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After
reading this book you will never again confuse facial with fascial. For
this book is primarily about this ubiquitous tissue known as fascia or
connective tissue. To be precise, it is about myofascia, i.e., the unit
made of muscle tissue and its wrapping and covering of connective tissue.
Nevertheless, it stresses fascia a lot more than muscle and the first
chapter, ‘The world according to fascia’, is a comprehensive study of
the still little known and understood role of fascia in posture and movement.
This chapter is rather technical and the author cautiously says that “the
more clinically-minded may wish to skip the antipasti and go straight
on to the main course which begins in Chapter 3”. I wouldn’t recommend
it, as fascia is fascinating.
The author, Tom Myers, is well qualified
for the job. A leading Rolfer and a member of the Life Science Faculty
for the Rolf Institute since 1987, he studied with Ida Rolf and Moshe
Feldenkrais and has practised Structural Integration for more than 20
years. He is also a well-known teacher in the fields of Science of Movement
and Structural Bodywork. His experience in teaching shows in the book
which, in spite of his complex subject, is never boring or stilted, thanks
to Myers’ informal style and often humorous tone. His enthusiasm for the
fascial ‘stuff’ is contagious and there is no known cure for it.
The book is user-friendly, loaded with beautiful
illustrations while the main discursive text is supplemented with ‘boxed’
text which includes information on application of the concepts and relevant
issues. The type of information contained in these boxes is marked with
icons, a bit in the fashion of ‘For dummies’ books. The quality of the
illustrations alone would justify using Anatomy Trains as a coffee-table
book. But it is primarily a text-book where any bodyworker can find something
to satisfy his/her curiosity, whether to learn or revise anatomy, or pick-up
hints on palpation or manual techniques. There is also, and it is rare
enough to be mentioned, a whole chapter on ‘bodyreading’ which describes
a method of postural analysis of standing.
Having said that, Anatomy Trains
is not just a book on what is currently known about the fascial web and
its importance in bodywork. It is above all an exposition of Myers’ personal
and original concept of myofascial continuities or lines through which
strain, tension, fixation, compensations, and movements can be distributed.
Although the concept of myofascial chains is not recent in Europe since
the discoveries, in 1947, by Françoise Mézières of Muscular Chains, Anatomy
Trains represents, to my knowledge, the first Anglo-American attempt
to construct such linkages. The author mentions the chaînes musculaires
of Leopold Busquet who trained with Mézières but, sadly, his chaînes have
nothing to do with those of Mézières. I would love to be able to introduce
Tom Myers to the original chaînes musculaires à la Mézières.
Myers invites us to learn, in a playful
way, how to trace these myofascial lines. To do so, he uses a railway
metaphor where ‘Anatomy Trains’ describes the whole system of 11 myofascial
lines; an ‘express’ is a multi-joint muscle; a ‘local’, a single-joint
muscle; a ‘track,’ a fascial or myofascial element in a line; a ‘station’,
a muscle attachment; a ‘roundhouse’, a bone where many muscles meet; and
so on. Displaying such a fondness for all things related to railway, if
Myers were to replace Byers as Transport Secretary, our transport system
might improve. But perhaps not, as Myers tolerates too many ‘derailments’
i.e., breaks in the linkage of myofascial continuities.
Regrettably, Myers mixes his metaphors by
introducing the term ‘myofascial meridian’ which describes an interlinked
series of ‘myofascial continuities’ or connections between two adjacent
and aligned structures. This term is an odd one as it does not belong
to the railway world; it ‘brakes’ your train of thoughts and makes you
lose track, especially so as it is usually used in reference to acupuncture.
But Myers precises that ‘myofascial meridians’ should not be confused
with acupuncture meridians. His meridians “have more to do with the meridians
of latitude and longitude that girdle the earth.”
The author gives
us the rules of the game of tracing myofascial meridian which, in a nutshell,
“must proceed in a consistent direction and depth, via fascial or mechanical
connections.” Tom Myers lays down the rules; he also breaks them (‘derailments’)
with disarming candour. Explaining the Lateral Line (one of the meridians)
he quotes somewhere TH Huxley who said “There is nothing so sad as the
destruction of a beautiful theory by an ugly fact”. But Tom Myers is not
so easily put off track and, undeterred by the derailments in his system,
carries on tracing his lines. Having set the rules, the author invites
his readers to have a go at trying to construct additional trains not
explored in his book, as the myofascial continuities he has described
are not exhaustive. In fact, if, as he says, “a tug in the fascial net
is communicated across the entire fascial net like a snag in a sweater,
or a pull in the corner of an empty woven hammock”, then the possibilities
are infinite. In this fact resides one of the weaknesses of Myers theory.
From
my point of view, some errors emerge in Tom Myers’ book. For example,
some of his ‘locals’(muscles crossing only one joint) are in fact ‘expresses’
(muscles crossing more than one joint) such as the soleus which ‘jump’
over the talus, and the multifidus and rotatores which are mostly polyarticular
muscles. Also, Myers says that the longus capitis and longus colli “are
unique among the muscles of the neck in their ability to counteract neck
hyperextension” and “play a large role in maintaining the proper alignment
of the head, neck and upper back”. Thus, in case of hyperextended upper
cervicals, “they must be reawakened and tonified”. This is to forget that
these muscles tend to pull the head forward and to increase the cervico-thoracic
lordosis and that they always suffer from hypertonicity. In the chapter
describing the Superficial Back Line, the author goes into “a long-winded”
(his words) explanation of why it is less of a stretch to bend forward
by flexing the knees rather than keeping them extended, which involves
the gastrocnemius muscles connecting with the hamstring muscles. With
all due respect to Tom Myers, the gastrocnemius muscles have nothing to
do with it. The polyarticular nature of the hamstring muscles is sufficient
to explain this fact. I also regret the good old, but inaccurate, analogy
of the spine and its muscles with the rigging of a sailboat; inaccurate,
as the spine is not a straight rod but a S-shape structure and that the
muscles are attached directly to it – a very important difference in function.
The
only real problem I have with this well crafted book is that the myofascial
meridians are made up of myofascial continuities. In other words, they
represent contiguities of myofascial structures and as such are not myofascial
chains and therefore cannot really do what the author says they do. Of
the 11 meridians, only 2 – the Superficial Back Line and the Deep Back
Line, which I would group together – have, in my view, any real practical
significance for Manual and Movement Therapists.
Despite
these reservations, this is a gem of a book. Don’t miss your (Anatomy)
Train; and buy a return ticket as the book will, no doubt, entice you
to come back to it again and again.
To purchase this book please contact Tel:
020-8308 5760; freeservice@harcourt.com
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