Adaptive reserve

Scientific basis

Biological systems have various adaptation strategies: changes in muscle tone, changes of position, joint movements, redistribution of support, tissue gliding, tissue deformation. The term adaptive reserve, in the sense used here, is not a standardized clinical measure. It describes the share of these functional possibilities that remains available in a given situation.

Blue Portance / SBNFA™ reading

In the SBNFA™, adaptive reserve corresponds to the margin that can still be drawn on within the adaptive potential. A system may thus theoretically have several degrees of freedom but use only some of them when a position, an environment or a load limits their expression.

Contribution to the analysis of sitting

A seat can be analyzed not only according to the position it allows, but also according to what it still leaves available for moving the pelvis, shifting support points, mobilizing the hips, changing configuration and responding to a new load. A position may therefore feel comfortable at a given moment while leaving more or fewer options for adjustment afterward.

Not to be confused with

Adaptive potential, which refers to the adjustment possibilities actually accessible in a given situation and depends on both the reserve and the situation: a fixed seat can reduce the available potential without depleting the reserve; a diminished reserve limits the potential, whatever the situation. Adaptability, the framework's general principle that links postural and tissue adjustments.

Related terms

Adaptability · Adaptive potential

Sources and scope

• Horak (2006): postural orientation and balance strategies
• Muro and Akita (2023): dynamic coordination of the pelvic floor