In osteopathy a ‘motility’ is a biological movement pattern within the body. There are both healthy and pathological motilities. A pathological motility would be a pattern of a particular mold or virus for example. A healthy motility would be the movement of the cerebral spinal fluid flowing up and down the spine or the clockwise/counter clockwise rocking of the small intestines. Each structure has a specific movement pattern, i.e., liver (ASR(L)), stomach (rotates right), lungs (ER/IR), prostate (F/E), etc. The uterus, heart, bladder, colon, nerve, lymph, arterial blood vessels, venous blood vessels, and every other structure have their specific pattern.
So, why do different organs and structures in the body have different rhythms? I have heard this question asked twice in two different classes and neither time did the instructor have an answer. This is something I have spent time pondering.
Let’s consider the fact that the body, being alive and well has vitality which comes from the primary respiratory system (PRM) and is expressed in the living tissue as an expansion and retraction that can be palpated by the hand. There are additional traits assigned to vitality that help a practitioner determine the amount of vitality a biological system has at any given time. These include the amount of amplitude, general quality of the expansion and retraction (is there a tightness or congestion?), speed and fluidity/flow, degree of excursion.
Let’s also consider that each organ has a particular shape, size, and location in the body. Additionally, it has a location in relationship to its surrounding structures and THEIR shape, size and location in the body. All of these structures exist within a veritable box called the human body contained by skin. Given their location in the body and in relation to other structures, when the vitality of the body expands and retracts, so does each other living structure within and when it does so, it gets expressed in a movement pattern that is 3 dimensional. So the liver, on the right side, and just above the gallbladder and to the right of the stomach and just below a lung and diaphragm, all of which have their own shape, size and location, goes into anterior flexion, right side bending, and left rotation in the inspiration phase, i.e. expansion. Then in the expiration phase the liver goes into extension, left side bending and right rotation, i.e. retraction. It is my belief that this pattern of the liver, and every other structure of the body, is ultimately determined by BOTH the confines of a ‘breathing’ biological structure that is contained within the skin, thorax, head and limbs AND in relation to neighboring structures.
