Anatomy Language: Part III

In this post I'm getting back to some anatomy terminology! This will be the 3rd and final part of my anatomy language series. Please check out Anatomy Language: Part I and Anatomy Language: Part II if you missed them. There are a few more basic movements that are helpful for yogis and yoga teachers to know. These additions are kind of "special movements", but don't worry! These movements are really only special

because they have special names. The movements themselves are not very complex and actually look very similar to what we've already seen in Anatomy Language: Part I and Anatomy Language: Part II. After adding these movements to your anatomy vocabulary, we should be in pretty decent shape to talk about more interesting things! To help us remember these additional movements, we'll get some help from dolphins, ballerinas, and Seinfeld's soup chef. Just like before, we can group these movements by their planes of motion.

Sagittal Plane

In the sagittal plane we have forward and backward movements, and at the ankle we have the first two specially named movements, dorsiflexion and plantarflexion. These are really just different names for flexion and extension in the ankle. There doesn't seem to be any good reason for these special names. Some anatomist a long time ago just decided it would be this way, and it stuck! Dorsiflexion is really just like flexing the ankle, and plantarflexion is like extending the ankle. This is where the dolphins and ballerinas give us a hand in remembering these special names.

"Dorsiflex" sounds kind of like "dorsal fin" (like on a dolphin), and a dorsiflexed ankle kind of looks like a dorsal fin, kind of...  Use your imagination! Dorsiflexion is seen a lot in yoga like in virabhadrasana I (warrior 1), crescent lunge, utkatasana (chair pose) and adho mukha svanasana (downward facing dog).

Now ballerinas point their feet a lot. They help us remember some anatomy here because pointing your foot is what happens when you plantarflex your foot, and both "plantarflex" and "point" start with "p"! This is the position of your feet in bhujangasana (cobra pose) and urdhva mukha svanasana (upward facing dog).

 Coronal Plane

Now remember the coronal plane has movements out to the side or back in. We only have a couple to add to what you already know. These aren't too difficult because the first is just a combination of things that you already know from Anatomy Language: Part II. This movement is called lateral flexion, and just like it sounds, it is flexion (decreasing the angle between to parts) but laterally (or to the side). This is the motion in your spinal joints when you do a hot-style ardha chandrasana (standing half moon) or a side bend. Some lateral flexion also happens in utthita trikonasana (extended triangle pose) and utthita parsvakonasana (extended side angle pose).

The coronal plane also has some side to side movements at the ankles. These are called inversion and eversion. Inversion is when you turn the bottom of your foot inward and eversion is when you turn it outward (maybe "outversion" would have been a better name...). I wish I knew of a more clever way to remember these guys, but I don't, so we'll just have to deal with it! We see inverted ankles in the rear foot in virabhadrasana II (warrior 2). There's also some ankle inversion in the rear foot of virabhadrasana I (warrior 1). Another example is prasarita padottanasana (wide leg forward fold). Eversion is not seen as often in asanas, but the muscles that work to cause eversion are definitely active to help you keep your balance!

Transverse (Horizontal) Plane

Last, we come to the final plane, the transverse plane or horizontal plane. The first two movements are more combinations of things you already know. Horizontal adduction or horizontal abduction is simply doing adduction or abduction in the horizontal plane. This is taking a body part towards the middle of yourself (adduction) or away from the middle of yourself (abduction), but along the horizon.

Our final two special movements are supination and pronation, and they also happen in the transverse or horizontal plane. Supination is turning your palms to face forward or up, and pronation is turning your palms to face backward or down. These movements are a rotation of the forearms. They are very useful for opening doors, turning screw drivers and also your down dog!

Here's where Seinfeld's soup chef comes in to help us remember. Supination is like turning your palms up to hold a bowl of soup. If you pronate and turn your palms down, you will definitely be spilling your soup, so, "No soup for you!"

Puttin' It All Together

So now that we have all of this great anatomy language down. Let's put it to use! Virabhdrasana II (warrior 2) is a beautiful illustration of some of these "special" movements. Starting at the feet, we have the rear ankle in inversion. Moving up to the front hip and shoulders we have horizontal abduction. Looking at the palms and forearms we have pronation. From what we already know from Anatomy Language: Part II, we can see that the front knee is in flexion, the back hip is in abduction, and the neck is in rotation.

Not too difficult, huh? So now, when you read about a muscle that inverts the ankle, you know exactly what that means! Also, if you know what action is happening at a joint, you know that the muscle that does the opposite action is getting a nice stretch (we'll say more about that in a future article). That's all for now. Keep the knowledge flowing!

Namasté

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Movement graphics adapted from Clinical Kinesiology and Anatomy by Lippert. Warrior 2 photo from yogajournal.com. Soup bowl photo from www.visualphotos.com. Ballerina photo found at http://0.tqn.com/d/dance/1/5/d/9/-/-/stepfootpositions.jpg.
Soup chef photo from battleforjustice.com. Dorsal fin photo from assets.knowledge.allianz.com. Dorsiflexed foot photo from images.sodahead.com. Half moon pose photo from www.365toawesome.com. Inversion/eversion graphic from http://thomasbondphysio.blogspot.com/.