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Go ahead and try this at home.remember last mondays post? (if not, click here). Here is one way of telling whether your (or someone else’s) vestibular system is working. It will also give you an idea of how some people compensate. Ready? Stand up (b…

Go ahead and try this at home.

remember last mondays post? (if not, click here). Here is one way of telling whether your (or someone else’s) vestibular system is working. It will also give you an idea of how some people compensate.

Ready?

  • Stand up (barefoot or shoes does not matter).
  • place your hands resting on the top of your hips with your thumbs to the back (like your Mom used to, when you were in trouble). Your thumbs should be resting on your quadratus lumborum (QL) muscle.
  • tilt your HEAD to the LEFT
  • you should feel the muscle (ie the QL) under your RIGHT thumb contract
  • come back upright


repeat, but this time lean your BODY to the LEFT

  • same thing right? Now check the other side.


Everything OK? Everything fire as it should?

Now lets add another dimension.

  • slide your fingers down so they are just below the crest of the hip, resting above the greater trochanter (the bump on the side of your upper thigh). This should place your fingers on the middle fibers of the gluteus medius.
  • tilt your head (or body ) to the LEFT.
  • You should feel the LEFT gluteus medius and the RIGHT QL contract. These muscles should be paired neurologically. When walking, during stance phase on the LEFT: the LEFT gluteus medius helps to maintain the pelvis level, while the RIGHT QL, assists in hiking the RIGHT side.


If everything works OK, then your vestibulospinal spinal system is intact and your QL and gluteus medius seem to be firing and appropriately paired. If not? That is the subject for another post.

The Gait Guys. Helping you to understand the concepts of WHY compensations occur.