I was consulting with a former collegiate athlete named Bill.  He mentioned how his calves are always tight.  So much so that his calves almost cramp when he is squatting or trap bar deadlifting.  He told me stretching hasn’t helped.  I said, “I am glad you are aware of that… stop stretching them.”  He looked at me perplexed as if he wanted me to give him a different stretch to perform – hopefully a new and better stretch to fix his problem.  I continued, “We can plan your exercise routine to make the tightness feeling subside.  Think of the calve discomfort as overuse.  We can create more movement options.  Then, the strategy you have been using that relies on your calves, amongst other things, will not be overwhelmed.  Thus, you won’t receive as much feedback from constant use of your calves.”  Bill said, “The part about overuse creating discomfort makes sense, but I don’t understand how squatting or deadlifting uses my calves.  Those work my quads, glutes, and hamstrings.”  “Correct… they work everything.  The body doesn’t work in isolated parts.  So, the position of your body and your exercise technique determines the degree of stress in each area.”  Bill took a moment to think and then stated, “So the way we exercise goes after the root of the problem.  Otherwise, it’s just symptom management.”  “Exactly!”

Everything Is Connected

All the bones, muscles, and tissues, like fascia, in the body form an interconnected web.  One bone is connected to the bones adjacent to it via tissue, and those bones are connected to adjacent bones via tissue, and so on from head to toe.  In fact, all of it is tissue made from the same stuff – mostly collagen.  Everything is connected!

Think of a spider’s web.  Where I to gently pull on one end of the web, the entire web would alter shape to some degree.  The areas closest to my application of force would show the greatest change, and the deformation would decrease at each layer moving across the web to the other end.  The human body is quite similar.  The change is just subtle when not looking for it, and when only noticing the excursion of the limbs.

This model of an interconnected human has some major implications. First, changes in position of bones at one area of the human body impact position of bones, to some degree, even at the furthest location from the initial bone movement.  Second, humans are not rigid lever dominant machines, like C3PO from Star Wars.  The way we move is not with door hinge like joints and a pulley system of muscles.  Moreover, chronic movement hindrances are not focalized joint problems per se – specific acute injury aside. 

Humans have systemic movement, and thus systemic movement issues.  When one joint or area of the body feels restriction, there are definitely other areas up and/or down the chain with limitation as well.  In fact, the movement constraints above or below the area of concern are probably the major influence on the problem.