Entering into the closing weeks of 100 days of Franklin, daily instructions are shorter, both because I’ve taken less time in preparing them, and so that you can focus more on your own experience with your body, and less on “giving” information.

If you are like me, the arms are a structure you think little about on a daily basis, so they are an interesting opportunity to experience how the movement works, rather than trying to apply what you know as the “correct” movement.

Day 71

This week we’re exploring our arms and hands. Start by moving your fingers, and let the movement flow into your hands, wrists, forearms, elbows and up to the shoulders. How many movements are there? In what directions do they go (and from what articulation)?

Day 72

The arm is made up of three major bones. The humerus, the radius and the ulna (cubitus in French).

The humerus is the upper arm. The radius and ulna together make up the lower arm. The radius is the one that attaches on the thumb side of the wrist. The ulna on the little finger side. Examine the relative shape of each of these bones. Which is bigger at the wrist end? Which is bigger at the elbow end. How does the humerus/ulna/radius joint fit together? Hold your right hand and arm in front of your chest as if your were cradling a baby. Point your thumb up. Run your left hand fingers along the “bottom” of your arm. Which bone is this? How far along is it still the same bone (where does the humerus start?). Try flexing and extending your forearm to get a feel for what moves and what stays still.

Now point your thumb down. What changed?

Start again with your thumb/palm up. Extend your forearm outward. What movement happens in the lower bone - the ulna (I feel it easiest to feel with my left arm reaching “over” the right arm to the ulna)? Can you feel an extra moving away from or towards the body? Can you feel a rotation?

Start again with your thumb/palm down. Notice how the same movement happens, but feels different and produces a different result.

Move your arms, comparing your left and right arm.

Day 73

Arm spirals! The bone rhythms in the arm are a bit tricky. But they are fairly easy to feel.

We are going to reach out our arm straight in front of us, palm down and then bring it back towards us, in a full arm motion (including the shoulder joint).

First, some identifying of body parts. When the arm is extended, you can look at the crease in your elbow. On the lower end of that crease is a bump. This is the medial epicondyle of the humerus (technical term for the inside bump). If you only move the forearm, this bump does not change place. Reaching round the arm from the bump you will find a new bump. This is the ulna - more specifically the portion that covers part of the end of the humerus, called the olecranon. If you move the forearm, the ulna (and its olecranon) will move. Moving round further, you will find a last bump. This is the lateral epicondyle, which extends straight into the capitulum (kind of like a condyle of the humerus), which articulates with the head of the radius. You should be able to feel the gap between the rounded end of the radius and the rounded end of the humerus.

Bones of the arm

Where do the ulna and radius go from there (there being “below” for the ulna and “outside” for the radius)? Remember, the radius runs to the thumb, while the ulna goes to the little finger? So the radius crosses “over” the ulna, going from outside to inside, while the ulna goes from bottom to outside.

Now we can check out the different internal movements as we reach out our hand and pull it back in.

1) Humeroulnar counterrotation

Check out the medial epicondyle (with your other hand). Which way does it rotate (and therefore the rest of the humerus)?

Check out the ulna (with your other hand). Which way does it rotate.

You probably found that as your reach out, the epicondyle moves “down”, as the humerus rotates inward. As you pull in, the epicondyle moves back to be more “medial”, as the humerus rotates outward (if outward and inward don’t mean much to you, place your other hand on your humerus, if it moves toward the body, this is inward or internally). As the title implies, the ulna counterrotates. It rotates externally as the arm reaches out and internally as the arm pulls in (confusingly, or helpingly, if you reach from underneath with your other arm, in this case, external rotation will bring your hand closer to you). Imagine you as you reach out, a hand on top of your upper arm is pulling “inward” and a hand below your forearm is also pulling “inward”.

2) Humeroradial movement.

Place your hand on the radius, near the articulation with the humerus. Feel the rotation of the bone as you reach out and in. It is pretty clearly internal as the arm reaches out and external as the arm pulls in - this rotation is the same as that of the humerus.

3) Forearm counter rotation

This leaves the ulna and radius counter rotating. If you stretch both arms in front of you and cross your right arm over your left arm, hands back to back, you have a the radius (right arm) and ulna (left arm) of the right arm. As your arms rotate, letting your palms face the ground

a) this is the movement of reaching out (radius rotates internally, ulna rotates externally)

b) the two bones rotate comfortably against each other

c) the amount of “cross” increases, fanning out at both ends

Visualise and feel the increase in stretch in your forearm as your reach out, and your ulna and radius rotate and fan “away” from each other. Feel how that stretch is restituted as you pull back in. Compare with the feeling of pronation and supination.

Day 74

Push ups! When you do push ups, you have the closed chain version of reaching and pulling. Two things are different from open chain - movement of the radius, and relative movement of the humerus to the radius (and ulna).

Try out some push ups and feel how the bone rhythms are different from yesterday. What does the radius do? What does the ulna do? What does the humerus do?

“Practice this image with push-ups or modified push-ups from a kneeling position. Supination and pronation are mostly movements of the radius over the ulna, but this is not the case in the weight-bearing position. Now the radius is firmly attached to the wrist, which is in turn connected to the floor. The ulna will now move together with the humerus around a more stable radius. Start with the arms extended. As you flex the elbow and move your body downward, imagine the humerus and ulna rotating internally around the radius. As you push your body back upward, imagine the humerus and ulna rotating externally around the radius. Notice whether it is easier to perform push-ups while visualizing this bone rhythm as opposed to simply focusing on extending and flexing the elbows. As you go down, simply think humerus and ulna swing in; as you push up, think humerus and ulna swing out.” [DATI]

(yes, in open chain, the humerus and ulna counterrotate, in closed chain, they rotate together)

Day 75

Three quarters of the way through! Constructive rest. If you have been working particularly on one arm, visualise all the same movements with the other arm. After constructive rest, compare arms.

Day 76

The arm gets increasingly more complex as it goes towards the hand - 1 bone in the upper arm, 2 in the lower arm, 3 in the proximal carpals, 4 in the distal carpals and 5 meta carpals and phalanges.

The proximal carpals collectively form a shape like an egg. They articulate with the radius on the thumb side and with the ulna via the radio-ulnar disc (fibrous cartilage) on the other. The articulation surface that receives the egg is concave, like a bowl for the egg to fit in too, allowing the hand to extend up and flex down (palm down), and to adduct and abduct. Visualise these movements as the egg going the opposite direction from the finger tips, relatively to the radius and radio-ulnar disc. As the hand extends up, the egg rolls down.

Feel the elasticity that is provided on the little finger side of the wrist by the radio-ulnar disc, both as the hand hangs from the wrist and as it supports it in compression.

Day 77

The fingers can move in many ways. Imagine movement starting at the finger tips and gradually travelling up the arm and into the body. Now reverse the origin. Imagine a beam of light starting in the shoulder socket and travelling down the center line of the arm, through the middle proximal carpal and up into the middle finger. Dance with the beam of light. With your left hand, grasp each finger from the knuckle and roll the finger out through to the finger tip as if you were rolling clay. Let the lengthening carry as far up the arm as you can and compare arms.