Postural Therapies

Postural Therapy is what I work with in my clinical practice to a large extent as structure and function cannot be seperated. I work with chronic pain and orthopedic injuries. I have my own form of treatment I call Tensional Release Therapy which has several primary goals, one being to balance the structure in the field of gravity.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

I thought the science of Postural Therapy would be of interest to those in ATS land. These are Four of my teachers. They are masters of Fascial Therapy and Postural Therapy

Dr Micheal Shea and Eric Dalton and Tom Myers and Dr. George Roth, each an inventor of their own theapies as well.

The Grandmother of all Postural Therapy is Dr. Ida Rolf and she is the inventor of the original 10 structural integration treatments.
www.anatomytrains.com...

The Guild for Structural Integration is dedicated to the original teachings of Ida Rolf and the series of 10
www.rolfguild.org...

The Rolf Institute of Structural Integration is more eclectic with their view of the Ida Rolf Model
www.rolf.org...


Dr. Micheal Shea was my first teacher of the Ida Rolf method and receipe. He was a student of Ida Rolf. He also took and taught all the Visceral Manipulation Courses and Cranial courses with Upledger years ago. Dr Shea has since gone on to biocranial models and teaching of his own investigations.
michaelsheateaching.com...


[edit on 9-6-2007 by junglelord]

Eric Dalton is a Rolfer I met in Montreal in 2004 at a Soft Tissue Symposiom who also has experienced what I experienced, a broken neck. We have a lot in common, including we both use the Rolf Method, the CCP model and the work of Valdimir Janda, but he had published his particular work while I have only taught mine. He gave me a great neck treatment.

After He broke his neck in a judo match and fully healing he then took Osteopath and came up with some new Myoskeletal approaches based on The Common Compensatory Pattern and its relationship to the Postural Model. The Common Compensatory Pattern is related to the zones of transition (horizontal diaphragms) and the way you were carried in the womb
erikdalton.com...
www.somatics.de...
www.chiroweb.com...

He then integrated that concept with the work of Valdimir Janda MD and came up with His Dirty Dozen which I love.
erikdalton.com...

The Myoskeletal method simplifies assessment of painful neck, low back, shoulder, arm, and hand conditions by looking for A.R.T. = Asymmetry, Restriction of motion, and Tissue texture abnormality. Treating pain without improving posture is generally regarded as a quick-fix and, at best, only a temporary solution for helping our clients in need. Fortunately, the work of the great biomechanical researcher Vladimir Janda, M.D., has gifted the massage bodywork field with two very powerful tools for identifying muscle­ imbalance strain patterns that cause body asymmetry leading to pain.


It is no surprise that researchers find Janda's dysfunctional upper and lower crossed postural patterns in approximately 75 percent of all massage therapy clients reporting chronic neck, back, scapular, and hip pain. Since 1998, Dalton's "Dirty-Dozen" Myoskeletal Technique formula has proven amazingly successful in correcting these painful agonist-antagonist muscle imbalance patterns.

[edit on 9-6-2007 by junglelord]

Vladimir Janda
www.chiroweb.com...

The Sensorimotor system functions as one entity, integrating the central nervous system (CNS) and musculoskeletal system. The muscle4s are often a “window” to the function of the CNS. The CNS regulates two phylogenic subsystems: the tonic muscle group and the phasic muscle group. Each group of muscles has a predisposition for facilitation (tonic system) or inhibition (phasic system). Any change within the Sensorimotor system (due to pain, pathology or adaptive changes) will be reflected by compensation or adaptations throughout the system. This leads to systemic and predictable patterns of muscle imbalance. Dr. Janda has defined the characteristic Upper Crossed Syndrome, Lower Crossed Syndrome, and Layer Syndrome. These muscle imbalances often lead to changes in movement patterns, most notably seen with hip extension, hip abduction, shoulder abduction, push-up, cervical flexion, and trunk flexion.

Skeletal Muscular Janda Tonic/Phasic Postural Model:
One of the most important structural models and postural models that has evolved from the study of dynamic posture is the Janda Upper and Lower Crossed Syndromes. Muscular tension must be viewed as strong/tonic or weak/phasic. Typical muscle imbalances in the upper cross syndrome include postural tonic muscles that tend to be short and strong a prime example being the SCM and the pectoral muscles. Dynamic phasic muscles tend to be long and weak like the rhomboids and middle & lower trapezius. Therefore skeletal muscular approaches to patient care would evolve itself within the context of the JANDA Tonic/Phasic Model for the most success within the gravitational and postural structure equals function model.

Upper Cross Syndrome
Tight facilitated tonic postural muscles
pectorals, upper trapezius, levator scapula, SCM, antereior scalenus, suboccipitals, subscapularis, latissimus dorsi.

Upper Cross Syndrome
Weak inhibited phasic dynamic muscles.
Longus capitus, longus colli, hyoids, serratus anterior, rhomboids, middle and lower trapezius, posterior rotator cuff.

The Upper Cross Syndrome.
Notice how the tight line passes through the levator scapula, upper trapezius and the pectoralis, causing shoulder elevation and scapular protraction. Inhibition in the deep neck flexors and lower shoulder stabilizers permits this asymmetry.

Since the foreword head is the most common postural faults seen in our society Janda's upper cross syndrome is extremely helpful in visualizing exactly which muscles pull unevenly to create this distorted posture. Sustained hyper contraction in these typically tonic muscles elevates and protracts the shoulder while pulling the head anterior of the plum line.


Lower Cross Syndrome.
Tight Facilitated Tonic Postural Muscles
Iliopsoas, rectus femoris, hamstrings, T. F. L., piriformis, quadratus lumborum, thigh adductors, lumbar erectors.

Lower Cross Syndrome
Weak Inhibited Phasic Dynamic Muscles
rectus abdominus, gluteals, vastus medialis, vastus lateralis, transverse abdominis

The Lower Cross Syndrome
In the lower cross syndrome, the tight line passes through illiopsoas and lumbar erectors, which pull and hold the sway back posture. Reciprocal inhibition weakens the abdominal muscles and gluteals, allowing this dysfunctional pattern to develop. In the lower cross syndrome tight psoas cause anterior tilt of the pelvis, creating excessive lumbar lordosis. While erectors spinae myofascia contractors hold this bowing pattern. The weak abdominals and gluteals unable to stabilize the pelvis allow this sway back pattern to develop.

Proper balance in the skeletal, muscular must address imbalances in short tension muscles, versus weak long stretched muscles within the concept of tight tonic and weak phasic muscle groups. It is pointless to lengthen a long tight muscle. Tight tonic muscles require restoration of extensibility, while weak phasic muscles demand restoration of contractability. Therefore, tight muscles, create asymmetry, while weak muscles permit asymmetry.

Another master of postural therapy and teacher of mine is Tom Myers inventor of Anatomy Trains and Kinesis Myofascial Integration. He is a student of Ida Rolf, Buckminster Fuller the engineer responsible for Tensegrity and Moshe Feldenkrais a movement teacher.
www.anatomytrains.com...

Anatomy Trains® Myofascial Meridians is a revolutionary idea for understanding whole-body patterning in posture and movement. Anatomy Trains is a new map of the 'anatomy of connection' - precise fascial and myofascial links through the body that lead to new holistic strategies for identifying and resolving complex underlying problems.

This Anatomy Trains site is an on-going inquiry into the significance of form - how we take in, use and change with 'in-form-ation'. From the individual cell to the social and cultural context, we are interested in morphogenesis, as well as morphostasis and morphokinesis - how we get stuck, and how we mature and grow out of such restrictions.

Learn the Anatomy Trains concept by taking a tour of the origins and disposition of the fascinating fascial net. We look at its components, its embryology, and its properties in human functioning. By viewing the fascial net as a whole, we see how the body can be seen as a variety of 'tensegrity' structure, where the dynamic interaction among bones, muscles, and the connective tissues produces our stance, movement, and 'attitude'.

The 'rules of the game' are laid out, and then each of the 12 myofascial linkages are explained and illustrated while they are being built onto the skeleton. These common diagnostic elements, and some simple stretches to expose tensions in each line.
www.anatomytrains.com...

Anatomy Trains Explained
www.anatomytrains.com...
Anatomy Trains and Structural Integration
www.anatomytrains.com...
Anatomy Train Links page
www.anatomytrains.com...



[edit on 9-6-2007 by junglelord]

Another teacher of mine is Dr. George Roth DC
He now teaches Matrix Repattering, but when I took his work in 2000 it was called Tensegrity Therapy. My therapist is fully trained in the new and improved Matrix Repatterning which originally came from Mechanical Link and Dr Paul Chauffour Osteopath.
www.matrixrepatterning.com...


Tensegrity is "God's geometry", as developed by Buckminster Fuller. In KMI, Rolfing, Matrix Repatterning and other approaches to bodywork including my own Tensional Release Therapy, the tensegrity view on the body opens new avenues of holistic strategy for understanding how the body works, how it compensates, and how to understand some otherwise incomprehensible behaviors.

"Tensegrity" derives from collapsing "tension integrity" and means that the integrity of these class of structures depends on the balance of tension within it.

All structures in the universe are supported by a balance between tension and compression, between "push" and "pull". The chair sits on the floor, the lamp hangs from the ceiling - that's all the ways to support something there are. Shear, bending, and other forces are just combinations of basic tension and compression.

some fascial video reviews to get you up to speed on soft tissue theapy and connective tissue
www.terrarosa.com.au...