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The Posterior Chain

chronic pain classes : class 1 lab
Click on the Scientist to move to the Lab portion of Class 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

chronic pain classes : posterior chain

    Class one is mainly an introduction designed to prepare your body and mind for the structural integration you will undergo in the following nine classes. In class one, we spend the first week lengthening out long muscle chains and getting a head start on some of the areas that are frequently more difficult to release. These areas are as follow: the rib cage, the posterior chain, the neck, the quadratus lumborum(in the low back), and the hamstrings(on the backs of your upper legs). Beginning to lengthen these areas will give your body a good once over so that when we separate it into parts (like spending a whole class on the feet and lower legs versus another class on the head and neck), we will still be working with the whole. The only thing I really care to have you really understand right now is the posterior chain as this encompasses such a large area of your body and can bring you great physical freedom if you learn how to work with it.

     The posterior chain is a concept discovered by a French P.T. name Meziere. Meziere was working with people who were having great difficulty with their backs. She knew that if someone had a sway back (lumbar lordosis) that it would necessarily entail a shortening of the muscles of the lower back, but whenever she tried to lengthen these muscles, other muscles in the back would tighten. It was as if she was chasing the tension up and down the spine. In some cases it would even collapse the rib cage and cause breathing difficulties in the patient. Meziere eventually came to realize that there was a grouping of muscles that functioned as a connected chain . She called this the posterior chain . Meziere learned that if she was to help these people she could not isolate and lengthen just one part of the chain. Whenever she did the tension would move up the chain ( similar to whipping a rope). She discovered that the only way to fix the problem was to lengthen the whole chain at once. Now this posterior chain is quite large. It begins at the back of your neck right under the skull and encompasses almost every muscle of your back, your buttocks, and the back of your legs. It even encompasses the front of your legs, but for our purposes, don't worry about that.

     Lengthening out this posterior chain is going to be a key exercise to help you begin the processes of realigning your spine, your arms , your ribcage, your pelvis and your legs. I tell you these things, because I want you to know what you're doing when you stretch. Stretching with a clue is completely different than just stretching. I promise you. You can consciously let go of your posterior chain when you're doing your posterior chain stretch and you'll begin to feel (palpate) your musculature in this way. As you start to feel the restrictions in the posterior chain, you will simply let go of them and as you do, you will be able to bend further down.