Let’s take one step back and look at the body with some common sense. Just ponder for a minute as you read this article and think about your body; think about every breath you take, the blood that is running through your veins, the position of the body or even how your body moves. When you stand up and walk to get a drink or cup of tea do any of these systems work by themselves in isolation? Do you consciously control or activate these systems?

In fact all systems of the body integrate. The cardiovascular, respiratory, nervous, muscular, fascial (connective tissue), skeletal, endocrine (hormonal), lymphatic, visceral systems just to name a few all rely on integration or communication to enable the body to move and perform everyday activities.

I have to come clean here I am a geek of movement. I observe constantly how people and animals move. If you look at various age groups in the human race you will learn a lot about movement. Look at what a child will do when they take their first few steps; are they big movements or small? What feeds information to the body from the ground up? Do they consciously control their movements? No the body reacts. These questions should now be starting to stimulate our thought process and hopefully challenge how we traditionally condition or train our bodies.

As we develop in our younger years we constantly condition the body to integrate. Everything we do at a young age involves running, jumping, chasing, wrestling, hopping, climbing and every other movement that you can imagine. The more kids perform these activities the better their fitness, balance, power, strength, stability, endurance and happiness.

Why then do we stop these movements as we get older? Age!

For example, let’s look at how the foot can affect the rest of the body.  Maybe then we will have a clearer understanding of integration.  If we look at the ankle it has 33 joints; 3 at the ankle and 30 in the foot. It also has three arches (diagram 1); one longitudinal medial arch (top picture), one lateral longitudinal arch (bottom picture) and one mid foot arch (middle picture). If it moves well then all of the forces that that are being generated up the body from the ground will be dissipated evenly over all joints. Think of it as the first part of an amazing suspension system that decelerates the incoming forces, not unlike a set of leaf springs on a trailer. At the same time this dissipation of forces gives feedback helping to turn on the stabilizers of the ankle, hip and trunk. We need integrated movement to activate the stabilizers!

Recent research shows that fascia (connective tissue) plays a much larger role in the body than first thought.  Not only does fascia envelope all nerves and muscles but it continues in various lines/directions throughout the body (anterior, posterior, lateral and spiral). It has high tensile strength but also has a contractile component (able to stretch and contract). When the myofascial (muscle, nerves and fascia) system stretches it stores energy (3-9 times more than a contraction) which then results in a contraction or shortening; simply put every movement starts with a load (lengthening, stretch) and finishes with an unload (shortening, contraction).

Try this, stand up and pretend you were going to throw a ball. If I was to throw a ball forward, first I would have to take my arm back, whilst taking the arm back can you feel your ribcage starting to stretch or turn on? As this stretches you will feel the opposite hip stretch doing the same thing. In fact if you follow that feeling of stretching or loading it continues right down to opposite side ankle. So to create a throwing motion you must first load (stretch) the entire body which will result in a unload (contracting) of the entire body.

Traditionally we have placed more importance on the muscles and nerves individually for feedback, strength and movement hence we have used an isolated approach in conditioning the body. Recent research has changed that philosophy drastically allowing us to gain far more effective results through training the body by working with myofascial meridians in an integrated manner shown in diagram 2.

Diagram 2: Myofascial meridians

Let’s take a closer look at some lines of fascia that cause movement in rotation in the body.  Diagram 2 shows pictures of the total body from a rear and front view.  You will notice that there is a green line running in a spiral manner up and around the body.  This line depicts fascia which aids in rotational movements (gait, running, tennis etc). Notice in the rear view how the fascia starts at the ankle complexes works its way up the calf and hamstrings across the butt onto the trunk further up the back and around the shoulders into the cranium.

If we apply this model to walking, it would suggest that every time your right heel hits the ground and your left shoulder rotates forward there would be a tensioning or stretching (loading) of that entire line of force (nerves, muscles, fascia).  This stretching will cause a contraction (unloading) resulting in movement or ambulation (gait). This is a great example of how body is constantly integrating in movement.

Discovering these lines has allowed us to improve the efficiency and also the effectiveness of preparing our bodies for movement. It has allowed us to decrease discomfort/pain in the body, to decrease the compensations that everyday activities like sitting create and to also to improve our abilities to succeed in everyday challenges.

So the next time you go to the gym or are playing a game with your kids, just pause briefly and appreciate the brilliance of integration of the body!  The May 2011 workshops in New Zealand will focus on how apply movement concepts to mysofascial meridians.  We hope you can join us.