Erik Dalton Bodywork Training Blog

Summary: Oftentimes seen as a structurally subtle body segment, the neck is burdened with the highly difficult task of supporting the human head. Because of the tension, trauma, and poor posture inherent in the workplace today, it is no surprise that head-on-neck and neck-on-thorax imbalances serve as some of the most frequent pain generators driving people into our bodywork practices.

Many injuries in America today come from on-the-job muscle/joint strain and overuse syndromes. Working in a technologically driven society has caused an explosive and expensive increase in work-related costs, with injuries occurring to categories of workers previously considered low risk for anything more serious than the occasional paper-cut.

This two-part series is excerpted from the new textbook written by Erik Dalton, entitled Advanced Myoskeletal Techniques. This segment studies the causes, conditions, and corrections associated with one of the most painful of all postural faults: forward-head postures.

The battle against gravity

Muscles are designed to glide independently neighboring myofascial tissues as the central nervous system orchestrates a complex assortment of specified movements. When observing professional gymnasts at work, one immediately recognizes the amazing quality, variety and complexity of their coordinated movement patterns. Conversely, the elderly foot-shuffler appears to have body areas frozen in time. Unfortunately, years of tension, trauma and poor posture—combined with gravitational exposure—force the human body to sacrifice complexity of movement for stability.

Today, more than ever, people are disposed to sit for hours in isometrically contracted postures without adequate physical activity. When muscles contract, fuel is burned and waste products accumulate. In time, these chemical irritants modify the muscle resting length, causing enveloping fascial bags to lose their natural suppleness. Prolonged sitting leads to slumping, as people spend innumerable hours tied to work terminals, home computers, school desks and television sets. As the heavy head eventually drops forward and down, the scapulae externally rotate and protract, increasing thoracic kyphosis and flattening of lumbar lordosis.

Worn out from battling gravity, intrinsic cervical extensor muscles such as semispinalis, longissimus, the suboccipitals and multifidus become toxic from oxygen deprivation. Extrinsic (phasic) muscles (trapezius, rhomboids, posterior rotator cuff, etc.) prefer burning glucose for fuel but the deep intrinsic support muscles require more oxygen. When tension, trauma, and faulty posture lower the amount of delivered to intrinsic postural muscles, fatigue sets in, causing the gravitational load to shift to the extrinsics.

Extrinsic muscles are dynamic and created to provide quick bursts of energy. Since phasics contain a greater number of fast-twitch fibers, they do not respond well to sustained compressional loading and quickly give out and the energy-depleted intrinsic muscles are once again made to bear the load. This decompensation cycle marks the beginning of a domino effect that structurally manifests as reduced flexibility, loss of range of motion, and an awkward forward-head, slumped-shouldered posture.

The seven deepest myofascial layers traversing the C7-T1 junction are especially vulnerable to sustained isometric contraction from forward-head postures (Figure 1). Over time, the slick lubricating fluid designed to provide smooth gliding of individual fascial sheaths dehydrates, thickens and becomes adhesive. The effect: fascial adhesions, myospasm and muscle contractures. Living in a healthy body with pain-free range of motion requires that every upper quadrant muscle maintain its own independent yet communal contribution during head-and-neck motion. When “sticky” fascial layers bond, specialized (efficient) muscle activity is lost. The semispinalis, splenius, longissimus and trapezius fasciae are frequently guilty of clinging and dragging on neighboring muscles. Myofascial restrictions not only waste invluable energy but also reduce flexibility and range of motion.

An exaggerated example of this condition is often recognized in persons forced to turn their entire trunk to look to the side. This population usually presents with protracted shoulders and forward-drawn heads evolved from decades of slumped sitting, repetitive movement patterns, trauma, and limbic system (emotional) stressors. Names such as fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome are often used to describe these achy, energy-deficient bodies.

Read more ~

http://erikdalton.com/media/published-articles/

Erik Dalton, Ph.D., Certified Advanced Rolfer, started the Freedom From Pain Institute and created Myoskeletal Alignment Techniques to share his passion for massage, Rolfing, and manipulative osteopathy. Go to the Erik Dalton website for information on workshops, conferences, and CE home study courses.

by Erik Dalton PhD

Summary:  In a highly functioning body, the neuro-myoskeletal system hangs in dynamic equilibrium, with each part balancing the other. But when a woman chooses to wear high heels, a new dynamic equilibrium occurs. If even one body part becomes fixed, the whole system must compensate with altered movement patterns, resulting in kinetic “chain” kinks.

Last week while going through TV channels, I happened to catch some interesting gossip from a cheesy entertainment show reporting that Stefani Germanotta, aka Lady Gaga, was being treated for low-back pain at a local physical therapy clinic. This uniquely talented, five-time Grammy Award winner and self- proclaimed “high heeled queen of sheen” has definitely done more to mess up low backs than anyone since Mike Tyson. So, here she is at the ripe age of 25 suffering back spasm.

Although high heels have been in and out of vogue since Catherine of Medici invented them in Paris in the 16th century, I have always been puzzled by the strange attraction to body height— which figures, since I was always the tall one in class. I had somehow missed the point, so I decided to pose the question to my wife. She told me, “Erik, some women would grow their toenails long and walk on them if they thought it would make them look sexier.”

That answer certainly did not settle my curiosity, so I searched online for some fashion-magazine photos of high-heeled ladies, studied the postures and finally arrived at three seemingly logical visual bonuses gained from wearing high heels. Curvier hips and a more prominent buttock happen due to exaggerated lumbar lordosis, the legs appear longer and leaner as the thoracic spine hyperextends to compensate for the swayed low back, and the female chest becomes more prominent as the shoulder girdle is driven back by the hyperextended thorax.

The biomechanical effect of heels, in everything from running shoes to stilettos, has puzzled researchers and fueled controversy for about a century.

Here is an interesting experiment that will help you get a feel for the biomechanical adjustments high-heel wearers deal with every day:

Stand barefoot with the back against a wall and observe how your upright body column forms a perpendicular line, or 90-degree angle, with the floor. Slide a 2-inch wedge of some kind, such as a phone book, under both heels. Notice by keeping your body column rigid, you are forced to tilt forward from 90 to about 70 degrees.

Now replace it with a 3-inch wedge and straighten up so you are touching the wall again. Feel the intense myoskeletal adaptations that take place. Can you feel your ankles alter from dorsi- to plantar-flexion? In this standing position, the knees buckle, hips flex, low back sways, and the shoulder girdle retracts.

The brain, guided by foot, ankle and visual proprioceptors, must instantaneously make a whole series of myofascial and joint adjustments to the ankle, knee, hip, spine, and head to regain and retain erect stance and equilibrium.

But high-heeled, posturo-functional faults are not limited to the external milieu – they may also inflict compressional damage on the internal viscera, particularly the pelvic bowl contents. According to a report conducted by Canadian physiotherapist Diane Lee, in “Biomechanical Effects of Wearing High Heel Shoes,” published in the International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, excessive lumbar lordosis causes the pelvic bowl to dip anteriorly, which raises the center of gravity and leads to reduced proprioceptive stability. So not only are we unstable on our feet when wearing heels, but the dramatic anterior pelvic tilt squashes our poor organs.

For instance, when standing barefoot, the anterior angle, or pelvic tilt, of the female pelvis is 25 degrees. On 1-inch heels it moves up to 30 degrees, on 2-inch heels it increases to 45 degrees, and on 3-inch heels it increases up to 60 degrees…

Read more at

http://erikdalton.com/media/published-articles/gaga-over-heels/

Erik Dalton, Ph.D., Certified Advanced Rolfer, started the Freedom From Pain Institute and created Myoskeletal Alignment Techniques to share his passion for massage, Rolfing, and manipulative osteopathy. Visit the Erik Dalton website for information on workshops, conferences, and CE home study courses.