WOW!
I've just completed the last three days of a six day course on Structural Anatomy and my brain feels a little frazzled to say the least!
To say that this course was an anatomy course wouldn't give it, or the course leader, Jo Avison enough credit. This course was a journey, not just for the body but for the spiritual and the emotional aspects of ourselves that we so often choose to disregard as we get caught up in our day to day life of distraction and entertainment. Aspects such as intuition and instinct, like energy flow and creativity and like, dare I say it...clairvoyance and intuitive healing.
This course has made me look at anatomy in a completely different way. Rather than just focusing on the nice, tidy, 'pockets' of muscle, that those in any human body work proffession have related to for so many years, ie; biceps, triceps, deltoids, pec minor, pec major, gastrocnemius...etc, I have been made aware of 'lines' of intellegent connective tissue that run through our bodies encompassing those 'tidy pockets' of muscle along their way, following lines which are pretty similar to those meridian lines that have been used for thousands upon thousands of years in Chinese medicine.
The fibre of these lines of connective tissue (fascia) run in different directions through the body. For instance, the Superficial Back Line, as it is refered to in Tom Myers book Anatomy Trains, runs from the bridge of the nose (inbetween the brow) over the scalp, down the the erector spinae(muscles each side of the spine), past the sacrum, down the hamstrings, down the gastrocnemius(calf muscle) and achilles tendon, underneath the foot to the tip of the toe! This is just one whole line of connective tissue, there are lots more which include all other areas of the body.
Watching the whole Superficial Back Line of the body taken off a cadavar during a human dissection proved that our muscles are totally connected and affected by one another. By observing this complete line of connective tissue being removed in full and then placed back onto a skeleton, showing the bony landmarks it covers, just confirms the fact that if there is an area of tension or dis-ease somewhere along that specific line, we can affect it by treating another area of this line where the localised pain does not reside. This may happen by treating the lower leg, or the sole of the foot to realease tension in the upper back or around the neck - as long as the treatment that is given is on the same fascial line as the injury or the tension, it will be released!
Results can be achieved and chronic pain can be eased by treating these lines of fascia through either manual or movement therapy.
Although alot of my Pilates movement work already includes queing these lines to allow clients to achieve subtle and yet optimum results, it has dawned on me that I have just scrtached the surface of something huge here and something I will undoubtably explore in more depth.
For more information take a look at www.anatomytrains.com


