Assessment context and image originals from this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/posturepals/comments/14mhutb/comment/jqcfxbs/?context=3
Thanks for the photo I really appreciate it. Here is what I see in it.
Before I start, I now believe you as to why you have no special sensations. It looks to me as if you would obtained the closest posture to the reference you are able to get within your feelings. That would explain why you don't feel anything particularly different. That is fair enough. I will also state, that you are the only person entitled to give us feedback as to what your feelings are. Nobody else knows it. So from now on, I will stick with your word for what you are feeling.
So what we see on the image is then the closest to "reference" as it gets within known feelings. Great. Let's consider what happens if we would want to push the boundary and get somewhat closer to the reference. Not much, just a fraction. Below is recipe on how to do it:
The green plumb line is on an angle - it has been matched to the vertical of the architrave in the background (assuming your architraves are plumb and square).
Then, it has been set on the front of the ankle. That gives us the necessary reference.
Your feet are placed pretty correctly and also your arms are rotated in a way that I would assume that you have definitely already experimented with the iAT. It's actually looking pretty good and I can assure you for many people achieving this position would be impossible at first.
Knee, although hardly visible under your pants I'm guessing is pretty much spot on the line. I would imagine for you to stand like this, you would have to be pushing your knees back fair bit. Also, the lifted pinkie on your left foot suggests that you are driving your toes into the ground in order to support the ankle extended as well as the knee extended. This is good as is.
Now in the pelvis, you have slight rotation forwards and down with your iliacs. (the blue marker at your waist) and you are slightly lifting your sacrum up (green marker). You can see the rotation on your belt line. I put a black line there for reference. That line would ideally be horizontal.
Your sternum (yellow line shows the rotation of your ribcage / upper torso) I't too far forward and needs to be on the green line. As seen on the image, your clockwise rotation of the upper torso (ribcage) and the counterclockwise rotation of the lower torso (pelvis) is bending your spine into a curve (red curve).
Here goes the recipe:
Try to do this experiment again, set yourself up exactly as seen on this image (or close) and try to rotate your pelvis as the white arrows suggest. The iliacs would be going back and up and your sacrum would be pushed down towards your heels. When you try to do it, your knees may have the tendency to pop forward. Resist that urge, keep them straight as seen on the image.
Once you start rotating the pelvis, I can guarantee you will have an overwhelming sensation of falling backwards over your heels. This sensation will get triggered far before your sternum hits the green line.
Let me know how you go. I'm really interested as to what you will find out.
This is great! You have made the right adjustment. You can clearly see it from the first to the second image, your beltline rotated the way we wanted. That adjustment in turn slightly changed the curve at the back in a positive way as well.
The slight sensation of going over your heels is exactly for the reason that you didn't rotate the pelvis enough. If you would be to apply the same movements (what ever you did to get to the second image) when you try it again, we would like you to make the movement about 10x bigger than what you did. Even if you double of what you have done, that will be enough to send you right over your heels.
Look at the sternum, although you rotated the pelvis well, and your sternum is in better position than on the previous image, you could still go miles backwards to hit the green line. Even halving the the distance between the current sternum and the green line will be an enormous effort.
Try it again and let me know how you go. Otherwise, you do the rest pretty briliantly. Most people here wouldn't be able to obtain position like this at all. Btw, if you compare your shoulder girdle / position of the mechanism of the arms, the second images is much better. Arms much vertical and you are starting to obtain the "hump" which is what we want.
Yes, so this looks to me like you are employing the correct orders of movement. The progress on the images is clearly visible, as you are getting closer and closer to the chosen reference. If you are saying that the last position captured comes easy to you and you don't have to make any particular effort or strain, than congratulations. Most people would not be able to achieve position like this and the fact that it comes easy to you may simply mean that you have a "good posture". That's great, as most other people aren't so lucky and have to work hard to achieve it.
There is few other things to notice, as you gradually improve the stance. Look at your shoulders being pulled back and up (first image) and gradually lowered down and forward (last image). That is a good thing.
If this position still feels more or less natural to you, you could add few more things:
You could still push your sacrum further lower to the heels. I think there still is potential for more movement there. And yet still keep pulling your iliacs back and up in space (that will assist with the sacrum down).
The other thing you could add to it is movement of your head. Look straight ahead, if you would be wearing pair of glasses, so your temples (the arms of the glasses) would be horizontal. Now, move your head forward alongside the temples (not down) forward only TOGETHER with rotating the pelvis by sending the sacrum down. You are trying to advance the chin forward well over your sternum.
Think of it as that the rotation of the pelvis will not happen unless the head is going forward and vice a versa. The head won't move unless the pelvis will be rotating. The opposing movements (head forward/up, pelvis back/down) will be stretching the back fascia and need each other to occur.
When doing this, deliberately allow yourself to have unknown sensations. This will stretch your thoracolumbar fascia, and if you do it correctly, it will by default result in a feeling that's unusual (at least for some temporary time).
Another thing you can consider is to start increasing the space between your upper torso (ribcage) and lower torso (pelvis). I can't speak from personal experience yet (I'm not quite there yet on my own), but I think one get's to a stage at some point, that to get further progress expanding the torso, a direct lift of the top away from the bottom must occur. This is just my speculation at this point. Can report back on it later.
Once you organise yourself as seen on img3, try to lift your sternum directly up the green line, making sure that your pelvis will not rotate forwards. That again should increase the effort needed.
Also, because of the position of your arms, you could slightly turn yourself towards the camera in the front, so we would have better view on the position of your sternum and wouldn't have to guess.
PS: if you are around for the next few hours, so am I. Happy to give a lesson if you wan't to try some adjustments in real time.
Bewen314: This time I slightly adjusted the position of my head and tried to push my sacrum further down. I did feel a bit of a stretch in my back, and it felt more like a connective tissue stretch than a muscle stretch. If someone has never worked on their connective tissue before, they might call this feeling unusual or unpleasant.
GoodPostureGuy:
So the last image provided is imo worse organisation then the 3rd image. On the last image, your knees are released, your sacrum has curled up and you are dropping through the upper front. Basically, you have let your sternum move down in space. You can see it on the arm being lowered. If you felt anything on the last image (more so than on the 3rd), it's probably because you are pushing your thorax backwards between your shoulderblades. effectively rounding your shoulders. This could be perceived as a fascia stretch, but it's not quite what we want.
As long as you stay within the range of your habitual feelings, that is what ever feels "normal". Even though it may be at the very edge of what you think is possible, you won't be able to do the required movement. The feelings will not let you do the movement.
Try to do this: get yourself the permission to feel absolutely wrong. A whole new set of feelings, that is up to now unknown. Don't even try to predict what these new feelings may be like. As long as the desired movement is captured on the camera. It takes a little while exploring what happens with your feelings when you cross the boundary of what you think is possible (within your feelings).