Anatomy Trains

[Barrett Dorko]

Occasionally I get a question from Ken Jakalski, a track coach from Lisle, Illinois. He belongs to the Supertraining listserv and says he visits Soma Simple regularly. I’ve used his name with his permission and I’m asking his question here:

”Some of my colleagues have discovered--or rediscovered--Thomas Meyers's Anatomy Trains: Myofascial Meridians for Manual and Movement Therapists (http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Trains-Myofascial-Meridians-Therapists/dp/0443063516/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-0396080-9857715?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192529118&sr=1-1).

There isn't a day that goes by where they are not discussing the significance of fascial planes to human performance, etc.

From your perspective, is this work the kind of groundbreaking approach to conditioning and therapy that I'm lead to believe?”

I told him the people here who know about performance could help, and he is going to register.

[nari]

I've read through the book Anatomy Trains by Meyers. It is well presented and has great illustrations - but I found it frustrating and kept saying to myself: "but...."

Nari

[Luke Rickards]

Hi Ken,

Once you're registered, let us know exactly what your colleagues are saying in relation to the use of fascial planes in optimising condition and performance.

[Ken Jakalski]

Hi Luke!

Here is some of the discussion relative to fascial networks. Is this accurate?

Contrary to the dissected view, the body is covered and enveloped in many fascial networks. These fascial networks form continuous functional webs or directional lines of pull throughout the body. In reality, the muscle doesn't attach to bone, it is contained within a pocket that is part of a continuous fascial system. For instance, if we look at the most superficial fascial "tube" (for lack of a better word) along the posterior part of the body we see that it runs continuously from the knee joint to the frontal part of the skull. The areas which we call "attachments" are nothing more than places where the fascial "tube" is tacked down. Muscles are located within pockets in this tube.

For instance, there is a network called the Superficial Back Line which is devoted to extension of the entire body. Without it, the muscles and fascia on the anterior surface of the body would have us in a state of flexion. [There is a complex mechanism within the knee that allows this network to work during both knee flexion and extension but the fact is that our muscles are held within pockets which are tacked down at bony stations.]

It is because of these fascial networks that a movement in the glutes effects the angular velocity of the foot. Do a forward bend with your legs straight. Note the tension in your back and hamstrings. Now, take a tennis ball or golf ball and thorough stretch the plantar surface of one foot. Make sure you go all the way up to the balls of the feet and along side the lateral and medial edges. Dig deep into the attachment at the heel. After 3 minutes of this therapy, do the forward bend again. What does this tell you about how these tendons relate to one another?

Any movement we perform has effects further down (or up) the chain. So, the limbs are not free falling bodies, they are acted upon by actions that can be at in one of the joints above or below them. For example, the Front Functional line runs from the shaft of the humerus to the opposite femoral linea aspera and is responsible for the contralateral movement of the leg and the arm while running. The Superficial Front Line and Superficial Back Line provide continuous tension and lines of pull. During jogging, the limbs are able to swing relatively free because there is not much tension created by the small amount of prestretch along these lines. They swing from a state of flexion to extension by “bouncing” between the Superficial Back Line and Superficial Front Line.

[Luke Rickards]

Do a forward bend with your legs straight. Note the tension in your back and hamstrings. Now, take a tennis ball or golf ball and thorough stretch the plantar surface of one foot. Make sure you go all the way up to the balls of the feet and along side the lateral and medial edges. Dig deep into the attachment at the heel. After 3 minutes of this therapy, do the forward bend again. What does this tell you about how these tendons relate to one another? The stretch position described here has been shown to be relatively unrelated to the viscoelastic properties of the hamstring muscles. The stretch sensation it produces is caused by mechanosensitivity of the nerves of the lumbosacral plexus through to the sciatic, tibial and common peroneal branches. It is plausible that strong inhibition on the plantar surface of the foot is affecting processing along this nerve tract via stimulus to the lateral and medial plantar nerves - the end branches of this nerve pathway. Further, function in this exercise has also been shown to improve immediately after neurophysiology eduction alone. The nervous system rules stretch perception: ask any yoga practitioner.

I'm not the most knowledgeable here on the performance aspects but so far it doesn't sound like the simple knowledge that fascia extends in particular line has been transformed into any organised knowledge of its relation to performance.

[Diane]

I had that book once upon a time - It does not discuss nervous system function, just tissue and how tissue is connected up to other tissue. It's a well-written description of physicality, but in terms of "ph-unctionality", adds seriously to the problem of cognitive hemi-neglect.

[christophb]

I've read this book also, and yeah, there are a few weird/irrelevant things in there. With the help from a few other books though and a thorough "neural" translation and 20 or so passes with Occam's chain saw, I suppose it would be possible to be used for performance. I'm thinking in terms of brain maps however vs. myofascial meridians. I found this presentation titled Clearing the Kinetic Chain in the Throwing Shoulder (http://www.gambetta.com/resources/ClearingtheKineticChainintheThrowingShoulder.pdf?SesID=744a11ea50f70d3320f1 b3b20494d58e). The presentation uses some of the anatomy trains illustrations.

[anoopbal]

Most of the these books are based on conept of how body works as a chain. If one link is screwed, the whole chain is screwed.

I was reading Mathias blog and he talks about the double amputee runner. I have read about him and how he is trying to compete in the next olympics bcos he is that fast!

He has no pain problems or functional problems as far as I know. If all the chains and link theories were true, he should be in chronic pain, and every muscle in his legs ( and upper body "chain") should be a complete mess.

And I think his example is good enough to show all the biomechanical theories about links and chains just adds up to zero.

Anoop

[nari]

Anoop.

Couldn't agree more. Of course someone's 'assaulted' system can adapt quite well with appropriate care, but nevertheless, the premise of Anatomy Trains relies totally on mesodermal concepts and that is the main error in the texts.

Nari

[JasonE]

Interesting discussion. I've just begun to explore the Anatomy Trains material as an adjunct to my study of fascia-based bodywork. At a recent "Intro to Anatomy Trains" seminar, the most fascinating and "functional" portion of the event was an in-depth discussion of assessment using simple standing poses. It gave me some good insights into more effective ways of using observation to understand what was going on in client postures and movements.