Tensegrity and back pain

Today I spent a bit of time on the aikido-L mailing list ( http://www.aikido-l.org ) discussing movement, tensegrity and back pain.

I think the section on back pain is relevent to the blog...actually, a lot of the movement stuff is as well. Much of my knowledge of movement, and my approach to movement therapy is based on aikido and Judo.

Feldenkrais based much of his system on Judo principles, so I guess I'm not in bad company.

Here is what posted to the email list:

>Lately I've been doing a lot of hands-on work with people with back
injuries.
What I've found is that if you treat the vertebral column and associated
myofascia as a tensegrity structure rather than a stack of blocks, people
recover more quickly from injuries, and suffer fewer chronic residual
effects from their injury. They also move more lightly with better posture,
and often gain an inch in height.

There are definite, real world, macro-structure applications.

For example:

Low back pain and bulging discs in the lumbar region.

Traditionally the bulging discs were viewed as the creating the pain due to
nerve entrapment. The traditional treatment approach has been surgical
removal of the disk...with a low enough success rate that "Failed Back
Surgery Syndrome" has become an actual medical diagnosis.

If you view the back as a tensegrity structure rather than a stack of
articulating blocks or a tent pole, the situation changes.
The bulging disk become a *symptom* of inappropriate tensions that have been
distributed across, and compressed the entire structure. The pain itself can
usually be explained and treated in terms of myofascial referral patterns,
also a symptom of inappropriate structural tensions.

If the tensions are correctly balanced, the bodies of the vertebrae will
actually lift off of each other, and minimal pressure will be exerted on the
intervertebral discs.
Range of motion improves, along with improvements in balance and
proprioception. Since the tensions throughout the structure have been
reduced, and the structure has actually lengthened (This is one of the
characteristics of a tensegrity structure, tighten one aspect, the entire
structure constricts, loosen any aspect, and the overall structure expands),
motion is more fluid and resilient.

It seems blatantly obvious when you look at it in retrospect. The vertebral
bodies are composed of light spongy bone, they aren't designed to be load
bearing. The bony projections (spinous and transverse processes, neural
arch) are dense, strong, compact bone. These bony processes are the load
bearing members. They are the rigid components floating within the
tensegrity structure. The intervetebral disks can be viewed as similar to
the bumpers on your car...there if needed, but not really intended for
load-bearing.

A simple shift in paradigms, a huge potential difference in the quality of
life of someone with chronic back issues.

Of course, if you had brought this up twenty years ago, it would have been
considered preposterous...after all,the mechanical models that were in place
at the time adequately described all the motions of the spine. (And from a
certain perspective, they still do) >>

If you aren't familar with the concept of a tensegrity structure, here is a good site:

http://www.anatomytrains.com/explore/tensegrity/explained

This is on Tom Myers' site. Myers is a phenomenal writer and lecturer, as well as a direct student of Ida Rolf, Buckminster Fuller, and Moshe Feldenkrais.

I strongly reccomend that anyone interested in the topics discussed here take a look at his material.