Anatomy Trouble- Movement of the pelvis

[Romans6]

Hey everyone,

I'm currently studying the human anatomy and its movements. However I'm having an extremely hard time understanding the movement of the pelvis. I understand how to draw the movement I just don't understand why it works the way it does. For example I know when the human body bends its side to the right the pelvis moves up on the right hand side. However my mind has trouble comprehending this action, I would think at first thought that when the human body bends to the right the pelvis would lower on the right hand side. Could someone please explain this to me if possible, its truly driving me insane. I'm guessing it has something to do with the bodies center of gravity or that the pelvis would crush into the leg.

thanks!

[J.T.]

Hi Roman. From my understanding, that tilt of the pelvis is to counter-balance your body, or else you'd fall over. I also think if it didn't do that, the pelvis would crush into your leg... being as your bones aren't going to get smaller when you bend. If I'm wrong, someone please let us know : ),

otherwise, I hope that helps a little bit.

[Noah Bradley]

Just think of the muscles. As the muscles between the pelvic bone and the rib cage contract, they pull the ends together.

At least I'm pretty sure that's correct. :)

[Romans6]

jt: the counterbalance seems to make sense, without it our center of gravity would be very off balance, also when looking at the bones it would make sense that the leg would be crushed

noah: I think I'm starting to understand what your referencing when bringing up the contraction of the muscles. However my understanding of the muscles is very vague so I'm actually looking over the human muscles as I type this. However I'm still somewhat confused with how the muscles in the pelvic region work.

any other comments would be appreciated, thanks for the help guys!

[CCThrom]

You can think of the pelvis as like a cup with a flexible rod (the spine) running through it. The muscles of the abdomen, back, and sides attach to the upper rim of the cup. If you bend to the right, the muscles on the right side of your body contract. This will not only pull your rib cage down on the right side, but the pelvis up on that side as well.

And yeah, I think especially when you're talking torso muscles, the counter balance issue is very real.

[Romans6]

CCThrom, that description really made it understandable, I think I have a very good idea how it works now thanks to you all.