Re-Connect Your Dots, Through the Anatomy Trains a Movement Language for Any Movement Program

TM

through the Anatomy Trains

SUZI ALDERETE a movement language for ANY movement program

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TM

through the Anatomy Trains

SUZI ALDERETE a movement language for ANY movement program Edited by: Kate Griffith, Susan Hains, Leo Roux, Elaine Elias & Abdalla Elias, MD. Illustrated by Leo Roux.

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FOREWORD Re-Connect Your Dots™ is a great beginner’s guide to becoming aware of whole body movement. So much of our thinking about movement these days rests with individual muscles and joints. What would this muscle do if it were the only one on the body? We think of muscles as working only from one end to the other - only between the attachment points - whereas new research indicates that this is a hobbled view of muscle function. Muscles cannot be isolated and never work alone, and muscles link via the fascial fabric to all nearby muscles and ligaments. The reductionist, machine-like, ‘understand the parts’ point-of-view that has guided anatomy for 500 years has yielded most of its insights, and we are moving on to a more inclusive and holistic concept expressed in the term ‘neuromyofascial web’. As we change our thinking from ’Six-hundred separate muscles’ to ‘One muscle in 600 fascial pockets’, our perception of movement changes, and changing your perception is what Suzi Alderete is after in this book. I am an ‘afascianado’ - a person fascinated with the biological fabric called fascia, and its implications for biomechanics (and not a research scientist, as Suzi kindly calls me). I do have forty years of manual therapy practice under my belt, but less facility with movement than Suzi, an accomplished movement therapist. I might have a minor quibble with a couple of the points she makes in her introductory chapter, but I am fully supportive of the program that follows. It is wonderful to see the Anatomy Trains Myofascial Meridians map, first published in 2001, now being applied in a number of different ways to rehabilitation, athletics, and performance. In Suzi’s case, she has made the process of moving as a whole person accessible to the everyday mover. In goal-directed movement, the achievement is all, no matter how you do it. In process-directed movement - and the seemingly simple movements in this book are prime examples - how you get there is crucial. The design of these exercises is to include all the relevant parts of your body in a coordinated and conscious way. The ‘dots’ are, in the Anatomy Trains Myofascial Meridians map, the ‘stations’ - the places where the myofascial fabric is tacked down to the bones beneath. By including each of the myofascial ‘tracks’ and the attachment ‘stations’ in your movement, you build an even tone along and among the myofascial meridians. Achieving this goal of coordination and inclusion will spread to your other movements, leading in my opinion to reduced injury and a longer functional life for your body. So, enjoy the ride! In this case that is easy, as Suzi has a refreshingly informal and accessible approach to explaining the biomechanics of wholeness. Don’t cheat yourself - the accomplishment of the movement is secondary to the ability to feel and include your whole body and all the lines - dot by dot - participating within the movement. Tom Myers Clarks Cove, Maine January 2015

Thomas Myers is the author of Anatomy Trains (Elsevier 2001, 2014) and co-author of Fascial Release for Structural Balance (North Atlantic 2010). Tom’s company provides continuing education courses worldwide for a variety of professions at www.AnatomyTrains.com.

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TESTIMONIALS In all if my years of being a movement and manual therapist, I have come across few things that take a complex concept and make it so easy to understand. Suzi’s wonderful descriptions and explanations of the Anatomy Trains and how to relate them to movement allows this book to be enjoyed by professionals or layperson and both will find it helpful. There are so many nuggets of information that can inform our exercise routines or help if someone has pain. It is so approachable and invites the reader to learn and apply this knowledge of our fascial system in ways that feel attainable. Suzi’s unique ability to combine humor along with exact instructions and fact invites everyone to feel a part of her book. I am so excited to have the chance to be part of this amazing book! It is a fabulous resource for so many people. -Kate Griffith, Pilates instructor, RMT. Re-Connect Your dots is a brilliant, precise and yet easy application that takes you right into the awareness and sensing of your neuromyofascial body. I use this simple technique in both trainings and workshops. It demonstrates the availability of the fascial pathways, observing their function or disfunction, and teaches a means for people to feel and follow both movement organization and distribution. Thank you Suzi for this book. -Karin Locher, founder of CPM Education, Spatial Medicine. Suzi’s re-Connect Your Dots approach, when applied to yoga postures, brings such a clear, clean way of communicating the action that a student should aim to experience in the pose. To me, the key element to a safe, strong, sustainable yoga practice is establishing a solid foundation in each posture, which means there must be an understanding of alignment. Re-Connect Your Dots brings this in a very approachable way. What’s really wonderful is that by using the re-Connect Your Dots approach to establish alignment (or intelligence) in a yoga practice - as the structure of the body (bones, muscles, tissue) learns to work more efficiently - the energy (or prana) body (that which makes Yoga way more than simply stretching) opens & benefits as well! -Jyl Kutsche, 500 hr RYT & LMT.

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RE-CONNECT YOUR DOTS™ Re-Connect Your Dots™ is a movement language. Re-Connect Your Dots™ defines movement as a simple process of imagination - a simple process of imagining that joints are dots and how connecting them elicits a muscle contraction. Much like the familiar childhood game, “Connect The Dots”, movement can be as simple as connecting dots. This book takes you through a brief review of anatomy, a refreshing progressive and simple way to understand fascia, and a series of movements to program your body and fascial system. Understanding your body gives you power. As you navigate this book, you will begin to see your body in a new light with new strength. Imagination is the key to movement. As you begin to visualize and feel your body as a connected structure by connecting your dots, you will begin to move as a connected structure, with grace and ease. And as your movements become graceful, your posture will become straighter. Your body will become smarter. Why does this happen? Because your body is connected from foot to head, side to side, and on a diagonal - by fascia. The image of connected movement recruits more muscle during movement creating stronger movement - including standing up straight. The brain is smart like that. Muscles are responsible for moving joints and bones, one or more at a time. Depending on the intended movement, certain muscles will be programmed to work together to take the body through particular “planes in space.” These movements become automatic as an action is repeated. The movement gets programmed in the brain (muscle memory) and the brain no longer has to think before it moves the body. Not only does the muscular system get programmed along movement lines, but also along stability lines. In other words, as part of your muscular system is creating movement, other parts are stabilizing bones, not involved in the movement. Unfortunately, these stability lines can get lost as the movement lines get stronger. The stability lines are the lines that prevent injuries. The stability lines are the lines that give the movement lines more power and prevent you from falling over. When throwing a ball, for example, the stability lines resist the movement holding you back as your momentum moves you forward. But behold! Re-Connect Your Dots™ has arrived. Re-Connect Your Dots™ is here to help you understand where your movement and stability lines are (on your body) and how to program them to build their strength. Understanding these lines throughout the fascial system and building their strength by recruiting the muscular system, will give you power in your movements and stability in your skeletal system. With a simple language and the power of your imagination, you will become stronger, more flexible and stand up straighter!

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RE-CONNECT YOUR DOTS™ THROUGH THE ANATOMY TRAINS

CHAPTERS

PART

CHAPTERS

UNDERSTAND Your Fascia

1 Bridge Your Anatomy

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2 Build the Image

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3 Center of the Web

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4 Connect the Dots

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CHAPTERS

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PROGRAM Your Fascia

5 The Wings

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6 The Guardian Angel

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7 The Back Guards

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8 The Front Guards

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9 The Side Guards

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10 The Walkers

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11 The Movers

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USE Your Fascia

12 Fascia-nating Moves

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13 Fascial-ly in Tune

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Definitions

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References

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Acknowledgements

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MAN ON WIRE One foot on the wire - his better foot, the balancing foot. First he slid his toes, then his sole, then his heel. The cable nested between his big and second toes for grip. His slippers were thin, the soles made of buffalo hide. He paused there a moment, pulled the line tighter by the strength of his eyes. He played out the aluminum pole along his hands. The coolness rolled across his palm. The pole was fifty-five pounds, half the weight of a woman. She moved on his skin like water. He had wrapped rubber tubing around its center to keep it from slipping. With a curve of his left fingers he was able to tighten his right hand calf muscle. The little finger played out the shape of his shoulder. It was the thumb that held the bar in place. He tilted upward right and the body came slightly left. The role in the hand was so tiny no naked eye could see it. His mind shifted space to receive his old practiced self. No tiredness in his body anymore. He held the bar in the muscular memory and in one flow went forward. What happened then was that for an instant, almost nothing happened. He wasn’t even there. Failure didn’t even cross his mind. It felt like a sort of floating. He could have been in the meadow. His body loosened and took the shape of the wind. The play of the shoulder could instruct the ankle. His throat could soothe his heel and moisten the ligaments at his ankle. A touch of the tongue against the teeth could relax the thigh. His elbow could brother his knee. If he tightened his neck he could feel it correcting in his hip. At the center he never moved. He thought of his stomach as a bowl of water. If he got it wrong, the bowl would right itself. He felt for the curve of the cable with the arch and then the sole of his foot… a second step and a third. Man On Wire, 2008 British Documentary film by James Marsh. How do we explain how Phillipe really does it? How does he use his eyes to hold onto the space surrounding him? It’s as though, somehow, he feels connected to planes in space and walks through them - like walking on water. Phillipe believes he can hold onto space; therefore he holds onto it. His mind and the power of his imagination, gives him the ability to feel the air and communicate with it. His body works as a unit, manipulating itself, and balancing through a center point that is ultimately connected to the wire. The ability to visualize and use the imagination is questionable. Scientists have difficulty accepting what can not be proven. I believe the power of an individual’s imagination is unique - it depends on the person. You have the power to imagine whatever you wish. As you believe in your own power, you will become powerful. Life can be as simple as connecting the dots, one at a time. 11

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PART 1 UNDERSTAND YOUR FASCIA

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CHAPTER 1 BRIDGE YOUR ANATOMY

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BRIDGE YOUR ANATOMY CLASSIC ANATOMY The human body is a complicated arrangement of systems. Eleven identified and studied systems that work together to make you a functioning organism…one single organism. Atoms combine to make molecules, molecules combine to make cells, cells conglomerate to form organs, and organs work together within the systems. Your eleven systems work together to make the whole organism function. If one of your systems should fail, unless it is restored, you will surely perish.

• • THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM is one of the eleven systems. When studying the muscular system we see that there are 600 muscles - 600 single muscles to learn origin-insertion-action. These 600 muscles have various shapes, range in size from small to grande, long and slinky to short and stubby. They are layered throughout the body, sometimes even six layers deep - according to the motion of the joint (part of the skeletal system) it controls. The muscular system controls the skeletal system - moving and stabilizing joints.

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THE FASCIAL SYSTEM God bless progress. Not classically studied as a system, thanks to Ida Rolf, Thomas Myers and a few other scientists, we now understand the importance of connective tissue/ fascia. The image of muscle connected by fascia becomes a powerful one when you begin to see the body as a web of fascia with muscle floating within it, all connected to a center point. There is not one single muscle in your body that is not connected to some other muscle - through connective tissue. This connective tissue or “fascia”, holds your bones together, your muscle together, gives your skin something to hold onto and, actually, every single cell in your body is connected by fascia. Its role in the body varies; therefore, you will find varying degrees of fascial bonds - some fascial bonds are strong, opaque-looking, like a plastic sheet and some are light and wispy like a tiny silk thread. Your body and the demands you put on it determine the strength of the fascial bond needed.

Photo courtesy of Thomas Myers, all rights reserved.

• Did you know that your IT band (Iliotibial tract) never existed until you started to walk? The IT band is a large band of fascia that connects your gluteal muscles to your lower leg. It prevents your leg from falling out to the side as you walk or run. If you never walk (paralysis), the IT band will never develop. Your body is smart. It knows when to repair damaged tissue when you cut yourself. It knows when to create perspiration in an attempt to cool your body temperature when you speed up your activities. It knows when to speed up your heart rate, or pull your hand away from a hot stove, or to quicken your steps as you sense danger. And - the body knows when to build connective tissue in order to hold muscle to muscle and muscle to bone.

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REPETITIVE MOTION BUILDS FASCIAL BONDS As your body repeats a movement, not only do the muscles involved in the action get stronger, but the bond between them gets stronger. This bond is fascia. As the fascial connection grows between the muscle, the action gets stronger and the movement becomes quick and/or “thoughtless” - the movement becomes programmed in the tissue. Repetitive motion informs the body that a physical demand, a certain movement, is important and the “fascia building cells” get to work building connective tissue to insure a strong bond. That’s what the Anatomy Trains (a book by Thomas Myers) teaches us - that strong fascial bonds connect muscle due to physical demand. Your body makes repetitive movements in daily function and fascial bonds are needed to make these actions smooth and effortless. The Anatomy Trains defines these movements and connects the muscles for us. Like I said before, your IT band would not exist if you did not need to walk. From the beginning, you were a single cell. One single cell. And in that cell contained all the information that would eventually grow into a whole body, now with billions of cells doing lots of work. Follow me through a brief description of a simplified version of reproduction... One cell divides into two, two into four, four into eight, etc. Imagine that every time a cell divides, it leaves a fine line of communication (or connection) to its duplicate. If you began as one cell, then ultimately every single cell would have some tie or connection to its “mother” cell - the original single cell. A good analogy is a spider web. The spider begins his web at one point, the center, and weaves his entire web from that one point. Every piece of the web is connected to the center. You are the same. Your body grew from one point (cell) and from that one point (cell) your entire body was weaved. Every single cell is connected to the center cell. Our web differs from an actual spider web in that it is 3-D and is not spun from a still object. Our web is merely connected to the atmosphere we inhabit - our web keeps our bodies connected!

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Your body is connected. This is huge! The fascia, or webbing, gives an image of a connected body that works together to maintain balance. This means that no single muscle works solo - if one muscle is moving then another is stabilizing OR assisting in the movement. Fascia connects muscle and acts as a messenger sending quick messages between the muscle(s) it connects. Fascia gives your movements a smooth appearance I like to call “smoothment.” SMOOTHMENT - the ability to create smooth movements. Muscles work together. Imagine taking one step forward. If you had to contract each muscle in your leg individually as you take one step forward, your movements would look something like a picture book (flip the pages and watch the movie) - choppy and disconnected. In other words, not smooth. Fortunately, because of fascial bonding, your movements are really smoothments - smooth movements as a result of fascial bonding. Because of fascial connections, your muscles have the ability to communicate quickly and smoothly to other muscles, without your conscious awareness.

REPETITIVE MOTION BUILDS MUSCLE MEMORY Repetitive motion teaches muscles specific movements. As a child learns to roll over,crawl, walk, etc..., the initial movements are awkward and slow. With practice (repetitive movements) the action becomes smooth and effortless. He no longer has to think about the movements. They have been programmed into the “muscle memory.” As your muscles create new memory, they also build fascial ties to the participating muscles. Every direction you begin to teach your body to move creates a line of communication through space that you are able to repeat over and over again, BECAUSE of muscle memory and fascial bonding.

memory bank

These lines of communication define all the possible planes of motion through which your body can move. Repeating the movement teaches the particular muscles (along the line) to work together on a given command. Thomas Myers defines these lines in his book, Anatomy Trains. They give us the ability to imagine our true anatomy - not 600 single muscles but one single fascial web with 600 muscles floating within it, all beginning at one point. As you begin to build the image of a connected body with a center point ( that first cell ), you can begin to see how your body’s fascial system resembles a 3-D spider web. This image of a web is the beginning of a journey through movement with a whole new concept - the foot is connected to the knee, which is connected to the hip, which is connected to the sacrum......elbow, etc... Follow me through the next chapter to build your new image of movement by re-Connecting Your Dots™! 1

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CHAPTER 2 BUILD THE IMAGE

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BUILD THE IMAGE IF YOU BUILD THE RIGHT IMAGE… In this chapter you will learn that movement is a simple case of connecting dots. Like the child’s game, Connect the Dots, connecting your dots forms lines which translates into muscle contraction, and muscle contraction translates into movement. Re-Connect Your Dots™ is built around the image of a 3-D spider web - a complete fascial system connected at a center point. If you believe your body is connected - by a web -and you create this image in your brain, you will begin to move as a connected unit and all of your movements will become fluid, strong and graceful.

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• Through Thomas Myers’ Anatomy Trains, we begin to build this image when we see the fascial lines. The lines show us muscle connections according to movements, which organizes the muscular system into a simple, well... somewhat simple.... graph. The fascial lines give us a new “image” for anatomy to hold in the brain. Anatomy Trains gives us an image of the body that is consistent with our natural movements. Based on research and knowledge of the fascial system, we now understand that we are a connected structure from the moment our first cell splits into two. We can build an image of the embryo growing as if weaving a gigantic 3-D web - continuous from one point - the first cell. This new image immediately gives you a new understanding of how your body moves (together not separately), and how connected movement might feel to your senses.

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Build The Image

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THE POWER OF IMAGINATION The first step to success in using your spider web is developing the right image. Imagination is an important part of the process of learning movement, of any kind. One way to perform movement is through imitation - first you see the movement (your brain has an image to remember) then you imitate it (by using the image in your brain). Imagination is a derivative of the word image: • A mental picture of something not real or present. • A reproduction of the form of a person or object, especially a sculptured likeness. • One that closely or exactly resembles another; a double: or to picture in the mind; imagine. Imagination would then be: • The act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses. • Creative ability. • The thinking or active mind: interest. • A creation of the mind.

Your imagination is perhaps your most powerful tool. Before any physical thing becomes a real thing, it is first imagined or thought up. Studies have shown that our imagination may actually be a key to self-healing. Imagine the power you would have if you could imagine yourself well. Athletes claim that imagery helps them perform better in sports. So far; however, although hundreds of studies have been made, there are inconsistencies in the mechanism used to perform the studies so the results are not reliable. As one study concludes: In summarizing the empirical research of athletes’ experimentation with mental imagery, psychologists Alan J. Budley, Shane M. Murphy, and Robert Woolfolk appropriately propose that MENTALLY PRACTICING A MOTOR SKILL INFLUENCES PERFORMANCE SOMEWHAT BETTER THAN NO PRACTICE AT ALL.

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Although studies are inconclusive, some athletes know the power of imagination! “I never hit a shot even in practice without having a sharp in-focus picture of it in my head. It’s like a colour movie. First, I “see” the ball where I want it to finish, nice and white and sitting up high on the bright green grass. Then the scene quickly changes, and I “see” the ball going there: its path, trajectory, and shape, even its behaviour on landing. Then there’s a sort of fade-out, and the next scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn the previous images into reality and only at the end of this short private Hollywood spectacular do I select a club and step up to the ball.” Jack Nicklaus

Movement is a product of imagination and imitation. People commonly first learn to walk by watching someone walk. Do you remember the scene in Young Frankenstein when Igor beckons the two characters to “walk this way”? Their interpretation was to walk hunched over with a limp, imitating his walk. We can move our bodies by imitating what our eyes see. We can learn to throw a baseball by watching a baseball player throw it. We observe the motion, hold the thought in our brains, and imitate that image. The power of imagination gives our brains the ability to move our bodies.

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HOW IMAGERY WORKS

Some believe that imagery works because of the mind/body connection. When you visualize a movement your brain sends messages to the muscles involved and the muscles contract. The muscles cannot distinguish between what is real and what is imagined by the brain so the body responds as if it were real and the muscles contract. There are several accepted theories on how imagery works... One is the Psychoneuromuscular Theory. This theory suggests that the brain and nervous system can be stimulated through imagery. Studies show that the same neurotransmitters, of a specific motor pathway, are present during both physical and mental practice. Therefore, when you practice imagery, you are preparing your body for future physical performance endeavors. Another theory on how imagery works is the Attention Arousal Theory. This theory suggests that an athlete uses imagery before an event to achieve optimal performance. A third theory called the Self-Efficacy Theory, suggests that imagery increases an athlete’s performance expectations and thus increases his actual performance. 24

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It is agreed that imagery works best if it is practiced regularly. When using imagery, you must imagine perfect execution. It’s not the outcome that is important, but the actions to achieve the desired outcome. Practice requires repetition. Repetitive motion programs the brain (and myofascia muscle & fascia) by training the nerves, and building a memory bank. Visualization can produce a similar outcome. Visualizing a movement causes the brain to send impulses to the muscles which causes them to contract. Imagining an action, repeatedly, triggers the muscles to repeatedly contract, and also programs the brain. One of the powers of imagination is building strength. Execution must be perfect. Visualizing the correct technique is important! Movement itself is simple, joints move in combination with stable ones. But every sport or movement program has very specific technique for optimum execution. Every sport has its own “imagery”. The descriptions and images available to attain success, are brilliant and countless, and very sport specific. Fortunately, this gives us a way to achieve success in a targeted sport. Unfortunately, each cue is sport specific. Learning a new sport requires learning a new language of movement. If only all sports and movement programs had a common language… IF WE BUILD THE RIGHT IMAGE, WE CAN BUILD THE BRIDGE If all movement has a common simple language, we can build a bridge between all sports and movement programs. If we have a language that is simple and easy to learn, we can teach clients and patients to move successfully and to build a bridge between the teacher and the client, or the therapist and the patient. We can achieve this if we talk about movement as a general concept rather than a sport specific one. To develop a new common language, we must develop a concept or image. Re-Connect Your Dots™ is a universal language of movement that transfers into any movement program because it is simply a language that describes movement. Re-Connect Your Dots™ gives you the right image to build the bridge among movement programs. It makes all movement simple and successful! Have you ever noticed how difficult learning new movement can be? Every sport or type of exercise, Pilates, yoga, CrossFit, etc... has its own language for successful movement. The definition of movement is the same, so why is language so different? Perhaps all movement could be made simple and successful if the language were transferable. In other words, universal.

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IT STARTS WITH AN IMAGE Observe a spiderweb - a healthy one. Notice how you can connect any two points simply by following the right path. Notice how it has a center and the surrounding web is balanced (side to side and in all directions) through that center. Notice how when the wind blows, the whole web moves in a wave. If one piece of the web is affected, the entire web is affected.

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healthy web

Conversely, observe a not so healthy spiderweb. One that is damaged and has tears or holes in it. Notice how the communication is broken through the damaged parts. And when the wind blows through it, some pieces are left behind. There is a need to rebuild the damaged web in order to regain a healthy communication within the web. The body has this same weakness. Where there is damaged tissue (i.e. scar tissue from an injury or weak muscle or fascia) there is a hole in the communication along that line or lines. In order to maintain a healthy strong body, it is essential to maintain healthy muscular and fascial systems - myofascia. Connecting dots creates movement. By building an image of dots (points, lines and planes) and applying it to the body, you will successfully create movement and build physical strength in any athletic endeavor. Perhaps the most universally recognized educational tool used in childhood development, is Connect the Dots. When the dots are connected, the picture appears. Using a familiar image of connecting dots and the rules of Anatomy Trains, we can build an image of movement that will bridge all movement languages into a common universal language as described in re-Connect Your Dots™. 26

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Imagine if you could see all the cells in your body, it might appear that you are made of billions and billions of dots. Your fascia connects your dots. Oh! What a complicated web our cells weave…complicated and connected. Now imagine you can see the air in the room you are occupying. If you could see the air, with special magnification, it might appear to be in the form of dots as well. Billions and billions and billions of atoms vibrating about, pushing each other around, would appear to be dots - if you could see them. The space and its vibrating dots give your room dimension and create energy. If a fan is blowing, you can feel the air moving. My point, no pun intended, is that the universe and all its contents are made of dots - dots, which become points, on lines, and lines that exist on planes, in space. Ultimately everything is connected. In other words, we are as connected to our space (air) as a fish is to water. Take the fish out of the water and the fish dies. As do we when disconnected from our air/space. We are dependent on it for life. At the microscopic level, at what point to we end and the space begins?

• • Imagine that the world is made of dots. If you can remember a little geometry, you can build an image of movement for yourself that is simple and successful. If your entire body is made of microscopic dots (points), then you can imagine that there are dots on any chosen part of your body. In other words, there is a dot on your right knee. Then you would believe there is a dot on your right elbow, right index finger, right big toe, etc. As a matter of fact, you could locate a dot on any given part of you. You have muscle controlling your entire skeleton; therefore, you should be able to move any one of those dots on a given command. It would be exhausting and impossible to locate and move ALL of your dots individually, so for purposes of movement, we will pick a few and work with them. 1

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We will pick specific points along Thomas Myers’ fascial lines and connect the dots to create movements in specific planes in space. To create movement, use the image of connecting dots. Develop the image by understanding the definition of points, lines and planes.

WHAT EXACTLY IS A POINT? • A point is an exact position or location on a plane surface. It is important to understand that a point is not a thing, it is a place (in space). We indicate the position of a point with a dot. • (in geometry) Something having position but not spatial extent, magnitude, dimension, or direction, for example: the intersection of two lines.

In other words, a point is a fixed position in space that is represented physically by a speck or a filled in circle on a paper. We represent the mark on paper so we can imagine it in space. But a point is really an image, not a real physical “thing.” WHAT IS A LINE? • A line is a geometric figure formed by a point moving along a fixed direction and the reverse direction. Or; A real or imaginary mark positioned in relation to fixed points of reference. • A row of closely spaced dots will look like a continuous line.

At any rate, a line is an image that we represent with a mark (on a paper) that consists of dots - at least two - and when lined up very closely, appear to merge into each other blending together forming one object. In fact, when examined closely, a line can be broken down into separate pieces called dots or points. Therefore, a line is nothing more than points, at least two and up to infinity... never ending. A few facts about the relationship between points and lines • Connecting two dots makes a line (or what we believe is a line). • The shortest distance between any two points is a straight line. • A line can be curved - called an arc.

In both definitions, we are talking about imagined objects but we illustrate them physically. We indicate a line by drawing it with a pencil, something straight that has two endpoints. In reality, a line continues on in both directions, never ending. We are limited by our environment - it would be impractical to draw a line that goes on forever. So we give it limitations. We add points at either end, indicating a segment or portion of a line, or draw two arrows at the ends indicating it continues on forever. A point is shown as a speck or filled in circle - a dot. 28

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WHAT IS A PLANE? • A surface containing all the straight lines that connect any two points on it. • An imaginary flat surface through or joining material objects : the planets orbit the sun in roughly the same plane. • A level of existence, thought, or development: everything is connected on the spiritual plane.

It is a flat, level or smooth surface - such as the very top of a table. Planes do not have dimension. We use our imagination to visualize a plane surface in the space we occupy. We have described the space around us as a world of dots. Dots connect lines. The lines I am referring to are explained in Thomas Myers’ book Anatomy Trains. Dots are on the fascial lines by definition of a point. By connecting the dots along the lines, we can produce movements on specific planes in space. To summarize, all the dots in your body are connected by lines which we call fascia or connective tissue. A full image of your fascial system could look something like a web with intricate lines connecting the billions of dots that solidify the shape of your body. Can we agree on that 3-D spider web? Can we agree that our bodies take up 3-D space? Try this… Lie down in your room. Close your eyes and imagine the dimensions of your room and its outline. Imagine the billions of dots occupying your space. Visualize the billions of dots representing your physical body. Your dots form a picture or image of the shape of your body in the space you occupy - like a cut-out. Notice where your body is in the space, and the outline that it creates.

Theoretically, if you in fact have dots all over and inside of you, you could move any one or all of the dots. Correct? 1

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Keep the image of a world of dots in your brain. Imagine a dot on your right knee and move it, and only it, toward the ceiling. You will notice that it is impossible because your knee dot is on a line of dots that follow your leg. As your knee dot begins to move, it pulls the dots on that line with it. However, you can focus your energy on your knee dot and move that dot as opposed to another dot somewhere else along the line. According to the Anatomy Trains, your ankle dot is on the same line as your knee dot - Superficial Front Line (SFL). Try moving your right ankle dot toward the ceiling. Even though the two dots are on the same line, the movement is completely different according to which dot you chose to move.

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The key to feeling the dots connect along the fascial lines is feeling the muscle contract between the dots. The key to feeling a muscle contract is in isolating joint movement. Notice what happens as your knee dot begins its solo journey. At the initiation of movement, your quadriceps (a line of muscle from your knee dot to your hip dot or Anterior Inferior Iliac Spine, AIIS) immediately contracts. That means you have just connected the dots from your knee to your hip.

However, if your hip dot tilted down even the slightest when you moved your knee dot, you did not isolate the joint movement. You are contracting too many muscles and you will not isolate the quadraceps and feel the dots connect. Dorsi flex your right foot (bring your foot closer to your knee - heel should be on the ground) to contract your tibialis anterior (muscle on the front of your lower leg). You will feel the dots connect from your ankle to your knee. If any other joints changed (your toes flexed or your knee straightened), you will not feel the dots connect from your knee to your ankle. Connecting the dots is simple. You only have to move one dot at a time. As a matter of fact, it is required for success. The power is in your imagination and the success is in your ability to feel the connection through muscle contraction and joint stabilization. Muscle contraction connects joints. If joints are dots, then muscle contraction re-Connects Your Dots™. YOU ARE BORN WITH THE CONNECTION. Life, repetitive motion, injuries, etc, cause a disconnect in your fascial web. It takes retraining to re-Connect Your Dots™. As in learning any new language, to be proficient, one must “think” in that new language. It would be cumbersome to think in English and translate to Spanish during a conversation. The same applies to your dots. To become proficient in connecting dots and building a strong fascial web, you must “think” in the language. You must think dots, feel dots and very literally, move your dots. 30

Build The Image

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BALANCE is the key to a happy, healthy life but balance is also necessary for happy, healthy and strong fascia. Programming your fascial lines by connecting your dots, builds a balanced fascial system. Thomas Myers’ fascial lines define the different planes of motion your body makes, and gives you a relationship with the space surrounding you. Re-Connect Your Dots™ programs your lines and creates tensegrity in your fascia. Tensegrity (tension + integrity) describes a structure that is the perfect balance between flexibility and stability. Healthy fascial systems have this quality. Healthy and balanced fascia holds the body together and allows for freedom of movement. Healthy fascia will spring back and maintain its shape without tearing. Many things can contribute to lack of tensegrity in the fascia: injury, age, dehydration, repetitive movement, lack of movement, etc. Lack of tensegrity also leads to lack of postural balance. Tensegrity defines balance as a combination of flexibility and strength. As your brain programs your body to connect the dots, you begin to feel the balance of strong and flexible fascia (and muscle). The fascial lines give you an image of the body and how a balanced, tensegrit structure would look. You can easily see when a line is shortened or inflexible, the whole structure is compromised. THE CENTER OF YOUR WEB Like the healthy spider web, balanced around one point or center, you too must be balanced around your center. The body is constantly trying to keep itself in balance, maintaining a healthy web. We might think of ideal posture as one having the strength to maintain the body’s balance from the center of its web. If you truly feel the center of your body (the center of gravity in your body), you can more easily feel the imbalances the “kinks” in your fascia. In Chapter 3, you will build a strong awareness of the center of your web, your pelvic floor. In Chapter 4, you will learn the rules to the game and develop a fascial language. The chapters that follow build strength in each fascial line. By the time you finish each movement chapter, your entire fascial system will have newfound awareness and strength and your web will be complete. Chapter 12 gives you the tools to get creative with your fascial motions and Chapter 13 connects your dots to popular movement programs. Once you understand the concept, the application will be a quick and easy transition into any movement program or sport. Re-Connect Your Dots™ will become the language to communicate movement. 1

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CHAPTER 3 CENTER OF THE WEB

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CENTER OF THE WEB The pelvic floor is so important, it even gets its own chapter! This chapter will build an image of the pelvic floor as the center of your 3-D life size web. In this chapter, we will visualize a life size web as growing from one point (like one cell) at the center of gravity in our bodies, and we will feel how the pelvic floor and its fascia supports that center of gravity. We will build an image of the pelvic floor as the center of our web and show how it communicates a delicate balance between the upper and lower body. In this chapter, we will not only build an image of our center as the pelvic floor muscles, but we will also discuss the important role these muscles play in everyday life and how to keep them strong and healthy. THE PELVIC FLOOR What is the pelvic floor? The pelvic floor is perhaps the most misunderstood group of muscles in the body. Even though we refer to them as one muscle, it is actually made up of several small muscles arranged in three layers and connected by fascia: • deep layer (levater ani, pelvic diaphragm - iiliococageus, coccageus) • middle layer - (deep transverse perineal) • superficial layer - (bulbospongiosus muscles and superficial transverse perineal) FEMALE PELVIC FLOOR

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pubic bone

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middle layer

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superficial layer

Where exactly are the pelvic floor muscles? The pelvic floor muscles can be found at the very base of your pelvis. The muscles span from the pubic bone, out to each sit bone and back to the tailbone. The pelvic floor fascia continues from the tailbone, up the sacrum into the sacroiliac joints and interior pelvis. These muscles act like a hammock to hold up the pelvic organs. In women, the pelvic floor muscles support the bladder, uterus and bowel; and in men, the bladder, prostate and bowel.

• • What exactly do they do? When the muscles contract they pull the bones - pubic bone, tailbone and sit bones - toward each other, toward the center of your pelvis. They basically close the holes. Because of their fascial connection to the transverse and internal oblique abdominal muscles, as they contract, the abdominal muscles automatically contract and move toward the spine to wrap around, support and stabilize it. The pelvic floor muscles are designed to work automatically for you as your bladder fills up with urine. If they are damaged, weak or over tonus, they will not do their job and pelvic floor disorders can occur.

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What is a healthy pelvic floor? A healthy pelvic floor holds back urine when you laugh or sneeze, holds your internal organs up, and communicates properly to your abdominal muscles to do their job of supporting your spine. What is an unhealthy pelvic floor? An unhealthy pelvic floor is weak and can no longer perform one or more of the functions it was designed to do. Gravity, childbirth, trauma and many things in life are constantly challenging our pelvic floor muscles which makes it vital for us to be aware of them and keep them strong and healthy. Information in itself is power. A common example of an unhealthy pelvic floor is Urinary Stress Incontinence - weakened pelvic floor muscles are no longer able to hold back urine, caused by: • Childbirth • Weight gain • Trauma • Constipation - straining • Sexual Abuse • Other… But even without the science to give us the details, our own personal relationship with our bodies tells us that this is where we are: • Conceived (the vagina passes through the pelvic floor muscles creating a tunnel for sperm cells to travel up to the uterus), • Born (again traveling down the vaginal wall through the pelvic floor muscles to the surface of the vagina), • Extract Waste (urethra and sphincter pass through the pelvic floor muscles releasing urine and bowel). A very important group of muscles. Indeed! 36

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THE CENTER OF YOUR WEB The center of your life size 3-D web is your pelvic floor. Please follow me down another “train” of thought, and allow me to show you why your pelvic floor is the center of your fascial web.

•

To begin, let’s discus the center of gravity. The center of gravity (COG) in the body is defined as: • The balancing, equilibrium, or pivoting point of the body. • It is the point where the sum of all the forces and force movements acting on the body is zero. • It is the point at which all the weight of the body may be considered to be concentrated and about which all the parts exactly balance. Most sources agree that when standing, the COG in the human body is located in the front of the sacrum near the top, at the second sacral vertebra. The sacrum is made of five bones that have fused together. At some point, the theory of evolution suggests, we arrived at a standing position, putting the weight of the torso on the pelvis. Because cells build on demand, and bone will build because of weight load, these five vertebrae responded to the new demand of the adjusted weight load and built bone to strengthen and stabilize the pelvis - the point of balance for the body, the COG. The COG in the body remains fixed as long as the body does not change shape or position. The COG is not stationary, and can shift to different locations within and even outside of the body, depending on movement, posture, and weight distribution. However, throughout most of our movement and daily function, our bodies tend toward a standing, upright position, and our COG tends to remain at or near the sacrum.

Consequently, the gravitational line of pull passes through the second sacral bone. This Line of Gravity is an imaginary vertical line passing through the COG down to a point in the base of support. You may not be aware of it, but you have built a relationship with gravity along a line which passes through the second sacral bone from your head to your feet, toward the earth.

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The pelvic floor muscles and the fascia of the pelvic floor just so happen to attach to the front of the sacrum. • The pelvic floor muscles are located at the front of the sacrum, therefore the pelvic floor muscles are located at the COG in the body. • The pelvic floor muscles support the COG, because muscles support joints and bones. • Since the COG is at the center of all the bones, it is also at the center of all the muscles. • Since the pelvic floor muscles are at the COG, we can say that the pelvic floor muscles are at the center of all the bones and the center of all the muscle. • And if all muscles are contained and connected by a fascial net of connective tissue, then the pelvic floor muscles and its fascia are in the center of the fascial net - the center of your life size 3-D fascial web. The pelvic floor muscles, the center of your 3-D web, are the delicate balance between the upper and lower body and your unconscious relationship with gravity. Ultimately, pulling your body toward its center (a central balancing point) helping your body work and move together as a single healthy web.

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USING THE PELVIC FLOOR MUSCLES When the pelvic floor muscles are contracted properly, there are three distinct steps. 1 Together pull the pelvic bones (pubic bone, tailbone and sit bones) toward each other - toward the center of the pelvis - closing the holes at the base. This is a gliding sensation as the muscles should be flexible and continuously moving. A common mistake is to harden, squeeze or tighten the pelvic floor muscles which damages them. 2 Up lift the pelvic floor muscles up into the center of the pelvis pulling the bones with them - as urine builds up in the bladder, simple physics requires that the resistance coming down must be met equally in order to prevent a breakthrough. Therefore, as urine is building, the pelvic floor muscles are slowly increasing their contraction and continuously lifting up, in order to maintain control over the bladder. 3 Back pull the pelvic floor muscles back toward the SI joints, following the fascia. The fascia continues into the anterior SI joints which are up from the base of your pelvis. The pelvic floor muscles assist in supporting the SI joints from within your pelvis. Together, up and back - 3 steps.

One analogy for these muscles is thinking of fish gills. Fish are in a constant state of motion trying to maintain their position in water. The pelvic floor muscles should be flexible and strong and when consciously contracted, should never stop, harden or squeeze. They should be in constant motion, continuing their contraction to the fullest. As the pelvic floor muscles contract, the transverse and oblique abdominals also contract. When engaged properly, the pelvic floor muscle contraction will signal for the deep abdominal muscles to contract providing sacral and spinal support. 1

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THE PELVIC FLOOR MUSCLES CAN EITHER MOVE OR STABILIZE THE PELVIS. Moving the pelvis. The pelvic floor muscles work in all positions; however, the easiest position to learn is lying on your back with your knees bent and heels in line with your sit bones. In this position, because of the direction the pelvic floor muscles will be headed, gravity is on your side. To contract the pelvic floor muscles and create movement, think of connecting the dots from your pubic bone back to your tailbone and up your sacrum. Imagine the dots moving from your pubic bone, back to your tailbone and up your sacrum. Keep all other muscles relaxed and allow your pelvis to rock as the pelvic floor muscles contract and you connect your dots. The top of your sacrum should rock toward the ground and your pubic bone should rock toward the ceiling. You will feel as if your pubic bone is moving closer to your sacrum and your low belly will be soft and gently sinking into your low back. Stabilizing the pelvis. To contract the pelvic floor muscles but prevent movement, connect the dots from the pubic bone to the sacrum by imagining the pubic bone and sacrum dots moving away from each other. You will feel your low belly spread out and flatten across your abdomen and your pelvis should remain stable. This image creates resistance within the muscles and along the line, preventing the bones from shifting or changing their location in space. Your pelvis will remain still, however the pelvic floor muscles will be working to help support the center of your pelvis, sacrum and base of your spine. Practice makes perfect! Because of their location and personal aspects, the pelvic floor muscles are often neglected, forgotten or intentionally ignored. The repercussions from this are weakened pelvic floor muscles and loss of feeling and awareness. Retraining these muscles requires focus and dedication. Repetitive motion builds strength and awareness so when they are required for movement they engage automatically - without strain and effort. 40

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pubic bone sacrum tailbone

EXHALE

sacrum down INHALE sacrum up

CHAPTER 4 CONNECT THE DOTS

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CONNECT THE DOTS Re-Connect Your Dots™ is a movement program that uses the image of dots and how connecting them creates a muscle contraction which creates a movement. Applying the image we built in Chapter 2 - points, lines, planes, gigantic 3-D web, and the fascial connections from the Anatomy Trains, we can now use the power of imagination to create movement. re-Connect Your Dots™ DEFINITIONS Connect the dots - contracting muscle or muscles between joints. End dots - once two dots are connected, they are the “end-dots” - the dots at the ends of the line. When connecting two dots, if there are one or more joints between the end dots, stabilize the joints along the line between the two endpoints or “end-dots.” Open chain - one fixed dot and one free moving dot. Closed chain - two fixed end dots.

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Once you have connected your dots, there are seven different possible movements: RULES

Rule 1 “Compass”

fixed dot

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In an open chain movement, one end-dot is the motor or control unit and the other is the mover or the actor (i.e. like a compass - one end is moving around a fixed end).

fixed dot

Think of pivoting around the shoulder dot connected to the scapula dot.

fixed dot

moving dot

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Rule 2 1 “Follow the Leader” The 2 end-dots work together and move in the same direction - one end-dot is the motor and in control of the line and the other end-dot is the follower.

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If the dots are connected from the hand to the scapula, when the hand dot reaches away, the scapula dot must follow.

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Rule 3 1 “Tug of War” The two end-dots work against each other and move in opposite directions - both dots are movers.

mover

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If the dots are connected from the hand to the scapula, as the hand dot reaches away from the body, the scapula dot can pull into the spine - opposite the hand.

mover

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•

Rule 4 1 “Shorten the Line” One end-dot moves toward the other; with one end fixed and the other end moving the joint between them will change either its angle, location in space, or both.

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If the dots are connected from the hand to the shoulder; the shoulder and elbow dots can remain stable as the hand dot moves (bicep curl). The elbow dot remains stable but its angle changes.

fixed dot

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Connect the Dots

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Rule 15 “Change the Line” In a closed chain, both enddots are fixed and you can move or manipulate the line between them (for example the dots you’re connecting remain at fixed points - usually touching the floor or wall and you are changing the shape of the line between them).

moving dot

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Rule 16 “Two Motors” Both end-dots move freely around a dot or point somewhere on the line between them. This is an advanced way to move, but once you are moving comfortably through each scenario, you will have the freedom to be creative in your movements and this rule gives you that.

• moving dot

moving dot fixed dot

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Rule 7 1 “Fascial Roll” One end dot remains stable and the other slides down the line closer to the fixed dot. The joints in between will roll or fold-in along the line following the moving dot.

stable dot moving dot

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moving dot

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moving dot

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When moving dots and building your new image for movement, it can be helpful to use actual dots and physically stick them to your body. Office supply stores typically sell sticky dots in various colors. You can use these dots to stick on your joints and begin developing an image of stable versus moving joints. Place a sticky dot on your right shoulder as you perform the following movement. Watch it closely to insure stability. Once you can feel the muscles that stabilize your scapula while your arm is in motion, memorize the feeling! LET’S TRY A FEW! Connect the dots from the scapula to the back of the hand. COMPASS - #1; The scapula dot is the motor and the wrist dot is the mover. The wrist moves around the fixed scapula - like a compass. Before you begin this exercise, take a moment to notice where your arm is, in space, when it is relaxed. • How is it hanging from your body? • Is it perfectly straight? • Is there a slight bend in your elbow? • Are your fingers curled a bit or perfectly straight and extended? However these joints lay, leave them EXACTLY as they are - as gravity dictates.

Keep your arms completely relaxed and in this current position and slowly lift your arm to the side without lifting your shoulder or scapula dots. The muscles around your scapula are contracting to control the arm movement. If your shoulder dot should move in the slightest, you will not feel this exercise fully. Continue to lift your arm until you can no longer control your shoulder dot and stop! Check your arm - has it changed? If not, you should be able to feel how your arm is being controlled by the muscles around your scapula dot.

keep shoulder dot still

moving dot

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FOLLOW THE LEADER - #2; The scapula dot will follow the hand dot and visa versa abduction and adduction of the scapula (moving the scapula closer to and farther away from the spine). Repeat the previous demonstration and stop when your wrist dot is slightly lower than your shoulder dot. (Remember, there should be a slight bend in your elbow relaxed). Without changing the shape of your line, visualize your wrist dot and its’ location in space and watch it travel away from your body, taking the line all the way to the scapula dot with it. The motor is your wrist 50

Connect the Dots

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mover follower

dot and the scapula dot follows. To retract the scapula or adduct it, pulling it back toward the spine, the motor becomes the scapula dot and the wrist dot must follow. All the while, stabilizing the joints along the line - i.e. don’t change the shape of your line (arm). The shoulder dot may move slightly, but it should be following the line not controlling it. TUG OF WAR - #3; Keeping your dots connected, your line contracted, imagine the scapula dot and hand dot moving away from each other - the scapula heads toward the spine and the hand moves away from it, however, the joints do not change they only separate. Your arm line is growing in length - imagine that you are even adding dots to your line. CHANGE THE LINE - #5; The scapula and wrist dots remain fixed and the line between them changes. Stand with your back to the wall and extend one arm to the side - without lifting your shoulder. Gently press your wrist dot (the back of your wrist) into the wall and feel the dots connect from your wrist to your scapula. Keeping both end-dots fixed in place (wrist & scapula), imagine changing the shape of the line between them by letting your shoulder come away from the wall. This action may resemble a wave or an arc, etc. By keeping the end-dots fixed, you can use the muscle contraction between them to find resistance against the wall and create movement, changing your line.

mover mover

mover

Being able to connect your dots, contracting muscle, and applying the rules to reConnect Your Dots™, you will gain control over all of your movements, improve your posture, gain strength in any athletic endeavor, relieve pain and make you a graceful and elegant mover.

The following chapters connect your dots along Thomas Myers’ fascial lines and give you movements to build their strength.

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PART 2 PROGRAM YOUR FASCIA

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Using the power of our imaginations, we now take science and an image and use these to create effective movement of any kind. In order to train the fascia effectively, it is important to first become aware of it. Chapters 5 through 11 are designed to give you awareness, feeling and strength in each fascial line. FIND IT

FEEL IT

USE IT

Every movement chapter is equipped with three distinct sections: Find it! Gives you a map for the fascial line and helps you locate the muscles on your body. Feel it! Helps your brain understand the muscles and their relationship along the line and how it feels to connect the muscle contractions. Use it! As it implies, gives you a movement to use the muscles along the line. We begin the movement chapters with the arm lines. Because the arm lines are so specifically inherent in most movement, learning them first will make every line easier to apply. Similarly, the Deep Front Line or core, is necessary for stabilizing the spine in ALL movement, therefore, we will examine the DFL second.Then working our way through each of the other fascial lines will be as easy as connecting dots! The Wings - The four Arm Lines - Superficial & Deep Front (SFAL, DFAL) and Superficial & Deep Back (SBAL, DBAL) The Arm Lines give humans their wings. They too are involved or entangled with all the fascial lines making it difficult to discuss movement without them. All four arm lines begin (or end) at the ribcage, hooking the arms to the body, making them important for skeletal balance and movement. Movement is possible without the arms, but much more efficient and fluid if the arms are involved.

‘A Silken Tent’ She is in a field a silken tent At midday when a sunny summer breeze Has dried the dew and all its ropes relent So that in guys it gently sways with ease, And its supporting central cedar pole, That is its pinnacle to heavenward And signifies the sureness of the soul, Seems to owe naught to any single cord, By countless silken ties of love and thought To everything on earth the compass round, And only by one’s going slightly taut In the capriciousness of summer air Is of the slightest bondage made aware

The Guardian Angel - The Deep Front Line (DFL) The muscles along this line are closest to your bones and are our main source of stability from the deepest level. All the other lines surround it and are Taken with kind permission from Anatomy even entangled with it. No line works independently Trains, a quote from a poem by Robert of the DFL. It’s always somehow involved in move- Frost describing the core... ment because the muscles along the DFL are directly attached to the bones and when you move your body, your bones are moving with you. This line weaves its way up the bones away from gravity keeping your spine upright and your belly flat. It is delicate and graceful. If it had its own spirit it would look much like an angel dressed in a flowing white 54

gown elevated above the ground and ascending gracefully toward the sky. Since the action of most of these muscles is to move away from gravity, if you are standing vertical to the ground, it makes sense that when they are contracting and working together they could quite possibly lift you up. The Guards! - The Peripheral Lines - Superficial Front Lines (SFLs), Superficial Back Lines (SBLs), Lateral Lines (LLs) “Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down.” Surrounding the core are three peripheral lines - SFLs, SBLs and LLs. Imagine a Fisher Price Weeble. I had to search for one and have found them at Toys R Us but very few. A brilliant design but very simple indeed. The weeble is perfectly balanced - 360º. No matter which way you push it, it always returns itself to an upright position. Why does this work? Simple physics. First, the weeble has no edges so it is able to roll in any direction. Second, it is evenly weighted at the bottom. The top is light so it will never roll over the bottom. And third, because the sides are a solid material - they do not bend - wherever the top goes, front, back, left, right or in circles, the bottom and all material between the top and bottom follows in a solid line or motion. Brilliant :) This is significant when we use the analogy of a weeble to describe the relationship between these myofascial lines. The SFLs controlling forward movement, the SBLs controlling backward movement, and the LLs controlling side or lateral movement. If all of these lines act or contract together, they simply cancel each other out - in other words they create balance and a stable anatomical body. If one line is allowed to take over and the others go on vacation, the body will fall in the direction of the working line - there will be no balance acting from the opposing lines to prevent a collapse in the skeleton. All of these lines run head-to-foot and ground you, like the weeble, maintaing your structure. The peripheral lines are the guards of the DFL - “standing guard” to protect and support its every move. We can imagine the SFLs, SBLs and the LLs all standing at attention facing the elements beyond. All the while working together and in opposition to provide protection and stability to the ever so delicate DFL. The Movement Lines - Spiral Lines (SPLs) and Functional Lines - Front Functional Lines (FFLs) and Back Functional Lines (BFLs) Once your linear fascial lines are programmed, you are stable and ready for rotational movements. The Spiral Lines are predominantly used in walking and the Functional Lines in the act of throwing or more explosive movements like running. Both of these lines connect your body on a diagonal. 55

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CHAPTER 5 THE WINGS

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THE WINGS FIND IT

THE WINGS

The arm lines connect the fingers to the spine - two deep and two superficial. Because they share muscles with other lines, it is difficult to consider them separately; however, because it is necessary to isolate certain arm movements we will examine them on their own. Note - that we can theoretically continue connecting dots to follow all the other lines throughout the body. There are four identified arm lines: two front; deep front and superficial front, and two back; deep back and superficial back, on both sides of the body.

The two superficial lines cover the palms and backs of the hands, extend up the arm, over the shoulder and into the chest and upper back. The Superficial Front Arm Line (SFAL) begins (or ends) at the hand and wrist flexors, follows the interosseus membrane along the humerus, runs in two directions. In the front, it hooks onto pec major at the bicipital groove and lands at the clavicle and sternum. In the back, it follows latissimus dorsi to the spine and iliac crest (top of the hip). The Superficial Back Arm Line (SBAL) is almost exactly opposite the SFAL. It begins (or ends) at the back of the hand and wrist flexors, follows the interosseus membrane in the back of the humerus, up to the deltoid, covering the shoulder joint, jumps onto trapezius and lands on the occiput and the vertebrae. The two deep arm lines go from the thumb (in the front), and pinkie muscles (in the back), up the arm, past the shoulder, and onto the ribcage (in the front and back). The Deep Front Arm Line (DFAL) begins (or ends) at the thumb. Following the thenar flexors, it travels up the front of the arm, past the elbow to the bicep and up the bicep, past the shoulder. From the biceps, it intercepts pec minor at the coracoid process, follows pec minor and lands on ribs 3, 4 & 5 (& 6 as some scientists believe). The Deep Back Arm Line (DBAL) starts at the pinkie and follows the hypothenar muscles up the back of the arm to the triceps. From the triceps, it travels up to the rotator cuff muscles, across the shoulder to the rhomboids, and into the spine. 58

The Wings

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dot to dot…

SFAL - palm, elbow, shoulder to sternum & to spine & hip

SBAL - back of hand, elbow, shoulder & head AND T-12

DFAL - thumb, elbow, shoulder & ribs (3, 4, 5)

DBAL - pinkie, elbow, shoulder & tip of shoulder blade

FEEL IT

THE WINGS

The superficial arm lines are your power lines - they come into action when strength is your purpose! At a first glance, the superficial back arm lines give the illusion of a wing. If our musculoskeletal proportions were a bit different, perhaps we too could fly. All four arm lines begin (or end) at the ribcage, hooking the arms to the body, making them important for skeletal balance and movement. The arm lines fascially connect the arms from the fingertips to the ribcage giving the illusion of wings (to fly).

SBAL

BFL

The superficial lines cover the palms and backs of your hands - like the webbing of a duck’s feet. The webbing is used to propel the duck forward in the water, creating resistance against the water. Similarly, if you were swimming through water you would use the palm of your hand to pull yourself through the water, or the back of your hand in a backstroke. This “spreading” gives us more surface area to use and therefore more power. The two Deep Arm Lines give you the ability to make delicate and graceful movements, with your arms - which translates into your body movements. You will feel these lines working when you are leading your arm movements with your thumbs or pinkies. Think of carving out the space around you - use your thumb and pinkie as the tip of your blade to carve the outline of your design. Use the image of your deep arm lines as wings lifting you up - with your palms facing forward. Imagine angel wings effortlessly moving your body up.

Following the Back Functional Line down from the Back Arm Lines, you can see how the arms are connected to the legs which gives the image of a truly connected and functional body! The Superficial Front Arm Line includes pec major & latissimus dorsi. These two muscles are also included in both functional lines. The Back Functional Line contains latissimus dorsi, and the Front contains pec major. However, if you continue down the leg following the fascial tracks, we will end up at the toes. Clearly, connecting the dots further down the lines, reveals the continuous line of fascia ultimately connecting the fingers to the toes.

A fascial thought... Because these dots follow very similar lines, there is a simple way to distinguish between the superficial and deep arm lines. If you are leading your arm movements with the palms or backs of your hands, you are using your superficial arm lines; and if you are leading with your thumbs or pinkies, you are using your deep arm lines.

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USE IT

WINGS

Imagine this... Your arms are wings and we once could fly.



Start here: Stand with your feet under your sit bones or slightly wider, arms resting by your sides. If possible, stand in front of a mirror and keep your eyes on both shoulder dots. Look at your arms. Are they perfectly straight? The answer should be no. There should be a slight bend in your elbows. This position is EXACTLY how they will stay as you find your wings. Do not straighten your elbows.

Right

Wrong

CONNECT YOUR DOTS

• THUMB TO RIBS Lift your arms out to the side as high as possible without moving your shoulder dots. Thumbs lead the way!

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• PINKIE TO SHOULDER BLADE Lower your arms without moving your shoulder dots. Pinkies lead the way! • PALM TO PALM Lift your arms to the sides - wing position palms facing forward. Move your palms in front of your body toward each other, as far as possible without moving your shoulder dots! • BACK OF HAND TO BACK AND HEAD Move your arms back to center and behind your body as far as possible without moving your shoulder dots!

The Wings

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USE IT

WINGS

Keep it real...

The objective of this movement is to establish a sound relationship between all four arm lines and your ribcage. The way to accomplish this is to keep your shoulder dots utterly motionless. Utterly! If your shoulder dots change positions at all you will have a difficult time making this connection. Also, maintain a resting position in your arms. In other words, keep your elbows slightly bent throughout the movement. If you over straighten your elbow you will block the communication from your shoulder to your hand. Repeat the movements until you can truly feel how the muscles controlling your arms are at your ribcage (front & back), effortlessly moving your arms in all directions.

Shoulder dots stay in position

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USE IT

AIRPLANE

Imagine this... Your arms are the wings of a plane and you can fly.



Start here: Stand with your feet under your sit bones or slightly wider. Arms out to your sides in a T position, palms facing down. Pinkie to spine to pinkie

CONNECT YOUR DOTS

• HAND TO TORSO Keep all four lines connected to stabilize your arms on your torso and... • PINKIE PULLS PINKIE Reach through your right pinkie finger (keeping your elbows slightly bent) and allow your right arm line to follow. Because the arm lines are connected fascially through the spine, the left shoulder blade dot will follow, which pulls the left arm line toward your spine. Repeat reaching through your left pinkie finger. Repeat this move until you can feel your pinkie finger dots connected to each other through your arm lines. (5-10 times) • FLY YOUR PLANE Side to side: bend your body to the right and then to the left. Your arms are now bolted to your body and your torso moves as one unit, like an airplane. Repeat... • ROTATE Turn your body to the right and then to the left. Repeat... • COMBINATION Bend to the right and turn to the left. Reverse. Repeat other side...

Lower body doesn’t move.

As you repeat these movements with all four arm lines locked in and your pelvis and legs stable, you will begin to feel as though suddenly you have more control over you abdominal region. You will begin to feel that the power in this movement is actually coming from your abdominal muscles and they are lifting your ribcage up and away from your hips to allow freedom of movement in your torso (ribcage and appendages). This awareness and strength will give you more freedom of movement and you can then take your plane in many different directions (planes) through the space around you.

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The Wings

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AIRPLANE

Keep it real...

The objective of the airplane is to give you the feeling of how your arms are bolted to your body and how their movements affect your body. As you reach your pinkies from one side to the other, keep your elbows slightly bent and do not change their shape throughout the movement. This movement will help you feel how your arms are connected to each other and how moving one effects the other. As you begin to fly your airplane, again, keep the shape of your arms consistent and allow your body to feel gravity as you bend to the left and right, at your waist. Your head should remain in line with your spine at all times! Repeat this move until you are ready to change planes (pun intended) to rotation. Return your plane to center. Keeping all four arm lines consistent and connected, turn left and right taking your torso with you - rotate around your waist. Keep your head in line with your spine. You will feel a bit like a spinning top rotating around a stick - your legs. Repeat as you like. When you combine the two movements, you will truly feel as if you are in flight. In other words, as if you can actually feel the space around you and its delicate resistance. To get a feel for the combo, follow my initial steps and then feel free to create your own “planes.” • Bend to the right, turn to the right. Reverse. • Repeat on left. • Rotate right, bend to the side - your torso will be facing the ground therefore it is not actually a side bend, it becomes a forward bend on the side. • Keep your lower half - pelvis and legs - utterly motionless facing forward. Reverse the move taking you back to center - unbend and unrotate. • Repeat on left.

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CHAPTER 6 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL

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THE GUARDIAN ANGEL THE GUARDIAN ANGEL: DEEP FRONT LINE The Deep Front Line (DFL) is your core. Like the core of an apple, from the very base to the very top, the core muscles also span from your base to your top - feet to head. All the muscles of the DFL are deep in your body - the closest muscles to the bones. Because of their intimate relationship with the skeletal system, movement is virtually impossible without their participation - if they are not actively moving you, they are stabilizing while other muscles move. You can think of these muscles (fascial line) as your guardian angel, protecting your organs and helping you maintain an upright posture as you continue your inevitable relationship with gravity. These muscles are predominantly composed of slow twitch muscle fibers which makes them really good for stabilizing and sustaining muscle contraction (long distance running). A healthy body has a strong core (DFL) and that strength is apparent in the body’s posture, walk and overall appearance of balance. YOU’RE ONLY AS STRONG AS YOUR CORE. If your core cannot maintain skeletal support as other muscles put forth effort, injuries are likely. But, behold! Your core is smart! It learns quickly and remembers brilliantly! All you have to do is train it - very specifically. Once it understands its function, it will not let you down. It will remember when and how to contract and how to maintain balance with all the fascial lines. Once you understand and feel the fascial connection of the DFL, all movement will become easy.

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The Guardian Angel

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FIND IT

DEEP FRONT LINE

The DFL starts (or ends) at the bottom of the feet; arches, follows the backs of the lower legs, up tibialis posterior and the toe flexors, to the inside of the upper leg - adductors. From here it takes off in two directions - to the sit bones and to the pubic bone. Following the psoas in the front, it travels past the pelvic floor, connecting fascially, up past the interior sacrum and onto the spine. Continuing up and following the inside of the ribcage, up to the throat and into the tongue. From the sit bone in the back it follows the sacrum up to the spine around the inside of the back of the ribcage, encasing the inside of the ribcage and all of its contents, up the neck and into the head. In other words, the DFL follows your bones from your feet to your head.

• dot to dot…

bottoms of toes, back of knee, sit bone & pubic bone, sacrum, ribs, throat

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The Guardian Angel

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FEEL IT

DFL

The muscles along the DFL give you the ability to oppose gravity. Whether or not you feel it, you use your DFL to develop your relationship with gravity. To feel these dots connecting foot to head, think of a superhero taking off to fly. Notice his movements as he prepares to fly: • bending the knees to flex the hips, • springing off the ground using the arches and calve muscles, • pulling the legs together tightly using the inner thigh, • stabilizing and stretching the spine upward. Our superhero uses the muscles along his DFL to fly. Notice the superhero’s position: • chin tucked • back of the neck long • toes pointed using his arches as he sprang off the ground • inner thighs tightly connected and pulling up through his center • hip flexors extended as if he had bent them first to create the spring • spine long and lengthening upward

The superhero’s position in the second picture is a bit different. Here he uses his hip flexor on his right leg in opposition to his extended left leg almost as if he were climbing stairs. His head is tilted back slightly so he can see where he is going but the front and back of his neck are working in opposition to stabilize and provide muscle contraction/energy. All of his energy is moving up.

A fascial thought... Because the muscles along the DFL work in opposition to each other, when they are working simultaneously they build up an internal spring within your body.

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FEEL IT

DFL

TRY ONE... Stand with your feet under your sit bones and your arms resting by your sides. Bend your knees approximately 45º. Jump up, extending your knees and bring your legs together so your ankle bones touch and point your toes. Repeat this movement 3 - 5 times and notice what your spine and head are doing as your legs are springing. • Arches and calves - spring you up. • Inner thighs - bring your legs together toward your center - hence the name adductor (to bring to the midline). • Hamstrings - extend the legs. • Hip flexors, psoas muscles - lift your knees toward your naval. • The tissue along your spine - extends or lengthens your spine. • The diaphragm - expands allowing your lungs to inflate like a helium balloon as you take in air. • The muscles along the front of your neck and mouth, hyoid muscles - bring your jaw down toward your chest allowing the rest of your spinal muscles to lift the back of your head up - working in opposition to each other.

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ISOSCELES TRIANGLE

Imagine this... Your legs form an Isosceles Triangle. Imagine the inside ankle dot, inside knee dot and pubic bone all lie on the same line. By connecting the dots along both legs and the ankle dots to each other, you have formed a triangle. If your body is perfectly balanced, your triangle is isosceles (2 sides of equal length) which means your pubic bone would be in the center.

CONNECT YOUR DOTS

Start here: Stand with your feet just wider than your sit bones, toes and knees pointing forward. • ANKLES TO PUBIC BONE Right side, Imagine the line shortening from the ankle bone dot to the pubic bone dot like a rubber band retracting. As the line shortens, it will pull your triangle toward the right and form a right triangle (right angle at your right ankle) on your right side. Your pubic bone will still be the vertex but no longer the center of your triangle. Repeat on the left. Repeat this movement 5-10 times and stop in the center ultimately forming an isosceles triangle - even both sides. • ANKLES TO SACRUM Add a dot...Repeat the previous movement using the front of your sacrum as the center of your triangle. • ANKLES TO RIBS Add a dot...Repeat the previous movement using the front of your ribs as the center of your triangle. • ANKLES TO NECK Add a dot...Repeat the previous movement using the front of your neck as the center of your triangle.

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ISOSCELES TRIANGLE

Keep it real...

ANKLES TO PUBIC BONE Shorten the line along your right leg by imagining your pubic bone dot pulling your right ankle bone dot up towards it. As the line shortens, your triangle will slowly move toward your right forming a right triangle on your right side (right triangles have one 90º angle). Repeat with the left leg. Continue to move from right triangle on the right side, to isosceles in the center, to right triangle on the left side, until you can truly feel your isosceles triangle with two equal sides, your legs, and your pubic bone as the center. There is a big difference between pushing your hip out and shortening your inner leg line. Make sure your inner thighs are contracting to move your triangle and not your glutes or quads. ANKLES TO SACRUM Add a dot. Connect the dots from your pubic bone to the front of your sacrum using the pelvic floor movements from Chapter 3. The ankle bones are connected to the pubic bone and the pubic bone to the sacrum, therefore the ankle bones are now connected to the sacrum (in the front). Repeat the previous movement (shifting your triangle) using the front of the sacrum as your center. Your pelvis should move with your legs - stabilized on them. ANKLES TO RIBS Add a dot. Connect the front of your sacrum to the front of your ribs. Inhale filling up your lungs to full capacity but keep your belly flat. Suck in as you inhale. Notice how your abdominal muscles pull up from your pubic bone to your ribs as you maintain a flat belly. Can you feel the dots connect from your pubic bone to the bottom of your ribcage? Repeat the movement - using your ribs as the center of your triangle. ANKLES TO NECK Add a dot. Your ribs are connected to your neck - through your diaphragm. Inhale filling up your lungs to full capacity but keep your belly flat. Notice how your abdominal muscles pull up from your pubic bone but also how your neck muscles contract tucking your chin in, slightly. This action should give you the feeling to accompany the image of the dots connecting from pubic bone to the ribs, through the diaphragm and into the neck. Repeat the movement now using the front of your neck as the center of your triangle. You have now connected your entire DFL and are moving your body as a connected structure from your feet to your head.

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USE IT

TANGO

Imagine this... Connecting your core (DFL) to another’s core.



Start here: Find a partner (close to your height is helpful but not necessary). Stand facing each other in the same position, feet under sit bones, arms extended in front of shoulders. Palms touching, step away from each other so that you are leaning into each other (equally).

CONNECT YOUR DOTS

In this movement you will be playing a game of follow the leader. First your shoulder blade dots will follow your partners and visa versa and second you will follow each others DFLs. Your arm lines are your communication pathways to your DFLs.

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• WRISTS TO SHOULDER BLADES As you lean into your partner, you will automatically connect your arm lines in order to stabilize yourself. Taking turns, one person slowly pulls their shoulder blade dots toward each other in the back. The other person must then spread their shoulder blade dots in order to maintain contact with the partners wrists. • FEET TO NECK - DFL Again taking turns, one person leans back slowly maintaining arm stability (shoulder blade dots connected to your partners’) as the other follows. Feel your partners DFL pulling your DFL, and visa versa.

The Guardian Angel

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USE IT

TANGO

Keep it real...

When connecting the hand to the shoulder blades’ dots, refer to the wings and the airplane to recall the feeling of connecting the arm lines. Keep a slight bend in your elbows. Lift your fingers away from your partner’s so that the weight is in your wrists. Maintain this position in your arms for the entire move. The only parts moving are the shoulder blade dots. When connecting the dots along the DFL, keep your body in this position for the entire move. The only joints that will change are the ankle joints. Move in slow motion so your partner’s DFL can follow yours and vice versa. It may be helpful to look ahead to the Springs movement of the following chapter (SBL) and then return to perfect your Tango!

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CHAPTER 7 THE BACK GUARDS

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THE BACK GUARDS FIND IT

SUPERFICIAL BACK LINES

The Superficial Back Lines (SBLs) connect the superficial muscles that lie on the back of your body from your eyebrows, around the top of your head, down your spine, all the way to your toes. They work in opposition to the Superficial Front Lines (Chapter 8). These lines work together to balance your body from front to back. The SBL begins (or ends) at the bottoms of the feet. It follows the plantar fascia and short toe flexors to the achilles tendon where it jumps onto the gastrocnemius. From here it follows the femur along the hamstrings to the sit bones, up the sacrotuberous ligament and onto the spine. It continues up the erector group to the occiput on the back of the head and around the head via the epicranial fascia to the eyebrows. Connecting the dots from eyebrow to toes brings your forehead to your toes into a backbend.

dot to dot…

bottoms of toes, heel, back of knee, sit bone, sacrum, head and forehead

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The Back Guards

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FEEL IT

SBLs

The SBLs are your back guards. These two lines connect your head to your feet in the back of your bones. They act as your eyes in the back sensing your environment because you cannot see behind you. They protect your spine and all the nerves that travel throughout your body to the entire surface area of your skin. These lines are sensitive, feeling the space that surrounds you and telling you how to respond. But you have to be able to hear it. You know the SBLs well even though they are behind you. You feel them when you’re scared or sense danger - like an animal, your spine becomes erect ready to move in any given direction. You feel them when you’re angry or your feelings are hurt. Your SBLs again stand erect in defense... ready to move (exit) in any given direction. Your SBLs are opposite your Superficial Front Lines (SFLs), therefore, as your SBLs are building a good defense and exit strategy (shortening), your SFLs are opening up (lengthening) and preparing for battle. These lines are constantly acting in opposition to keep you standing upright, sense danger or love, and protect your delicate organs from the space surrounding you. Muscles pull... Your SBLs are located on the back of your bones and therefore have the ability to move you backwards through space - walk backwards or backbend. A fascial thought... Using your SBLs will help you stand up straight. Imagine these lines as the stems of spring flowers growing toward the sun.

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USE IT

SPRINGS

Imagine this... Our legs are springs. In this simple movement your legs will be acting like springs under your body. As you bend and straighten your knees and lift and lower your heels, you will be connecting the dots along your SBL.

CONNECT YOUR DOTS

Start here: Stand with your feet under your sit bones, toes and knees facing forward and arms relaxed by your sides. • HEELS TO SIT BONES Bring your sit bone dots down to your heel dots - bend your knees. Move your sit bone dots away from your heel dots - straighten your legs. Repeat 5-10 times. • BALLS OF FEET TO SIT BONES With straight legs, lift your heel dots toward your sit bone dots - lift heels. With straight legs, lower your heel dots toward the ground - lower heels. Repeat 5-10 times. • COMBINATION Bend, straighten, lift, lower. Repeat 5-10 times. •BALLS OF FEET TO BACK OF HEAD Lower your heel dots and lean back change the angle of your ankles. Return to center, lean forward. Repeat 5-10 times.

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bend straighten

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lift

lower

lean

USE IT

SPRINGS

Keep it real...

Bringing your sit bone dots down to your heel dots translates into “bending your knees”. But it is not only the knee joints affected by this motion. The ankle and hip joints will bend equally, as well. Keep your body perpendicular to the ground at all times to assure full movement in each joint. Stay in this position and bounce (make small, quick movements bending and slightly straightening your knees) to feel the muscles around your sit bone dots contracting. Your emphasis should be on the “down” motion.

Keep the muscles around your sit bones contracted as you straighten your legs. Think of the sit bone dots as the motor (controller) of your leg lines and use them to pull your sit bone dots away from your heel dots. Repeat this move until you can feel the dots connected along the back of your legs and the muscles working together. As you lift your heels, your sit bone muscles are still the motor. With straight legs. Visualize your sit bone dots pulling your heel dots up toward them. Your ankles should remain in line with your legs (do not let your ankles roll out or in). As you lower your heel dots to the ground, do not actually make contact with the floor. The word “hover” comes to mind. Pause, then lift your heel dots again. Lower your heel dots, hovering just above the ground, and bounce (small, quick movements lifting and lowering your heels). The joints changing are in the feet and ankles. Your legs are straight and stable but your knees are soft (don’t lock your knees or push your knee caps backward). Notice as you bounce, where your motor really is - the balls of your feet. You have now connected the dots from the balls of your feet to your sit bones. Notice how your feet and the floor are developing a significant relationship. Your feet are almost “holding onto” the floor in order to maintain control of your lines. This is where is gets fun! At this point, your lower SBLs are fully connected. To connect the dots from the balls of your feet to the back of your head, slowly lower your heels to the ground, keeping the motor/control in the balls of your feet, and do not rest your heels down. They can touch the ground but keep the idea of “hovering” in your mind. “Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down”. Do you remember the Fischer Price Weebles? No matter which way you push them, they never fall completely over? Now your body will imitate the Weeble. To feel your Weeble wobble, focus your attention on your ankle joints. Notice how they make about a 90º angle with the floor. To change the angle, lean backward (very slowly) without changing any joints in your entire body EXCEPT in your ankles. This creates a greater angle in your ankles. Hold onto the ground with the balls of your feet keeping them the motor of your SBLs. Notice how the back of your head connects to the balls of your feet through the muscles along your SBLs. Slowly return to center. Move your line forward, creating a smaller angle in your ankles. The muscles along the SFLs are moving you forward. Return to center. This movement will also help you feel your LLs if you lean to the sides. 2

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The Back Guards

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USE IT

SLINKY

Imagine this... Your spine is a slinky and assumes the qualities of the slinky in this movement; • Works with gravity. • One piece follows the other. • Both ends must have weight in them during play.

CONNECT YOUR DOTS

Start here: You can slinky your spine sitting, standing on the ground, or perching. My favorite position is perched on a bar stool. Sit on your sit bones, feet just wider than hips. Pelvis, spine and head in a line. Your head dot should be reaching for the sky. Notice your spine begins to follow, because it is attached.

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• BACK OF HEAD TO TAILBONE Slinky forward - bring your chin dot to your chest dot and let the weight of your head pull your slinky (spine) forward one vertebra following at a time. • REVERSE Slinky backward - press your feet into the ground to contract the muscles around your sit bone dots and reverse your slinky. Keep your chin on your chest until every vertebra is back in its beginning position, and lift your head. Repeat until each vertebra moves independently.

The Back Guards

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USE IT

SLINKY

Keep it real...

Feel gravity. To begin this movement, drop your head forward (chin to chest) and feel gravity pulling your forehead toward the ground. Your spine is still upright and you should feel a stretch in your neck. It is sometimes difficult to feel gravity and how it affects your body. A good tip is to add some proprioception or extra weight to exaggerate the feeling. Place your hands behind your head and relax your arms so that all of their weight is resting in your head. Your fingers should be interlaced and resting on the large round portion of your head. Visualize weights hanging from your elbows pulling them toward the ground. If your arms are truly relaxed, they may be too heavy for your neck, either way remove them from your head at this point and dangle them from their joint capsules. Keep them dangling and your head weightless throughout the movement. Slinky forward. The slinky only follows gravity and because your head is one end of your slinky (spine) your head will lead your spine toward gravity (the ground). Moving slowly, allow the weight of your head to pull your vertebrae toward the ground. The idea is that each vertebra moves separate from the one it is following however this may not happen if your muscle and fascia are tight. If you feel more than one vertebra moving in a clump together, slinky back and forth within that space until you feel them move independently. Slinky backwards. Remember that the slinky follows gravity. To weight the other end of your slinky (pelvis) press your feet into the ground. You will feel your gluteal muscles contract which gives your pelvis weight and begins to pull your vertebrae back to an upright position. The tricky part - but KEY to success - is keeping your head weightless as you reverse your slinky. Your low belly will be scooping in not pushing out, helping to maintain the curve in your spine. Work your way through each vertebra “slinkying” back and forth until your spine feels well lubricated, and slowly return to an upright position. Keep your chin on your chest until your entire spine has returned and finally lift your head. Repeat as needed.

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CHAPTER 8 THE FRONT GUARDS

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THE FRONT GUARDS FIND IT

SUPERFICIAL FRONT LINES

The Superficial Front Lines (SFLs) lay on the front of your body connecting your superficial muscles from your mastoid process (by the ear) down your chest to your feet. These two lines run up both legs and torso and intersect each other at the back of your head. The SFLs work in opposition to the SBLs. The SFL begins (or ends) at the top of the foot following the toe extensors across the ankle where it jumps onto the tibialis anterior, to the quadraceps, all the way to the AIIS. From here it takes a turn to the pubic bone, follows the rectus abs up to the sternocleidomastoid, and finally wraps around the back of the head, connecting the two SFLs. Connecting the dots from head to foot would bring your head to your feet in the front - forward flexion.

dot to dot…

tops of toes, front of knee, AIIS, pubic bone, sternum, mastoid process and back of head

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FEEL IT

SFLs

The SFLs are your front guards. They lay on the front of your body from head to foot or foot to head. They are the soldiers at your front door. Imagine how important their job is... The front door is the guest door. If it is closed, no one is allowed in. But if it is open, the world is free to enter your space. Your SFLs decide if you are “opened” or “closed.” Thomas Myers talks about how the SFLs protect the “soft squishy bits” or private parts - breasts, vaginas and penis’. They do tend to stick out a bit and protecting them is a reflex. The SFLs shorten to bring these “sticky outy bits” inward. If the SFLs are not trained to lengthen, they will remain shortened and cause many future problems - back pain, neck pain, etc. Mostly, pain along the SBLs, their opposite. As the SFLs shorten, the SBLs lengthen. And as the SBLs lengthen, the muscles along the line become strained and therefore signal a pain response. The SFLs protect your heart - literally. But notice when you are sad, how your shoulders slouch, your head drops and your SFLs pull you inward to grieve and reflect. Muscles pull... These muscles are located on the front of your bones and have the ability to move you forward through space - walking forward or forward flexion. A fascial thought... If you connect the dots along the whole line from the back of your head to the tops of your feet, by pressing your head back, (theoretically) the tops of your feet would lift up and your weight would shift back into your heels. Lowering your feet would then pull your head forward and shift your weight back to the front.

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USE IT

FASCIAL ROLL-UPS

Imagine this... Your body can roll itself up like dough. Start here: Lie on your back with your arms resting by your sides, legs together and toe dots reaching away from your center - toes pointed.

CONNECT YOUR DOTS

• TOE TO HIP Bring your toe dots toward your hip dots, in the front - flex your feet. • CHIN TO CHEST Bring your chin dot to your upper chest dot and pause - nod your head forward. • CHEST TO PUBIC BONE Keep you chin dot on your chest dot and slide your chest dot down toward your pubic bone dot - visualize your head rolling into your body. Keep your shoulder dots down! • PUBIC BONE/HIPS TO FEET Maintain this position in your body and continue to roll forward until your body has folded itself in half. • UNROLL Still keeping this position, simply slide your tailbone dot toward your heel dots and “unconnect” your dots as you lower your spine to the ground - dot by dot. Repeat 3-5 times.

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USE IT

FASCIAL ROLL-UPS

Keep it real...

The success of this movement depends on your ability to visualize. Think of the SFL as bread dough. As if rolling it into a bread roll, you will roll your SFLs. Dot to dot you can roll and unroll your SFLs, like dough. As you connect your dots, imagine them sliding down the front of your body toward your feet. The leading dot is your head dot and must be ahead of all following dots at all times. It is helpful to use your fingers. Walk your fingers down your SFLs dot to dot, imagining that you are actually rolling your body by connecting your dots. Your head dot is the follower on the roll down. It is crucial to stabilize each dot once it has moved. Once a dot has “rolled” or “unrolled”, keep it in place as the following dots follow.

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USE IT

PIVOT POINT

Imagine this... Your body has one exact center point in which you can move or pivot around - the front of your sacrum.

CONNECT YOUR DOTS

Start here: Lie on your back with your arms extended above your head, legs together, and toe dots reaching away from your center - toes pointed. • ARM LINES - FINGERS TO RIBS Reach your finger dots away from your rib dots without moving your shoulder dots and move your arms above your chest. Maintain this angle in your armpits. • SACRUM TO LEGS Focus all your attention on the two dots - front of sacrum and upper legs. Bring these two dots toward each other forming a V with your body, balancing on your pelvic bones (somewhere between your tailbone and the top of your sacrum). • UNPIVOT Reverse the move maintaining stability in your SFLs. Repeat 3-5 times.

WARNING! THIS MOVEMENT IS ADVANCED. DO NOT ATTEMPT UNTIL YOU ARE EXTREMELY CONFIDENT IN YOUR FASCIAL ROLL-UPS.

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USE IT

PIVOT POINT

Keep it real...

This movement is advanced and should not be performed until your abdominal muscles are strong enough to support and protect your low back. Basically, the weight of your entire body will be pivoting around one fixed point, the front of your sacrum. Your arm lines are your wings and having a strong fascial connection to your body helps facilitate lifting your upper body over your pelvis. Similarly, having a strong fascial connection, legs to body, helps facilitate lifting your legs over your pelvis. Two points are moving toward each other, top of your leg dots and top of your pelvis dot. Connect your leg dots to make them one dot by squeezing your inner thighs together tight. The sacrum and upper leg dots are fascially connected to your fingers and toes, respectively. Therefore, the moving dots move toward each other and the dots along their lines follow. Keep your joints stable as your body makes the pivot.

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CHAPTER 9 THE SIDE GUARDS

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THE SIDE GUARDS FIND IT

LATERAL LINES

The Lateral Lines (LLs) lay on the sides of your body connecting the muscles along the sides of your bones from the outsides of your feet to your head. These lines work together to balance you “laterally” holding you together from the sides. One side is constantly working in opposition to the other - without their oppositional pull you would fall to one side. The Lateral Line begins or ends at the 5th metatarsal on the side of the foot, follows the fibularis muscles up the side of the leg where it intercepts the IT band, and follows it up to the hip. From here it zig zags its’ way up the torso following the oblique abdominal muscles and intercostals between the ribs. Finally, the LL follows two neck muscles, the sternocleidomastoid and splenius capitis, up to the head - connecting you once again from head to foot! Connecting these dots from head to foot brings your body into lateral flexion - side bend.

dot to dot…

side of foot, ankle, side of knee, ASIS, PSIS, ribs, neck & side of head

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FEEL IT

LLs

The LLs are your side guards. Think of them as the guards standing at the side doors. These lines protect you from the sides and prevent your knees from falling out laterally. Perhaps you can imagine what would happen if you were missing the fascial connection across your knees. As your leg moves forward in walking, your knee cap would have a difficult time “staying on tract” and NOT falling out to the side. This line is also particularly helpful when riding a bicycle. The LLs keep your body held in tight from the sides to keep your momentum moving forward and not sideways. You can think of them as active stabilizing lines. Muscles pull... These muscles are located on the sides of your bones and give you the ability to move your body in a sideways (lateral) direction through space.

A fascial thought... Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down. Imagine a Fischer Price Weeble. No matter which way you push it, it simply never hits the ground. You are a Weeble ...when you connect your lines head to foot - DFL, SBL, SFL & LL. Each of these lines connects your body from head to foot in all directions - front, back, side & inside. As your body leans in one direction, it will lean as a solid unit or line from your feet to your head and as that line pulls you in the intended direction, its opposing line (along with the others) work to pull you back preventing your ultimate lateral position on the floor - face plant!

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USE IT

SIDE LYING LEG LIFTS

Imagine this... You can use the muscles in your neck to lift your leg. Start here: Lie on your left side with your arm under your head (or in a comfortable position), legs slightly in front of your hips. To prevent your waist from sinking to the floor, reach your right foot dot (bottom of your foot) away from your center until you feel your waist lift off the mat and your hips stacked on top of each other, your knee dots lined up and ankle dots touching. Visualize the dots along the side of your body from your pinkie toe to the side of your knee, to your hip, to your sacrum, to your ribs, to your neck.

CONNECT YOUR DOTS

• PINKIE TOE TO KNEE Move your right pinkie toe dot toward the outside of your right knee dot - flex your right foot to the side (evert your foot). • PINKIE TOE TO HIP Lift your right pinkie toe dot up to the side as far as you can without moving your hip dot. Notice how the muscles around your hip dot are controlling your leg dots. You have successfully connected the dots along your right lower LL, foot to hip. Lower your pinkie dot and repeat 3-5 times. • PINKIE TOE TO SACRUM Add a dot. Visualize an imaginary line connecting your hip dot to the right side of your sacrum. Repeat the previous step using your sacrum dot to control your leg dots. Lower your pinkie dot and repeat 3-5 times. • PINKIE TOE TO RIBS Add a dot. Visualize an imaginary line connecting your sacrum dot to your right rib dot. Repeat the previous step using your rib dot to control your leg dots. Lower your pinkie dot and repeat 3-5 times. • PINKIE TOE TO NECK Add a dot. Visualize an imaginary line connecting your rib dot to the right side of your neck. Repeat the previous step using your neck dot to control your leg dots. Lower your pinkie dot and repeat 3-5 times.

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SIDE LYING LEG LIFTS

Keep it real...

The objective of this movement is to teach your body how to stabilize itself while the biggest joint (hip) in your body moves the heaviest limb - your leg. Lying on your side, gravity will be pulling your body out of balance and you will need to find your internal balance. The most obvious imbalance will most likely be in your waist. Notice when you let your body relax, your waist sinks into the ground. You can fix this problem by reaching your top foot away from your center, connecting the dots along your leg so that the entire leg follows and pulls the hip with it. Your foot dot is connected to your hip dot, and your hip dot is connected to your sacrum dot which pulls your waist away from the ground. Think of your pinkie toe as the leader of this move. Flex your top foot to the side and feel the dots connect - toe to side of knee. As you begin to lift your toe, your knee dot follows and the muscles around your hip dot contract. Feel your dots connecting from your toe to your hip. Lift your leg as high as possible without moving your hip dot. Your hip dot is actually in control of this move. Place your hand on your hip dot as you lift and lower your leg. Feel how the muscles around your hip dot contract: it’s the “motor” of your leg line. Lift your leg to the side. Place your hand on your hip dot and draw a line to your sacrum dot. As you lift and lower your leg, without moving your hip dot, feel how your sacrum dot is actually the motor of your leg line. Lift your leg to the side without moving your hip dot and draw a line connecting the dots form your sacrum dot to your rib dot. Now as you lift and lower your leg, feel how the muscles around your ribs are contracting. Your rib dot is actually the motor of your leg line. Lift your leg to the side without moving your hip dot and draw a line from your rib dot to the side of your neck. Notice how your neck muscles contract as you leg moves up and down. Feel how your neck dot is actually the motor of your leg line.

*For a challenge, try lifting both legs together.

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USE IT

WINDSHIELD WIPERS

Imagine this... Your legs are like windshield wipers moving side to side. In this movement you will actually be moving your knee dots only, however, by adding one dot at a time, you will eventually feel how your hand dots can move your knee dots and control your windshield wipers. Start here: Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet just wider than your hips and arms extended to your sides (palms facing down).

CONNECT YOUR DOTS

• WARM-UP Move your knee dots from side to side - like windshield wipers. Repeat 5 or more times to take inventory (where is your movement restricted or tight?) and to allow your body to feel gravity and how it pulls your knees to one side - if you allow it to. Move slowly and pause as your knees arrive fully to one side, feel gravity, asses your pain or restrictions, and move to the other side. • KNEE TO HIP Keep your knees to your left side. Without moving ANY OTHER DOTS, slowly move your right knee dot to your right, and relax it back down. Repeat this move until you feel how the muscles around your hip dot are contracting to move your knee dot. You hip dot is really controlling your knee dot. Keep your knee dot lifted to your right, and roll your knees back through center, all the way to your right side (use the contraction in your hip dot to move your knee dot). Repeat with your left knee dot. When finished, keep your knees to your left. • KNEE TO SACRUM Put your right hand on your right hip dot. Move your right knee dot to your right and feel the muscles around your hip dot contract. You will not feel this unless your hip dot is still! Keeping your knee up and “hip dot contracted”, (using your right hand) draw a line to your sacrum dot. Lift and lower your knee dot and notice how your sacrum dot is really contracting or “in control” of your knee dot. Use the muscles around your sacrum dot to roll your knees back through center and to the right side. Repeat with the left knee dot then stay to your left. • KNEE TO RIBS The next dot to control your knee is your rib dot. Repeat the previous step using your rib dot to control your knee dot. Repeat with the left knee dot then stay to your left.

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CONNECT YOUR DOTS

• KNEE TO SHOULDER BLADE/KNEE TO HAND Move your right knee dot to your right and pause here. Press your right palm into the mat, without moving your shoulder dot or changing the position of your arm (keep a slight bend in your elbow). Notice how your right arm lines contract and the dots connect from palm to shoulder blade. Notice how your right shoulder blade dot begins to move toward the ground. As it moves, it begins to pull the rib dot with it. Which pulls the sacrum dot, which pulls the knee dot. Your palm dot is REALLY in control of your line, moving your knee dot through space. Repeat with the left knee dot. As you get stronger, you will become very aware of your spine (your center) and the imbalances in your body from one side to the other. This move helps balance your LLs, creating better balance in your body.

USE IT

WINDSHIELD WIPERS

Keep it real...

In this movement, you will use the dots along the LLs to rotate your body around your spine. Using the image of adding dots, like the previous move, your body creates fascial connections between muscle to build a full fascial line. Stability is the key to this move. Can you REALLY keep your hip dot still? Use your hands for feedback. Place your hand on your hip as you lift and lower your knee, to assure stability, until you can feel the muscles that must work in order to stabilize your hip. As your brain begins to control the proper muscle(s), it is time to add a dot. Once you can feel the “motor” in a dot, your brain can add the next dot and soon you will feel how yet another dot can control the movement of your legs and body. Via the LLs. Notice how important the arm lines are in stabilizing and ultimately moving your body. If you are an amputee and can not use your entire arm(s), you can make smaller leg movements to lessen the weight on your upper body. As the muscles along your spine, torso and shoulder blades build strength, your range of motion will increase. Keep the line of communication, in your arm lines, open. In other words, don’t “lock out” your elbows. Keep them soft just like in the Wings chapter.

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CHAPTER 10 THE WALKERS

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THE WALKERS FIND IT

SPIRAL LINES

I like to think of the Spiral Lines (SPLs) predominantly as walking lines. These two lines stabilize your spine, rotate your ribcage and move your legs forward and backward all at the same time... giving you the ability to move effortlessly through space, not laboriously. The SPLs give you the ability to walk gracefully. The SPLs do what they say - they spiral around the body. The SPL begins and ends at the head. The right SPL begins on the right occipital ridge and runs straight down the spine following the erector group to the sacrolumbar fascia. It joins the sacrotuberous ligament, which travels down the sacrum to the sit bone. Here it follows the hamstrings to the fibularis muscles running under the foot to the first metatarsal and picks up tibialis anterior which travels up the lower leg. At this point it jumps onto the IT band, to tensor fascia latae and onto the ASIS. The right SPL continues up the torso on a spiral following the oblique abdominals and crosses the midline to the other side into the left serratus anterior. From serratus under the shoulder blade to rhomboids, it then crosses back to the right side, follows the splenii muscles and lands back on the head at the occiput and mastoid process. Phew! A very long line indeed! The left SPL makes the opposite trip beginning and ending on the left side of the head. The SPLs borrow from other lines. Did you recognize a few of the muscles mentioned? • erectors & hamstrings - SBL • obliques, fibularis muscles, IT Band & splenii muscles - LL • tibialis anterior - SFL

dot to dot…

back of head, top of sacrum, sit bone, side of knee, outside ankle, inside ankle, side of knee, ASIS, lower ribs, tip of shoulder blade, C-7, back of head

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FEEL IT

SPLs

The SPLs are your walkers. When using the muscles along these lines simultaneously, you will be moving your legs forward and backward, rotating your ribcage both directions, and stabilizing your spine. The movement created by the fascial connection along the SPLs is the action of walking or running. We have examined all the fascial lines that move you through space in a linear fashion; straight forward - SFL, straight backward - SBL, straight sideways - LL, and straight up (and down) - DFL. Finally we examine a line that moves you on a diagonal - SPL.

LEG The SPLs have 3 distinct functions. The fascial connections up and down the legs give your legs the power to move forward and backward. Examining this portion closer, it looks as though the legs are dangling from the hip and sit bones in one long looped line. The SPLs wrap under the foot like a stirrup. Tension anywhere along the front of the lines would pull up on the insides of the arches causing the feet to roll out and tension on the outsides (or backside) would pull on the outside of the arches causing the feet to roll in. SPINE The fascial connection up and down the spine stabilizes your spine as you move. These muscles connect you from head to tail. Connecting the end dots brings your head to your tailbone, in the back - back bending or simply extending your spine - SBL. This portion of the line intersects the leg portion at the sit bone. A brilliant idea to connect the spine muscles to the leg muscles. Can you imagine what would happen if you moved your leg forward to walk and your spine didn’t follow your legs? Or couldn’t stay upright? Fascial bonds bind because of physical demands. TORSO The SPLs are one of two fascial lines that cross the body on a diagonal. Their attachment to the obliques across the abdomen give you the ability to turn your body to one side when you connect your dots from head to hip. Can you imagine what movement would be like without rotation? Boring... and difficult to make graceful movements. Think of a skier facing straight down the hill (as in racing) versus traversing down the slope. The traversing skier looks graceful, elegantly working with his space and delicately maneuvering himself from side to side. The downhill skier looks aggressive and well... a bit linear. He moves fast but there is a missing “flow” to his body. Dancers can thank the SPLs - without them, dance would look robotic!

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USE IT

SIDE ROLLING

Imagine this... Your big toes can pull your entire body through space...and roll you over. Start here: Lie on your back with your legs extended and arms to your sides forming a T, palms facing down. This movement is simply a case of follow the leader. Your big toe will lead as dots along the corresponding SPL follow. • BIG TOE TO KNEE Move your right big toe dot toward your right knee dot (flex your right foot), without changing your knee, hip or any dots/joints along your body.

CONNECT YOUR DOTS

• KNEE TO HIP Move your right knee dot toward the ceiling. As soon as you feel it begin to move, stop. This action ensures you do not lock your knee and connects the dots from your knee to your hip. • BIG TOE TO HIP With a slightly bent knee and a flexed foot, continue moving your right big toe dot up above your hip as far as you can without moving your hip dot, and stop. • BIG TOE TO SACRUM Move your right big toe dot toward your left (invert your foot). Continue to move it pulling your leg and all its dots with it until you feel your hip dot begin to move. Can you feel your dots connect from your big toe to your sacrum (upper glutes)? As your big toe dot continues its journey toward your left hand, it pulls your sacrum dot with it. • BIG TOE TO RIBS Continuing on you will feel your right ribs begin to lift off the mat and follow your big toe dot. Go as far as you can without pain. • ROLL BACK To roll back, press your palms into the mat, connecting your arm lines, and replace your dots (to the ground) one at a time, from your ribs to your big toe. • REPEAT ON THE OTHER SIDE.

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SIDE ROLLING

Keep it real...

This movement is a classic case of “follow the leader”. The big toe dot is the leader and pulls the entire SPL through space. Each dot on the line follows the big toe dot. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, therefore, the idea is that your big toe dot makes the most efficient journey possible through space, utilizing the full range of motion in each joint (dot) along the line. The big toe dot begins its journey by crossing the ankle joint. As your big toe moves across your ankle joint, notice when your heel begins to move away from the ground. This is your signal to stop and move across the next joint along the line, the hip. The knee joint bends in the opposite direction so we will not concern ourselves with it except keep it stable and do not “lock out” your knee. Bending your knee slightly connects the dots from knee to hip and allows the hamstrings some freedom as the big toe moves above the hip. Keep your ankle in the flexed position and move your big toe above your hip until your hamstrings are stretched to the max and your hip wants to lift off the mat. Stay away from thinking you are moving your leg. Keep your attention on your big toe and make sure it is leading the way throughout the entire movement. Turn your foot inward. This action gets the big toe closer to your hand and connects the dots along the side of your leg to your hip. As soon as your big toe dot begins to move to the side - headed to your hand - you will immediately feel your hip dot leave the floor which connects your sacrum dot to the line and ultimately to your big toe dot. As you continue to move and your body begins to roll, notice how your upper body begins to activate to stabilize you. Press your palms into the ground to connect your arm lines (hand to ribs), roll as far as you can without pain, and pause. Take inventory of your body. What is tight? Reverse. To reverse your move, the big toe dot becomes the follower. Your shoulder blade dots begin the move by pressing into the ground, which stimulates your rib dot to roll back, then your sacrum dot and hip dot. At this point your leg is back above your hip and you can uninvert your foot and lower your leg. And finally unflex your ankle. Repeat on the other side. Is one side tighter or more difficult to roll than the other? Repeat this move until your rolls become smooth and both sides begin to feel more balanced. Keep it real...

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CHAPTER 11 THE MOVERS

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THE MOVERS The Functional Lines (FLs) are the movers. Their diagonal relationship with the body gives you the ability to throw or kick a ball without falling over. There are two front and two back Functional Lines. FIND IT

FUNCTIONAL LINES

The Front Functional Lines (FFLs) cross the front of the body from the arm to the opposite leg. The FFL begins or ends at the upper arm, follows pec major to the rectus abdominis and runs down the abdomen to the pubic bone. Here it crosses the pubic bone and jumps onto adductor longus on the opposite side, where it lands on the medial femur (inner thigh). Connecting the end dots and shortening the line brings your arm and opposite leg closer together, in the front. The Back Functional Lines (BFLs) also run from the arm to the opposite leg, but in the back. The BFL begins (or ends) at the arm and follows the latissimus dorsi across and down the back to the iliac crest and tailbone. Here it picks up the opposite gluteus maximus, makes its way down to the lateral femur, jumps onto the vastus lateralus that merges onto the patellar ligament and lands on the tibia. Connecting the end dots brings your arm and opposite leg together, in the back. dot to dot…

FFL - inside of upper arm, pubic bone and upper inner thigh BFL - inside of upper arm, upper pelvis, outside of upper thigh & front of lower leg just below knee

Following the BFLs down, you can see how the arms are connected to the legs which gives the image of a truly connected and functional body. The Superficial Front Arm Line includes pec major & latissimus dorsi. These two muscles are also included in both Functional Lines. The BFLs contain latissimus dorsi, and the front contains pec major. However, if you continue down the leg following the fascial tracks, we will end up at the toes. Clearly, connecting the dots further down the lines, reveals the continuous line of fascia ultimately connecting the fingers to the toes.

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FEEL IT

FLs

The Functional Lines connect the large, superficial muscles from your arms to your opposite legs - in the front and back of your body. Because the muscles are superficial, they are meant for powerful movements giving you the ability to make explosive actions with your arms and legs. The Front and Back Functional Lines stabilize each other in action. In other words, as the FFL works to throw the baseball, the opposite BFL resists working in opposition to stabilize you and prevent injury. Similarly, shortening one line lengthens its opposite line, as in stretching. Like the SPLs, the Functional Lines share muscles with other lines; • pec major & latissimus dorsi - SFAL • rectus abs - SFL • adductor longus - DFL SFL

SFAL

Share pec major

Share rectus abs

DFL

Share adductors

Because of the shared muscle fiber of pec major and latissimus, perhaps you can see how necessary the arm lines are when demonstrating the action of the FFL. The Functional Lines cross your body, which means they cross your spine. This diagonal fascial connection is good for rotational movements but can be troublesome for the spine if the deeper fascial lines (muscles) are not prepared to stabilize. Adductor magnus adducts the femur but it also acts as a stabilizer for the Deep Front Line. Good thing it is fascially connected to the Deep Front Line as well, for stability purposes. The FFLs are demonstrated very clearly as you watch a baseball player pitch or throw a ball. Notice how the opposite leg is stabilizing and balancing him as his arm makes a powerful move. Can you imagine his dots connecting from thigh to arm? A fascial thought... What do you think would happen if your FLs were stronger than your DFL? Is your DFL strong enough to support you when your FLs are moving you?

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USE IT

HAND TO FOOT - FFL

Imagine this... Your hand and opposite foot can meet in the middle of your body without moving the joints along your head, spine or pelvis. Start here: Lie on your back, legs extended, arms extended to your sides (palms facing up).

CONNECT YOUR DOTS

• HAND TO RIBS/TORSO Bring your right arm above your chest, without moving your shoulder dot. • FOOT TO HIP Flex your left foot and move your inner thigh dot above your hip without moving your hip dot. • HAND TO FOOT Try to get your hand and foot to meet above your pelvis, without moving your torso. • REVERSE THE MOVE Return your dots to their beginning positions. • REPEAT ON THE OTHER SIDE Repeat 3-5 times.

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HAND TO FOOT - FFL

Keep it real...

This is a simple movement, however, maintaining stability will be your challenge. Move slowly and keep your torso still. As you connect your dots, hand to ribs (arm line), keep your shoulder dot perfectly still. As you move, develop a relationship between your shoulder blade dot and the ground. Maintain this connection throughout. As you lift your leg dot over your hip to connect your foot and hip dots, keep your hip dot still. Develop a relationship between your buttocks dot and the ground. Maintain this relationship throughout. Move your arms and legs simultaneously. The center is your sacrum (in the front). Keep your movements centered and balanced around this point and maintain your relationship with the ground - keep these points grounded (pun intended). Your pelvic floor muscles will be helpful in stabilizing your pelvis (Chapter 3) as they support your COG.

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USE IT

ROLL ME OVER - BFL

Imagine this... Your feet can lead your body through space and roll you over. Start here: Lie face down, legs straight, arms extended to your sides (palms facing down).

CONNECT YOUR DOTS

• FOOT TO HIP Point your right foot and move it up as high off the ground as you can without bending your knee or moving your hip dot.

heel moves, leg follows

• FOOT TO RIBS Continue moving your right foot through space, aiming for the ground along the outside of your left leg. Allow your right hip dot to follow your leg dots and your rib dot to follow your hip dot.

hip follows leg

• FOOT TO SHOULDER BLADES, TO HAND Press your palms into the ground to stabilize your spine - notice how your arm lines connect. Go as far as your foot dot can take you until you feel the need to lift your right arm. Finally allow your right arm to follow your body and your head to follow your arm. Look over your right shoulder.

arm follows hip

• REVERSE THE MOVE Return your limbs to their beginning positions by unrolling - lay down your dots in reverse. Your shoulder blade dot leads the way back as your arm, ribs, hip and foot dots follow.

head follows arm

• REPEAT ON THE OTHER SIDE Do as many as you like.

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Be aware of your shoulders! Stay within your range of motion and you will slowly gain flexibility.

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ROLL ME OVER - BFL

Keep it real...

In this movement, follow your foot through space, behind you. Point your right foot to begin the move. Visualize your foot and the journey it is making as you allow your hip dot to lift off the mat and follow. Your foot is headed for the ground on the opposite side (over your left leg). Your arm lines become extremely important for spine stability. Press your palms into the ground to assure your dots are connected along your arm lines. Hold onto the ground with these lines until your right arm is forced to follow your ribs, following your hip, following your foot, reaching to the opposite side. Go as far as you can without pain and roll back. To reverse the move, your foot will follow your arm. Lead with your right shoulder blade dot. As it heads back to the ground, it pulls your upper body/rib dot with it, which pulls your hip dots, leg and finally foot dot.

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PART 3 USE YOUR FASCIA

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USE YOUR FASCIAL LINES It’s time to put your fascial lines to use! In the following chapters, you will put your fascial lines ‘to use’. Once you have finished Chapters 5-11, you will be ready for Chapter 12. Chapter 12 gives you the opportunity to explore your lines and identify restrictions along them. It also gives you the opportunity to explore your relationship with the space around you and how you are able to move through it. Chapter 13 gives you movements in specific modalities - Pilates, yoga, gymnastics, running, tennis, golf, cycling, CrossFit and a few more. Here you are able to use your fascial lines in movements familiar to you.

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CHAPTER 12 FASCIA-NATING MOVES

CHAPTERS 5-11 PREPARE YOU FOR THIS CHAPTER

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FASCIA-NATING MOVES PIROUETTE This move is designed to give awareness, balance, release and strength to your fascial lines. All the fascial lines are participating in and affected by this exercise/stretch. Its a great way to get you visualizing and feeling your body as a connected structure. In this movement, your body will be making a 360º turn, and back around. With 2 fixed points, as you move, you can explore and challenge the range of motion along all of your fascial lines. Start here: Begin facing a wall or pole with your right hand on the wall approximately shoulder height (comfortable for you).

AT NO TIME SHOULD YOU BE IN PAIN!

If you are in pain, simply adjust: • the position of your arm, higher or lower and elbow more bent. • • the position of your body, closer to or farther from the wall . • • and/or the position of your head, if you can’t keep your eyes on your hand, put your head in a comfortable position for you. Keep your two endpoints - right hand and left foot - and the space between them, your focus as you rotate your body

Perform the exercise at your beginning level with dedication and you will be amazed at how quickly you progress! 116

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Pirouette

• PIVOT AROUND YOUR LEFT FOOT. Keeping your right hand fixed on the wall, your left foot on the ground, and your eyes fixed on your right hand, begin walking around to your left.

• KEEP YOUR FOCUS ON THE 2 FIXED POINTS (HAND & FOOT) as you make your circle. Feel the line between them. In this case, it’s an arc not a straight line. At each turn you will feel a different stretch and perhaps a restriction in your line/arc, preventing you from moving with ease.

Lateral Line

• NOTICE YOUR RESTRICTIONS along a line/arc and “hang out” there. Repeat that part of your turn 3-5 times giving the restriction(s) time to release. Think of “rocking” through the restriction.

You should feel a stretch from the palm of your hand to your right foot, or somewhere along that line

• MAKE MODIFICATIONS if necessary. At the 180º point you will be in a standing backbend. This may not be a comfortable position for you so again please take the time to adjust your line if you need to.

Modifications If this position is too difficult for you, simply adjust your position until you can find a comfortable place - relatively speaking - to work through:

Breathe

Superficial Front Line

Hand on the wall

• Step closer to the wall • Bend or straighten your elbow Eventually you will feel your “crimped up” line unfold into a strong arc moving through space with ease and grace!

Front Functional Line

• OSCILLATE back and forth from right to left foot, shifting your weight, as you pivot around your left foot. In order to get the fascia to cooperate, you need movement and breath. Your walk will be a rocking action as you pivot around.

• Step closer to the wall • Bend or straighten your elbow Pirouette

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• LUNGE to stretch the psoas and hip flexors. As you come out of the backbend, stop walking and keep your right foot on the ground, but continue turning your body. You will find yourself in a lunge. This is a great place to focus on the psoas, lats and back arm lines. You can intensify the stretch by stepping your right foot farther back. If your psoas feels restricted, contract it. Keeping your right foot on the ground and hand on the wall, bend and straighten you right knee 3 to 5 times. The psoas will slowly begin to release.

Keep hand on wall Back Arm Lines

Back Arm Lines

Lateral Line Lateral Line Back Functional Line

Back View

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If you feel restrictions, rock through the area

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Pirouette

Front View

• STRETCH YOUR HAMSTRINGS. Finish walking around until you are again facing the wall. Lower your hand and step back about a foot and let your upper body drop down toward the ground. Let your left arm dangle into gravity and sway your body from left to right, from your feet, allowing your weight to shift. Allow your hamstrings to stretch. • REVERSE THE MOVEMENT. Keeping the two fixed points your focus - right hand and this time right foot - walk your left foot, body and head back under your right arm. Slowly walk your way back around. Maintain your walking action shifting your weight from your right to your left foot, keep your hand on the wall, your right foot the pivot point and eyes on your right hand. • REPEAT ON THE OTHER SIDE.

Walk under your right arm

Keep your weight in your right arm.

Superficial Back Line

Front Arm Lines

Gravity pulling the crown of your head toward the ground

Arm dangling

Pirouette

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Fascia-nating Moves

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ARABESQUE This movement helps you to evaluate and balance your hip joint. In this move you will make a 360º turn (or close) in the hip socket with two fixed points, much like the Pirouette. Start here: Stand facing a ballet bar or high counter. The height of the counter isn’t important but the more flexible you are the higher you will want your counter to be. Hold onto your bar or counter with both hands and place your right foot on the counter out to the side. Your leg may not straighten all the way. Warm up your hamstrings. LIFT AND LOWER YOUR LEFT HEEL 3-5 times or more until you feel your SBL begin to loosen and keep your heel on the ground, if possible, for the rest of the exercise. BEND AND STRAIGHTEN YOUR RIGHT KNEE pulling your body toward your right foot as you bend and away from your foot as you straighten, 3-5 times or again, until you feel your SBL (hamstrings) releasing.

Keep your right heel on the bar: • TURN TO YOUR LEFT oscillating your torso (right to left) as you make your turn to help the fascia release. Working around two fixed points (dots) - left foot and right heel - visualize the line between the two dots, and keep them your focus as you turn your body to your left. Leave your right heel and right hand (for balance) on the counter.  Continue turning your body to the left until you can no longer rotate.  Your right foot will spin around naturally until the top of your foot is now on the counter.  Your right knee will bend to give you more range of motion and allow you to feel a stretch in your hip flexors.  Lift your head to extend your spine and look for your right foot over your left shoulder. Visualize the dots from your forehead to your right heel and how your spine can grow in length to create space between your vertebrae.  • TURN BACK TO YOUR RIGHT oscillating as you turn. Drop your upper body down (if you need to) to allow room for your hip joints and the surrounding tissue to move without pain. Your eyes should be looking over your right shoulder to lead the way. When you are back to the beginning position, face your right leg and bend your right knee. Lean over your leg to feel more stretch in your gluteal muscles.  Stay in this position for 5-10 seconds and breathe.   Come out of your position and look over your right shoulder as far as you can without pain, allowing your body to follow. Feel your left LL stretch. Slowly rotate back to center. • REPEAT ON THE OTHER SIDE. Do as many as you like.

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Fascia-nating Moves

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Arabesque

START HERE

2 1

DFL

SBL

3

DFL & FFL

Round and round the hip we go, where it stops only YOU know…

4 8

SBL

DFL & SBL

7

DFL

5 6

DFL, FFL & Front Arm Lines

DFL & FFL

Work within your own range of motion. If you feel restrictions and/or pain, make it easier by bending your knees. Arabesque

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SPIRAL EYES Your eyes pick a point/dot in space and follow it. Imagine that dot pulls you through space and spins you in a spiral. Start here: Stand with your arms relaxed by your sides. Visualize your shoulder dots and how your arms dangle in their sockets. Keep your arms relaxed! • BEGIN BY STARING AHEAD and imagine you can actually see a magnified atom in the space. It is on a journey to orbit around you. • REACH OUT WITH YOUR RIGHT POINTER FINGER and touch your imagined point. Slowly at first, it begins to move to your right - keep your finger on your point and your eyes on your finger and follow your point as far as your neck will allow, without moving your shoulders. • ALLOW THE NEXT VERTEBRA (thoracic) to follow when your neck has reached its full range of motion. One vertebra follows at a time until your pelvis must also follow. Continue following your point until your legs are forced to pull your feet away from the floor, following the rest of the line. As you begin to spin and feel the rest of your dots following your eyes, following your point, progressively speed up your pace for more proprioception. Be careful not get too dizzy! • REPEAT IN THE OTHER DIRECTION.

Imagine you no longer have a boundary between you and the space surrounding you. Imagine your dots are as connected to the space as they are to you and each other. Imagine your eyes can pick a point in space and follow it. Imagine that dot pulls you through space and spins you in a circle or a spiral.

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CHAPTER 13 FASCIAL-LY IN TUNE

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FASCIAL-LY IN TUNE RE-CONNECT YOUR DOTS™ IS A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE! This chapter proves it! In this chapter, you will see samples of “The Dots” in a few popular activities. I have picked one example from each of several different modalities to demonstrate how to begin incorporating re-Connect Your Dots™. Granted, each modality deserves its own book, for there are multiple movements in all sports and exercise programs. However, the body learns quickly, so hopefully, you are starting to get the hang of your “Dots,” and will soon be automatically visualizing them as you move. Stay tuned for my upcoming series of books, re-Connect Your Dots for ______________ to further detail these movement programs. But for now, if there is a particular exercise or movement you would like to see, please email me at [email protected], and I will be happy to help you find your “Dots”!

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THE CROSSFITTER

dot to dot…

tailbone, spine, head

Using “The Dots” makes CrossFit easy for me! CrossFit is one of the simplest transitions for “The Dots”. Because of the repetitive aspects and “straight line” movements, CrossFit will naturally train your fascial lines. CrossFit movements are mostly linear movements. In other words, CrossFit is really good at programming the body along straight lines: • • • • • •

squats - up & down push-ups - up & down pull-ups - up & down dead lifts - up & down wall balls - up & down running - knees go up & down

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Getting the idea? The lines being programmed are all the lines that connect you foot to head in straight lines - DFL, SBL, SFL & LL. However, there are movements which do require rotation, therefore the rotation lines - SPL & FLs, will also be programmed. The arm lines are a given. Because of the explosive movements and exhausted state of the participant, however, the arm lines get weak and shoulder injuries are likely. The cueing becomes simpler by adding dots, and consequently, the outcome more successful. Each of the CrossFit moves can be broken down into one main moving point (dot/ joint). For example, the squat: on the way down, the tailbone is the mover and the head (through the spine) is the follower - requiring that you stabilize your spine as you move it. The action of stabilizing the spine erases all the possibilities of dropping the chest, rounding the back, etc. On the way up, the roles switch. The top of the head leads and the tailbone follows. Therefore, you are simply making a straight line through space with your body, following your tailbone dot down toward the ground, and your head dot up toward the sky. Try one… Stand with your feet slightly wider than your hips and feet & toes pointing slightly outward. Extend both arms at chest level, cross one hand over the other in the center of your chest, and hold them in that position for the entire move - think of it as a “dot” your hands are supporting. Turn your head to look behind you and pick a point on the ground, approximately 1.5ft - 2ft away from your feet - centered between your feet. This is the dot your tailbone will aim for. Keep it in your mind. Turn your head back around. Imagine a dot on your tailbone. It can be helpful to put one hand temporarily on the tailbone dot to establish proprioception. Simply connect the dots from your tailbone to the dot you picked on the ground, and follow the track down. Your tailbone pulls your spine and your spine pulls your head. Keep your spine and head on the track as you move. To come up, follow the same track but this time, the head dot is the leader and the tailbone dot is the follower.

Every CrossFit move can be described in dots. Simply identify the “moving” element and follow the leader!

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THE GOLFER

dot to dot…

foot, knee, hip, pelvis, rib, shoulder blade, shoulder, elbow, wrist, ball

Oh, how I love to connect that golf swing! So many challenged swings could so easily be helped with the image of connecting dots. The power in the golf swing comes from the body not the arms. And really…it comes form the feet. The LLs, SPLs, FLs & DFLs, and of course the Arm Lines, all work together to power the body though the golf swing. Swinging a right handed club, the action begins at the bottom of the left foot. Start your golf swing by shifting your weight into your left foot. As your weight shifts, the dots along the left leg (via the Lateral and Spiral Lines) will follow, connecting your dots from your foot to your pelvis. The body follows the pelvis. From here, following the LL up the ribcage, perhaps you can feel how the muscles along the ribcage become very active in stabilizing your body as it begins to follow your pelvis. Following the BFL, the lats, which are attached to the top of the pelvic bone, and other muscles, are responsible for swinging the arm (which is holding the club behind your body). The lats travel up the spine, intersecting various back muscles - one being the trapezius. The trapezius, part of the SBAL, is facially connected to the fingers; therefore, following the SBAL, you can connect your dots from foot to hand and use the power from all of the muscles along this line to swing the club. The club is simply an extension of your arm. The DFL is involved in all movement because it is responsible for stabilizing your bones. Refer back to the Isosceles Triangle movement and utilize the muscles along the inner legs to shift your weight. You will be amazed at the power in your swing! *tip…The stronger you can feel the connection between your feet and the ground, the stronger your golf swing will be. The Golfer

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THE TENNIS PLAYER

dot to dot…

foot, knee, pubic bone, ASIS, shoulder, elbow, wrist, ball

Imagine how useful the Spiral and Functional Lines are in tennis. As you swing the racquet, your body rotates into the swing to give you power. The rotation alone screams SPL & FL, but what does this mean in dots? Clearly we will connect the dots along the arm lines for power, but because they share muscles with other lines, it will be easy to see how the arm lines connect to the Functional and Spiral Lines to work together in swinging the racquet. The arm lines stabilize the arms on the ribcage and the Functional Lines connect the ribs to the pelvis and to the legs. Visualizing connecting dots from the top of the hip (ASIS) to the opposite ribs to the shoulder allows the torso to rotate while stabilizing the pelvis and spine (FFL & SPL). Connecting the rib to shoulder dots crosses the pectorals (pec major & minor) which are involved in both Front Arm Lines. Therefore, if we continue on from the shoulder dot to the elbow, and on to the hand and fingers, we have connected the dots from the hip to the fingers - and to the racquet, an extension of the arm. The pelvis sits on top of the legs, so the pelvis is only as stable as the legs. Connecting the dots from the feet to the pelvis provides stability in the legs, providing stability in the pelvis. So…connect your dots from the foot to the knee to the pelvis (SPL), to the opposite ribs and shoulder (FFL & SPL), to the elbow, hand and fingers (SFAL & DFAL). If you can visualize these dots connecting as you swing your racquet, you will feel how the power in your tennis arm comes from the opposite foot. Simply putting your weight into the foot will begin to connect your dots but the true power is in your imagination and ability to visualize the entire line connecting. 128

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THE RUNNER

dot to dot…

ball of foot, heel, knee, sit bone & pubic bone, pelvis (front & back), interior of ribcage, neck & head

Long distance running is most efficient if your DFL is the driving force. Running is the perfect place to utilize the springs in your feet. The arches of your feet become springs when the deep calf and inner thigh muscles are communicating. As the adductors contract, the psoas contracts, and the psoas has several important jobs... • lifting the knee, as in, flexing the hip • stabilizing the sacrum • and stabilizing the lower spine/lumbar vertebrae Connecting the dots further along the DFL, we end up at the diaphragm and all the muscles surrounding it - and we know how important oxygen is under cardiovascular challenges. Continuing up, we connect to the neck and head. Connecting the dots from your arches to your throat connects your body from feet to head and programs your internal spring to make you a fast and efficient runner. Even though the DFL consists mainly of slow twitch muscle fibers, as they become programmed and strong, they become faster. Short distance running requires the DFL, but because the movements are explosive and quick, the superficial “power” muscles become very useful for these short, fast spurts. The gluteals and quadriceps become much more developed if you are a sprinter. Consequently, inflexible and cushiony shoes with a lot of arch support prevent the muscles in the feet from working and your internal springs from developing. As the feet weaken, all the fascial lines weaken. A “minimalist” shoe requires your feet to do the job they were designed to do - support your body. As the muscles work, the feet get stronger and as the feet get stronger, all the fascial lines get stronger - making you a stronger runner.

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THE CYCLIST

dot to dot…

heel, knee, sit bone, sacrum to spine, head, eyes and sacrum to shoulder blades, shoulders, elbows, wrists, fingers

Most people believe that if they can balance on a bike, they can ride a bike. They can ride a bike, but the question is… can they ride a bike efficiently? With a few cues and the right dots, ANYONE can ride a bike efficiently, and look like a pro. The LLs will work to balance your weight from the sides of your body. You may not even be aware of these muscles, but without them you would not be able to maintain a smooth balance as you ride. The DFL is working as well, but these muscles may be more apparent to you. The DFL connects your body from your feet to your head, deep in your body. The DFL incorporates the pelvic floor and psoas, very important muscles in cycling. These muscles help support the lumbar vertebrae (low back) and stabilize the pelvis. In one simple image, when cycling all of your energy is radiating to and from one focal point - the front of your sacrum. From this point, which happens to be the COG in your body, your legs find power, your arms feel a sense of weightlessness and very literally, you will steer your bike. Kevin Livingston, pro cyclist and Tour de France champion, describes it as feeling like he is “one with the saddle”, from this point. From this point, you can visualize connecting the dots down your legs (arches, knee, sit bone to sacrum) in order to utilize the lower portion of the DFL. There are 2 relationships 130

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created by utilizing these muscles; pushing the dots away from each other (creating space or distance between them) and pulling them toward each other (decreasing the space). As one leg is pulling, the other is pushing. Creating space creates power or force. This pushing action can be described as a forward and down movement; as the knee straightens, the quads are utilized, and as the leg pushes down on the pedal, the gluteals work. Consequently, continuing up from the gluteals following the BFL, will connect to the opposite lats, which controls the humerus (arm). So…connecting the dots from the knee to the hip to the opposite arm, balances you from left to right, gives you power to push as you pedal and also helps take weight off of your hands, to give you a “floating” kind of feeling. Continuing from the lats down the SFAL, helps you to utilize the pec major and the lower arm flexors but…since pec major is facially connected to pec minor, you will also be using your biceps and thenar (thumb) muscles, DFAL. Decreasing space, is predominantly meant for recovery and loading. Its much easier to release a rubber band than stretch it. The pulling action is much the same. Once your leg has stretched or created force, it will easily spring back requiring little or no effort. You can utilize the muscles along this line - DFL - to help with endurance (long distance rides). Visualize connecting the dots from the arches to the sit bone to the sacrum. As you bring the endpoints closer together, you are using the deep calve muscles, deep hamstrings, adductors, psoas and pelvic floor muscles (not to mention deep abs); our “super hero” muscles. These muscles, when working together, help you pedal while they support and stabilize your pelvis and low back. Also, as you use your pelvic floor and low abdominal muscles, you will begin to feel how your pelvis is steering your bike. Keeping all of these dots connected and working together will keep you balanced and strong as you ride.

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THE SWIMMER

dot to dot…

foot, knee, sit bone, pelvis, ribs, shoulder blade, shoulder, elbow, wrist & fingers

A swimmer has two mechanisms to propel himself through the water: legs and feet used as flippers to push, and arms and hands used as fins to pull. Visualizing connecting dots from the feet to the hands gives you the ability to more consciously utilize all of the muscles between these dots during your stroke, which makes you a stronger swimmer. Connecting the dots along the arm lines bolts the arms to the ribcage and prevents the shoulders from lifting. Since the arm lines end at the ribs, we can pick up the FFL and follow the dots down the abdomen to the pubic bone, and onto the opposite leg. Connecting the dots from fingers to opposite leg coordinates the arm and body movements. As the arm reaches out, it’s connected to the body as the body rotates. Continuing down the leg, connecting the dots along the SPL connects the arm to the foot, as the leg kicks. All three movements are now coordinated and connected. Swimming utilizes another line too: the LL. Notice how stretched out the “reaching” side of the swimmer is in the picture. Connecting the dots from the fingers to the ribcage (arm lines) to the toes along the same side allows you to contract the muscles along the LL. 132

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So… connect the dots from the foot to the hand (LL and Arm Lines) to feel a full stretch along your “reaching” side. Getting the maximum stretch and length along the side gives you a longer reach which does two things: • Helps you travel farther faster, making you move more efficient. • Gives your muscles more power. Imagine a rubber band: the “spring back” comes from the stretch. Similarly, your muscles will have a built in “spring back” as you stretch them, therefore, the more you can stretch, with control, the stronger your spring. But behold! We must investigate the DFL, for it coordinates the breath with the head. And of course, the body rotates around it! The psoas (part of the DFL) is a powerful swimming muscle when you understand its potential. As the psoas kicks the leg, it also helps rotate the spine. As the psoas kicks the leg and rotates the spine, the head follows to take a breath and the diaphragm drops, so the lungs are free to expand and inhale. When you tilt your head for a breath, try to feel your head easily follow through your spine’s rotation and coordinate your inhale by blowing up your lungs as if they were a floatation device. You will feel how easily your head can turn to get air, coordinated with the kick and spine’s rotation… finally, connecting all of your “freestyle” dots. If you can connect your dots and coordinate your lines, you will be connected from feet to lungs, to head and hands, and you will be a more efficient, stronger swimmer!

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THE MARTIAL ARTIST

dot to dot…

foot, knee, sit bone & pubic bone, pelvis (front & back), sit bone, knee, foot & contact point

Martial arts, Pilates, yoga, gymnastics & dance all share similar body awareness requirements. These movements get power through core stabilization, almost as if the core has some magical power. In this position, as the martial artist channels his force through the kicking leg, he pushes off the floor with the base leg. Connecting the dots from foot to foot,through the DFL, allows you to utilize the muscles along both legs while you kick. “The power generated and transferred to and through the strike will be proportional to the level of core stability achieved.” Jeff Levine, Krav Maga Instructor Fit & Fearless Austin, TX.

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THE GYMNAST

dot to dot…

toes, heels, knees, pubic bone & sit bones, pelvis (front & back), spine & head, ribs, shoulder blades, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hands

Core, core, core! Or, DFL, DFL, DFL! The first line of muscle most important to a gymnast is that all- important group of core muscles that stabilize the bones and provide internal strength beyond your imagination. How do they (gymnasts) do it? You’re only as strong as your core. This is true because the core muscles support the bones and joints. If the superficial muscles are stronger than the core muscles, they can overpower the core muscles. If the core loses, the body can break - resulting in injury. The core muscles or DFL (refer to Chapter 6) are subtle. Turning off the superficial muscles allows you to feel the deeper muscles. Remember that the muscles along this line are designed to resist gravity. Exactly what a gymnast is constantly doing. Feeling the gravitational pull teaches your muscles how to resist it. Developing a personal relationship with the COG in the body (refer to Chapter 3) is extremely useful to the gymnast. As the DFL gets stronger, the superficial muscles will as well. Notice the position of the gymnast here. The DFL runs from the arches to the tongue. Remember the super hero flying? This is similar. Notice how the gymnast is utilizing the DFL by contracting his inner thigh muscles to hold his legs together. He is utilizing his deep abdominal muscles (& psoas) to stabilize his spine and connect his neck & head to his pelvis. Connecting the dots from toes to head gives you power from the DFL to resist gravity and move you up. The arm lines are obviously engaged. Because of the position of his arms, he is getting most power from the SFAL; however, his entire body weight is held by his arms, therefore, all of the arm lines are working here. You can visualize all 4 arm lines bolting the arms to the ribcage and drawing energy from the DFL. The Gymnast

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THE DANCER

dot to dot…

fingers, wrist, elbow, shoulder, shoulder blade, ribs, pelvis, knee, ankle & toes

Much like the gymnast, the dancer has a deep relationship with his/her core muscles or DFL. Because a dancer’s main objective is resisting her own body weight in space, the stronger the core muscles, the stronger, more connected and graceful the movements. I can’t think of anytime a dancer’s fingers and toes dots are not working synergistically - together. At all times a dancer has a relationship with the arms and legs in space - usually moving at the same time and with some relationship to the center and core/DFL - for balance. Therefore, as the DFL gets stronger, the other lines get smarter and connecting the dots along all the lines becomes a natural process. Notice the position of the dancer here. Clearly you can see the energy extending out from the fingers and toes. Visualize the lines you can make by connecting the dots and you will see the fascial lines at play, in this position. With each change of position, the fascial connection can/will change, however, the DFL will always stay connected as the other fascial lines balance around it. With every change in position, maintain this hand-foot relationship and you will slowly begin to program the relationship between all of your fascial lines, centered around your DFL. All of the lines are balanced around the DFL. 136

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THE PILATES BODY

dot to dot…

foot, knee, sit bone, pelvis, spine, head, shoulder blades, shoulders, elbows & wrists, sit bone, knee, heel & toes

No matter the movement, you will be stable and strong by connecting your dots in Pilates. Notice the position here. By visualizing and connecting the dots from the fingers, wrist, elbow, shoulder and shoulder blade, you are using your Arm Lines to stabilize your ribcage, which is up off the ground. Press your wrists down into the ground to feel the dots connect and your ribcage lift up. Because the Arm Lines share muscles with other lines, we can continue connecting dots from the ribcage down a number of lines to the toes. The stable leg, in this case the left leg, will find power by connecting the dots from the heel to the sit bone. By pressing the left foot down into the ground, you will feel the dots connect along the back of your leg and your left hip will lift up. The hip dot is connected to the ribcage in the back via the lats (one of the muscles along the SFAL). Visualize the dots connecting from the hip to shoulder blade (on the ribcage) and you have connected your left foot to your arms. The right leg, reaching for the sky, will also find power by connecting to the Arm Lines. Connect the dots from the wrists (& fingers) by pressing your wrists down into the ground to connect your Arm Lines. Follow the line to the pelvis through the lats and connect the arms to the pelvis. The toes point hard utilizing the muscles in the foot and calves and the thigh muscles contract to assist. This connects the dots from the toes to the pelvis, connected to the arms, ultimately connecting the dots from the fingers to the toes. Connecting the dots from foot to foot, utilizing the muscles along the lower DFL, you will feel how as the left foot presses down, the right leg has power to raise up. Develop a relationship in space between both feet and both hands and balance your body around your DFL - Pilates… The Pilates Body

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THE YOGI

dot to dot…

foot, knee, sit bone & pubic bone, pelvis (front & back), ribs, shoulder blades, shoulders, elbows, wrists & fingers

Much like Pilates, in yoga, your fingers are always connected to your toes through multiple fascial lines no matter the pose. In yoga, at all times, you will maintain a relationship with gravity. And the DFL is designed to resist gravity. Every position requires balance around the core muscles - DFL. Notice the position of the practitioner- balancing all of her weight on one leg. Certainly, connecting the dots from the foot to the pelvis would be helpful. The most common mistake here is locking the knee. The standing leg should be lined up under the sit bone with all joints in that line. If the knee is “locked”, the knee joint is out of line. There are two problems with this: • There is instability in the joint, and therefore instability in the line. It’s like having a brick out of line in a brick wall. The out-of-line brick is the weak joint - your knee. • The fascial lines are not connected. If the knee is pushed behind the leg, the muscles that control the knee joint are not contracted for support - they are stretched or strained.

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To feel the dots connect along the standing leg, begin by letting your weight rest into your foot. Feel how the pelvis is resting on the head of the femur, the femur is resting on the knee, resting on the tibia. The tibia and fibula form the ankle bones. Feel how these two bones rest on the foot and allow your weight to slowly sink into your foot. As you begin to feel gravity pulling your leg into your foot, you will begin to feel the arch in your foot drop. Feeling gravity gives you proprioception or feedback and as your arches feel the gravitational pull they will resist it by lifting off the mat. Develop a sound relationship between the ball of your foot, the center of your heel, and the ground. As you press these points down you will feel your arch lift higher. If your knee is not locked, you will feel your knee cap lift up, the head of the femur lift into the hip joint, and the deep gluteal muscles contract to lift the pelvic/hip bone up off the leg. So…connecting the dots from the foot, to the knee, to pubic and sit bones (DFL), supports the leg in this position. The rest of the position is supported by continuing to connect the dots along the DFL to the arm lines. So…connecting the dots from the pubic bone to the spine, following the psoas and of course the pelvic floor up the spine to the head, utilizing all the deep muscles within the thoracic cavity and deep neck muscles, all connects the pelvis to the head. The arm lines connect to the DFL by following the dots from the thoracic cavity (both front and back) to the shoulder dots, elbows, wrists and fingers. Pressing the palms of your hands into each other will connect the dots along your arm lines, if your shoulder dots do not move, while you press. Connect the arches of your feet to your fingers by connecting these dots along the DFL to the arm lines. The resting leg is really not resting. Again, connect the dots along the leg from the arches to the pelvis by pressing your foot into your standing leg. This action contracts the inner thigh and deep gluteals. Connect this leg to the body and fingers by following the same path of dots as on the other side. As all of your dots connect from arches to fingers, you will feel your body as a straight arrow headed “straight” for the sky. There are other fascial lines we can discuss here because this position can be compared to the Weeble (Chapter 9). All of your fascial lines are working synergistically to maintain your balance.

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DEFINITIONS AIIS - anterior inferior iliac spine - a bony landmark on the front of the pelvis inferior to the “hip bone”, ASIS Anatomy Trains - a book written by Thomas Myers that describes the specific muscles involved in specific planes of motion. Arm Lines - identified by Thomas Myers to be 4 lines that describe the muscular connection of the arms in certain planes of motion, Deep Front Arm Line (DFAL), Superficial Front Arm Line (SFAL), Deep Back Arm Line (DBAL), Superficial Back Arm Line (SBAL). ASIS - anterior superior iliac spine - the “hip bone”, a bony landmark on the front of the pelvis above the AIIS. Atom - the basic unit of a chemical element. Back Functional Line (BFL) - identified by Thomas Myers to be muscle connected by fascia on a diagonal in the back, from the arm to the opposite leg - latissimus dorsi, gluteus maximus, vastus lateralis. Cell - in biology, the smallest structural and functional unit of an organism, typically microscopic and consisting of cytoplasm and a nucleus enclosed in a membrane. Closed Chain - both end points are touching a solid object. CrossFit - that which optimizes fitness (constantly varied functional movements performed at relatively high intensity). It’s a fitness regimen developed by Coach Greg Glassman over several decades. Deep Front Line (DFL) - the “core”, connecting the muscles deepest in the body - toe flexors & posterior tibialis, deep adductors, pelvic floor, psoas, muscles surrounding the interior of the thoracic cavity, scalenes and longissimus muscles, and into the tongue. Fascia - connective tissue, responsible for connecting every single cell. Fascial Lines - muscle connections in planes of motion. Fascial System - a continuous web of connective tissue, of a living organism. Front Functional Line (FFL) - identified by Thomas Myers to be muscle connected by fascia on a diagonal in the front of the body from the arm to the opposite leg - pec major, rectus abdominus, adductor longus. Iliotibial Tract (IT Band) - a thick band of connective tissue connecting the hip to the lower leg. 140

Imagery - from image; a representation of the external form of a person or thing in art. Imagination - the faculty or action of forming new ideas, or images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses. Joint - a point where two bones meet and movement is possible. Lateral Line (LL) - identified by Thomas Myers to be muscle connected by fascia along the side of the body - splenius captitus & sternocleidomastoid, intercostals, oblique abdominals, tensor fascia latae & IT band, fibularis muscles. Line - a long, narrow mark or band. Molecule - a group of atoms bonded together, representing the smallest fundamental unit of a chemical compound that can take part in a chemical reaction. Muscle Memory - the physiological adaptation of the body to repetition of a specific physical activity, resulting in increased neuromuscular control when performing that activity again. Muscular System - the series of muscles throughout the body that moves the skeleton, maintains posture through steady contraction, and generates heat through cell metabolism. Organ - a part of an organism that is typically self-contained and has a specific vital function, such as the heart or liver in humans. Organism - an individual animal, plant, or single-celled life form. Open Chain - a molecular structure consisting of a chain of atoms with no closed rings OR in movement; one or more unfixed points. Pelvic Floor - 3 layers of muscle at the base of the pelvic cavity. Pelvis - the large bony structure near the base of the spine to which the hind limbs or legs are attached in humans and many other vertebrates. Pilates - a system of exercises using special apparatus, designed to improve physical strength, flexibility, and posture, and enhance mental awareness. Plane - a flat surface on which a straight line joining any two points on it would wholly lie. Point - a particular spot, place, or position in an area or on a map, object, or surface. PSIS - posterior superior iliac spine, a projection at the posterior end of the iliac crest. Psychoneuromuscular Theory - the theory that mental imagery of an action provokes subliminal stimulation of the muscles that are used in the actual movement patterns being imagined. 141

Sacrum - a triangular bone in the lower back formed from fused vertebrae and situated between the two hipbones of the pelvis. Scar Tissue - dense fibrous connective tissue that forms over a healed wound or cut. Self-Efficacy Theory - the belief that one has the power to produce that effect by completing a given task or activity related to that competency. Skeletal System - the internal framework of the body composed of 206 bones. Smoothment - the ability to create smooth movements. Space - a continuous area or expanse that is free, available, or unoccupied. Spiral Line (SPL) - identified by Thomas Myers to be muscle connected by fascia on a spiral from head to foot to head, erector spinae, hamstrings, fibularis muscles, anterior tibialis, IT Band, oblique abdominals, serratus anterior, rhomboids, splenius capitis. Superficial Front Line (SFL) - identified by Thomas Myers to be muscle connected by fascia along the front of the body from head to foot, sternocleidomastoid, rectus abdominis, quadriceps, tibialis anterior, toe extensors. Superficial Back Line (SBL) - identified by Thomas Myers to be muscle connected by fascia along the back of the body from head to foot, erector spinae, hamstrings, gastrocnemius. System - a set of connected things or parts forming a complex whole, in particular. Tensegrity - tension + integrity, tension based structure. Yoga - a Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline, a part of which, including breath control, simple meditation, and the adoption of specific bodily postures, is widely practiced for health and relaxation.

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REFERENCES 1. Anatomy Trains by Thomas Myers, second edition, © 2010 2. The Pelvic Handbook by Suzi Alderete, © 2009 3. Academy for Guided Imagery, © 2009 4. Biophysical Foundations of Human Movement-3rd Edition By Bruce Abernethy, Vaughan Kippers, Stephanie Hanrahan, Marcus Pandy, Ali McManus, Laurel Mackinnon © 2013 5. Self-efficacy: The power of believing you can, by Maddux, James E © 2014 American Psychological Association 6. Physiopedia 7. Center of Gravity, www.kau.edu.sa/Files/.../CENTER-4.DOC, King Abdulaziz University 8. Center of Gravity Definition, By Anne Asher; Updated March 05, 2012 9. Man On Wire, 2008 British Documentary film by James Marsh

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is a miracle that this book has made it to print. Admittedly, I could not have finished without help. Tom Myers was my inspiration. I can still hear him saying, “write. write, write! It’s a great idea. Hurry up and write it down.” So I did. And 3 years later… But writing it down was only the beginning. Once written, it surely needed an editor. That was a challenge. I had to have an expert in the field - someone that would take interest and all the massive amounts of time. Somehow, the universe answered my prayers and delivered Kate. Kate Griffith (Pilates Teacher, Massage Therapist, Yoga Practitioner, educated in Anatomy Trains and more recently CPM with Karin Locher), was the ingredients. Finding her was a miracle. Together we embarked on the journey of a lifetime - hour by hour, word by word, oh the hours we did work. For 1.5 years. And slowly but surely, re-Connect Your Dots™ truly began to take shape. It was quite a job and I could not have done it without her. Then...I knew I needed a special artist. The artist for my book had to have an understanding of anatomy and had to be extremely creative. The universe delivered Leo Roux to me. Leo (already having a BA in English and German) came to me as a student in my Kinesiology class. He was now on his way to be becoming a massage therapist. I would enjoy seeing the drawings he produced for my class as he was meticulous and extremely talented. When the time came and I had to hire an artist, Leo came to mind. And it was a match. He was charged with taking my somewhat crazy ideas and images and making them a reality. Re-Connect Your Dots™ is based on the idea that movement happens because of an image. Therefore, to create correct movement, we must develop the correct image. Leo is truly a brilliant artist with a brilliantly creative mind. I have been blessed with my team. Truly blessed. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. You have made my dream a reality. Thanks to all of my teachers, clients, friends and family. Looking back, I can see the map you all have drawn for me. And the road ahead looks exciting! I love you all. Never ever, ever, give up! I can still hear my friend Beverly Gilbert with her words of encouragement. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Beverly!

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Re-Connect Your Dots™ is a great beginner’s guide to becoming aware of whole body movement. It is wonderful to see the Anatomy Trains Myofascial Meridians map, first published in 2001, now being applied in a number of different ways to rehabilitation, athletics, and performance. In Suzi’s case, she has made the process of moving as a whole person accessible to the everyday mover. So, enjoy the ride! As Suzi has a refreshingly informal and accessible approach to explaining the biomechanics of wholeness. -Tom Myers

A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR Re-Connect Your Dots™ came to me because of an image. I saw the fascial lines that Thomas Myers published, and movement began to make sense. As a Pilates Teacher, I was able to describe movement to my clients, so they had more success. Having been a math teacher for 10 years, “Dots” was a logical approach to movement, for me. And always trying to “simplify” the world, I could do this with a simple, familiar language. The challenge for you will most likely be letting go of old patterns and ideas of movement and getting back to the basics. In order to be completely successful in learning re-Connect Your Dots™, it is imperative to let go of what you know about movement and endorse the image of moving dots. Instead of complicating movement with various and countless cues, simply think the simple idea of moving one dot at a time. It will feel a bit like going back to kindergarten, however, once you have begun to move dots, you and your body will learn at lightning speed through ever other movement you perform. I promise. But you must let go and let dots! Suzi Alderete, [email protected] 146