The 4th session according to the Anatomy Trains KMI 'recipe' is The Spiral Line/s (SPL). I have spoken to Angela during previous sessions about The Spiral Line and she does not normally do a dedicated session on these lines, mostly because much of the myofascia in the SPL also participates in the other lines, front, back and lateral, which have already been worked on during previous sessions, so she can work on SPL dysfunction at the same time as needed. But......as always, she needs to asses my structure as she sees/reads it and from her assesment, she decided that she did need to work on the SPL for this session. Even though she had already worked some of it already on the previous visits.
So let me just very briefly summarise the SPL and it's function in the body. As the name suggests, it spirals around the body in two opposing twisted curves, right and left side, and helps to maintain balance across all planes. It connects the foot arches, literally wrapping around underneath them.
So as Angela observed my feet, especially the rise in my left foot arch, she decided more spiral line work was needed to balance things out. Pronation and supination of the feet, or lack of it, especially in the right was also another reason for the spiral line focus again.
Another observation she made was around the tightness in my right side, especially the abdominals, and she wasn't sure where that was coming from exactly, maybe one of the deeper lines, but she decided the SPL should be the focus, so she started there, beginning with my feet.
This was just like in session 2, where she had me standing upright with my arm folded across my chest, rotating my torso through the full range of motion from left side to right side as she worked into my feet. She then worked on my lower leg, up my tibialis anterior (a muscle which basically runs along the front side of our shin) as she had me slightly lunge forward to flex my foot as she worked. This movement just aids with the tissue stimulation and release for maximum effect.
Afterwards this work on the lower extremities, on both sides, Angles re-assessed my structure and foot movement as I rotated my torso with arms folded across my chest. Right foot was a little better, but still not moving like the left. Now I'm sure she did some work on my hamstings next, bicep femoris probably, if following the SPL, but I don't completely remember. She then moved onto my hips.
Now this part was really interesting for me, I was on my back on her table with my knees flexed while she dug into my Iliacus, a muscle which covers the inner grove of the pelvis, inserting into the femur and basically joining into the psoas and attaching to the base of the spine. This is a muscle that gets chronically tight and over active from sitting down too much, as many of us do, it can pull our hips into a forward tilt putting pressure on the lower back and consequently is a common cause of lower back pain, or at least part of it.
Now this is an area, along with my TFL, that I have spent quite a bit of time working on myself with self myofascial release techniques using a theracane and lacrosse ball, with great succes. So as she dug her knuckles deep into the inner grove of my hip, stimulating the iliacus as the abdominal muscles gradually gave way to the deliberate and sustained pressure, it was a sensation I was very familiar with. But she could go so much deeper, just with gradual and sustained pressure. There was no movement, it was totally passive, she was just applying downward pressure and waiting for my body (my myofascia) to give in to her. I just tried to relax, focus on my breathing and let it go. Once she had penetrated a little deeper, she then had me extend my knee and lengthen my leg down onto the table pulling it away from my hips. This brings about further activation in the soft tissue/myofascia, allowing additional stimulation and changes.
Using a theracane, it is quite easy to get into the inner grove of the hip and stimulate the iliacus, I am going to take away some extra tips from this session with Angela when working on this area again myself, or indeed when instructing anyone else to try this self release technique with a theracane,
After the Iliacus she worked into my abdomen, across and towards my ribs, following the SPL. This is always a bit weird in the abs, purely because it is a strange sensation, but nice anyway. We (humans in general) hold a lot of tension and shortness in our front sides, especially in the abs, shortening the distance between our bottom rib and hips, as we sit lots over iDevices rolling our shoulders forward. This gap should be opened, to allow more space in the front side, to expand the ribs and lengthen the spine, allowing the shoulders to pull back and drop. Working into the abs is often overlooked in my experience of body work before, but it is clearly a critical aspect if the goal is to open up and re-align the body.
She then stood me up off the table and checked my structure again before considering some work on my legs, quads I think, but then decided the quads weren't the problem and continued up the SPL, around my obliques and ribs while having me stand and laterally bend into her wall apparatus holding a bar. She also did some work into my glutes from here as well, but changing standing position and had me facing into the wall apparatus.
Finally and as always, to balance the treatment, she did the release down my spine, from a sitting position as I slowly bend down from my neck through my thoracic and lumbar spine, until touching the floor, as previously described from previous sessions. I have actually seen a self release technique recently where you can tape two lacrosse/rubber balls together, forming like a peanut shape, and then place the balls either side of your spine at the top of your neck, with your back against a wall or on the floor, applying gentle pressure onto the balls, work your way down the spine. Starting with knees bent and then slowly extending the legs to push up allowing the ball to run down the spine. Not as goods as Angela of course, but it works pretty well and gives quite a nice release of the superficial erector spinae muscles.
It is nearly a full month until the next session. Sesssion 5 should start getting a bit deeper and is the start of the 'Core sessions'. Deep Front and Lateral lines will be the focus. I look forward to these session as they progress, going deeper and unravelling more and more dysfunction and imbalance from my body. I especially look forward to the later 'Intergration sessions', even though I have no clue yet what these session will entail.
In the mean time I am continuing on my own programme of corrective exercise and truly 'functional training', trying to build on the great work Anglea is doing to my body, rather than destroy it by abusing myself with high intensity workouts and heavy weight sets. For the normal person (anyone not competing in elite sport), there is no real benefit in these type of workouts. Well, that's not entirely true, there is no real benefit in these type of work outs if that is all you are doing! It is much more important and beneficial to focus on the human foundations first and then add high intensity an additional resistance if needed. But really, this isn't needed.
I have spent the last 4 months now, with the help of Angela, really opening up and lengthening my body, especially in the hip and thoracic (chest) region, front, back, left and right. In my mind, this is something everyone should be trying to do with their bodies, especially with our sedentary, hi-tech, forward slumping and stressful life styles. The fact that so many people insist on placing really heavy bars on their backs, compressing both the spine and the ribs totally baffles me!! I think I will discuss this more in my next blog post as I introduce Foundation Training! I feel stronger than I have ever been and I have not lifted a single weight since I started out on this amazing journey of 'fixing myself'!!
#ThePowerOfPosture
#KMI
#StructuralIntegration
#FunctionalPatterns
#FoundationTraining
So let me just very briefly summarise the SPL and it's function in the body. As the name suggests, it spirals around the body in two opposing twisted curves, right and left side, and helps to maintain balance across all planes. It connects the foot arches, literally wrapping around underneath them.
So as Angela observed my feet, especially the rise in my left foot arch, she decided more spiral line work was needed to balance things out. Pronation and supination of the feet, or lack of it, especially in the right was also another reason for the spiral line focus again.
Another observation she made was around the tightness in my right side, especially the abdominals, and she wasn't sure where that was coming from exactly, maybe one of the deeper lines, but she decided the SPL should be the focus, so she started there, beginning with my feet.
This was just like in session 2, where she had me standing upright with my arm folded across my chest, rotating my torso through the full range of motion from left side to right side as she worked into my feet. She then worked on my lower leg, up my tibialis anterior (a muscle which basically runs along the front side of our shin) as she had me slightly lunge forward to flex my foot as she worked. This movement just aids with the tissue stimulation and release for maximum effect.
Afterwards this work on the lower extremities, on both sides, Angles re-assessed my structure and foot movement as I rotated my torso with arms folded across my chest. Right foot was a little better, but still not moving like the left. Now I'm sure she did some work on my hamstings next, bicep femoris probably, if following the SPL, but I don't completely remember. She then moved onto my hips.
Now this part was really interesting for me, I was on my back on her table with my knees flexed while she dug into my Iliacus, a muscle which covers the inner grove of the pelvis, inserting into the femur and basically joining into the psoas and attaching to the base of the spine. This is a muscle that gets chronically tight and over active from sitting down too much, as many of us do, it can pull our hips into a forward tilt putting pressure on the lower back and consequently is a common cause of lower back pain, or at least part of it.
Now this is an area, along with my TFL, that I have spent quite a bit of time working on myself with self myofascial release techniques using a theracane and lacrosse ball, with great succes. So as she dug her knuckles deep into the inner grove of my hip, stimulating the iliacus as the abdominal muscles gradually gave way to the deliberate and sustained pressure, it was a sensation I was very familiar with. But she could go so much deeper, just with gradual and sustained pressure. There was no movement, it was totally passive, she was just applying downward pressure and waiting for my body (my myofascia) to give in to her. I just tried to relax, focus on my breathing and let it go. Once she had penetrated a little deeper, she then had me extend my knee and lengthen my leg down onto the table pulling it away from my hips. This brings about further activation in the soft tissue/myofascia, allowing additional stimulation and changes.
Using a theracane, it is quite easy to get into the inner grove of the hip and stimulate the iliacus, I am going to take away some extra tips from this session with Angela when working on this area again myself, or indeed when instructing anyone else to try this self release technique with a theracane,
After the Iliacus she worked into my abdomen, across and towards my ribs, following the SPL. This is always a bit weird in the abs, purely because it is a strange sensation, but nice anyway. We (humans in general) hold a lot of tension and shortness in our front sides, especially in the abs, shortening the distance between our bottom rib and hips, as we sit lots over iDevices rolling our shoulders forward. This gap should be opened, to allow more space in the front side, to expand the ribs and lengthen the spine, allowing the shoulders to pull back and drop. Working into the abs is often overlooked in my experience of body work before, but it is clearly a critical aspect if the goal is to open up and re-align the body.
She then stood me up off the table and checked my structure again before considering some work on my legs, quads I think, but then decided the quads weren't the problem and continued up the SPL, around my obliques and ribs while having me stand and laterally bend into her wall apparatus holding a bar. She also did some work into my glutes from here as well, but changing standing position and had me facing into the wall apparatus.
Finally and as always, to balance the treatment, she did the release down my spine, from a sitting position as I slowly bend down from my neck through my thoracic and lumbar spine, until touching the floor, as previously described from previous sessions. I have actually seen a self release technique recently where you can tape two lacrosse/rubber balls together, forming like a peanut shape, and then place the balls either side of your spine at the top of your neck, with your back against a wall or on the floor, applying gentle pressure onto the balls, work your way down the spine. Starting with knees bent and then slowly extending the legs to push up allowing the ball to run down the spine. Not as goods as Angela of course, but it works pretty well and gives quite a nice release of the superficial erector spinae muscles.
It is nearly a full month until the next session. Sesssion 5 should start getting a bit deeper and is the start of the 'Core sessions'. Deep Front and Lateral lines will be the focus. I look forward to these session as they progress, going deeper and unravelling more and more dysfunction and imbalance from my body. I especially look forward to the later 'Intergration sessions', even though I have no clue yet what these session will entail.
In the mean time I am continuing on my own programme of corrective exercise and truly 'functional training', trying to build on the great work Anglea is doing to my body, rather than destroy it by abusing myself with high intensity workouts and heavy weight sets. For the normal person (anyone not competing in elite sport), there is no real benefit in these type of workouts. Well, that's not entirely true, there is no real benefit in these type of work outs if that is all you are doing! It is much more important and beneficial to focus on the human foundations first and then add high intensity an additional resistance if needed. But really, this isn't needed.
I have spent the last 4 months now, with the help of Angela, really opening up and lengthening my body, especially in the hip and thoracic (chest) region, front, back, left and right. In my mind, this is something everyone should be trying to do with their bodies, especially with our sedentary, hi-tech, forward slumping and stressful life styles. The fact that so many people insist on placing really heavy bars on their backs, compressing both the spine and the ribs totally baffles me!! I think I will discuss this more in my next blog post as I introduce Foundation Training! I feel stronger than I have ever been and I have not lifted a single weight since I started out on this amazing journey of 'fixing myself'!!
#ThePowerOfPosture
#KMI
#StructuralIntegration
#FunctionalPatterns
#FoundationTraining
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