The myofascial meridians are understood as traction lines inside the body, defined by Mayers as structures in which tension is distributed, created and moved, real bands that not only have to do with the insertion of the muscle but they also involve the nervous system and connective tissue. Let’s find out better.

The vision of the body according to the myofascial meridians  

Try to think that every single muscle is not resolved. Try to imagine pulling a rag to one side and then the other, as if a principle of total functional influence were in force. If I throw a tablecloth on the top right, for example, something will happen both on the bottom left and on the right. Each variation has an influence.

Explained in a very trivial way, this principle can give us a little insight into the logic of myofascial meridians. Our body is inhabited by functional connections and our muscles should be considered as gears of a single unit.

The connections are at the muscular, neurological and vascular levels . How to explain this in practice? Let’s take a simple movement, such as turning the head. The splenius muscle takes care of it, the same one that allows us to lengthen the neck, to extend it. Yet this muscle, from the point of view of the myofascial meridians, should be conceived as a portion of the myofascial chains, in detail the spiral and lateral ones.

In summary, this vision allows us to understand that our structure is truly holistic, truly continuous, truly integrated and that posture should go towards an orderly and harmonious integration, a real cosmos where everything is functional.

What are the myofascial meridians  

The term myofascial continuity describes that set of contiguous structures aligned within the structural network. A set of interconnected stretches made of tendons and muscles. But why do we talk about my-fascia.

“My” stands for muscle tissue, in its nature gathered as a fascia, while “fascia” identifies its accompanying web of tissue. Touching, manipulating or making nervous tissues work also means moving vascular and epithelial ones.

In the human structure 12 myofascial continuities are found . Knowing the body to be able to use it at its best means being familiar with these “tracks” that cross the depth of the body, like real railway marshalling yards.

Next to the posterior superficial line joins the frontal, lateral and spiral lines, together with the lines of the arm, the functional ones, the deep frontal line. The result is the so-called myofascial meridians which are not very different from those you see in the structures for internally delineating the weights and measures distributed along a sculpture of the classical Greco-Roman ones.  

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Exercise and myofascial meridians 

A movement expert who has this anatomical and functional vision becomes an immediate “reader” of posture and structural analysis. A vision of the movement according to the myofascial meridians allows to work according to the helix path that is placed around the body .

A spiral line is a real band that connects each side of the skull to the opposite shoulder across the upper back. It then continues around the ribs, arriving at the navel crossing, up to the ipsilateral hip. It runs through the thigh and tibia, passes under the foot and then travels along the back area, returning very close to where it started at the level of the skull. 

This means that the execution of all twisting and stretching movements can be read according to this pattern. If we think of a semi-soft stretching like that of the half moon (hanging with the trunk on one side in an upright position with the arms up, here is the whole lateral line.

If we think of the Trikonasana of yoga , the so-called “triangle” here we go to lengthen the deep frontal line at the level of the leg towards which we bend, the lateral line and the spiral line. Many yoga poses give tremendous stretch across many lines. In many positions of stretching the purely Taoist meridians, there is also a benefit in this regard.

Even in many martial arts kicks there is a multiple lengthening of the lines and the same is true for falls that require many twists.