In the past, the body was looked at in a segmented fashion. We isolated each muscle & focused on what it did as an individual. The more research that comes out, the more we are finding out that nothing could be further from the truth. The human body is truly an integrated machine & does not rely on single muscles to perform actions, but entire ‘chains’ of muscles working as one to perform both complex & basic movements.
What is isolation?
Originally it was thought that muscles worked individually to create movement. This thought was derived from ‘table top anatomy’ by which electrical currents were attached to muscles of cadavers. When zapping a muscle, it resulted in a reflex movement. For example, when zapping the Bicep, the arm flexed at the elbow & therefore it was concluded that the bicep flexed the arm. An isolated exercise works on this principle & is an exercise that only involves one muscle & one joint.
How are we connected?
Looking at the body as a whole, we can see that instead of having lots of individual muscles, the body has ‘chains’ of muscles that are all linked through the Myofascial system. Fascia surrounds each muscle at every level, like gladwrap surrounding a piece of meat, which spins at the ends to form a tendon which then connects to the fibrous covering of our bones which then connects to another tendon which then attaches to fascia covering another muscle. In fact, if we were able to disintegrate everything in the body except for the muscle & the fascia, the human form would still be intact & every link would be joined.
What is an example of a muscle chain?
The Posterior Chain starts at the ends of the toes, runs under the foot & travels up the back of the leg, behind the hip, up the back to the neck & includes the scalp fascia which covers the head like a skull cap & ultimately finishes just above the eyebrows. Ever wondered what makes your eyebrows move? Or have you ever had a pain or felt tension in the back of the neck which has then travelled over the head to become a powerful headache in the forehead?
How do I train a muscle chain?
It is actually quite simple. This is because the body doesn’t know anything about muscles, it only knows movements. Train in the gym like you move in the real world, doing big, compound movements that use multiple muscles & joints. Functional movement patterns like the squat, lunge & deadlift are fantastic examples of this & should be included in all training programs.
And what if we don’t train the body as a whole?
Training the body in isolation causes dysfunction as it changes the structural integrity of the muscle chain. If one link in the chain becomes disproportionately stronger than another, then it will start to dominate & another link will become weaker. If not corrected, the situation will snowball & as the weaker muscles do less work, other muscles will pick up the slack & do work they are not supposed to do. The body will always find a way of doing what you ask it, whether it is the way it should be done is another story. A prime example of this is the Middle Trapezius (upper back) & Upper Trapezius (neck) muscles. The Middle Trapezius is weak in most people as a result of bad posture & dominant muscles in the chest which pull the shoulders forward. As a result the Upper Trapezius are over developed & do a lot of the work for them, which is why the shoulders tend to raise up when doing wide rows & why we should all keep our shoulders back & down when exercising.
What do we think at MHS?
The best form of exercise is full body exercise which uses as much muscle as possible. It is not only safer as the body can distribute force through multiple muscle groups & joints decreasing the risk of injury, but you are using the body as it was designed to be used. When you buy a new gadget, typically you read the instruction manual to find out how to use it properly. A computer tower makes a great door stop, but it isn’t really what it was designed for & could be put to much better use. So why work one muscle when you could work an entire chain of muscles in the same time, which requires more energy (higher calorie burn), more coordination, more stability, more neurological stimulation, the list goes on… & so do the benefits.