Episode #3: Global View of Movement (Principles of Movement Series)

Welcome back to another episode of More To Movement.

In good-ole Pete fashion, I’m going to start with a visual.

Think of a skeleton.  What comes to mind?  For most of you, Halloween decorations-  bones that are brittle and stack on top of one another.

Now, think of muscles.  What comes to mind?  I’m sure you have a picture of someone lifting weights in your head, or of someone looking in the mirror flexing their arms.

These views are very isolated, and it’s the visual that most have of the skeletal and muscular systems.  But to understand and improve movement, we must change our approach of how those systems work.

Now think of your body.  What would happen if I removed all the muscles from your body?  Would the skeletal system stay in perfect formation, like our Halloween decorations we discussed earlier?

No- the bones would collapse to the ground.

So what would happen if I did the same to the bones of your body?  The same thing- the muscles would be one big blobby mess on the floor.

Needless to say that the body is a codependent unit- the skeleton needs muscles just as much as muscles need bones. Let’s take it a step further.  What happens if I do a handstand and body is upside down?  Why does the body maintain its structure, and why don’t bones slip and muscles get tangled?

The body is supported through continuous compression and tension and adapts to changes in that relationship. This is demonstrated well by a concept called tensegrity.

Tensegrity is a concept that was developed by Architect Buckminster Fuller, which he based off of sculptures designed by Kenneth Snelson. Recent developments in the field have by pioneered by Manual Therapist, Tom Myers.

Tensegrity demonstrates how structures are held together through constant tension.

It is a combination of tension and compression, where compression pushes outward against the tension that pulls inward, distributing forces throughout the system.  As Tom Myers puts it, “the body is not a brick wall,” meaning it is not stacked one bone on top of the other.  Instead, it resembles this tensegrity model.  He continues by stating that “bones “float” without touching each other in a continuous “sea” of balanced tension.”

Visualize a floating spider web that was spun between twigs and sticks from the ground, and those twigs are suspended between the strands of web.

Apply this to the human body.  Compression and tension are in constant balance, and all of it is connected through our fascial system — more on fascia in a minute.

If you introduce strain into a tensegrity structure, like a muscle contraction, or an injury, for example, then that deformation will be distributed all over the structure.  You have to think “globally,” not “locally.”  To put it into context, if something occurs at your foot, it affects the body all the way up.

What is fascia? I will discuss this at length in the future, but for now, fascia is what holds us together.  It resembles a spider web, as I mentioned before.  It’s a sticky and fibrous protein that surrounds everything in the body.  More importantly, it connects everything and can play a significant role in our movement or lack-there-of.

Imagine one long connected tissue from the bottom of your foot to the back of your skull.  Though each muscle has a unique attachment point, they are all connected through the fascial network.  So, in actuality, your foot is connected to your skull through the same fascial tissue.   With this concept in mind, are we really “isolated” when we manipulate tissue in a particular area?  If I massage my lower back, is it only my lower back that is affected?

Here’s another hands-on demonstration, and again, this is from Tom Myers.  It’s not a parlor trick, I promise.

Stand up, and reach for your toes, and take note of where you feel the “stretch” and how far you can go.  Typically, you feel this in the calves, hamstrings, or lower back.  Now, take a semi-hard object, like a baseball, and apply pressure to the bottom of one of your feet.  Move up and down, side to side, but only on that one foot.  After 5 minutes, stand back up, and stretch again.  You’ll be amazed at what happens.

If you did it, you’d immediately notice that the side of the foot you massaged will seem released, and you will stretch further on that side. You improved your “hamstring” range of motion by manipulating your foot.  This helps drive this point home- that the tissue of the body is interconnected and responds in kind when changes occur.

Because they are interconnected, we need to start looking at movement in a global sense.  We need to look at how groups of muscles, not individual muscles, work together to transfer force, stabilize the bones and joints, and accomplish movements.  Now, this is not to be confused with myofascial lines or meridians.  I’ll chat with you about those later.  For the context of this episode, we will focus on the interactive muscle groups.  

This global view sees the muscles as subsystems, also known as slings.  These are so important to movement that a full discussion on the muscle slings is needed, but for now, I want you to have a general idea of this concept. 

In order to move, we must consider how upper and lower body muscles are working, and that force is transferring between those muscles.  The epicenter of force transfer is the center of the body, and more specifically, the hip-complex.

I like to use the analogy of large highway interchange.  Here in Atlanta, we have something called the Spaghetti Junction, which is the intersection of two major highways as well as several access roads.  And being one of the worst cities in the nation for driving and traffic, you can imagine how congested it can be. 

I like this visual because the hips work as an interchange of sorts.  The hips transfer and direct force up and down the body through a smooth process until something hinders it, like a fender-bender that blocks an exit.  Traffic is redirected and slowed, making the drive less efficient — the same with the body.  If we have something hindering our force transfer, say, injury, or poor muscle activation, our movements will suffer, just like the traffic.

Force needs to travel through the hips effectively, and that’s where soft tissue comes in.  There are groups of muscles in this lumbar-pelvic-hip complex that help control, stabilize, and transfer force efficiently through the body.  As mentioned earlier, these slings play that role.

Think of a bungee cord- they are typically wrapped around something you want to secure, and they are great at absorbing shock.  Bungees are a useful image for the slings; these groups of muscles are inter-connected to stabilize the hip-complex and assist with movement by absorbing and transferring force.

So for today, I just want you to have the visual of these interconnected muscles.  To keep it simple, image bungees that wrap around your waist and lower back, that twist around your legs and attach up to your shoulders.  If you have that visual, you can imagine how the mid-region and hips are secured and supported.  However, the slings promote and contribute to movement, in addition to support and stability.

So what does this matter?

Simply, if a change in alignment occurs at one joint, changes in alignment of other joints must occur.

This goes back to the global view of the body and movement.  If you can, stand up.  Now, slowly bring one of your knees in towards the other, so the insides of the knees slightly touch.  Everyone notices the knee, but what do you notice about the ankle of that leg? It overpronates, so you are on the inside of your foot.  What about the thigh?  It internally rotates, and you can probably feel pinching at the front of the hip.  You’ll also notice the hip drops, which will cause the imbalance at the hips.

You get the picture. It’s always cause-and-effect in the body.  Movement is integrated and multidimensional.  It’s not a series of isolated, independent pieces.

This concept is important because dysfunction at one aspect WILL CAUSE a disruption of force up the chain, which will limit your potential and development, cause pain, or lead to injury.

So, your takeaway today: think big picture!! Don’t focus so much on local musculature, but on global movements.

If you notice a problem with your movement, locate where you see the issue, and web-out to determine the possible cause.  Ask yourself:

• What muscles are surrounding the joint/area that has the problem?
• What joints are above and below the area causing issues? 
• Is there dysfunction occurring at those joints?

Then, write them down and create a Top 3 List of movement dysfunctions to address. 

Here’s an example.  You are performing the Overhead Press Exercise, and you notice your shoulder feels wonky.  Start to explore the movement.  Maybe you see that your shoulders are shrugging as you press.  Then you notice that your shoulders are a bit rounded forward and not set back as they should.  Note those observations, and then start addressing the underlying causes.

You may be thinking, “But Pete, I don’t know what causes these things?”  Fret not, because I will be addressing common movement discrepancies, and I will be providing strategic solutions to correct those issues, so be on the lookout for those upcoming episodes.

To summarize today:

• Movement is not isolated but integrated and multidimensional.
• Everything in the body is connected, and movement occurs through a continual balance of compression and tension.
• Dysfunction at one aspect WILL CAUSE a disruption of force up the chain, which will limit your potential and development, cause pain, or lead to injury.

• We need to start training ourselves to observe our movement, so we need to start looking at the body from a global, not local, point of view so we can optimize our efforts.

I introduced a lot today: global views of movement, fascial networks, muscle slings, corrective movement strategies, and I hope you are excited as I am to dive into these concepts and really get our movement on point. 

Thanks so much for listening to this episode and spending some time with me.

If you want updates on my new episodes, please subscribe to the podcast or join my mailing list at MoretoMovement.com, so you are the first to hear and see the latest content I was talking about just a bit ago.

As you’ve gathered, my goal is to enhance your movement awareness, so in the next episode, we will discuss how you can identify movement issues just by observing planes of movement.

I look forward to chatting with you next time.

Thanks again and remember-where ever you are: keep moving.