Clarice and Pelvira: Fabulous Facts about Your Pelvis

This month, we welcomed two important guests to Knockout Pilates. The first was our teacher, Clarice Marshall, who stopped by for lunch. Clarice’s intuitive teaching defies classification and always leaves room for the mystery of art. We learn so much from the community of movers surrounding her, like her friend Leila Kester from Amsterdam, who recently guest taught us a fabulous workshop on turnout.

Our other new addition is our resident pelvis, Pelvira! Thanks to Dallas McMurray for naming her and all who voted in our Instagram poll, defeating contenders Elvis, Ischie, Patty, Betty, Pelé, and Pelvina  Lathan.
 

One of the gifts of Pilates is greater pelvic proprioception – awareness of our gorgeous bony bowl and where it is in space. We learn to feel when we are hiking one side up, tucking under, or swaying forward. This helps us access greater  pain-free range at the hip, absorb force, and generate more power in running and jumping. 
 

And don’t even get us started on the pelvic floor! 

Fabulous factoids about your pelvis:
When we lie belly-down in Pilates, we often talk about grounding the triangle of the two hip bones (the ASIS bones or “anterior superior iliac spine”) and the pubic bone. But actually, we have two pubic bones, a left and a right! 
 

The pubic bones are joined by a cartilaginous joint called the pubic symphysis. During childbirth, it stretches to allow the bones to separate and make room for the baby. When archeologists examine a skeleton, the wear on the pubic symphysis is one way they estimate age at death.
 

When we lie on our backs in Pilates, our bony landmark for pelvic alignment is the sacrum. This thick, curved bone is made up of five fused vertebrae. It forms the  bottom of our spinal column, just below the lumbar and above the  tailbone, and connects to the pelvis along both its sides at the SI (sacroiliac) joints.
 

The sacrum is like a  keystone where all the force from the lower extremity meeting the earth gets channeled into the spine. Its name comes from the Latin “os sacrum” or “holy bone,” a translation of the ancient Greek “hieron osteon.” In ancient temples, the curved sacrum of sacrificial animals was used to pour out libations to the gods.
 

Another one for etymology fans: ancient Romans loved to season their food with vinegar. The acetabulum is the rounded socket in the pelvis into which the ball of the femur articulates, creating the hip joint. Its name means “little vinegar  cup.” How hip is that?