Benesh Movement Notation for Clinicians

Two recordings of a ‘press up’ exercise made during a treatment programme. The recordings are one month apart. The same subject is being recorded in order to monitor progress.

The subject is prone lying with the head turned to the left and resting on the right side of the face. The shoulders and hops are supported by the floor. The hands are on the floor at shoulder height and are lateral to the shoulder joints. The elbows are flexed, lie posterior to the coronal plane of the body and are abducted but not to shoulder height. They are not supported by the floor. This posture conditions wrist extension, forearm pronation and elbow flexion of a more acute angle than a right angle. The knees are together, very slightly flexed and supported by the floor, thus the metatarso-phalangeal joints are extended. The movement goes as follows:

MAY 1994

JUNE 1994

The elbows extend, pushing the upper trunk away from the floor, but the pelvis remains where it was in the starting posture. Thus there is an acute extension of the trunk on the pelvis (probably in the lumbar region) and the cervical spine is acutely extended and not rotated. The hands lie anterior to the shoulders.

The subject then makes a supreme effort to get the pelvis off the floor, but can only achieve this by flexing the hip joints so that the feet are no longer in alignment with the trunk but lie anterior to it. The trunk is no longer extended on the pelvis and the cervical spine is flexed as if the subject is trying to see if the pelvis has come off the floor.

Finally the subject collapses noisily onto the floor again, the elbows buckle into flexion and rest on the floor, the feet slide as the hips fall into extension. The thighs roll into lateral rotation so that the feet are turned outwards. The head rests on the side of the face again so that it is rotated to the left – as in the starting posture. The subject goes limp; the entire activity cannot be called smooth or well co-ordinated and has exhausted the subject.

The performance of the subject is now excellent. The starting posture is the same as in the first recording, but the ensuing movement is smooth and demonstrates strength and co-ordination.

The elbows extend and the head, trunk, pelvis and knees are raised from the floor. As this occurs, the knees, which are very slightly flexed, pass into full extension and the subject is supported by his hands and the balls of his feet only. The body is inclined in a straight line and the head is no longer rotated to the left, but is in alignment with the rest of the body.

The subject then returns to the starting position smoothly within three evenly spaced intervals. There is no sudden collapse and no appearance of exhaustion at the end of the movement.