Let’s make the argument for the human female pelvis as
THE most important bony structure.
 
It reflects the 2x most peculiar traits of human evolution:

1. A permanent bipedal gait 🚶‍♀️🚶‍♀️
2. A remarkably large brain 🧠

The pelvis attaches the legs to the body.
And the Gluteal or Bum muscles hold the body to the leg.

That’s the same muscle that lifts our leg out to the side..

When we stand on one leg (or walk) that strong bum muscle holds the body to the leg.
 
Picture a seesaw..

*Click pic for more on the  🔑 Key to unlocking Hip + Knee Pain 🔓

And if our muscles are strong enough
AND our bodyweight is in the right place, we..

Balance..




 
 

A Remarkably large brain 🧠

From last week we know..
Evolution ‘selected’ for a wider female pelvis.
So, while we've..



A wider pelvis moves the pivot further away from the pull of bodyweight..

Our bum muscle needs to pull down with MORE force.

Widening the pelvis = lengthens the seesaw
MORE bum muscle force = required to balance ↔️

THAT is the biomechanical challenge set up by walking upright.
 
Evolution responded (in part)
By leaving the pivot where it was
AND ENLARGING the pelvis around it.
 
So, as the pelvis got wider..


Our Socket got deeper
(around that fixed pivot)
  
That's the compromise.
(there's always a compromise)

Which is fine if we followed the rule of our animal cousins..
 
‘Most mammals do NOT need a large range of hip rotation’
 
BUT we DO NOT..
 
We kick..

We land
We bend
We jump
We lunge
We dance..

We impinge our femoral head / neck
..onto the edge of our hip socket.

And that can inflame + injure our labrum
(the ring of tissue that deepens the hip socket)


And THAT can cause hip pain + osteoarthritis.
 
AND at that point we've bottomed out (pardon the pun)..
The true, underlying causes of hip osteoarthritis.

Thanks for sticking with me! 👊


Who’d have thought that humans get hip osteoarthritis from the..

1. Evolutionary drive to stand upright and run.
2. Evolutionary compromise of efficient bum muscles + a wider pelvis.
3. Evolutionary compromise of walking upright + giving birth to a big brain.

I love that we've worked out those recent evolution adaptions..

• A Cam femur as a 'running ape'
• Deep sockets from a large brain.

And how they underly most modern day hip pain.

It's not niche problem..
It affects 1 in 5 of us.
(Newsletter #060)


Next, let's see the role it played in Amanda's pain.
And then get onto what we can do about it.

In the meantime, please sign up here if someone forwarded this to you 
(and get my FREE 8-page key to unlocking hip + knee pain).