With Coach Alexa, Online Running Coach and in-person coaching in South Oxfordshire
Introducing the Pelvis Model
Hi there. A bit of a different place for a video this week. I’m filming in the physio clinic where I work because they’ve got a pelvis model here.
This doesn’t belong to somebody – it’s made out of plastic – but I thought it would be really useful to show you in 3D what a pelvis looks like.
The Structure of the Pelvis
From the front, you can see the pelvis forms a strong shape, but if I rotate it and you look from the top, it’s basically like a bowl. There’s a hole all the way through, which allows for all sorts of bodily functions to exit at the bottom, like poo, wee, and, if you’re female, babies.
The pelvis itself is not one single piece. There’s a joint at the front at the pubic symphysis, where the two sides of the pelvis meet. These two halves can move just a little bit independently of each other.
At the back, the bottom of the spine comes into your tailbone and coccyx. Joints here connect the spine to either side of the pelvis.
Key Landmarks You Can Feel
A few useful things to point out:
- When you put your hands on your hips, you’re actually placing them on the top of your pelvis.
- At the bottom are the sit bones, the points you rest on when you sit.
- The hip sockets are towards the front and round to the side, quite deep in the groin area.
Nerves Around the Pelvis
You can also see how nerves travel around the sacroiliac joints, where the spine meets the pelvis, both on the inside and the outside.
One of these is the sciatic nerve, which comes out of the bottom of the spine. This shows just how much is going on in this area, even when looking only at the bones.
Looking Ahead
In future videos, I’ll talk about the muscles that layer on top of the pelvis, but I thought this was an interesting opportunity to show you how fantastic the pelvis is – what it looks like and the basics of its anatomy.
Hope that’s useful. Happy running!
