Mobility challenge: More on fascia

This week we’ll increase our time that we spend doing our mobility program to 2 minutes on each muscle group.  Hopefully after a few times through the sequence, you’ve developed the strength in your upper body to hold you for the longer time.  

As you go through the sequence this week, here’s a more in depth look at the facial networks we are trying to release: 

Books tell us that muscles just connect to bones, but from the work of Thomas Myers and Anatomy Trains, we have discovered that the muscles also connect to other muscles  through the fascia. Understanding that the muscles attach to muscles through this connection of fascial trains in the body helps us understand that forces transmitted from muscle to muscle create the posture and movement limitations that we’re trying to overcome in this mobility series.  The whole connective tissue network is one whole net with a grain similar to wood.  Through tracing this grain from muscle to muscle, we’re able to see how the body makes coordinated movements (unless it's too stuck, too weak, or short).      

This mobility series we’re doing is designed to affect three of the anatomy trains in the body.   The front lines and the functional lines.  These images are from Myer’s Anatomy Train Book and hopefully will give you a bit of understanding on how the muscles connect together through this fascial network to negatively affect our posture when we spend too much time in the seated position. 

The Deep and Superficial Front Lines

When I think of the deep front line, I think of the fetal position. It is the position you bring yourself to when you are startled, trying to protect yourself from injury, or feel unwell. I’ve had the opportunity to work with several clients who have suffered a traumatic brain injury, the tightness that seems to be the most dominant is in the deep front line, as if they are still remembering the trauma. These front lines are also the most effected by chronic seated positions whether it be a long work, a lot of travel, or a weekend netflix marathon.

(copyright Myer’s Anatomy Trains)

Superficial Front line (copyright Myer’s Anatomy Trains)

The functional line

The functional lines relate to every movement the body goes through from athletic movements to walking. When the front lines get tight from chronic seated positions, the functional lines no longer move properly and have to compensate around the tight front line.