I first learned about fascia from either my first rental of Anatomy Trains from the University of Montana library in 2001, or my first introduction of Ida Rolf that same year, or my dear friend Dawn (who is a biodynamic craniosacral therapist and my somatic research partner). I am glad I met the fascial matrix in my body before I met all of the anatomy parts I would study so intensely in the years to come. I never lost sight of the interconnected web that we are, even when I added the titles personal trainer, corrective exercise and performance enhancement specialist.

I recall always being intrigued by systems and complex thought experiments. Living and unseen systems and the relationships in the systems to be specific (to this day I can barely understand the mechanical function of my own car). I was 17 when I remembered, “everything is in relationship to everything else and the wisdom lies in the relating”. That first major injury in my 20’s I eventually came to know as sacroiliac joint dysfunction.

The injury coincided with 15 years of dance training and my first pregnancy. My philosophical and spiritual connection with systems spilled over to my desire to find a way out of pain and immobility. Since then I have been designing bodymind movement systems. The first gift received (and it is a gift that keeps on giving) was Somatic Groundwork, who has been my companion my entire adulthood. The journey has also led to the creation of a creative framework and professional program called Interdisciplinary Movement & Somatics.

fascia in movement

Back to fascia. My knowledge about fascia got a huge update when I joined Embodied Biotensegrity in 2018. Chris Clancy, career yoga teacher and teacher trainer, designed the Embodied Biotensegrity platform to bring the most prominent educators of fascia science and biotensegrity together with avid learners from the movement education and body therapy fields. The timing was perfect for me as I had just started the somakinese platform which attracted an international circle of movement teachers and therapists. Together, for more than 2 years, we addressed the discrepancies between classical anatomy and biomechanics with biotensegrity and the current fascial research. Alongside our deep discourse and community embodied practice, we realized the wisdom in our somatic inquiry is largely generated through our fascial system. Presence – process – participation.

While writing this blog post, I remembered writing a list in my iphone notes after listening to a podcast earlier this year. In the podcast the guest was asked, “what is fascia?” I recall feeling their answer was incomplete and lacked dimensionality. I eagerly took to my phone and tapped out this list to answer the question what is fascia:

• our sensory fabric giving us the gift of feeling felt
• our structural container expressing all that we have ever been and are in the moment
• the thing that connects every cell in our body to every other cell
• the thing that separates every part of our body from every other part allowing for differentiation + * spacialization between structures and systems (*thank you Joanne Avison)
• a living field that consciousness arises from
• a tuning system that listens, adapts and responds to vibration from light, sound, touch, electricity, wind and gravity
• a living architecture that deforms and reforms to maintain our tensional integrity as a body

At this point you might be wondering, “if fascia is everywhere in my body as a ubiquitous, continuous tissue then how is fascia in movement particularized?” I am sure there are many answers fascial therapists and movement teachers might offer. My answer: through a process of somatic inquiry and creative movement. Sensing practices bring our attention immediately to our fascial system and shifts the quality of sensory feedback sent to our brain. As our richest sensory organ, our fascial matrix is the way we feel ourselves in relationship . . . to everything.

somatic groundwork practice

Somatic Groundwork is a gentle movement and creative dance practice for deep recovery, improved coordination and embodied pleasure. Somatic Groundwork builds sensing skills from the ground up and the inside out with yielding and unwinding practices as the base. There are many flavors to Somatic Groundwork because the practice is more about how we approach practice rather than what we practice. Here is a video I just recorded that introduces an approach to unwinding by starting with a low lunge. The practice offers a tracking recipe for sensing fascia in movement that you can apply to any posture or form. I call this flavor of unwinding slow flow (see this post for an example of rock and roll Somatic Groundwork unwinding).

fascia as soft matter

There are several properties of fascia that come to mind that help us appreciate why unwinding practices are so vital to our health and felt-sense of movement liberation. In this post I am called to name the property of fascia as soft matter. Most of us have been taught our body functions like a human-made machine. Classical biomechanics applies the rules of machines to describe how our body functions (see this short lecture by Dr. Stephen Levin, founder of biotensegrity). Classical anatomy reduces our body to parts and then adds these parts back together again without adequately weaving relationship back into the picture (listen to this podcast with Joanne Avison on the Liberated Body).

Our bodies are living processes. We are not compression structures or fixed shapes. We are soft matter organisms that are in-formed, constantly re-shaping by the patterns that move through us. Soft matter is easily deformed (undergoes phase changes) by thermal fluctuations and mechanical stress. Consider trying to get ketchup out of a bottle. Even when the bottle is upside down, the ketchup isn’t sure whether to pour out or stay put. Give a hard thump on the base of the bottle (mechanical stress) and it will move more easily. Or if the ketchup is warmed from the refrigerator by sitting on the counter for 30 minutes (thermal fluctuation) the ketchup will pour more readily.

Fascia as soft matter is very sensitive to changes in tension-compression forces and will respond differently if the force is quick and direct or soft and sustained. A soft and sustained quality is met with a receptive response from our body and feels like the melting of tissue under hands or ease in our movement (flow state of fascia). A somatic approach is necessary for a therapeutic intervention as it lowers sympathetic tone and creates a felt-sense of embodied safety and support.

Self-myofascial unwinding through movement and soft-touch manual therapies are good choices for altering fascial fluid dynamics (slow intentional conversation with the body and warming of the tissues through movement or touch). For years my clients and students have expressed the benefits of Somatic Groundwork. They mention things like the reduction and elimination of chronic pain and emotional dis-stress, increase in mental clarity and vitality, and feelings of spaciousness and easy graceful movement.

Our fascial matrix demonstrates behaviors of both liquids and solids (+ any mesophase in between) and self-organization toward stability and minimal energy states. Getting curious about sensing while moving and allowing for a creative dance to unfold in the process is like the tuning of our body instrument to a harmonic state. Sensing into the fascial system and participating with your body’s impulses for movement is a powerful addition to your self-care rituals. Unwinding practices can be done from any position or posture, with attention to any body area, in whatever space you like and for 5 – 20 minutes most days of the week.

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In our culture and in these times, practices for deep recovery are priceless. Cumulative stress may come from working too much, carrying an excessive emotional load, societal oppressions, financial insecurity, confusion about the future and intergenerational trauma. Some things we have control over and other things are not in our control. To keep staying the path, we need to find our resource wells. These are practices or places that provide a felt-sense of spaciousness, safety and support. Even if for a few minutes or half a day, experiences of “okay” and “enough” remind us of our inherent resilience. Head spirals is a somatic movement practice for deep recovery through spinal unwinding.

systems sensing

Unwinding is a felt-sense term that is more experiential than anything. There is also a growing body of research that reveals how self-guided unwinding effects our neurobiology by eliciting both changes in our tissues and autonomic nervous system. Unwinding practices feel like your inner body is releasing excess tension and strain and giving back a softer, easier feeling and thinking state. Somatic Groundwork unwinding uses several different techniques that each involve systems sensing. One of these systems is the fascial matrix. Another primary system in Somatic Groundwork is that of connecting to ground and gravity and space, our primary system of support.

sensing into fascia

Sensing into fascia is a primary way to create shift in our autonomic nervous system. Our autonomic nervous system has a global effect on our emotional and mental states as well as to the quality of our tissues, or fascial system. An effective way to alter the tone of our nervous system, specifically to calm arousal (heightened activation) and elicit the rest and digest processes of our parasympathetic nervous system, is through sensing fascia. One Somatic Groundwork technique for unwinding is called rock and roll. Rock and roll is part of a yielding process that involves rhythmic rocking and soft body rolling in organic phrases of movement and rest.

Enter head spiral for spinal unwinding. Try this 13 minute practice with me from a bed or on the floor.

https://youtu.be/GVBjgZHkYPs

rock & roll spinal unwinding

With a focus to unwind your spine, a whole body experience unfolds. Somatic Groundwork unwinding is like self-massage therapy with movement. Due to a high density of sensory receptors embedded within the tissues of our fascial system, somatic movement is one of the best pain relievers that is “administered” to our self, by our self. The fascial matrix is a sensory fabric with over 200 million interoceptors and proprioceptors. Interoceptors monitor our inner body processes and proprioceptors monitor the relationship of our body organization with our environment.

Rock and roll techniques bring mindful attention to sensations like weight releasing, rolling points of contact, inner shape changes and push forces. As we track these sensations in movement, we directly participate with both interoceptive and proprioceptive input and alter the quality of information integrating in higher brain centers. What we monitor, we modify. Somatic movement and inquiry teaches sensing skills to help us move and feel better from the inside out.

If you are a movement teacher or therapist and want to weave somatic movement into your craft (through both the art and the science) take a look at our somatic teacher training: Interdisciplinary Movement & Somatics.

 

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Biotensegrity, fascia and somatic movement have exciting overlaps in the experiential realm. Interdisciplinary Movement & Somatics weaves somatic practice and theory with principles from biotensegrity, fascia science, structural kinesiology, dynamic systems theory, and the neuroscience of stress/trauma. Movement science helps us understand human movement and performance, injury prevention and rehabilitation, motor development and function. Embodied movement science brings attention and experiential practice to how patterns shape our behaviors and support whole-body organization.

Embodiment is your real-time, lived experience of coming into the thing. Embodiment is a process of tracking the felt-sense of how you are in the unseen spaces of your inner body and mind. Movement science is a technical field of study that helps movement teachers learn about how the systems of the body work together to provide efficient and coordinated movement. When we add a bottom-up approach to learning, we tap into our embodied experiences of moving. Principles of movement science no longer remain in the realm of cognitive theory but instead become enlivened through systems sensing.

somatic movement & inquiry

Somatic inquiry is a practice of paying attention to our body speak and how these impulses underlie our perceptions and behaviors (movement and/or actions). Movement, from a somatic viewpoint, expands beyond observable body action and includes movement of our inner body like thoughts, feelings, energy, breath and fluids.  Learning arises from sensing systems or tracking the relationships between felt-sense events

In somatics, we explore lived body consciousness by way of tracking sensation. Sensory information arises through inner force flows and embodiments and through the constraints or openings from environmental social forces.  Somatic Groundwork encourages active participation with subtle impulses and non-verbal communications arising from movement research. Systems sensing while moving allows for new choices in movement to appear and shines a light on underlying beliefs and habits. These ideas are discussed further in Sensing-perceiving-acting Cycle.

Somatics explores lived experience and recognizes body and mind as a unified whole. We are granted this exquisite thing called experience because of sensory receptions. These are sensory pathways that include: interoception, exteroception, proprioception and neuroception. Somatic movement first invites us to tune into our inner body through interoception + proprioception.  Together, these sensory receptions give us a kinesthetic intelligence. With practice we learn to track our body’s signals, impulses and vibrations. As we observe these felt-senses and refine our somatic techniques and skills, we notice appearances of other phenomenon like emotions, thoughts and narratives that braid with our movement patterns.

Our extensive sensory system largely arises from our tissue architecture. Within the fabric of our fascial matrix we are gifted with the ability to feel ourselves felt. For example, nearly every technique used to settle our nervous system (a primary skill for honest relating) is about tracking sensory feedback or eliciting sensation that is relayed from or through our fascia (breathing, grounding, rocking, rolling, bouncing, shaking, humming, sounding, tapping, etc.). Further, we come to know our nervous system states (defense postures) because of how sensations travel from the fascial system to higher integration centers in the brain.

biotensegrity & nature’s design

Tension and compression are the forces that both hold our body together and create the virtual spaces within our form that keeps things apart. The physical representation of these invisible forces are made visible in a tensegrity structure.  The word tensegrity is the blending of the words tension + integrity. Buckminster Fuller coined this architectural concept and his student Kenneth Snelson developed it further through his sculptural works. Tensegrity is the synergistic relationship between tension and compression. In the images of Snelson’s Needle Tower below, the stainless steel cables are under continuous tension and the aluminum tubes are under discontinuous compression.

Needle Tower – Kenneth Snelson

At the National Mall in Washington D. C. in the 1970’s, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Stephen Levin was inspired by Needle Tower. He had been looking for a new design model for the human body that was more closely aligned with our movement function and organization. Levin established the term “biotensegrity” as a branch of science and brought the principles to the study of human posture and movement.  Biotensegrity is the study of how the principles of tensegrity manifest themselves into biology and living systems. To hear about Dr. Levin’s journey and how he developed biotensegrity, watch this series with kinesiologist and movement scientist Leonid Blyum.

Cells, molecules and tissues demonstrate the building principle of tensegrity that we see in human-made models and structures (read more from cell microbiologist Donald E. Ingber). In living systems, fractals and nested tensegrities are part of biological pattern formation and complexity. Triangulated tensegrity structures are found in nature because they are efficient and possess a high mechanical strength with a minimum of materials. The ground breaking imagery in Strolling Under the Skin, filmed by hand surgeon Jean Claude Guimberteau, shows the fractalization of our living tissue. Tap here for a small 2-minute clip.

Biotensegrity is a complex-systems science where fascia is the star of the show. In fact, without the first principles of biotensegrity (see Graham Scarr’s book), fascia is poorly misunderstood.  For hundreds of years, fascia was discarded during cadaver dissection. Fascia, being absolutely everywhere, made it messy to see more defined structures like organs, vessels and muscles. This ubiquitous, undefined “scruffy stuff” was considered inert and thrown away to get to the easily defined parts.

We study anatomy in order to identify, describe and understand these parts of our human body. One limitation with classical anatomy is due to the practice of dissecting structures and studying them as isolated events. Biotensegrity is a science that seeks to understand how the parts are interconnected from molecule to organism. A primary question in biotensegrity may be: how do nature’s principles create living organization at every size scale?

fascia in movement

Maybe Ida Rolf, or my friend Dawn, was the first time I read the word fascia.  I am glad I had the images found in Thomas Myer’s book Anatomy Trains to complement the science.  Dawn and I were facilitating an embodiment lab with a group of students to research different western somatic methods. During those experiential classes, I tapped into the felt-sense of fascia . . .  without knowing it was fascia.  

In those early introductions to fascia during my time at the University of Montana Dance Department, I understood that fascia connected things, like muscles.  I applied fascia to muscle slings and was able to appreciate that muscles did not work in isolation. And I learned about a mysterious fluid called ground substance that seemed to be highly intelligent. At the time, I also believed that fascia was something only manual therapists could access for healing and repair.  

Somatic Groundwork is a movement practice that has been developing parallel to my life path.  Turns out the reason Somatic Groundwork helps in such a good way is because it relates with this global fabric of fascia through mindful attention, unwinding, the tracking of forces and weighted contact with ground. I took a course with John Sharkey through Embodied Biotensegrity in early 2019 that was an introduction to biotensegrity. The course was also about fascia. At that moment I realized my knowledge about both sciences was minimal. My movement science bubble popped. 

To really understand how fascia does what it does, a shift from classical anatomy and biomechanics to biotensegrity is a requirement. Otherwise, the fascial matrix essentially gets boxed into a limited scope (read Joanne Avison’s book).  Fascia illustrates a living architecture that is recursive, non-linear, emergent, geometric, multi-dimensional, adaptable, responsive . . . hey, that sounds a lot like nature. Biotensegrity is based on universal principles of design that can be applied to all living organisms at every size scales. Further, this is a science that sparks embodied resonance for movement teachers and manual therapists. I highly recommend Susan Lowell de Solorzano’s book for more about how biotensegrity informs human movement.

Explore fascia in movement with this 45 minute Somatic Groundwork class.

weaving

As a movement teacher and dancer, I am excited about what biotensegrity brings to my understanding of movement science.  When it comes to teaching and studying movement, bridging experiential learning with evidence-based research has long sparked my curiosity. The fundamental principles in biotensegrity echo my own organic and creative somatic movement research.  Experience (maybe even consciousness) is made possible through the 250 million sensory receptors (recent findings here) embedded in our fascial matrix.

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The sensing-perceiving-acting cycle (SPA cycle) provides a map with which to understand the learning process.  As movement educators, we often teach others how to move in new and different ways.  We may focus on education for performance and recreation, guide techniques to develop expression and creativity or use movement as medicine for healing and repair.  Whatever intention movement serves, often times the first steps require disentangling holding patterns and changing habits before refining and adding new movement skills.

As movement teachers, we access the autonomic nervous system, fascial matrix and neuromuscular system to create change. These systems are targeted through specific movements and by paying attention to particular sensory channels. Importantly, the movement practice invites curiosity and inquiry about our landscapes of experience. In other words, somatic movement is our doorway to promoting meaningful and sustainable change. And the SPA cycle is a useful map in the process.

Somatic Movement

Somatic movement involves tuning into the experience of movement while moving. Somatic movement focuses our mind’s attention on our body’s voice. Our body’s voice is heard through the language of sensations and vibrations and forces and charges. The qualities we sense through our tissues become our feelings and thoughts and inform our movement choices. Movement is one primary way we commune with life. Through moving, sensations provide feedback to our brain and help organize our next movement action. The SPA cycle is an ongoing conversation of learning and adapting.

In somatic movement practice, instead of focusing on making the right shapes, or hitting the ideal rep range, or pushing for a goal, attention is on the moment unfolding. The somatic viewpoint is the first person perspective of our body; our lived experience; the personal consciousness of the body itself.  Somatic awareness turns up the volume on tracking sensation as a self-research tool.  Perception is the combined information from our internal senses + the environment + our unique associations to the sensations. Our action plan, our movement, is organized based on how we perceive the incoming information that our central nervous system receives.  Somatic movement is powerful way to access the sensing-perceiving-acting cycle to create change.

Movement Re-patterning

Chances are, if you are a movement teacher, you have instructed a student or client to fix or change something.  Perhaps you asked them to position their knees, or to shift their weight over their hips, or to breath in a certain tempo, or to activate a certain muscle group in an exercise. Whatever the cue, the person heard what you said and then attempted the correction, only to “lose form” or fall back into habit.  You try giving the cue a second time, and maybe a third, but the “fix” remains temporary. Movement re-patterning requires not only external feedback, in the form of coaching or instruction, but also internal feedback, based on our body’s experience of itself.

Even if the cue is clear, and your client understands what is instructed cognitively, that is not always enough to change the holding pattern. Learning is ingrained over time and movement is a perfect example.  Imagine if we had to think through the steps for bending over every time we needed to pick something up, or tie our shoes, or smell the flowers.  To promote survival, our neurobiology has become genius at organizing the symphony to play millions of sonatas without needing our conscious attention.  Brilliant! . . . until we need to replace the violin section or tune the trumpets. How to update the pattern?

Like a symphony of instruments and musicians and conductors and sheet music housed in a theatre to play for an audience . . . a holding pattern is complex. A holding pattern is a habitual movement behavior that limits someone’s ability to participate in life to their desired capacity. They can have any combination of emotional, psychological, social, ancestral and/ or structural influences. 

Sound impossible to work with using movement? Well, what I have found is that with the SPA cycle as map along with the principles of Somatic Groundwork, holding patterns can be identified and replaced through a process of discovery and application.

Sensing-perceiving-acting Cycle

The sensing-perceiving-acting cycle helps us understand, in a simple and basic way, how we learn.  At birth, we are gifted with a starter kit in the form of reflexes.  A reflex is a motor response, a movement, that automatically happens when a particular stimulus occurs (think sensation).  Stimuli come through many channels, including how we are touched and how we touch/ make contact with our environment, caregivers and our own bodies. All of this sets the tone for how we yield into the world. These early reflexes ensure that we survive by providing our neuromyofascial web a quick start guide on how to eat and how to get there.  Along the way, we receive a lot of new feedback as we move and sense new things by coming into relationships.  

The forces of our environment, experienced through our body’s architecture, are constantly at play and are at the core of our development. These forces are the signals of our earliest sensory experiences.  These patterns of vibration and mechanical stress determine our tissue shape and the composition of our fascial matrix which  gives rise to the organization of our structure as a whole (read more about fascia and tensegrity here).  Another view into the dance between form and function.  

The SPA cycle is a looping of sensations, perceptions, and actions that inform one another in constant and rapid succession.  These feedback loops are intrinsic to the continuous learning and adapting process. When we are tasked to climb the stairs, most of the time, unless we have pain or injury, we just do it without any thought at all, the task is reflexive. Under the hood, there is a relay of information processing happening between the inner and outer landscapes of our experience.  As we move, our fascia and nervous system is registering feedback from our environment through a variety of sensory channels.  

Slowing Down to Intercept the Ball

At the heart of somatic movement patterning is slowing down. We practice slowing down the movement to the speed at which the experience can be tracked. The first skills include the ability to tune into our soma and to settle our nervous system. We tune in to listen to our body in a fresh way. We listen to the language of sensation. Paying attention to our body in movement gives us cues about how our body organizes movement, about the nuts and bolts of our motor control.

When it comes to teaching movement, if our student or client has a holding pattern limiting progression, the external feedback in the form of our cue or verbal instruction may not be helpful.  Instead, guidance on how to “intercept the ball” in the SPA cycle may provide the most efficient learning pathway. For example, one of the primary sensory channels we track in Somatic Groundwork is force transfer through our fascial matrix. If I slow down in a floor bridge and pay attention to how the foot push travels through my lower body, I may notice that it gets stuck below my knees. In that moment, perhaps there is a belief that surfaces about my knees being weak. With this realization, a new inquiry arises: how can I move the force through my knees? And what happens when I do?

The process of monitoring with attention and modifying with intention is the basis for neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to adapt and repattern the neural circuitry through our daily routines and practices. Neurons have the ability to change their structure and function in response to experience which ultimately affect perception and behavior. Where does a present moment experience emerge from? Our felt-sense. The spaces between raw sensory data and perception.

Behavior change requires tuning in to our felt-sense before the action or reaction takes place.  Say I desire to improve my listening skills, for example, and change a habit of interrupting people in conversation. First I might begin some self-research by tracking the energy and charges and story happening within me when I am around others. Am I anxious?  Do I feel tense?  How is my breathing?  Who are my thoughts while a conversation is occurring?  Am I actually present to the moment in front of me or am I lost in myself while others are talking?  By focusing attention to my inner lived experience, I discover what underlies the interrupting habit.

Engaging in the SPA cycle begins with slowing down and paying attention inward to inspect the underpinnings of our sensory life. When we slow down sufficiently enough to check-in and research what is moving inside of us, we find the key to changing behavior.  External feedback from a trusted person is part of our journey toward change. Yet, the internal feedback we gather through somatic practice is like tending to the soil from which the plants grow.

Conclusion

As movement teachers, we thrive on educating our students and clients to discover new connections in their movement training and practices.  One common challenge we face are the inevitable roadblocks of holding patterns that cause limitations due to cumulative injury, pain and under-recovery. We are not keen as a culture to slow down and tune into the intimacy of our lived experience to nurture change. Quick fixes, doing rather than being and forcing outcomes are tendencies in western society. Somatic movement practice offers a different way to support change by moving from the inside out.

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introduction to cumulative injury

Cumulative injury describes injury that has been lurking around in the body for weeks, months, or even years that suddenly makes itself known. Usually it appears in response to a normal every day action, like bending over to tie your shoes, reaching for a plate from a shelf or moving suddenly in response to an environmental stimulus (like the doorbell ringing). The movement in and of itself is not significant enough to account for the resulting pain, spasm, movement limitation or tissue inflammation. Rather, it was the last straw. The final Jenga block to be added. The tipping point for our body’s ability to manage (cumulative) stress without insult.

Cumulative injury often starts as a low grade, nagging sensation. These first sensations usually feel like a nuisance and are often ignored rather than addressed. These complaints range from minor knee pain when running, throbbing low back sensations after driving for several hours, or neck stiffness and excess tension resulting in limited mobility. These injuries are usually considered par for the course.

holding patterns

Often overlooked is how these long-term and subtle annoyances may be indicators that whole body organization is compromised and needs a pattern update. Patterns of movement are real-time events woven from our past experiences. Generally, a pattern is something that occurs over and over again with repetition and in a predictable way. One name for a behavioral pattern that becomes problematic to our well-being is holding pattern.

Holding patterns are historical events that shape our tissues and neurobiology and were established as the best adaptive strategy available in the moment.  Overtime, the adaptive response perpetuates a cascade of unfavorable changes that may result in any combination of structural, emotional or psychological changes. Broadly, cumulative injury may be a woven tendril within a holding pattern that limits our ability to participate in life with full capacity.

In this context, cumulative injury is not rooted neatly in physical injury to tissue. Our experience of injury and pain is far more complicated than localized inflammation or tissue trauma (check out the leading theory on pain here: neuromatrix theory of pain). We need to consider cumulative injuries beyond tissue damage and their symptoms as emerging from our holding patterns.

what is injury?

At a basic level, injury is understood to be physical harm or damage done to a living thing. Physical is a term that points to coming from our body, or sensed within our body. What is felt, or experienced within our body is influenced by sensory pathways and proprioceptive abilities along with a whole host of brain centers that form our subjective consciousness.

Along with our nervous system, we also have a body-wide communication system within the fascial matrix. Current research by Robert Schleip finds that there are 250 million sensory receptors in the fascial matrix (check that out here) sending information not only to the central nervous system, but also acting as a mechanosensitive communication network through the fascial architecture. The interoceptive and proprioceptive input from the fascia integrates in the insular cortex and forms the shape of our perceptions (beliefs, motivations, expectations) while giving rise to the felt-sense.

Our experience is shaped from these perceptual artifacts which, in turn, become the patterns of our behavior. As we move with the world, through our actions and interactions, our sensory receiving is the ground for our connection and somatic aliveness. The incoming sensory feedback (collected, transmitted, and integrated) presents the present to our perceptual awareness. Whether or not we catch the moment is up to our mental conditioning and somatic presence. This sensing-perceiving-acting cycle is the basic process underlying experiential learning and forms the storyline we live.

Injury as a physical manifestation has multiple dimensions. Injury as an experience of physical harm or damage can influence the function of our body systems in a number of ways. Cumulative injury that manifests as tissue stiffness, tension and inflammation may be attributed to structural, psychological and/or social factors. Cumulative injury and pain is usually far more complex than localized tissue damage alone.

cumulative injury and culture

Movement science recognizes repetitive movement injury as a cause for muscle imbalances and myofascial restrictions. Many jobs and occupations require hours of repetitive action to perform the work. Additionally, common to modern society is the addiction to work, or overwork, that brings with it mental and emotional dis-ease. And then there is the reality that full-time work in many industries falls short on providing the means for a safe and secure living due to the the uneven distribution of resources.

Our culture shapes us through belief systems, worldviews and identity politics. Our lived experience is felt through our understanding of self . . . an emergent phenomenon based on the interdependence of of our individual body within the collective body. A reductionist approach turns a blind eye to the multiple relationships underlying our body’s physical ailments; the internal and external forces in our lives cannot be teased apart.

Our personal histories, our experience of belonging and our socio-cultural milieu live within our body architecture. These very things are the forces that pattern our movement, our behavior, our lives. Cumulative injury presenting as non-specific low back pain, for example, is best addressed through a somatic lens with respect to the complex nature of a holding pattern.

I encourage movement teachers to expand their understanding of injury to include the continuous interaction of our biological, psychological, spiritual and social dimensions. In regard to movement education, an interdisciplinary approach born from somatic inquiry and practice is a safe and effective pathway for helping people with healing and repair. For many of us, a common denominator underlying cumulative injury is under-recovery.

chronic stress, under-recovery and adaptation

Unfortunately, living with and managing chronic stress is a norm for modern humans. Due to the dis-ease that chronic stress fuels, we often think of stress as “something bad” to experience. Yet it’s not that simple. Stress is an essential part of survival and adaptation. Good stress, or eustress, promotes positive change and growth within a system.

Eustress is:

1) the right amount of challenge

2) at the right time

3) with enough available resources to successfully meet the challenge

4) and with an opportunity to replenish resources afterwords.

An example of eustress is the preparation and successful delivery of a creative project that is well received. Eustress occurs in the proper training and performance of a marathon race. Even a difficult emotional situation, like a confrontation with a loved one, can be eustress depending on how you felt about the outcome. If the heated conversation meets resistance, and defense strategies appear in yourself and the other, most likely this event will be a distress to your system. A distress is an experience to the detriment of your well-being.

So what determines if stress will lead to growth or to depletion?

Stress is part of how we adapt and change as an individual, as a community and as a species. Stress becomes a pattern overload based on the volume (how much) and intensity (how fast) of the stimulus. Timing is also central to how well we manage a stressor. Did the stressor occur suddenly without the time to prepare? Are the stressors stacking up, one after the other, without an opportunity to recover in between?

So often, the challenge of stress comes from the experience of:

1) too much

2) too fast

3) and occurs too frequently.

When stress begins to stack up in our system (when too much is going on and when it’s all too overwhelming) breakdown on some level is bound to occur. Recall that part of the cycle of a eustress involves having enough available resources to meet the challenge. These resources include time, energy and support. Our neurobiological systems also need adequate time to recover and replenish our resources before the next stressor shows up.

One way to frame a traumatic experience is that it remains in our system as an unresolved stressor (and often lives outside of our perceptual awareness). In this way, trauma is unmetabolized, unresolved, stacked up energy that causes all kinds of havoc to our physiology and somatic aliveness.

Chronic stress and trauma retentions:

1) shift how we orient to the world

2) influence our coping strategies

3) underlie physical and emotional pain and discomfort

4) diminish our relational capacity

The good news is that we are nature and nature’s design includes inherent resilience. All humans experience some degree of distress and trauma. Fortunately, our power of resilience moves through us as a wave with the momentum of 4 billion years. Life’s hardships rarely end our ability to experience joy and other feelings of well-being. Based on severity and origin, there are different appproaches to healing past traumas, learning to manage the everyday ups and downs and navigating the unexpected storms to come. Somatic movement and inquiry can serve as a good companion for encouraging gentle healing and repair.

a pathway to healing and repair

When we are at ease our bodymind is mentally calm, emotionally steady and physically grounded. From a baseline of ease, we have a greater capacity for dealing with everyday stressors before feeling overwhelmed, frayed or anxious. From the perspective of the nervous system, a sense of ease and calm comes from accessing the rest and digest function of the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS).

Eliciting PNS tone provides:

1) physiological recovery

2) a felt-sense of inner stability and embodied support

3) access to creativity and unpredictability

One way to elicit the PNS is embodied active rest, or yielding. Yielding shifts activity from doing to being. This state of consiousness involves paying attention to sensing through our body. The transition from doing to being is simple, yet not always easy. For some folks, coming home to our body through the intimate practice of sensing is uncomfortable, awkward and intimidating. Sometimes, sensing practices reveal subconscious material. Somatic Groundwork is a trauma-informed method. Baked right into the movement system are grounding resources for support, cues that encourage personal sovereignty and intentional somatic containing.

Somatic Groundwork is an experiential and creative movement practice that is fascia-oriented. Through movement awareness, we experience the gift of feeling felt and influence changes in our primary regulatory systems- the fascial matrix and autonomic nervous system. The outcomes of practice include easing chronic symptoms from stress and under-recovery like pain, discomfort, and emotional dis-ease while generating positive changes in movement quality and function.

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From a structural perspective, the shoulder complex is two interrelated joint systems: the shoulder joint and the shoulder girdle. The shoulder complex needs the unified action of each system to provide both the expressive role and diverse functional requirements of the upper connection.  As the shoulder joint is the most mobile joint in the body, the shoulder girdle is needed to anchor and stabilize the work of the arms and to transfer/ reciprocate force from the upper limbs to the spine/ core of the body.

Due to our contemporary patterns of cell phone use, computer use, driving, and general disconnection from the ground, as well as our psycho-emotional holding patterns and processes, our upper connection suffers.  The shoulder complex is intimately related to the health of the neck and rest of the spine, our breathing quality, posture and alignment, and our connection with the world.

As movement educators, whether it be in yoga, dance, fitness, sport, somatics, martial arts, or recreation, helping our “movers” find stability, strength, and power in the upper connection is one of our challenges.  To be confident in your program design, it is helpful to understand the joint actions, myofascial structures, and force-couple relationships in the shoulder complex.  Our skill-set also includes the ability to guide experience through language, to cue effective movement at the shoulder, and to both ask for and provide feedback.

Quite a task!  So let’s break this down, layering in one concept at a time.  First, the bones and joints of the shoulder complex will be identified.  Then, the joint actions of the shoulder complex will be discussed.  Next, helpful myofascial considerations and relationships will be reviewed.  The discussion will conclude with a method for applying the concepts presented.

Structural Kinesiology of the Shoulder Complex

Kinesiology is the study of movement, performance and function. The overlap of several sciences are found in kinesiology including anatomy, physiology, and biomechanics.  Structural kinesiology has a specific focus on muscle, bones, and joints.  With the current understanding of the neuromyofascial web, structural kinesiology helps us get a sense of the bony layer, the interaction of joints across the kinetic chain, and how this relates to myofascial slings or movement subsystems.  When incorporating the structural principle of tensegrity into our movement training, one that recognizes compression in balance with tension, the components of structural kinesiology are viewed as interrelated parts in an ever adapting environment of forces.

Bones and Joints of the Shoulder Complex

The shoulder girdle surrounds the top of the axial skeleton like a cloak. The axial skeleton includes the bones of the skull, spinal column, rib cage, sacrum, and tailbone. The bones of the shoulder girdle include the right and left clavicle and the right and left scapula.  Each clavicle articulates with the manubrium, the top bone of the sternum, anchoring the shoulder girdle to the axial skeleton.

The glenohumeral joint, or the shoulder joint, is the articulation between the scapula and the humerus on each side of the body.  The shoulder joint is a ball and socket joint with the head of the humerus moving within the shallow glenoid fossa of the scapula.

There are three joints to consider with the shoulder girdle: the sternoclavicular (joint between sternum and clavicle), the acromioclavicular (joint between the clavicle and acromion process of the scapula), and the scapulo-thoracic joint. The scapulo-thoracic joint is not a “true joint” but rather the translation or movement of the scapula on the thoracic spine.

The sternoclavicular and acromioclavicular joints have limited motion, yet these interrelated joint actions are incredibly important for healthy shoulder motion.  With that said, as movement professionals, our work is mainly with the shoulder joint and the scapulo-thoracic joint.  When these joints work well together, for the most part, so do the other joints of the shoulder complex.

Scapulohumeral Rhythm and the Joint Actions of the Shoulder Complex

Scapulohumeral rhythm is the coordinated motion of the scapula and humerus during shoulder movement.  Scapulohumeral rhythm describes the related joint motion between the glenohumeral and scapulo-thoracic joints.  Some experts relay that the relationship has a 2:1 ratio so that for every 2 degrees of glenohumeral motion there is 1 degree of scapular motion. However, there can be quite a bit of individual variation and the ratio may change based on the movement task.

In the above image, we are seeing movement in the frontal plane: the scapular motion is upward rotation and the shoulder joint action is abduction.  In each plane of motion, the joint actions of the shoulder girdle and the shoulder joint work together to allow for full range of motion.  Above, if the scapula does not move properly when the arm moves into abduction then movement limitation and joint impingement may occur causing joint inflammation, tissue adhesion, and pain.

The shoulder joint moves in all planes of motion: abduction and adduction in the frontal plane; flexion and extension in the sagittal plane; internal and external rotation and horizontal abduction and horizontal adduction in the transverse plane.  The ball and socket joint also allows for full circumduction or arm circling.

Scapular motion on the rib cage includes upward and downward rotation, elevation and depression, and retraction and protraction.  The scapulae also have the tendency to tip. We commonly call anterior tipping (where the top of the scapula tips forward and the inferior angle pokes out) scapular winging.

Of course joints don’t move bones on their own, they are moved by muscle, stimulated by the nervous system, functionally influenced by the fascial net, which is in constant response to both the inner and outer environments through sensory feedback, hormones and unconscious processes. Obviously there are many factors we can discuss when looking at the influences of movement efficiency and coordination.

Keeping the scope within structural kinesiology presently, next we will take a look at several muscle synergies and myofascial considerations.

Scapular Stabilization

The stabilization systems of the shoulder complex give rise to the freedom of the upper connection.  As parts to a greater whole, these stabilization systems support force transfer across the joint segments, through the arm, and into the central weave of the body.

Do you remember how the shoulder joint and shoulder girdle share a common bone – the scapula? And do you recall that the shoulder girdle actually attaches to the axial skeleton at the sternum via the sternoclavicular joint?  Well, imagine managing a load in your right arm, say a grocery bag . . . how is it that the weight of the grocery bag doesn’t dangerously pull on the collar bone and separate it from the manubrium?

The answer is because of the scapulothoracic joint and its attachments to the back body via the scapular stabilizers. The muscular connection of the scapula to the thorax provides a foundation for the work of the arms and to the loads they negotiate. The five scapular stabilizers are pectoralis minor (the only one of the group that lies on the anterior aspect of the body), trapezius (upper, middle, and lower portions with separate innervations), rhomboids, levator scapulae, and serratus anterior. These scapular stabilizers arise from the axial skeleton and attach directly to the scapula.

One primary relationship of the scapular stabilizers is between the rhomboids and serratus anterior.  Rhomboids retract the shoulder blade while serratus anterior protracts the shoulder blade.   Optimal muscle length-tension relationships between these two (yet fascially continuous) muscles promotes a balanced scapular position.

Along with this insight, let’s consider the force couple for promoting upward rotation of the shoulder blade.  Remember that when the arm moves to the side, in shoulder abduction, the shoulder blade upwardly rotates.  Three muscles synergistically create this motion: serratus anterior, upper trapezius, and lower trapezius.

Now consider a cue that is often given to enforce shoulder girdle stability in movement: keep the shoulder blades down and back.  If the arms are moving overhead, and the cue is to keep the shoulder blades “down and back” there is a movement paradox at play.

The rhomboids will be called upon to keep the shoulder blades in retraction (moving toward the spine), yet the motion of the arms overhead requires some degree of protraction created by serratus anterior in scapular upward rotation.  If serratus anterior is inhibited to shorten, because the rhomboids are keeping the shoulders “back”, then shoulder blade motion will be problematic and excessive elevation by the upper traps will need to occur to lift the arms.  Or, alternatively, shoulder abduction will be forced without proper scapulohumeral rhythm and shoulder pain and possible joint damage can occur.

The take away here is that there are intimate relationships between the muscles of the shoulder girdle (like the force-couple of upward rotation) to provide healthy shoulder joint mechanics. Additionally, there are myofascial considerations, like the fascial unity between the rhomboids and serratus anterior.

A better cue when lifting the arms overhead may be to sense the shoulder blades moving like wings, spreading wide, and hugging the sides of the rib cage.  Scapular stability will be enhanced and proper joint motion can occur with efficient scapulohumeral rhythm.

The concentric use of serratus anterior is important when either reaching out with the arms or when pushing away with the arms (like when pushing away from the ground or when pushing a box onto a high shelf or moving furniture across a room).

Shoulder Joint Stabilization

The glenohumeral joint has its own stabilization group that keeps the humeral head in the shallow glenoid fossa of the scapula.  These four muscles, collectively called the rotator cuff muscles, have the acronym SITS: subscapularis, infraspinatus, teres minor, and supraspinatus.  These muscles are also important for movement providing internal rotation, external rotation, and abduction.  They are deep to the prime movers of the shoulder joint and key to healthy shoulder function.

The side view of the glenoid fossa pictured here illustrates the rotator cuff muscles in relationship to the acromion, the scapular prominence that articulates with the clavicle in the shoulder girdle.  The acromion is like a bridge under which passes the tendon of supraspinatus.  The space between the two is called the subacromial space.

This space can become condensed with postural deviations like upper crossed syndrome, where resting postural position may include excessive joint actions like scapular elevation and/or anterior tipping and shoulder joint internal rotation.  Excessive thoracic kyphosis and cervical extension are also common in this postural deviation.

When the subacromial space narrows, not only is the tendon of supraspinatus at risk for impingement, but also the tendon of the long head of the biceps brachii and the joint’s bursae (fluid filled sacs that act like lubricating cushions in the joint at specific places of friction).

In terms of center directed motor programming, the joint stabilization system ideally comes online first, before the prime movers.  When motor programming is altered, and the joint stabilization system is not adequately performing, the prime movers will have the double duty of stabilizing the joint and moving the joint through space.  Prime movers are not suited for joint stabilization, so this strategy will eventually cause joint wear and tear.

Prime Movers of the Shoulder Joint

So far we have discussed the shoulder girdle stabilizers (muscles that arise from the axial skeleton and attach to the scapula) and the shoulder joint stabilization system, or the rotator cuff (muscles from the scapula to the head of the humerus).  The superficial muscular layer are the prime movers of the shoulder joint, which includes: latissimus dorsi, pectoralis major, and deltoid (anterior, medial, and lateral portions).

The deltoid forms a shoulder “pad” surrounding the shoulder joint and rotator cuff muscles.  The deltoid seemlessly merges with the trapezius across the bony station of the scapular spine and clavicle.

Pectoralis major and latissimus dorsi arise from the axial skeleton and commonly attach to the anterior aspect of the humerus under the deltoid at the intertubercular sulcus. The fascial continuity of pec major and latissimus dorsi indicates the influence these muscles have on the movement of the arm. The broad attachments of latissimus dorsi on the back body and pec major on the front body further illustrate their importance in powerful and athletic movement of the upper connection.

Additionally, the latissimus dorsi and pectoralis major are key contributors in two myofascial slings that link each arm to its opposite limb through the “core” of the body.  These slings are the Functional Lines in Anatomy Trains and are also described as the Posterior Oblique Subsystem and Anterior Oblique Subsystem.

Functional Movement Subsystems

The two Functional Lines essentially link shoulder girdle to pelvic girdle across the body so that we may visualize an X on both the anterior and posterior body.  Consider the contralateral organization of gait with the arms swinging in opposition to the legs.  When the right arm is forward, at the moment of left heel strike we can imagine the anterior X: right pectoralis major passing to rectus abdominus and the obliques crossing the midline to the contralateral adductors.

If we imagine the the left arm swinging back at the same moment when the right foot is in toe-off we have the posterior X: left latissimus dorsi feeding into the thoracolumbar fascia and crossing the midline to the contralateral gluteus maximus.

These myofascial slings describe four interrelated pathways that generate power and movement in the transverse plane.  The coordinated action of the shoulder complex is influenced by the entire myofascial line.

Fascial restriction in any one of the four pathways will effect the function of the other pathways. For example, if the right anterior sling is restricted (functionally shortened) the left posterior sling will be functionally lengthened, potentially causing altered joint mechanics in the shoulder complex.

Push and Pull

One perspective of looking at movement from a functional lens is through the basic movement patterns.  Basic movement patterns describe the primary movements utilized on a daily basis in order to successfully solve movement problems in our environment. Of the seven basic movement patterns, two seem worthwhile to mention here: upper body push and upper body pull. 

Upper body push was mentioned earlier when discussing shoulder girdle upward rotation and is the action of pushing resistance away from the body or pushing the body away from the ground. Conversely, pulling resistance toward the body or pulling the body toward something promotes the action of upper body pull.

Each pattern has its own set of joint actions and muscle synergies.  The joint actions in upper body push include shoulder girdle protraction and upward rotation and shoulder joint flexion, abduction, and horizontal adduction (think push-up) with elbow extension.

The joint actions in upper body pull include shoulder girdle retraction and downward rotation and shoulder joint extension, adduction, and horizontal abduction (think of pulling open a heavy door) with elbow flexion.

Muscles that concentrically contract in upper body push include the force couple for scapular upward rotation (serratus anterior, lower trapezius, upper trapezius) and pectoralis major, anterior deltoid, and the triceps.

Muscles that concentrically contract in upper body pull include the force couple for scapular downward rotation (pectoralis minor, rhomboids, levator scapulae) and latissimus dorsi, posterior deltoid, and the biceps.

Understanding these basic patterns can help with identifying effective language in cues and tracking support, sensation, and activation in movement practice.

Putting the Pieces Together

As movement professionals, we aim to help our students and clients find ease and efficiency in movement so that they can experience freedom in their lives to do what they want to do: play, recreate, and participate actively.  When the deeper layers of the body are organized optimally, the superficial layers promoting global movement will respond accordingly.  As the shoulder girdle is related to the spine and the movement of the pelvic girdle, it can be helpful to to consider the kinetic chain as a whole while also observing the function of the individual parts.

Taking into account the neuromyofascial web involves numerous processes, and often holding patterns live below conscious awareness, somatic inquiry seems to be an obvious place to begin.  In the case of motor learning and repatterning, somatic inquiry influences autonomic tone, improves self awareness through sensory feedback, and provides tools for self-regulation.

As somatic inquiry is the experiential science of the personal consciousness, the opportunity for self-organization emerges and further learning is enhanced.  Specific activation techniques and whole body integration exercises are well suited to follow felt-sense exploration as the body is in a “ripe” and ready state for applying new ideas in movement.

Interdisciplinary Movement & Somatics is my depth 250-hr teacher program for weaving somatic inquiry and movement science into 1:1 client programs. Movement assessments are part of this system as they provide insight to an individual’s habitual movement strategies.  As sensory feedback is what initiates motor action, a somatic approach is central for cultivating intrinsic body support.

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