It has been going on for quite some time now and everyone seems to have its favorite culprit.

Osteopaths point at the psoas major, the muscle that apparently picks up toxins from the kidneys, causing all types of issues at the level of the pelvis.

Physical therapists attribute tightness in the piriformis muscle as the potential cause of bouts of sciatica.

Strength coaches often advocate for the strengthening of the lower trapezius because it is generally much weaker than its counterpart, the upper trapezius.

Enough already!

To strictly attribute the blame on muscles and limited range of motion is inaccurate. I understand that this is how we learnt it in school. I can also appreciate that it is practical. However, the only issue is that our body does not only work in that way.

From The Beginning

Thomas Myers, author of Anatomy Trains, writes about how well muscles work together. For example, in his introduction, he writes about the superficial back line and how it connects the head to the heels posteriorly. There is nothing wrong about how Myers writes about these chains of muscles, but what he does not address is how our body have learnt to connect with them. The reason why this is so important is because we often find ourselves, as trainers and therapists, wanting to improve movement.

We often take for granted that primary movements were well learned in our childhood and that, if a muscle is weak or tight, it has little to do with how we initially learnt to move. So here we are nowadays, investigating and looking for a specific mechanism of injury. “The reason why your back hurts now, Bob, at age 46, is because you fell on your butt at age 3… Don’t you remember how dramatic that was?” is a common scenario we can all relate to.

When there is pain, we are taught to look for an injury or a trauma. We assess each joint, one by one, and then we conclude that specific muscles are found to be weak while others are tight.

It is not wrong, nor is it accurate.

We also take for granted that our clients have mastered, in the first 18 months of their lives, the 72 stereotypical movements such as grasping, crawling and standing that comprise the matrix of all the movements that we can assess today.

 

It is easy to blame say CrossFit, the quality of mattress or the sturdiness of the chair… It is also easy to say: “Oh it’s because I stand all day or I sit all day.” Essentially, we can always blame the activities that we do and the environments that we work in. They can certainly be triggers; however, they are not the causes. Some perform at the CrossFit games but sleep like babies. Others get a great night’s sleep in a tent. The main point is that it not what you do but how you do it.

 

The Solution

When exposed to a new environment, you have to learn how to navigate it and negotiate with it every step of the way. You only became aware of this environment via your senses. However, modern advances in neuroscience tell us that we orientate ourselves in our world mostly with our feet and our eyes.

If you stand on your feet and you look straight ahead to perform most tasks, would it not be a great thing if your feet were aligned with the ground and your eyes were levelled with the horizon? It would be excellent if the clients benefitted from such a solid foundation in the stability of their eyes and head on day-to-day basis. These people do not present with postural imbalances but strikingly, they only comprise a mere 10-15% of the population.

What about the other 85-90%? They visit your clinic for a consultation and you are pondering if it is the weakness of the gluteus maximus that is causing the tightness in the hamstring. This is getting old, really old.

This is outrageous! We have become so adept at dissecting a muscle into its four subdivisions but how can we forget that the predetermined purpose of these 635 muscles is to keep us upright? It is part of our DNA, so why would you want to tinker with that?

We must look at the bigger picture! Let us use the resources that we have and take account of the brain when assessing a movement. Let us appreciate that our brain actually grew from learning how to stand upright. Let us respect the fact that it is the brain that orders movement and that muscles are, no more or no less, slaves to the nervous system. What is the #1 job of the nervous system? It is to keep us alive… and we do that how? By standing up! It is with that in mind that, for Posturologists, the most important of all tests is a 3D assessment of this very strategy of resisting gravity.

Posture is movement and movement is posture. Assessing static posture is very much like addressing the mechanics of a luxury sports car before it hits the track. Assessing movement is trying like trying to figure out what is going on with a powerful engine as the vehicle takes a turn at 90 miles per hour. You can have opinions. You can be right on. Chances are you shall not be precise and neither will your intervention.

Would you like to kick some metaphorical ass?

How about correcting these postural imbalances that lead to movement dysfunction?

How about re-patterning these 72 movements in the context of a body that is aligned and proprioceptively fired up?

How about not wondering which one of these muscles is the culprit or the victim?

We are in 2015 and are strictly limiting ourselves to believing that muscles are the only causative factors to injuries. This is not right. We should know better.

We understand biomechanics but we must also respect neuromechanics.

It is time to integrate the brain into our analysis and intervention models. It is time to connect all the pieces.

It is time for Posturology.

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