Now, for those of you who already know how many curves are in your back, you already know the answer - shh!  For folks who haven't thought of this lately (or ever) or haven't seen a picture lately (or ever), check it out on your own body.  Start at your tail and travel up your spine, through the small of your back, to maybe the last rib or two.  Then reach over your shoulders and from between your shoulder blades travel up to the base of your skull.  

Want a peek at a human spine?   The thing about anatomical drawings and real backs is that it's a little bit hard to find 'ideal' representations -- they're real, all right, along with what usually happens to real backs, which usually isn't lovely.  But this is a rather pretty picture and it illustrates where the curves are and how many of them there are.

Once you figure out how many curves there are, the next trick is to get them stacked up.  

This is not a physical thing you do.  It's a mental thing.  The 'left' brain, which is lingual, cannot move the body.  It can talk, but it can't 'do.'  Because it can talk and observe, it can ask questions and give feedback.  For instance, it can say 'would it be possible for the top of my sacrum to line up over the tip of my tailbone?' and it can then watch or feel to see if this is happening and provide feedback such as 'the top of my sacrum is behind the tip of my tailbone.'   Or it can say something like 'the top of my sacrum is in front of and to the right of the tip of my tailbone.'  You would continue asking the question ''would it be possible for the top of my sacrum to line up over the tip of my tailbone?' and watching or feeling until the answer you get is 'Yes!'

You might be wondering, 'How does this work?'  The 'right' brain is connected to the body and moving the body parts for you in a very efficient manner, only it can't talk to you about how it's doing it or say that it's doing it or anything like that.  It can show you how it's doing it and then the left brain can verbalize it and provide feedback.  In this manner, both halves of the brain are working together.

If you were to say to yourself, 'I need to move my lower back forward' and then intentionally move it,  it won't work nearly as well as the 'right' brain ability has been hijacked by the 'left' brain.

Now that the curves are stacked up with the tops over the bottoms and the transition places on top of each other, you will notice a spiffy thing.  There's a line!   Now that you're familiar with your back and how to converse with it, you can ask it, 'Hey -- can you but the tops and the bottoms of the curves on a straight plumb line?'  And viola! Now you'll notice something spiffy in your riding!

This is something you can try out as you read this, sitting at a light or standing in line, or while you're walking or running or swimming.  When you're riding, play with it the first five minutes or so while you're warming up at the walk.  Check in on it again when you pick up the trot.  Can you find it at the canter?

So elbows -- what have they got to do with it?  Sometimes it's easier to see a real spine and sometimes it isn't.  Sometimes it's easier just to see macaroni elbows and watch them rotate in space until the top is over the bottom.  Whatever works best for you is the thing to do.

Have you had a chance to play with this in your riding?  What is your experience with this?