महाबन्धः Mahābandha: The Great Internal Lock - Part 1
Part 1: Why we need Bandhas: We stood upright and Lost Our Tail.
Part One: The Trouble with Being Upright
When humans rose onto two legs, the body had to reorganize itself around a vertical axis. Organs that once hung loosely inside a horizontal frame were suddenly stacked on top of one another. Muscles and fascia that had evolved to balance movement on all fours were asked to hold us upright against gravity. Upright posture gave us free hands and wider vision, but it also came with a cost: new pressures on the skeleton, new strain on circulation, and new patterns of stress written into our nervous system.
The Bias of Stress
Under stress, the body defaults to survival. The posterior chain — calves, hamstrings, paraspinals, neck extensors — fires up to prepare for escape. Meanwhile, the front of the body — abdominal wall, anterior pelvic floor, and rib mechanics that allow full exhalation — goes quiet. This is “dorsal dominance”: the back braces while the front under-engages.
Over time, that pattern becomes self-perpetuating. The back line is overworked yet under-perfused, while the front line loses tone, blood flow, and communication with the brain. Circulation never thrives in constant tension.
A Visible Example
You can see this pattern clearly in Donald Trump’s posture. His feet splay outward, often a sign of a disengaged pelvic floor. The heel lifts in his shoes pitch his weight forward, forcing the paraspinals to contract constantly just to keep him upright. The abdominal wall is switched off, leaving the gut unsupported and the front line flaccid.
This bracing pattern likely compresses facet joints and irritates dorsal nerve roots, dulling communication between spinal nerves and the abdominal organs, bladder, and reproductive system. The result isn’t just mechanical — it’s physiological. In time, this kind of posture increases the risk of digestive dysfunction, continence issues, and sexual difficulties. These are the effects of chronic tension, not a comment on personality. Without care, the same forces come for all of us.
Stress and the Vertical Body
Humans already live with a stressed baseline in the nervous system, and upright posture magnifies that bias. The diaphragm and adrenal glands — which once moved more freely in a horizontal body — are now under constant downward pressure. Baroreceptors and chemoreceptors in the region, designed to send precise situational signals, begin to fire too often. The fight–flight message becomes noisy, repetitive, and mismatched to reality.
That excess signalling wears on the body: reflex arcs are triggered unnecessarily, the stress response grows habitual, and recovery to baseline becomes harder with each cycle.
Our Lost Tail
Before upright posture, our tail played a quiet but crucial role. Its constant movement kept the pelvic floor toned, oxygenated, and reflexively connected to the diaphragm. Even small gestures — running, balancing, wagging, greeting — maintained lift through the pelvic floor into the torso. It was an inbuilt support system that protected continence, circulation, and stability without conscious effort.
When the tail disappeared, so did that natural reinforcement. What was once automatic now requires attention and training.
Where This Leads
Standing upright gave us vision, reach, and freedom, but it also left us vulnerable: dorsal dominance, stressed circulation, and the slow weakening of internal supports. In Part Two महाबन्ध, we turn to the solution — an ancient internal technology that restores the body’s scaffolding from the inside out.
About the Author:
Catherine Broué is a systems physiologist. After two decades in ICU and dialysis, she turned to the deeper question of real health, guided by mentors and the insights of Bohr and Buteyko. Her work centres on the body’s true regulators — breath and the central nervous system — and the return to parasympathetic dominance.