Basic Principles and Attention to Area of Myofascial Mapping for Physical Therapists

As a therapist, understanding the principles and concepts of Myofascial Mapping is essentially effective address to clients who have Physical limitations and discomforts or Postural issues.

Myofascial Mapping is a revolutionary approach to bodywork that recognizes the interconnection of the human body's systems. It acknowledges a basic principle that the human body functions as a connected system, where movement in one part can have a significant impact on the other parts.

The Myofascial Mapping concept focuses on the idea that the Myofascial (soft tissue) supports and connection to muscles, bones, and organs functions as a unified network, rather than individual Part.

Anatomy trains-Anatomy of connection or Myofascial Mapping gives us new understanding of whole-body patterning in posture and function. Myofascial Mapping focus on direction of Fabric /myofascia through which the forces is transmitted from Muscle to Muscle .

Primarily go into details of Myofascial mapping. firstly, we define to Myofascia and working as a unified network matrix.

What is Myofascia?

Fascia is a biological substance that holds the connective tissue network in our body together and Myofascia is a part of every Skeletal muscle in our body.

Myofascia is the connective tissue that surrounds to each muscle fiber, Muscle fiber bundles and to the entire Muscle.

It composed of Mainly 3-Layers.

• Myofibrils (Actin and Myosin Protein filaments) surrounded by Connective tissue fascial layer known as Endomysium.
• Each muscle fiber bundle (fascicle) is surrounding by a connective tissue Fascia layer called the Perimysium.
• Surrounding to the entire Muscle Outermost connective tissue Fascia Sheath Called Epimysium.

Myofascia can be described best as a Complete bodysuit that runs from the top of the Head down to the toes tip.

Myofascial Matrix is the characterized like an imaging of muscle that contracts and stretches.

the appearance or expression of Fascia vary in among peoples like young or active people express more often a clear to directional (lattice) Orientation of their Collagen fiber Network and active tissue of them has an increased elastic storage capacity. This storage capacity can be used for running or any movement that involves stretching or immediate contracting a muscle or tendon.

On the other hand, Lack of Exercise has been shown to induce a multidirectional fiber network and decreased crimp formation. Let's we discuss an example with picture for better understanding about appearance and expression of Fascia which looks Like During Active and Inactive lifestyle.

Active tissue during active lifestyle or exercise that combines stretching and contracting of the muscles.

Inactive tissue or lack of lack of Movements, decreased elastic storage capacity. The Fibers become stuck together and form soft tissue Adhesions.

Principles:

Myofascial Meridians

Anatomy trains-myofascial meridians can be used to see how pain in Neck may be connected to an imbalance in neck or may be Connected to an imbalance in pelvis or How Fallen Arch in foot can contributing to the pain in lower back?

Myofascial meridians refer to the continuous networks/Maps of fascia that connect muscles and bones, creating various movement patterns in the body. The network is divided into 12-myofascial lines that run from head to toe, forming system that encompasses every aspect of the human body. These lines are further divided into superficial, deep, and lateral lines. These meridian lines describe the fascial connections throughout the entire body and how movement in one-part impacts another.

Tensegrity

The tensegrity principle is a fundamental concept in Anatomy Trains that describes the balance between tension and compression in the musculoskeletal system.

Tensegrity is a term used to describe how a structure holds itself together without collapsing. In the human body, fascia acts as a tensegrity structure, distributing the forces of movement and gravity throughout the body and ensuring optimal alignment, joint integrity, and the ability to transfer force seamlessly and efficiently. Understanding the tensegrity principles of Anatomy Trains can help therapists identify misalignments and imbalances in the body caused by tension or compression and correct them.

Body-Mind Connection

In every aspect of life, the mind and body operate in unison, and the human body is no different. Anatomy Trains of Myofascial Meridians/Mapping recognizes that the body and the mind operate in interdependence, and each component has a profound effect on the other. When a client comes in for a session, their thoughts, emotions, and physical state come into play, affecting the body's physical condition. Anatomy Trains, therefore, focuses on improving both the body and mind, acknowledging the deep connection between them.

Global Movement

In the Anatomy Trains, the focus is on how the parts work together as a whole, rather than individual parts functioning independently. Each of the 12-myofascial meridians is responsible for a specific movement pattern in the body, spreading throughout the entire body. Movements in one part of the body have a profound impact on other parts, and imbalances in one meridian may lead to discomfort in another part. The Anatomy Trains approach recognizes the effects of these global movement patterns and addresses them to restore balance to the body.

Assess and Adapt

Every human body is unique, and each comes with its own set of strengths and limitations. The Anatomy Trains approach involves a thorough assessment of the client, checking for imbalances and weak points in the myofascial network. The therapist identifies which meridian lines play a significant role in the client's physical limitations or discomforts and tailors a treatment plan that addresses those specific areas. The assessment process is unique to every client, ensuring that treatment is individualized and effective.

In conclusion, understanding the principles and concepts of Anatomy Trains is essential as a therapist. Embracing the interconnectedness of the body, recognizing the tensegrity principles, and identifying and correcting fascial imbalances are all integral to the Anatomy Trains approach. This revolutionary concept of whole-body movement improves not only physical function but also the mind-body connection. By acknowledging the interdependence of the mind and body, the Anatomy Trains approach allows for holistic treatment that targets both the physical body and the mind to achieve optimal well-being.

Myofascial Lines:

With these Principles in mind, 12 myofascial meridians/Mapping /Lines in common use in human stance and movement:

? Superficial Front Line

? Superficial Back Line

? Lateral Line (2-sides)

? Spiral Line

? Arm Lines (4)

? Functional Lines (2–front and back)

? Deep Front Line

The first three lines are termed the ‘cardinal’ lines, in that they run more or less straight up and down the body in the four cardinal directions – front, back, and left and right sides.

Superficial Front Line:

structural Correlation:

The Superficial Front Line (SFL) runs on both the right and left sides of the body from the top of the foot to the skull, including the muscles and associated fascia of the anterior compartment of the shin, the quadriceps, the rectus abdominis, sternal fascia, and sternocleidomastoid muscle up onto the galea aponeurotica of the skull. In terms of muscles and tensional forces, the SFL runs in two pieces – toes to pelvis, and pelvis to head, which function as one piece when the hip is extended, as in standing. In the SFL, fast-twitch muscle fibers predominate.

Functional Correlation:

The SFL functions in movement to flex the trunk and hips, to extend the knee, and to dorsiflex the foot. In standing posture, the SFL flexes the lower neck but hyperextends the upper neck.

Posturally, the SFL also maintains knee and ankle extension, protects the soft organs of the ventral cavity, and provides tensile support to lift those parts of the skeleton which extend forward of the gravity line – the pubis, the ribcage, and the face. And, of course, it provides a balance to the pull of the superficial back line.

common human response to shock or attack, the startle response, can be seen as a shortening of the SFL.

Chronic contraction of this line – common after trauma, for example – creates many postural pain patterns, pulling the front down and straining the back.

Superficial Back Line:

Structural Correlation:

The Superficial Back Line (SBL) runs from the bottom of the toes around the heel and up the back of the body, crossing over the head to its terminus at the frontal ridge at the eyebrows. Like the SFL, it also has two pieces, toes to knees and knees to head, which function as one when the knee is extended.

It includes the plantar tissues, the triceps surae, the hamstrings and Sacro tuberous ligament, the erector spinae, and the epicranial fascia.

Functional Correlation:

The SBL functions in movement to extend the spine and hips, but to flex the knee and ankle.

The SBL lifts the baby’s eyes from primary embryological flexion, progressively lifting the body to standing.

Posturally, the SBL maintains the body in standing, spanning the series of primary and secondary curves of the skeleton (including the cranium and heel in the catalogue of primary curves, and knee and foot arches in the list of secondary curves).

This results in a more densely fascial line than the SFL, with strong bands in the legs and spine, and a predominance of slow-twitch fibers in the muscular portion.

Lateral Line

Structural Correlation:

The Lateral Line (LL) traverses each side of the body from the medial and lateral midpoints of the foot around the fibular malleolus and up the lateral aspects of the leg and thigh, passing along the trunk in a woven pattern that extends to the skull’s mastoid process.

Functional Correlation:

In movement, the LL creates lateral flexion in the spine, abduction at the hip, and eversion at the foot, and also operates as an adjustable ‘brake’ for lateral and rotational movements of the trunk. The LL acts posturally like tent guy-wires to balance the left and right sides of the body.

Also, the LL contains more than creates movement in the human, directing the flexion-extension that characterizes our direction through the world, restricting side-to-side movement that would otherwise be energetically wasteful.

Spiral Line:

Structural Correlation:

The Spiral Line (SL) winds through the three cardinal lines, looping around the trunk in a helix, with another loop in the legs from hip to arch and back again.

It joins one side of the skull across the midline of the back to the opposite shoulder, and then across the front of the torso to the same side hip, knee and foot arch returning up the back of the body to the head.

Functional Correlation:

In movement, the SL creates and mediates rotations in the body. The SL interacts with the other cardinal lines in a multiplicity of functions.

In posture, the SL wraps the torso in a double helix that helps to maintain spinal length and balance in all planes. The SL connects the foot arches with tracking of the knee and pelvic position. The SL often compensates for deeper rotations in the spine or pelvic core.

Arm Lines(4)

? Superficial Front Arm Line

? Superficial Back Arm Line

? Deep Front Arm Line

? Deep Back Arm Line

structural Correlation:

The four Arm Lines run from the front and back of the axial torso to the tips of the fingers. They are named for their planar relation in the composition of the shoulder, and roughly parallel the four lines in the leg.

These lines connect seamlessly into the other lines particularly the Lateral, Functional, Spiral, and Superficial Front Lines.

Functional Correlation:

In movement, the arm lines place the hand in appropriate positions for the task before us – examining, manipulating, or responding to the environment. The Arm Lines act across 10 or so joints in the arm to bring things to us or to push them away, to push, pull, or stabilize our own bodies, or simply to hold some part of the world still for our perusal or modification.

The Arm Lines affect posture indirectly, since they are not part of the structural column. Given the weight of the shoulders and arms, however, displacement of the shoulders in stillness or in movement will affect other lines.

Conversely, structural displacement of the trunk in turn affects the arms’ effectiveness in specific tasks. and may predispose them to injury.

Beyond the straightforward progression of the meridians from the trunk to the four corners of the hands, there are many ‘crossover’ muscles that link these lines to ether, providing additional support and stability for the extra mobility the arms have relative to the legs.

Functional Lines

? Front Functional Line

? Back Functional Line

structural Correlation:

The two Functional Lines join the contralateral girdles across the front and back of the body, running. from one humerus to the opposite femur and vice versa.

Functional Correlation:

The Functional Lines are used in innumerable movements, from walking to the most extreme sports.They act to extend the levers of the arms to the opposite leg as in a kayak paddle, a baseball throw or a cricket pitch (or vice versa in the case of a football kick). Like the Spiral Line, the Functional Lines are helical, and thus help create strong rotational movement. Their postural function is minimal.

Deep Front Line

structural Correlation:

The Deep Front Line (DFL) forms a complex core volume from the inner arch of the foot, up the inseam of the leg, into the pelvis and up the front of the spine to the bottom of the skull and the jaw. This ‘core’ line lies between the Front and Back Lines in the sagittal plane, between the two Lateral Lines coronally, and is wrapped circumferentially by the Spiral and Functional Lines. This line contains many of the more obscure supporting muscles of anatomy, and because of its internal position has the greatest fascial density of any of the lines.

Structurally, this line has an intimate connection with the arches, the hip joint, lumbar support, and neck balance.

Functional Correlation:

Functionally, it connects the Abdominal and flow of breathing (dictated by the diaphragm) to the rhythm of walking (organized by the psoas). In the trunk, the DFL is intimately linked with the autonomic ganglia, and thus uniquely involved in the sympathetic / parasympathetic balance between our neuro-motor ‘chassis and the ancient organs of cell-support in the ventral cavity.

The importance of the DFL to posture, movement, and attitude cannot be over-emphasized. A dimensional understanding of the DFL is necessary for successful application of nearly any method of manual or movement therapy.

Because many of the movement functions of the DFL are redundant to the superficial lines, dysfunction within the DFL can be barely visible in the outset, but these dysfunctions will gradually lead to larger problems.

Restoration of proper DFL functioning is by far the best preventive measure for structural and movement therapies.

Clinical Correlation:

How does this Anatomy Trains Myofascial Meridian idea add to our practical strategizing for Movement Experts?

A look at the Superficial Front Line from the side reveals how useful work on the front of the shin can be to sorting out certain lower back problems and even forward head posture.

Knowing that the plantar fascia and soleus-gastrocnemius complex are joined around the periosteum of the heel allows us to see that in cases where the weight is shifted forward (the ubiquitous ‘on our toes’ posture), the heel – which should act as the ‘kneecap of the ankle’ – is instead forced by the tension along the Superficial Back Line into the subtalar joint, limiting movement and reducing support for the back of the body.

Understanding the connection between the lateral longitudinal arch and the hip abductors via the Lateral Line enables the clinicians to make the link between foot balance and pelvic balance, leading to successful.

soft-tissue strategies for genu varus and valgus. The Spiral Line shows the relation between pelvic tilt and inner arch support, or how to resolve a lateral head shift by working with the opposite shoulder. Numerous other examples in clinical application are offered in Anatomy Trains, and Videos.

Every therapist has seen shoulders drop away from the ears when the feet and legs are worked, low back pain melt away from work in the groin, or a client’s breathing open from work on the forearms. The Anatomy Trains map offers one way of understanding and managing these effects in terms of mechanical or energetic communication across our ‘channels’ of the fascial connections.

Once the relationships within each line are understood, the interactions among the lines open new possibilities for resolving long-standing postural and movement patterns which will not yield to ‘single part’ attempts to remedy a problem.

Progressive work with the lines can create dynamic shifts in these patterns, resulting in the re-introduction of ‘poise’ – an integral balance and length in body structure.

Regards: Gulzar Ahmad