# Base-Line Theory of Human Health and Movement: The Five Main Muscles of Movement and Conscious Propr



## Leigh Blyth (Jun 26, 2019)

Base-Line Theory of Human Health and Movement: The Five Main Muscles of Movement and Conscious Proprioception.

The 5 main muscles of movement are:

pelvic floor *Base* (actually a group of muscles)

rectus abdominis* Line*

gluteus maximus

rectus femoris

trapezius

When properly functioning, the main muscles of movement provide the central framework for the body to work as it should - strong, balanced and pain-free, balanced around your Base-Line (pelvic floor Base, rectus abdominis Line). Focus on your Base-Line becoming stronger and longer with every in breathe. Our core pillar of strength and the connection between body and mind. The position of the rest of the body is relative to your Base-Line.

The other main muscles of movement link the rest of the body to your Base-Line support:

The gluteus maximus and rectus femoris of each leg work in tandem to support the legs through a full range of movement.

The trapezius muscles should be free to extend in all directions. Movement of the upper body should start from the lower trapezius, spreading up and out so that these muscles fully extend without tension or restrictions.

Sensory feedback from the main muscles of movement is crucial for conscious proprioception:

_"The ability to sense the position of your body in space and being aware of where you should be able to move." _ 

Conscious proprioception - What I believe to be the sensory experience of Qi.


The linea alba between the rectus abdominis muscles should be our primary reference for body alignment, lying on the body's median plane - our true midline.
The nuchal and supraspinous ligaments between the trapezius muscles also lie on the median plane and should be free to align with the linea alba.

Focus on these 5 paired muscles, always working from your Base-Line and see what you can feel.

Leigh Blyth


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## jobo (Jun 26, 2019)

well yes, so what exercises are you recommending to achieve this ?


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## Leigh Blyth (Jun 26, 2019)

I'm not recommending any exercises - look at the anatomy,  find the 5 main muscles on your body.      

Think about using them, whatever you are doing.   It's about building a conscious connection. 

The roll-down was, and still is, my go-to move, focusing on my Base-Line supporting the movement, feeling my alignment extending from my linea alba.   

It's taken a long time for me to get to where I am,  so that's why I thought I'd introduce my theory to people who are (hopefully) in better physical condition than I was when I started.

I have come to believe the Base-Line muscles are the anatomical basis of the chakra system.   Someone, somewhere trying to describe the power and balance of the body when the main muscles of movement are fully utilised.   (There.  I've said it.)

Cheers for reading!


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## Gweilo (Jun 26, 2019)

The 5 basic exercises to achieve this are
1) a proper push up, on the fist
2) a sit up
3) a leg raise that continues, until you feet touch the floor behind your head
4) a basic squat with or without weights
5) pull up
These can be done whilst taking 1 minute each way, up and down, smooth not integrated movement in each exercise. 10 min a day..


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## Buka (Jun 26, 2019)

Welcome to Martial Talk, Leigh.


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## Gweilo (Jun 26, 2019)

Yes sorry welcome to MT


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## Leigh Blyth (Jun 27, 2019)

Hi, thanks Buka and Gweilo for the welcome.  

I'd say the exercises you suggest Gweilo are what  should be achievable  - good for people who already use their main muscles, but there's no way I'd have managed any when I started!       Thanks for the tip about pushups on a fist - I struggle with my wrists and that felt a much securer position.  

Focusing on my Base-Line let me start to feel my true body alignment (or lack there of!) and with it the innate knowledge of how to move to release some of the tensions, no set exercises -  just learning to connect with my body.

With the trapezius muscles,  tai chi like movements allowed me to feel the relative conditions of the left and right trapezius in relation to each other and my Base-Line.     Thinking of the traps as a blanket over the back and shoulders that should be smooth and wrinkle free, working towards a full range of movement of the head and arms.  

I can't believe how much movement I was lacking and how tense my upper body was.  I was always straining to do things,  but now with a balanced body, movement feels strong and natural.


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## Gweilo (Jun 27, 2019)

The exercises I mentioned are also done with as little tension as possible, trying to relax the main muscles, and use the smaller groups of muscles and tendons, also when on the fists try folding the 1st 2 sets of knuckles at 90 degrees, to form a flat surface, with a small space between the palm and fingers, this will also take more tension from the arms, and once in the plank position,  you should be able to open you fingers to form an L shape with your hands. If you are unable to achieve the 2 min push up, try 20 seconds up and down, once achieved,  try it whilst breathing in on the down, and breath out on the up, or even harder, breath out on the down, and hold an empty breath on the up, whilst trying not to hold tension.


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## jobo (Jun 27, 2019)

Leigh Blyth said:


> Hi, thanks Buka and Gweilo for the welcome.
> 
> I'd say the exercises you suggest Gweilo are what  should be achievable  - good for people who already use their main muscles, but there's no way I'd have managed any when I started!       Thanks for the tip about pushups on a fist - I struggle with my wrists and that felt a much securer position.
> 
> ...


one of the best ways to release tension in a muscle is to work the opersite muscle,  one if the best ways to develop tension, is to pick a small group of muscles to work at the expense of working all of them, which then pulls your body out of alignment and causes tension amongst other issues, ! ie if your doing push ups you also need to be doing some pulling exercises, if your working your abs you need to be working your lower back, etal, which seems to be the underlying method of your posts ?


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## donald1 (Jun 28, 2019)

Interesting stuff... thought I'd also go ahead and say welcome to MT


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## Leigh Blyth (Jun 30, 2019)

thanks for the welcome @donald1.      

@jobo the phrase 'underlying method' has got me thinking/a bit puzzled ....   I don't know if it's a method,  what I'm saying it just think about these 5 muscles and what condition they are in  -  Are they being used to their full potential?   Is your body free enough for them to be used to this potential?

Consciously connecting with these muscles and feeling their relative positions to each other around the body's median plane then allows you to feel how to move in order to work towards (what I'd  call) true alignment and a balanced body.   It's something to feel,  I'm not sure I can explain it more. 

The rectus femoris muscles are lumped together with the 3 vasti as  the quadriceps.  They share a common insertion, but the rectus femoris is the guide muscle for the quads,  attaching pelvis to tibia whereas the vasti attach to the top of the femur.    Feel for the rectus femoris fully engaged along it's full length - a solid pole down the front of the thigh, aligning the hip and knee joints which allows the other thigh muscles to work as they should. 

Any tension in the upper body?  (I  was like a solid block with no movement in my neck).   Think of your trapezius muscles as a blanket that should be smooth and wrinkle free.   Large, thin and curved muscles extending from the base of your skull to mid-back (bottom of ribs), spreading across towards each shoulder that should be free to extend in all directions.  It's worth looking at the anatomy again even if you think you know it,  appreciate the shape and extent of the trapezius muscles. 

But everything starts from your Base-Line!  A solid pelvic floor Base and the rectus abdominis Line providing the central pillar of strength when each panel of muscle  can activated and elongated, left and right sides balanced.   

Breathe in and up with your Base-Line,  stronger and longer.   Awaken the innate connection between body and mind - if it's not already active!  

Cheers for reading again,  I don't want to keep banging on about it but also the difference focusing on these muscles has made to my life is immense.


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## jobo (Jun 30, 2019)

Leigh Blyth said:


> thanks for the welcome @donald1.
> 
> @jobo the phrase 'underlying method' has got me thinking/a bit puzzled ....   I don't know if it's a method,  what I'm saying it just think about these 5 muscles and what condition they are in  -  Are they being used to their full potential?   Is your body free enough for them to be used to this potential?
> 
> ...


ok what I'm saying is if you seek to develop a small number of muscles you say 5 though some are groups so 16 ? in total, then that leaves say 684 muscles that you haven't developed. that will lead to significant imbalances in you posture and movement patterns and tightness in both the muscles you have developed and those you haven't,a because you bodies is pulled out of shape.

the same is true if your talking about neural connection, ( mind muscle connection) you will develop significant control of a very small number of muscles and far less of the many others, that will complete screw up your movement pattern if your trying to do a movement that you haven't spent a deal of time practising, because your now using a muscle( or more accurately lots and lots of muscles) which are reluctant to respond and don't have the inter muscle co coordination

any body improvement need to include the whole body, any attempt to improve only selected bits of it  is at best very limiting and quite possibly counter productive

you see this a loot with occupational markers, where someone job develops certain muscles and not others, you can with reasonable accuracy predict the type of job they do by their posture and movements, unless they have taken steps to correct the imbalance by developing the neglected muscles

if your saying that these muscles were your neglected ones, and you've corrected this imbalance, by developing them, then that sound advice, if your saying every one should concentrate on developing only  these muscles irrespective of that's their weaknessy is, then not good advice


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## dvcochran (Jun 30, 2019)

Leigh Blyth said:


> Is your body free enough for them to be used to this potential?


Welcome to the forum. Yours has been a very interesting post. 
The above sentence really jumped out at me. Having lost a lot of flexibility over the years I feel I would rather have some of it back over certain muscle strength. Flexibility allows the body to do certain techniques better, quicker, and allows you to build a bigger toolbox. I would also say flexibility indirectly can create strength as well (elasticity and such).
There is a ton of information in your post. I just have to put the cookies on the bottom shelf to understand it all.


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## jobo (Jun 30, 2019)

dvcochran said:


> Welcome to the forum. Yours has been a very interesting post.
> The above sentence really jumped out at me. Having lost a lot of flexibility over the years I feel I would rather have some of it back over certain muscle strength. Flexibility allows the body to do certain techniques better, quicker, and allows you to build a bigger toolbox. I would also say flexibility indirectly can create strength as well (elasticity and such).
> There is a ton of information in your post. I just have to put the cookies on the bottom shelf to understand it all.


to be honest urs largely the other way round, strength or more accurately a balance of strength leads to improved fexability

I realised this self evident truth after many months of pontlessly stretching my hips to improve my kicking, that the issue was weakness in the glute medius and suddenly my kicking height improved considerably, after I incorporated the other halfs "Brazilian butt lift"  dvds exercises in to my day


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## Xue Sheng (Jun 30, 2019)

Welcome to MT


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## dvcochran (Jun 30, 2019)

jobo said:


> to be honest urs largely the other way round, strength or more accurately a balance of strength leads to improved fexability
> 
> I realised this self evident truth after many months of pontlessly stretching my hips to improve my kicking, that the issue was weakness in the glute medius and suddenly my kicking height improved considerably, after I incorporated the other halfs "Brazilian butt lift"  dvds exercises in to my day


Let me guess, you just happened to be stretching before or after your weight training right? Coincidence, I think not.


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## jobo (Jun 30, 2019)

dvcochran said:


> Let me guess, you just happened to be stretching before or after your weight training right? Coincidence, I think not.


I'm not sure what your saying here ? ,but tHe! glute medius moves the leg outwards or up ward if you bent over to   the side, there no way of strenthing it that doesn't involve swinging your leg about in a most unmanly and very comical to passerby,if your doing it in public ,  way,


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## Leigh Blyth (Jul 3, 2019)

dvcochran said:


> Welcome to the forum. Yours has been a very interesting post.
> The above sentence really jumped out at me. Having lost a lot of flexibility over the years I feel I would rather have some of it back over certain muscle strength. Flexibility allows the body to do certain techniques better, quicker, and allows you to build a bigger toolbox. I would also say flexibility indirectly can create strength as well (elasticity and such).
> There is a ton of information in your post. I just have to put the cookies on the bottom shelf to understand it all.




Thank you @dvcochran     My body was rigid.   Very little movement in my upper body, my whole body twisted to look over my shoulder (and it was only one shoulder I could look over!).   My arms felt like the dinosaur in Toy Story,  now my arms spread wide (

With Base-Line support in place (strong pelvic floor,  engaged and elongated rectus abdominis),  trying to move my upper body starting from the lower traps.   

It took a lot of work to release the physical tensions, but thinking about condition of these 5 (paired) muscles (having lumped the pelvic floor into one)  working as they should developed my sense of conscious proprioception (my other thread).    I could then feel how to move through the pains and tension, regaining a little more movement each time.    A lot of clunks and cracks along the way but they all felt good!


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## Gyakuto (Oct 6, 2022)

Leigh Blyth said:


> Base-Line Theory of Human Health and Movement: The Five Main Muscles of Movement and Conscious Proprioception.
> 
> The 5 main muscles of movement are:
> 
> ...


Erector spinae?


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## Gyakuto (Oct 6, 2022)

jobo said:


> ok what I'm saying is if you seek to develop a small number of muscles you say 5 though some are groups so 16 ? in total, then that leaves say 684 muscles that you haven't developed.


We have 635 muscles (excluding piloerector muscles) _. Yes we have one, unpaired muscle!_


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