Perfect the Pelvic Clock
Mark originally learned the Pelvic Clock from a Feldenkrais practitioner as an Awareness through Movement lesson over 30 years ago and started using it with his low back pain patients to try to improve their sensory awareness and spinal mobility. He discovered that by monitoring the ASISs with his thumbs during pelvic clocks, most patients moved asymmetrically when rolling their pelvis towards 6 or 12. This asymmetrical motion of the ASISs correlated with his biomechanical findings of an associated innominate rotation dysfunction. He then noted that by simply asking the patient to consciously maintain leveling of the ASISs when moving to 12 and 6 that the patient could self treat their innominate dysfunction without the need for manual correction. Also, he found that patients often reported reproduction of their low back pain when attempting to move the pelvis back and forth between 3 and 9 o’clock, and initially that seemed to correlate with a sacroiliac joint dysfunction.
In addition, by comparing his Osteopathic based biomechanical exam of the lumbar spine to a patient’s restricted mobility with full circle pelvic clocks, he could diagnose lumbar spine non-neutral dysfunctions with remarkable accuracy. For example, a restriction in mobility towards 1-2 o’clock is indicative of an ERS L dysfunction whereas a restriction towards 7-8 o’clock is indicative of an FRS R dysfunction somewhere in the lumbar spine. The ability to diagnose non-neutral lumbar spine dysfunctions is important, as these dysfunctions can result in muscle hyper or hypotonicity and be major players in perpetuating muscle imbalances in the lower quarter.
Rehab Links System Modules 5, 6, and 7 teach how to specifically examine a subject using the pelvic clock, how to interpret the findings, and provide subject specific exercises that are designed to restore a symmetrical full circle active pelvic clock without limitation or provocation of pain.
Click here to view the online module series and learn more about how to use the Pelvic Clock to make a diagnosis of the lumbar spine and pelvis, and explore the proven treatment and exercise strategies. If you have already taken an exercise course with Bookhout Seminars or Back 2 Normal Institute, Rehab Links also enables you to deepen your knowledge through membership and mentoring opportunities.
Lisa Chase and Mark Bookhout launched the Rehab Links Systems online platform – a unique exercise software for medical, health and fitness professionals – to help users link manual therapy treatments with a client-specific individualized home exercise program that results in improved clinical outcomes.