It all starts with your foundational alignment of the musculoskeletal system and respecting how the body ought to move. Finding a deeper connection to your Base improves all activities of daily life, recreation and fitness. At Upright Kinetics we are constantly talking about “Base”, but what does it entail?
Base education begins in its simplest form first done individually. So, let’s break it down into its 3 elements:
- Balls of the Feet (Base Support): A firm connection of the knuckle of the first toe to the floor also known as the ball of your foot.
- Pelvic Tilt: A posterior tilting of the hips to decompress the lower back and engage the abdominals.
- Chin-to-Throat: A backward shift of the head to get the chin closer to the throat and align your ears to the middle of your shoulders. You should feel a stretch on the back of your neck and contraction to the neck flexors.
We start by isolating and understanding the makings of our foundation, and then we incorporate all three. Engaging Chin-to-Throat and Pelvic Tilt at the same time decompresses the spine and brings awareness to reflexive flaws we have. Along the spine, we feel a tug in the attempt to flatten the back. Exploring your range of motion in the spine and reconnecting to the balls of your feet boosts your body awareness.
Practicing Base setting will reduce curvature in the spine and reconnect the core. This benefit spreads out into the rest of the body. Then we challenge ourselves to maintain this Base regardless of what movements life calls for.
We strive to get the entire body working harmoniously. To do that, we need to train our bodies to maintain a Base that facilitates proper alignment. It often gets referred to as “proper posture”. We train postural control (Base) by loading our bodies to the point where we lose control. Then we restart and do it again, overloading our systems slowly, incrementally increasing our boundaries, expanding our control. Base is integral to all of our exercises. You will always set your Base before performing a set. Once you learn Base, you gain a life skill to carry with you wherever you go!