacements so challenging to recover from compared to other joints?

* Switching from “muscle-centric” to “bone-centric” thinking

* Marg’s transition from the computer world to pilates and movement

* How to start taking ownership of your body’s needs if you’re on a budget

And so much more.

I really enjoyed speaking to Margy, and I hope you do too.

Where to find Margy online:

Instagram: @flowmotioneducation

Youtube: FlowMotion Education - YouTube

Website: www.flowmotioneducation.com

Here’s a little more about Margy Verba:

I am fascinated by movement and the body’s capacity to heal. Always a mover, I grew up studying dance, playing sports, and backpacking as much as possible. While in college, in the mid-1970s, I started teaching dance and fitness classes (remember leg warmers and shiny leotards?). In the early 1990s, I discovered Pilates, and went on to complete internationally acclaimed Madeline Black’s teacher training. Madeline first introduced me to therapeutically oriented Pilates, and I have never looked back. Continuing my education in a therapeutic orientation, I have a diverse range of training with world renowned instructors/researchers (see education below).

In 2005 I was hired by the U.S. Men’s and Women’s U.S. Ski Teams to develop a custom Pilates program. Today my clients are primarily people in chronic pain and athletes who are stymied by injuries. I offer both private appointments, as well as a series of self-care courses for pain alleviation and prevention. The focus of my practice is knowledge and awareness, achieved through biomechanics education and movement exploration. This focus empowers my clients to practice self-care and be informed consumers of healthcare. In short, I enable my clients to take ownership of and actively participate in, their own healing process.

The primary influence on my practice is Anatomy in Motion (read more about AiM here). I have studied extensively with AiM founder Gary Ward, author of “What the Foot”, and as of 2021 I am an official AiM Instructor. AiM is based on the premise that gait (AKA walking) uses every joint in the body in all three dimensions. By analyzing gait and its component motions, we can address non-optimal movement at both a global (full body) and focal (individual joints) level. I have also been focusing my studies on pelvic floor and breathing dysfunctions (hint: they are not unrelated!). My clients get individualized corrective exercise programs, which provide lasting results, rather than simply providing symptomatic relief.

Olivia Michalak is a dance educator in Boston MA. She works primarily in public and private schools, in addition to dance studios.

I wanted to speak with Olivia because of her own experience of movement detectivery, conducting investigations with her own body. Olivia epitomizes what it means to engage in a process of deeply connecting with her body with the goal of understanding how things got the way they are (i.e. not feeling so great…).

Her desire to make connections and understand how her body moves has been inspiring for me to witness, and I know she has a lot of stories to share that we can all learn from. My goal was to pick apart her n=1 experience navigating the ups and downs of figuring out her physical restrictions and symptoms to find insights that might be of use to anyone hoping to understand how to help themselves. What worked, what didn’t, and what has she learned along the way?

In this conversation we discussed:

* Being diagnosed with Mosaic-Turner syndrome

* The role of self-acceptance in resolving pain

* Her movement journey- what movement modalities and approaches helped the most

* Discovering how neck and jaw alignment were influencing her foot mechanics, and other biomechanical “mysteries” solved

* Impact of forceps/suction induced deliveries on the development of the body over time

* Honest movement

* Deciding to study Anatomy in Motion at a professional level

* What makes a good therapist

I think this episode is really relatable and I really resonated with a lot that she said about learning to accept her body being a huge part of her process, and a part that will probably be ongoing. Me too…

I hope you enjoy this conversation!

Here’s a Little More About Olivia Michalak:

Olivia is an experienced dance educator in public and private schools, in addition to dance studios. Another passion is designing choreography for musical productions. Her movement teaching career began in 2014 while studying at London’s Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, where she earned an MA in Movement Teaching and Directing.

Want to get in touch with Olivia?

Follow Olivia on Instagram: @olivia.michalak

Originally trained as a Structural Integrator, Corey went on to study SourcePoint Therapy®, Craniosacral Therapy and Visceral Manipulation. These advanced modalities allow him to effectively treat a broad spectrum of issues

While in university, Corey first encountered Non-Directive Body Movement, a practice that I stumbled into in 2019 without knowing what it was.

I was so excited to talk to Corey because of his work teaching NDBM because I had years of questions pent up with no-one to bounce them off of. By far, NDBM has been a movement “practice” that has been the most effective, respectful, and honest way to deeply connect with my body and being, in motion.

In our conversation, Corey and I discuss:

* His time studying in Japan

* His relationship with Marilyn Beech, (NDBM teacher and (author of “Unexpected Results”)

* Dr. Marvin Solit and the origins of Non-Directed Body Movement

* What is NDBM, what can it do for you, and what is a class like?

* The parallels between craniosacral therapy, osteopathic techniques, and NDBM

* What is the role of deliberate exercises and stretching and where does NDBM fit into a movement practice?

* How to consider working with traumas from the birth process, like C-sections, etc.

* Is NDBM a form of meditation?

And so much more.

By the end of our conversation I felt inspired, like I’d met a kindred soul, and I was ready to book a flight to Seattle to hang out with Corey and have an in-person experience of one of his movement classes, which blend various other movement forms with NDBM.

If you enjoy what Corey as to say and want to explore NDBM, get in touch with him and ask about his classes. He teaches 5x/week on Zoom and has a really wonderful global community of curious movement explorers.

Want to get in touch with Corey?

For info about Corey’s classes and retreats, GO HERE

Follow Corey on Substack HERE

Follow Corey in Instagram: @corehess

See Corey’s Youtube channel HERE

To contact Corey directly:

coreyhesstherapy@gmail.com

http://coreyhessbodytherapy.com

Here’s a Little More About Corey Hess:

I live on Whidbey Island, north of Seattle, with my wife and three daughters, where I teach Meditation/Qigong and see clients for manual therapy.

After fifteen years ripening and learning to communicate these insights through hands on touch therapy, teaching movement, and discussion, I now offer classes, workshops and private sessions, including classes in Qigong, Zhan Zhuang, non-directed body movement, and meditation instruction. I also run The Energy Collective, an International online group of committed practitioners. Most Importantly, I am a husband and a father to three beautiful daughters.

Jordan blends multiple modalities such as craniosacral therapy, PDTR, NKT, Anatomy in Motion, Polarity Therapy, and more to work with a wide variety of clients experiencing pain. Jordan also teaches his own course, Adaptable Polarity, bringing all of these fields of study together to systematize his unique way of working with the human body’s structure, function, and energetic systems.

Jordan has SO much to share and I barely touched the top of my list of questions for him. In our conversation we discussed:

* How fascia touches everything

* Alternating joint theory

* Potential problems with Neurolink from a craniosacral perspective

* Power vs. Force, and Richard Dawkins’ “scale of empowerment”, and how different emotions affect fascia

* How the cranium and our spine move with our breath

* How Jordan’s jaw injury and scar was affecting his hip pain

* Injury Recall Technique

* Paired bones and “reactors”, and what is the mechanism behind them

And so much more.

On a sad note, our internet connection was a little shaky, and there is a whole 20 minute chunk I had to omit because the audio wasn’t usable. Apologies. Hopefully, with my excellent editing skills, you won’t even notice the awkward transition I had to cut (but if you can tell me which minute it’s at, you win a prize!).

As you’ll hear, Jordan clearly has a lot of insight into the workings of the human body, and I hope you enjoy this conversation.

Here’s a bit more about Jordan:

Human Helper, Movement Detective, Body Listener and eternal Student & Teacher, Jordan has developed, synthesized and teaches the Adaptable Polarity Series.

Formally trained as an architect at the University of Maryland, it was a relatively easy switch from the structure and flow of buildings to that of the human body.

Jordan earned his licensure to touch through Santa Barbara Body Therapy Institute where he began his teaching career under the study, tutelage and mentorship of John Harris, local legend to Santa Barbara and author of Fix Pain, as well as, one of Jordan’s all-time favorite instructors.

He has since accumulated hundreds of hours of continuing education and pursued countless hours of personal study that ultimately led to the formation and continual adaptation of Adaptable Polarity. Everything has its place and space, and it is our duty as therapists to adapt to the client before us.

Find him online:

Website: www.adaptablepolarity.com

Instagram: @adaptable_polarity

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Today’s interview is with the incredible Dave Hedges: Coach , martial artist, and injury management specialist.

You can also listen here on Spotify:

One of the reasons I wanted to speak with Dave is because of his intimate, complex, and thoughtful relationship with movement, his body, and how he works with other bodies. Dave has such a broad scope of thoughts, ideas, opinions, practical skill sets, and experiences, and I loved discussing his story, his key learnings, and his philosophy for helping people improve their performance and chronic pain.

In this conversation we discuss:

* His early movement life and getting into karate

* The risk of identifying with a movement form

* Working with people vs working on people

* The importance of training both the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems and what meditation actually helps us with

* What it means to cultivate discipline and take responsibility for your body, and why these are so important for getting out of pain

* Dave’s experience with his back injury and how he worked with his own body to get through

* Dave’s experience with Anatomy in Motion

* Why injury prevention as a goal is unrealistic, and what to focus on instead

* Training your “human animal”

And more…

I really appreciate Dave’s depth and honesty, and I found myself nodding along, resonating with what he was saying and how uncannily parallel our journeys were.

I loved talking to Dave and can't wait for you to listen, too. Enjoy!

A little more about Dave:

Dave is a movement therapist and fitness / coach in Dungannon in the UK.

Dave is fascinated by the human body's resilience, it's potential for strength, mobility and endurance. It’s ability to respond and adapt to incredible circumstances and how it can heal and recover if allowed the right stimulus.

And that stimulus is usually movement

For the last 20 years Dave has helped innumerable people from all walks of life, from weekend warriors to semi-professional athletes, gym goers to full contact fighters, overcome injuries and realise their potential.

Dave places an importance on carefully assessing movement and mindset through the medium of Anatomy In Motion (AiM) to work out what the body needs and then giving you the exercises to heal yourself.

Through his adventures in martial arts, mountain sports and security work, he has walked the path of injury many times.

Through first hand experience Dave understands the only way to truly heal and keep moving forward is to take personal responsibility and control of your own health & wellbeing.

Find Dave here: https://www.davehedges.net/

And follow him on Instagram: @dave_hedges

Thanks for reading Movement Detectivery! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Thanks for reading Movement Detectivery! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Jen Price is back for part 2! If you haven’t yet listened to part 1, check that out HERE.

I got some lovely feedback about our first conversation, and I didn’t even get through half of what I wanted ask Jen about.

In this second conversation I wanted to ask Jen about some ideas and concepts that are mulling around in my head in the sphere of health, movement, and bodywork, including:

* Should you have to do exercises to integrate a manual therapy session? Or is the treatment enough on it’s own?

* What is “health”? (because it’s more than just the absence of disease…)

* What role does artificial intelligence have in the future of bodywork? Will we ever have something that resembles a massage robot? Or will human touch always be in style?

* How the viscera are involved in many of our chronic pain problems, and in particular, the significance of the liver. Ever heard of “liver-lash”?, i.e. whiplash of the liver.

And so much more.

I felt like we could have kept talking, yet again. I really think you’ll enjoy this conversation with Jen, I learned a lot and I hope you will, too!

I hope you enjoy this conversation and get as much from it as I did.

Here’s a little more about Jen:

Jennifer’s interest is in the human body's ability to heal itself with a little help from the correct forms of treatment and diagnosis using both modern and ancient knowledge informs the basis of her practice. She believes a health practice where all modalities work in consultation, with the integrated care from all therapists brings the best outcome for the patient. This is why she set up ESOLAB in 2013 and has steadily increased her team to include senior practitioners from many modalities.

Her interest in nature and biology began growing up in a farming community in Victoria observing the seasons and animal health and then living in Eastern Asia for two years in her early twenties where she was exposed to Ayurvedic, Tibetan, and Chinese medicine but had already experienced Chinese herbal Medicine successfully as a teenager for eczema. Upon returning to Australia she enrolled in an Acupuncture degree completing it in 1996. A Master's degree in Chinese Herbal medicine was awarded in 2012.

During her last 28 years of full-time practice in Chinese medicine in Melbourne, she has undertaken further studies in Bioregulatory Medicine, with the Biomedic Foundation in London UK, Craniosacral with the Upledger institute in London UK, and Visceral Manipulation with the Barral institute around the globe.

Jennifer’s passion is to provide quality holistic allied health care with the team at ESOLAB South Melbourne. She is passionate and dedicated to ongoing learning Visceral Manipulation techniques to release restriction in the physical tissues allowing better metabolism, endocrine function, and general vitality. Multiple presenting pathologies, post-viral chronic fatigue, menopause, and psycho-emotionally presenting disease and its multiple manifesting symptoms are some of the most common presenting disorders she treats.

If you’re in Melbourne, come visit Jen’s clinic and book in for an appointment here: www.esolab.com.au

Esther’s back injury changed the course of her life, and, in her words, “It has become my ‘university’, and I learned a lot from it. It shaped my entire life, and this experience has become the catalyst behind my professional life and what I do today.”

She is an incredible example of someone who took a negative experience and turned it into a passion for helping others. She used her own injuries and healing journey to create a system for empowering others to better care for their bodies. Specifically, dancers transitioning into pointe shoes.

In this conversation, Esther and I discuss her incredible 40 year career throughout which she has developed her method for working to support and educate young dancers transition into pointe shoes safely.

She describes her journey with her body- Being told she’d be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life, and the 7 year journey in which she defied the odds and learned to walk again.

This experience fueled her desire to help dancers so that they would not to have to go through the same thing she did, and she created her education company, Juon Pointe, and the world’s most unique method for mentoring and preparing dancers to go on pointe safely through customized assessments, exercise programs, and an intelligent pointe shoe fitting process.

I consider this interview to be mandatory listening for any dancer, dance educator, or medical professional who works with dancers.

I really wish I had Esther in my life when I started ballet training at age 12, and after you listen to our conversation, you’ll understand why.

She is truly and inspirational, passionate, and opinionated educator, here to shake up the traditions of the way ballet is taught.

I hope you’ll enjoy this conversation and find it inspiring, whether you are a dancer, or not.

Can you attend the Pointe Shoe Summit?

Esther has a three day event, The Pointe Shoe Summit, coming up in August 2025, and if you are able to attend I highly encourage you to do so. She’ll be teaching her unique method for preparing dancers to go on pointe through an assessment process, specific exercises, and how to properly fit a pointe shoe.

See www.pointeshoesummit.org for more information and to register (Zoom attendance is also available if you can’t attend in Seattle).

And learn more about Esther and her mentoring programs here: JuonPointe.org

About Esther:

Swiss-born Esther Juon initially trained by Armin Wild as a classical dancer and with the Opera House, Zurich. Injury in London ended her dance career but was the catalyst for her life’s work in teaching safe dance practice, which includes creating a reliable system for assessing and fitting pointe shoes.

Esther was invited by Nikolas Grishko to fit pointe shoes at the famous Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow and in recognition of her contribution to the safe fitting of pointe shoes, Esther was awarded a Special Diploma by the Diaghilev Association in 1995.

Esther has published articles in ‘Young Dancer’ magazine, has written a book called Pointe Shoe Secrets, and has presented lectures at British Ballet Organisation, at regional R.A.D. courses, at the London’s Children Ballet and at various ballet schools in the UK and Ireland and New Zealand. Esther’s work has also been presented at IADMS (International Association for Dance Medicine & Science).

Esther is Founder of Juon Pointe and a member of IADMS, & ASPHA. She now works as a freelance teacher, lecturer, mentor and Master Pointe Shoe Fitter.

Thanks for reading Movement Detectivery! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Follow Jen and her clinic Esolab on Instagram: @esolabsouthmelbourne

An assumption often made about the world of Anatomy in Motion is that everything we do is about working with the feet. The feet are the root of all problems and all we do is get people to pronate and magically they become pain-free.

Wrong. Not problem is a foot problem.

Well, not 100% wrong. Every problem is in some way related to the feet, but only because every body part is related to every other body part.

A problem with anything can become a problem with anything else. If you change one thing in the body, everything else must change in response.

AiM is not all about the feet. More accurately would be to say that AiM is all about understanding how everything affects everything, and the role of the feet is often so neglected and underappreciated. AiM gives us by far one of the most comprehensive biomechanical models of foot pronation and supination, and how these specifically coordinate with every other joint in the body, allowing us as practitioners to make meaningful connections between the feet and the rest of the body.

But not every person’s problem will need to start by working with their feet.

And my case study today is a great example of this.

Watch the video and read this case study and you’ll get to see how working with a chest scar and exploring shoulder and neck movements created a change that was observable all the way down to the feet.

It was pretty cool, and I hope you’ll think it’s cool, too.

Ready? On to today’s case study…

Meet Jon

Jon has generously donated his body for your learning pleasure. Thanks, Jon!

I first met Jon in 2023 when he took the AiM Closed Chain Biomechanics course I taught in Toronto. He is a keen learner of AiM and I always love a good movement nerd-out with fellow students.

Jon’s main goal in our session (other than wanting to expand his awareness of his own movement patterns and learning the Flow Motion Model), was to understand the source of his right side lower back discomfort.

He also noticed it was more difficult to get his weight to go into his left leg while walking.

Keep those in mind as we journey forward.

Assessment

A big stand out for Jon came to light in our chat about his past medical history.

He rattled off a list of things… An old ankle sprain whilst trail running. A back injury that started after a lift in the gym gone wrong.

But what stood out in a big way was that he had a scar on his right side of his chest, right under his clavicle.

He shared that when he was a kid he was in the hospital for leukemia treatment, and that scar was from where he the port put in.

He told me that last January while at an AiM course with Gary Ward in London, they had briefly assessed his scar’s impact on his whole body movements, but they didn’t really have the opportunity to get into it deeply enough to come to any conclusions.

Spoiler alert- His scar was affecting his movement in a big way.

And we’ll get into the details of that. But first…

Here’s a picture of his static alignment from our initial assessment:

Notice his pelvis hiked on the right, with a right lateral flexion and rotation in his spine. This is likely to be the correlation with his lower back pain on the right. The space there being more closed and compressed.

We can also understand how this alignment will generate a hip adduction on the right, and abduction on the left, which is correlated with his felt sense of not being able to get his weight as easily onto his left leg.

What I also think is quite interesting is how his posture is organized around closing in around the area of his clavicle scar:

* Spine lateral flexion to the right

* Spine rotation to the right

* Right shoulder more internally rotated

Those mechanics will effectively close down movement through his scar area.

Gait and dynamic assessment

What was interesting to see in his gait was that he also struggled to access the movements that his body wasn’t accessing in his static alignment:

* Pelvis hike left and thus left hip adduction

* Spine lateral flexion left

* Neck lateral flexion right: His neck stayed in his left lateral flexion throughout every phase of gait.

His neck in particular became a curiosity to me.

In the Flow Motion Model, in order to full weight-bear into your left leg we need the neck to laterally flex to the right.

Jon was missing the whole body shape we see at this moment in time, which looks like this:

And check out the screenshots below of his suspension phases from his before gait video, and notice how his head is ALWAYS in a lateral flexion to the left (right ear higher):

Check yo neck (and yo chest scar)

Remember that chest scar?

One thing we know about scar tissue is that it lays down thick and strong to limit movement so the area can heal.

And if our bodies are neve taught to move through an area with scar tissue, ideally as soon as possible after wound healing, then the likelihood of it happening on its own is pretty low. Its a very useful protective mechanism our bodies have.

Its almost as if, to our unconscious bodies, the scar becomes a no-go zone for movement. All movement happens around the scar, not through the scar.

It would make good sense for Jon’s body to take on his current body position so that the wound in his chest could heal without getting constantly pulled open again, all those years ago.

But now, present day, wound healed, how well are the structures around his thoracic spine, neck, and shoulder able move? Are they in this disorganized position as a result of adapting to the healing of his chest wound? Are the adaptations his body made around his healing scar decades ago still keeping him stuck with his current pattern and problems?

And will encouraging better quality movement there help things below in his back, hips, and feet?

Testing the hypothesis, testing the scar

In our dynamic assessment the main stand out “missing movements” we discovered were:

* Right scapula protraction (maybe it is already stuck protracted?)

* Left pelvis hike with weight getting onto left leg, i.e. left hip adduction (because his pelvis is already in a right hike and can’t get to the other side?)

* Skull lateral flexion right

The difference in his scapula protraction was so noticeable that we made a video (check the after video at the end of this post!):

To test if his scar was interfering with these movements we played a little scar stretch game.

With any scar, you can test and see if it feels limited when stretched in a particular direction. Drag the tissue up, down, left, right, and on diagonals, and you’ll find a vector of pull that feels stickier.

For Jon, his vector of barrier, the most sticky direction to stretch his scar, was directly medially towards his midline.

As a test, I dragged his scar towards his midline, then got him to recheck his pelvis hikes, neck lateral flexion, and scapula protraction, and, lo and behold, BOTH improved.

It was a little freaky, but the information this gave us was that YES, his scar and ensuing healing process around it is linked to his current jumble of missing and disorganized mechanics.

Our goal? Give them back in an organized way and treat his scar so movement can pass through that area again.

How? Mobilize that scar and give the missing movements back with some thoughtful and specific exercises.

What we did

We did two exercises.

* Arm spirals. The intention was to explore his right scapula protraction with shoulder internal rotation, and let that feed movement into his spine and neck. While he performed this movement, he also stretched his chest scar towards his mid-line with his left hand.See how you do with this arm spirals exercise (clip from my Liberated Body workshop):

If you followed along with that movement in your own body, you’ll have felt how your right arm internally rotating generates both a spine rotation and lateral flexion to the left. And by keeping your eyes on the horizon and head level, your neck would experience an oppositional lateral flexion to the right. These were the missing motions we wanted to give back to Jon.

After the arm spirals, we re-filmed Jon walking, and noticed a some subtle changes.

Check out the snapshot below:

Jon subjectively reported feeling slightly better access onto his left leg, which is great, but I knew we needed to get his head integrated with his body below as it STILL was stuck in that left lateral flexion.

So we decided to explore a second movement to focus more directly on opening up the left side of his neck and give back the missing right lateral flexion.

* Off axis pelvis shift right with neck lateral flexion right. The intention was to explore his access to neck lateral flexion to the right via the pelvis shifting and generating a spine lateral flexion to the left.We did a movement that looked like this:

Why didn’t we just do a plain old ear-to-shoulder static neck stretch? Why make it a whole body movement? Glad you asked.We explored his neck in this way is because of how in our walking cycle, the way our neck experiences lateral flexion is by staying still, eyes on the horizon, and our spine moves underneath it.

Here’s a little visual of that as a concept (clip from an online movement lesson on neck mechanics):

This oppositional motion between the neck and spine is KEY for having symmetrical access to both side of your body as you walk.

If Jon can’t laterally flex his neck to the right, then he won’t have great access to many of his missing mechanics, such as:

* Pelvis hike left

* Spine lateral flexion left

* Left hip adduction

* Stepping his left leg forward

Exploring neck lateral flexion right gave us some more cool changes. Check out these snapshots from his walking after working on his neck lateral flexion to the right:

Re-assessment

Jon reported feeling more centered with his head position and an even better sense of getting weight through his left leg. Win!

He also had better access into his left hike. In theory, this will correlate with an improvement in his right sided lower back pain, as he is able to move out of that compressive right pelvis hike he was originally stuck in, and access the opposite shape to the left, opening the compressed area.

Ready for his scapular protraction after video?

Pretty cool to see that evening out, which will also help him access more symmetrical spine and shoulder movements through his gait cycle.

I also love seeing a subtle change in his feet. That said, his left foot still stands out to me as an area that will need help as his next step in the process, having had a pretty gnarly sprain. Hopefully Jon will be able to give us some updates on his progress going forward!

Final thoughts?

A few key take-aways to reiterate:

* It’s not always about starting with the feet. In Jon’s case, we started at his neck and right shoulder to get a change in his body below. The important thing is to understand how the feet connect with the rest of the body, affecting it and affected by it. But we don’t have a rule in AiM of needing to help the feet first.

* Scars can have such a profound impact on our ability to access our mechanics around that area. Always check the impact of a scar. Often the body will reduce movement through that area. Not all scars mess with our movement, but it is always good to check.

* When you see a part of the body that stays in the exact same position throughout every single phase of gait (Jon’s neck), it is likely to be a good place to begin restoring missing movement potential. Especially if that is an area where there’s been an old injury that’s been untreated and unconsidered. In Jon’s case, a port put in.

I hope you enjoyed this case study! Stay tuned for more like this. I’ve been by at at least 3 people that they find these write-ups useful, so I’ll keep going, just for you.

Thanks for reading Movement Detectivery! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Meet Our Lovely Gait Model

This video is from Haider, a student who joined us in my Toronto Flow Motion Model course last November 2024. We filmed his video to use as a potential gait analysis to look at as a group, but in the end it didn’t make the cut (sorry, Haider). The reason we didn’t use his video in the actual class was because there was a little toooo much going on and I wanted a case study that was simple and obvious to use for learning purposes.

But now that we’re out of the classroom, no holds are barred. Let’s take break this shit down! We love your complexity, Haider.

What does a knee with a recent ACL reconstruction look like in gait?

This video is a good example for how a body may look like whilst walking with a relatively recent knee operation.

Did you notice Haider’s left knee in the video?

His knee does an interesting thing where it seems to hyper-extend while also being more valgus while entering late swing to heel strike, compared to his right,

If you are someone who’s been studying the Flow Motion Model and Gary Ward’s closed chain biomechanics for any length of time, you’ll know that knee valgus and extension should not go together. Big red flag that made me want to know more.

So I emailed Haider to ask:

Did something happen to your left knee? (because of how you don't seem to want to get your mass fully on top of it and the knee holds a more valgus state and looks to be hyperextended?)

To which he replied:

“Yes, I had ACL reconstruction with a patellar graft on my left side Jan 2024. So I was about 10 months post op at the time of the course”.

WHOAH. Here’s what we can learn about the mechanics of an ACL injury and how it is showing up in Haider’s gait:

Brief overview of knee mechanics in gait

Forgive this jargony, technical breakdown of the knee, according to Gary Ward’s closed chain biomechanics. 5 people reading this might enjoy it.

* The knee in gait is best understood by looking at the articulation between the tibia and the femur.

* Our reference point for the knee joint is the position of the tibial tuberosity relative to the femur.

* The femur and tibia bones have two planes of motion they should ideally articulate against each other in: Sagittal (flexion and extension, plus a bit of anterior/posterior glide), and transverse (internal and external rotation). We should NOT see much in the frontal plane.

* There are two specific combinations of those two planes of motion we want to see in gait, and TWO ONLY:

* Flexion + External rotation (aka valgus)

* Extension + Internal rotation

* A knee hyperextension can only happen if we have the combination of extension and external rotation. This is NOT something we want to see happening in gait (sorry, Haider, but your body is doing it).

Knee external rotation refers to the internal rotation of the femur articulating on top of the tibia plateau into a range that is beyond how far the tibia internally rotates, leaving the tibia in an external rotation relative to the femur, and the knee joint itself thus in an external rotation. This happens with a knee that is bending on top of a pronating foot.

Knee internal rotation refers to the external rotation of the femur into articulating on top of the tibia plateau into a range that is beyond how far the tibia externally rotates, leaving the tibia in an internal rotation relative to the femur, and the knee joint itself thus in an internal rotation. This happens with a knee that is extending on top of a supinating foot.

Check out my very technical drawing:

Notice that the femur and tibia both rotate the same direction, but the range of the femur is greater than the tibia, which is what gives us the rotation at the knee joint. If both bones were to simply rotate the same amount, locked together as if they were one long leg bone, then there would be no rotation at the knee joint.

External rotation and flexion of the knee happens with a femur internally rotating and a pronating foot.

Internal rotation and extension of the knee happens with a femur externally rotating and a supinating foot.

I’m repeating myself so many times because this is the MOST common sticking point people have by far in the AiM course work. It took me a few years to really wrap my head about it. But I’m slow… Anyway. Back to Haider.

Haider’s Red Flag

In Haider’s case, the red flag was his left knee extending with a femur internally rotating, giving us a knee external rotation at a moment in time when we want it to be a nice rigid extended and internally rotated knee, not a squishy hyperextended knee going into a valgus position in the air (and then landing like that, too).

A valgus position of the knee will almost always indicate an internally rotated femur, and a femur that is internally rotated will almost always tell us there is an external rotation at the knee UNLESS the foot and tibia are internally rotated MORE than the femur.

But I digress. You may now be asking the all important question…

What to do with a hyperextending knee?

Give it back the mechanics it needs in the correct combinations as per closed chain biomechanics.

Haider’s knee is missing:

Flexion + external rotation (but is already externally rotated)

Extension + internal rotation (but is already extended)

So we want to give him back these two movements but managing the excessive motions where necessary.

Its a pretty common scenario to need to block how far someone is extending their knee and encourage more external rotation at the femur while avoiding hyperextension.

If you want to follow along with me for an hour of knee exploration, perhaps you would enjoy this Movement Deep Dive I filmed back in 2021. Ahh the good ol’ COVID online teaching days. Enjoy this guided movement practice focusing on conceptualizing and experiencing the movement of the knee.

But anyway, that was a big knee tangent. Let’s get back to a few of Haider’s other biomechanical foibles, shall we?

What about that right ankle, Haider?

Something subtle that stood out in Haider’s mid-stance phase was an early heel lift on the right that I didn’t see on the left. So I asked:

Did anything happen to your right ankle? Your TCJ seems to be missing dorsiflexion compared to your left...

To which Haider Replied:

“I’ve had multiple ankle sprains on both sides but my most recent (~5 years ago) was on my right. You’re right, my right ankle DF is less than my left”

And what about your right hip?

All throughout Haider’s gait he stays in a right pelvis hike and his mass never seems to get fully off of his right leg, so I was curious and asked:

Do you have any issues with your right hip or lower back? (because of how it seems like your pelvis stays hiked on the right and your mass doesn't shift to the left to ABduct your right hip... Groin or hip flexor grumpiness at all?)

And Haider replied:

“My right hip is generally bit stiffer into external rotation and abduction. So I do have more adductor resistance to stretch on the right”.

Interesting stuff.

Final remarks

As you can see, there are a few things going on. Where would we start?

It isn’t necessarily as simple as saying “encourage pronation mechanics on his left and supination on his right”, because each leg is a little mixed up with elements of both.

For example, his right leg needs:

PRONATION MECHANICS:

* TCJ dorsiflexion (that early heel lift…)

SUPINATION MECHANICS:

* Hip extension, abduction, external rotation

* Pelvis drop

And his left leg needs:

PRONATION MECHANICS:

* Knee flexion

* Pelvis hike

* Hip adduction

SUPINATION MECHANICS:

* Knee internal rotation

* Femur external rotation

Nothing really wraps up neatly into one phase, so with Haider it might be an approach of tackling the local mechanics and then building them out holistically to combine with more joints into the phases over time.

I personally would start with the thing that stands out the most to me, which is his discombobulated knee. Start with the thing that looks the most blaringly obvious, reassess, and follow the next best bread-crumb.

Anyway, hope you found this gait analysis at least a little bit interesting and useful.

My hopes is that these analysis videos help students studying the Flow Motion Model and Anatomy in Motion to apply the mechanics to their work with clients, and perhaps even help those who want to go on to do the accredited practitioner exam (part of which includes doing a gait analysis).

If you have any questions or commentary, or would like to submit your own gait video for scrutiny, feel free to drop me a line.

Want to learn AiM in the classroom

Nothing beats mental masturbation as a learning method than actually getting into a live classroom and putting this work into your body experientially, and practicing using the assessments on others.

For those wishing to study in-person, I will be teaching the AiM Closed Chain Biomechanics course this June 6-8 2025 in Toronto. GO HERE for more info and to register, if you dig it :)

Gait mechanics won’t necessarily tell you what’s wrong with someone, but assessing gait will guide you to where to investigate further to get to the root of their problems and unravel them joint by unruly joint.

Today we must thank Xsenia for donating a gait analysis video. Her video is a good example of a person’s body adapting to having one foot very, very “pronated” compared to the other. We get to seethe impact of that more pronated foot on whole body movement patterns up the chain.

Or is it even her foot to blame??

After doing this analysis I was left with the questions:

* Did something happen to her left ankle? (because of how it is stuck so everted)

* Did something happen to her right leg, hip, knee, foot, or ankle? (because of how she doesn’t seem to want to get her mass fully on top of it… Notice the torso lean away to the left?)

* Did something happen to her neck or skull? (because of how her head sits in a left laterally flexed position and forward of her body through every single gait phase, although this may be difficult to confirm from the video alone, because hair…).

Excitingly, I have the answers to these questions!

Relevant injury history

I sent Xsenia my analysis video and the questions above, to which she replied:

Did something happen to your left ankle?

“Yes, I've had multiple ankle sprains bilaterally - some very badly requiring crutches and longer recovery. Most significantly/recently (2 summers ago) I stepped in a hole in the grass and dislocated my left ankle. I have very lax ligaments (all over my body, really) and I think that's the only reason I didn't fracture the ankle.”

Did something happen to your right leg, hip, knee, foot, or ankle?

“Right knee - almost complete MCL tear in university (so 2010) - long rehab, 6 months before returning to soccer - probably why I'm not loading it well. When I squat heavy, I tend to shift pretty badly to that side. Multiple ankle sprains on the right as well. No hip issues”

Did something happen to your neck or skull?

“Neck is pretty good.

Pretty constant right thoracic spine pain (between scap and spine) - likely from MVA in 2009? - airbags went off and wasn't treated probably long enough after to see improvement - so I still have pain there

I got a soccer ball directly to my R eye at close range in 2016/2017? I lost my site in that eye for ~3 hours, ended up being bleeding and bruising of the eye - retina was fine but also a mild concussion as a result

Of note: 2x right shoulder dislocation, multiple GHJ subluxations bilaterally.

2 tears in right labrum as a result

Likely tears in left labrum. No pain.”

How interesting, eh?! Certainly tracks with the story her movement patterns tell us.

Is she perhaps avoiding adducting her right hip and getting her mass on top of her right leg due to the old MCL injury?

Is her ribcage shifting to the left as a compensatory response to the right shoulder dislocations?

Or is her spine shape more of a result of her MVA?

Has her left foot looked like that (everted AF) before the shoulder dislocations and MVA, or is that a more recent adaptation?

Answers to these questions would surely come out in the investigation process and slowly giving Xsenia’s body back the movements she is missing.

AiM Official Analysis Structure

My hope is that this gait analysis video can be used to help those who are preparing to do the Anatomy in Motion accredited practitioner exam, so I’ll structure this analysis in the way you might be asked to do so in the official exam (hint hint: I would get in the habit of watching gait videos with these questions in mind…)

What do you notice in the big picture? Can you name 3 observations from the gait video:

Gait is often subtle. It will be the big, obvious things will stand out at full speed. When I watched at full-speed, these are the big things that jumped out:

* Left foot very everted compared to the right.

* Lots of movement at thoraco-lumbar junction in transverse and/or frontal plane compared to anywhere else in her body.

* Skull stuck in a right hike; cervical spine in a left lateral flexion.

What is missing? What mechanics can they not access?

Remember, in the AiM assessment process our mantra is “what’s missing?”. Here are some of the mechanics I noted to be missing for Xsenia:

* Skull hike left; cervical spine lateral flexion right

* Left foot supination (rearfoot inversion, talus external rotation)

* Left leg supination in left leg back phases:

* Left knee extension/internal rotation

* Left hip extension, abduction, external rotation

* Pelvis shift BOTH directions; hip adduction bilaterally

* Spine lateral flexion right and coming on-axis onto pelvis in right suspension phase

* Right foot pronation

* Thoracic spine extension, lumbar spine flexion

* Center of mass getting right

What phase(s) might be difficult for them to access?

* Left leg back phases (left leg supination):

* Left propulsion, left shift

* Right suspension:

* Missing foot pronation, spine on-axis frontal plane

* Left suspension

* Missing c spine lateral flexion right

* Left transition:

* Missing left foot supination

* Bilateral heel strike, missing:

* Lumbar flexion

* Pelvis shift

* Heel strike posterior/lateral contact

What are 3 things you could do to feed better movement back into the system:

* Sagittal plane wall cogs, optimizing for:

* Thoracic spine extension

* Lumbar spine flexion

* On-axis movement

* Frontal plane cogs, optimizing for:

* Thoracic and cervical spine opposition, in particular T-spine lateral flexion left coupled with C-spine lateral flexion right.

* Spine lateral flexion right coupled with head’s current position (right hike)

* Left transition:

* Supinate left foot and leg

* Right suspension:

* Pronate right foot

* Lumbar/thoracic lateral flexion right and stacked on-axis on pelvis

* Thoracic spine extension

* Right hip adduction

(yeah I wrote 4 things because I’m a keener)

Conclusions?

There are probably many, many more observations that could be made. Care to share your own that may differ from mine? Leave them in the comments!

I think that the most important thing is to trust that the stuff that your eye is drawn to is real, not imaginary, and is the stuff that you are currently equipped to address based on the tool-box of skills you have. You will only see what you are currently able to see. Don’t stress about what you can’t.

A good way to get stuck in analysis paralysis is to worry about what you can’t see or don’t understand. Start with the stuff you CAN see and DO understand. Things will become more clear with time.

More and more details will be flushed out through the process of addressing what you are confident you can see.

Gait analysis is fun (for weirdos like me). Its a great assessment tool. But it is not the be-all-end-all of movement assessment. Following this analysis, I feel guided to assess all the mechanics and phases of gait that I noted as “missing” and compare this with her injury history and resting alignment.

If you’d like to learn more about the Flow Motion Model and closed chain joint mechanics, check out Gary Ward’s online courses, or come join me in a live course sometime.

If we’re lucky, perhaps Xsenia will find some inspiration in this and play with some new AiM movements and refilm a video for me to re-assess ;)

Leave any comments, observations, or questions below :) And stay tuned for next time!