Making Anatomy Out of Clay

I wonder, have you ever built a piece of anatomy out of clay? I’m not talking about slapping some clay on a picture of a muscle. I’m talking about building a bone out of clay, with a model and your favorite anatomy books in front of you. Or you could build a whole joint, with all of the structures involved, even down to blood vessels and nerves, if you really wanted to geek out. Or you could built a body system like the digestive system, the reproductive system, the brain, the eye or ear… the list is endless.

If you haven’t you ought to try it, if you want to deepen your understanding of the body, the structure, and the movement of the parts.

Some of my best learning experiences were in classes where we built joints out of clay. I think it was the fourth or fifth time I built the ankle out of clay that I finally could understand the subtalar joint. After I got a deeper understanding of that joint, I was able to palpate it so much more clearly on the people I was working on, and started getting way better results with ankles.

In fact, every joint that I have built out of clay comes to me so much more easily now in the treatment room. I can feel all of the structures… the menisci of the knee, the bursae of the shoulder, the joint capsules, the ligaments, the tendons, the retinacula. It’s very rewarding to be able to palpate with such precision. It makes me so much more effective in my work.

I have thought about adding some clay time to some of my classes. I did it with the shoulder class I taught, and the students really benefitted from the process, although I can’t say that 100% of them truly enjoyed doing the work. I wonder what they think now, though, when they are working on shoulders. Did they have the same experience as I did—achieving better palpation skills —for having built the joint out of clay? I would be willing to bet that they did.