Human Biotensegrity

Thomas Myers is the author of Anatomy Trains and multiple supporting articles on anatomy and soft tissue manipulation. Thomas believes that tensegrity is one of the central concepts to the new human biomechanics, and understanding tensegrity helps one understand the body.

What is biomechanics?

Biomechanics is all about tension and compression. You are either pushing or pulling, or bracing or hanging. Your feet brace onto the floor and your shoulders hang off the rib cage. Shearing, bending and torsion are all combinations of tension and compression forces. Biomechanics is the sum total of how your body handles tension and compression.

Is our skeleton a continuous compression or tensional dependent structure?

One would think that the normal geometric picture of our anatomy is that the skeleton is a continuous compression framework, like a crane and the muscles hang from it like the cables – the skeleton is stable but moveable. However, our bodies are not continuous compression structures like a house or building with one block stacked upon another. Take the muscles away, and the skeleton is unstable; take all the soft-tissue away and the bones would fall to the ground since they do not interlock or stack in any a stable manner.

Tensegrity is a way to suggest the new mechanics. Although it is not a proven model in the human body, we are led to this class of structures. Originated by Kenneth Snelson and developed by Buckminster Fuller, tensegrity geometry closely parallels the body with some exceptions.  Our bodies are not continuous compression structures, but are tension dependant structures. Our integrity depends on the balance of the soft-tissues of the fascia and muscles together. The balance of the soft tissues holds the skeleton up, not the other way around. And the skeleton is a series of bones floating in the soft tissue.  The video above demonstrates this orthopedic model.

What is a tensegrity structure?

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What happens when a change is applied to tensional forces?

The dowels float a little and change when stress is applied to the tensional forces (elastics) causing a change in shape. When the tension is increased, called strain, the structure becomes less mobile and stronger. The mobility of the structure is called adaptability. When the tension increases, adaptability decreases.  Tensegrity structures, when stressed, tend to distribute rather than concentrate strain. The body is designed to take the strain as a system. It is the adaptability of the whole that determines the integrity of the whole. The body distributes the strain; it does not localize the strain and the result of local injuries soon become global strain patterns.  If an injury, shortened muscle or postural imbalances occurs to the soft tissue and shortens one of the continuous lines of tension in the body, the whole structure deforms. The body is designed to distribute the strain but an injury occurs when a strain is localized.

How is stability and mobility maintained in human movement?

Thomas Myers explains that the stability and mobility of human movement is the balance between the bones and cartilage, which are the compression structures that push outward against the myofascial net. The myofascial net is a continuous line of tension always trying to pull inward toward the center. Both are necessary for stability and contribute to mobility.  Tensegrity is the only structure that when it is expanded in one direction, it expands in all directions. We spend a lot of time with restrictions on motion like sitting at our desk for extended periods of time. When the restrictions are taken off one by one the whole body expands out to its natural adaptability, responsiveness, and natural give at the joints.

Research supports the idea of tensegrity geometry ruling mechanical transmission from the cellular level on up, and macro-level models are becoming more anatomically accurate.

The Importance of soft tissue treatment through manual therapy

Understanding how the body relates as a whole determines not only the significant importance of treating the soft tissue, but where manual therapists like massage therapists, physiotherapists and chiropractors determine the cause and not just treat the symptom. What usually shows up as the problem is the place that is overused and the source of the problem occurs in the place that is underused. Otherwise treating the overused area will only provide temporary relief. The source of the problem occurs in the area that moves too little or is held too short. As a massage therapist, I take the tensegrity principle into consideration during assessment with the intention to restore the balance for sustainable massage treatment results.