Solve Chronic Mystery Pain! Become Aware of the Lateral Lines of the Fascia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH83Z1f5qdo

In blog post, we're going to be talk about the lateral lines of the fascial network and how that relates to spinal stability in the realm of working with chronic pain. The lateral fascial line runs from the middle of the bottom of both sides of your foot, around the outside of the ankle, up the outside of the leg, over the outside of the knee, over the outside of the thigh, as it approaches the hip, it gets wider, covering the whole side of the hip, as it moves over the hip onto the side of the abdomen it starts to form a crisscross pattern and this pattern continues up the lateral line underneath the shoulder, up the neck, and it connects to the skull near the ear. There's one on either side of your body, and as a person might imagine, it stabilizes your body side to side.

This fascial line also connects the edges of the superficial back line with the edges of the superficial front line, which we talk about here. You can imagine that if you took two sheets of paper that were to simulate the superficial front line and superficial back line, and stood them on end and let go, they would just fall over. But if you took two wide pieces of tape and you taped the sides of both of those papers together, it would form a cylinder and it would balance easily.

In effect, that is what is happening in your body. The lateral lines of fascia are the wide pieces of tape connecting the superficial front and rear lines, and together these lines are forming a cylinder around your body. So in addition to balancing side to side, these two fascial lines are also integral to balance forward and backwards. Now you start to understand how much stability the lateral fascia lines provide to the body, or how much dysfunction they can cause when they are not working appropriately.

As mentioned in the first paragraph the lateral line fascia on either side of the body connects the inside and the outside of the foot to the entire lateral line. This is important to take note of as we will see later, side to side imbalance of the foot will have a direct and significant impact on the structural integrity of the lateral line of the fascia and ultimately the ability to balance and to lead a pain free life.

The lateral fascia lines also intersect with other superficial lines, which we're going to discuss later. The spiral line, which the next video is going to be about, and also the superficial arm lines.

As tension is transferred through any fascial line, that tension is going to equalize throughout the fascial line. This means, for example, that an imbalance in to foot such as over-pronation, can directly cause pain anywhere along the lateral fascial line: the plantar fascia, the peroneal or fibular muscles, the IT band, biceps femoris and vastus lateralis (the outside of the thigh), the glute max, gluteus medius and TFL (outside of the hip), the side of the torso, the shoulder (same side or opposite), the side of the neck and anywhere in the head. Tension will also transfer to other fascial lines where they come into contact with each other trying to equalize throughout the entire fascial network. Think of a tensegrity structure and what would happen if a person were to apply some pressure to one part of it. The same thing happens in the body, whenever there is a change in tension (regardless of whether tension is added or subtracted) the entire fascial network will adjust to find a new state balance throughout the body. This is the basis of compensation for injuries, abnormalities or any other change and this can also be caused by shifts in emotional states. The deeper state of survival the more the fascia will pull you toward the fetal position. (I have worked with several people who have told me in the initial interview of a traumatic experience they suffered and how it felt like their bodies had shrunk since then) In regards to rehab or restructuring the fascia into alignment and comfort, this is also why consistent input will create positive change in the fascia. Consistency is vastly more important the repetitions or strength. In fact consistency is all that is required to feel better.

When the nervous system perceives a threat, it will change the fascial structure to protect you. This is called compensation, it can be temporary or your body can get stuck here making it permanent if a conscious effort to restore appropriate balance is not made. The perceived threat can be from an emotional state in which the fascia will start to constrict as a whole to give the body more strength and support, readying for survival. It can be a physical injury, in which, the fascia will bind or constrict in a specific area to protect the body or it can be postural problem (which could be caused by either of the two problems mentioned before, or it could be something completely different)

It is common that problems arise in the lateral fascial line caused by overpronation of the foot as the majority of people in society have this to some degree and we will see why later in this post. Over supination also causes problems in the lateral fascia line but it is much less common.

What happens is when the foot is consistently overpronated, is the medial or middle arch of the foot is going to be consistently over stretched and soon the fibers of the muscle of that arch will require some assistance from the fascia to prevent them from getting ripped apart. And so the fascia that those muscles float in, will start to bind to the cells of the muscle, anchoring them together, so the muscle can't stretch any further. At this point the arch as a whole has lost it's function to act as a spring in movement and impact with not be absorbed. Each step is now like a tiny jackhammer slowly cracking the anchoring system the fascia built to keep the muscles from pulling apart. When there are enough cracks the myofascia (the whole of the muscle and fascia) of the arch will start to tear. This is plantar fasciitis, and to be clear, it is reversable.

Long before the set of failures known as plantar fasciitis are felt however, the dysfunction of over-pronation will have spread first through the lateral line of fascia and then through out the entire fascial network of the body. The tissue of the inside of the leg going up to the knee and then the hip through the inner thigh and groin muscles is going to get overstretched. The fascia will respond the same way as we just discussed with the plantar fascia. The tissues in and along the lateral line of fascial on the outside of the leg will lose tension and experience laxity and the same rate the tissues on the inside of the leg increase in tension from being overstretched and are reinforced by fascial anchoring.

This laxity on the outside of the leg is often perceived as chronic contraction or tightness and often becomes a destructive wild goose chase as people try to stretch it creating even more laxity and pushing them deeper into the problem. It feels tight because laxity is perceived as a threat by the nervous system and it is removed from the body. You can envision the process of removing laxity by imagining that the fascia has little tiny octopus arms all over it, and these arms reach out and grab each other, twisting and spiraling together bringing their bases closer together. This traps muscles in a shortened or contracted stated and it is not possible to move beyond this limitation without tearing something if stretching is how it is dealt with. The vast majority of people that feel this think that they are too tight when in actuality hypermobility (too loose) is the problem. Many of these people will tell me about how they just can not make any progress stretching and the more they try the more they injure themselves.

To add complexity to an already complex pattern of discomfort and/or pain, it is possible to have multiple patterns of overstretching and laxity overlapped on top of each other, each stemming from separate issues. It is also possible that different layers will sometimes try to do the opposite thing to the same spot in the body. When this happens, it often leads to a debilitating failure in structural integrity. There is no straight forward or simple program that will bring a person out of something this deep. The work is often a complete fascial reconstruction starting at the spine and slowly working towards the extremities. That is why, with many for whom exercise of any kind seems impossible because there is too much pain, the work starts with reconnecting the muscles of the diaphragm and pelvic floor first to support the spine and then expanding outward through the body as tolerated. This can be done in any position and without moving the arms and legs (exercise) in the beginning. There will however be improvement, and then effort will be increased until normal function is restored.

As we have seen, over-pronation is a reason people end up with problems in their peroneal or fibular muscles, their IT bands, the TFL, hips, side bodies, shoulders, neck and head. This can cause all sorts of different "problems" because pain will show up at the "most significant" "weakest" point in the body. The most significant part comes from an innate survival mechanism in which the nervous system warns you about the single biggest threat to survival in your body. Meaning if a person has severe pain somewhere, there are many other areas in the body that this individual would feel pain if the pain they were experiencing disappeared. The weakest point being the part of the body that fails first along an area of dysfunction. Considering the capabilities of the human mind, there an infinite number of variables that can cause disruption in the fascial network and pain in the body. This essentially means that a person can feel pain anywhere in their body, from a dysfunction anywhere else in their body. It is important to remember that we are talking about unresolved chronic pain and mystery pain. Pain that has eluded all forms of diagnosis or rehabilitation efforts and ends up being clumped in to hopeless mass diagnosis gathering pools such degenerative disc disease. I say hopeless because there a thousands of reasons the discs could be degenerating... it is a symptom (albeit a very painful one) not a root cause. Labeling a symptom as a diagnosis only results in futile efforts as the root cause will never be diagnosed since it is no longer being searched for. A diagnosis should mean, a cause has been determined and it should set a course for future action. Labeling a symptom as a cause means there is no foundation to work from.

This is just a tiny taste of why chronic mystery pain is so hard to deal with, and even harder to find. Eventually many doctors give a general diagnosis, such as the one just mentioned, because the structure in which they operate is not set up for extensive one on one work tracing the pain you have from the present to the point in which it started. And they know this, which is why painkillers often become the main course of treatment, rather than working to address the source of the pain.

It is worth taking a moment to consider that we started talking about the lateral fascial line but then shifted to an example of a common reason (over pronation of the feet) pain spreads to a place in the body through the fascial line. And then digressed further into the seemingly hopeless situation many people find themselves facing.

Now we need to address the most common reason that causes over-pronation, because this it will server as an example on how the work of healing the pain comes to a defined point. Slowly and steadily towards the source, without naming or defining, just follow what the body presents in the present and as one issue after the next is solved the pains shift from place to place creating a roadmap that leads you to the initial problem.

Since almost every individual path to the source of chronic or mystery pain is unique I am going to talk about the most common reason for over-pronation, how a tiny piece of that problem creates the over-pronation, and some simple beginning steps on correcting a painful consequence of the over-pronation. We will start with the problem, a lifetime of wearing modern shoes. The silver lining here is that we are doing it to ourselves, so therefore we can stop at anytime.

As you probably noticed, most modern shoes have a toe that is narrower that the ball of the foot. So when a person puts their foot in the shoe, it will inhibit the spreading of your toes which creates instability. This is the underlying cause of most of the cases of over-pronation or sometimes over-supination. If you look at a baby's foot, the widest part of the feet are the toes. And if your foot was properly aligned, and structurally sound your toes would also be the widest part. And before you say, but I wear wide shoes... the measurement of the width of the shoe is at the ball of the foot not from tip of big toe to tip of little toe, as we are talking about here. And the restriction of the toes is just one of the four misalignments that the design of modern shoes cause. To learn about the full effect of most modern shoes on the human body, click here:

Look at your own foot, in a relaxed state is the distance from the tip of your big toe to the tip of your little toe wider than the ball of your foot? If the answer is no, then this is slowly and inevitably going to cause you pain, probably beginning with some undeterminable discomfort that will just not go away. How is this linked to over-pronation?... the spreading of the toes is the primary stabilizer of the foot. The big toe's ability to move inward is what stops the foot from over-pronating. The little toe's ability to move outward is what stops the foot from over-supinating. When that is inhibited, we have to rely on compensatory balancing mechanisms. They're going to be overused and slowly fail creating a decades long fascial compensation, that for a time, keeps you blissfully unaware of the looming structural failure of the body. Ask yourself, can you move your toes? I commonly come across people that have moved so far into a dysregulated fascial pattern due to the shoes they wear that they couldn't move their toes if their life depended on it. And you can be assured, a pain free long life does depend on it.

This makes spreading your toes one of the most important things to do when talking about restructuring fascial tensegrity and/or working on spinal stability which always translates to pain relief and increased freedom of movement. Even if the specific problem is not originating with the shoes, if a person is wearing modern shoes the dysfunction created by the shoes will be interwoven into the specific problem making it that much more complex.

There's a few things a person can do. One of those things is start to wear toe spreaders, I use these here. It is important to note that you don't want to wear them when you're sitting down and watching TV, sleeping or otherwise not moving. You want to wear them when you're active, when the tissues are active. This follows one of the seven rules we've talked about for eliminating pain in the body, in the Chronic Pain Mystery Solved! 7 Rules to Find and Eliminate Pain video here.

And, as an aside, when you purchase your future shoes, I would advise trying the shoes on while wearing the toe spreaders. If you can't put your feet in the shoes wearing the toe spreaders, they're not the right shoes for you.

Another thing a person can do is getting a cheap bulk bag of used golf balls and practice picking them up with your toes and moving them into a cup while you're sitting down. It is a nice way to have your toes start to move around and build up dexterity in them again.

I would highly recommend walking around in sandals or flip-flops or something that allows you to spread your toes during walking. They should spread to grip the ground as your foot makes contact, moving outward with each step. If they don't it is important to practice, reminding the nervous system how it is supposed to move the body. I used this sandal in the beginning as it provides a good combination of toe freedom and foot support(which will eventually be left behind too as the strength of the foot allows).

The last thing I usually start people practicing, is to spend up to a few minutes, three times a day standing on one of these half hedgehog balls. Put the ball right under the center of your foot, rubber nubs upward, and feel the balance of your body. If it is not possible to balance on them free standing do it next to a wall. That is the only thing needed, to practice balancing while the little soft rubber nubs push into the plantar fascia bringing movement, pliability and most importantly the fluids carrying the necessary ingredients for healing back to that area of the foot.

If a person has been in supportive shoes for a very long time, you'll have to limit the amount of time you'll be without support in the beginning of the process. I've worked with people that despite the warnings want to go straight to barefoot when they start working on this, since that is the natural state, and end up hurting themselves and becoming fearful of continuing the work. If you are one of the people that are so far into this particular dysfunction, that even the thought of taking one controlled barefoot step in your house causes mental anguish then do not fear. You are exactly who I am trying to reach, they way out is inevitable if you know the right direction.

Back to the lateral line of the fascia...

Another problem that we can that is commonly seen in the lateral line is an overuse due to the inability to rotate. To be clear, tracing the source of this pain would move us into the Spiral Line of the fascia talked about here. The compensation for the deeper issue commonly lies in the lateral fascial line and that is why I am talking about it here.

As somebody walks, one gluteus maximus activates and drives you forward through space, the opposite latissimus dorsi should also activate pulling that side shoulder complex back towards the side of the active glute. This twists the torso one direction and then the other while walking in natural alignment. Each gluteus maximus has a synergistic relationship with the opposite latissimus dorsi.

When this rotational ability is impeded or stops completely, which it will if the fascia is guarding the spine, the torso and the whole body is going to start to waddle from side to side while walking instead of rotating. The body start to get a rebounding from one lateral line of fascia to the other and the body is only designed to move like this, temporarily, as a compensatory movement pattern until the fascial guarding is stopped. However many people become stuck here from long durations of pain in the hips or along the spine, and this waddle walk becomes the new normal for their body. And it will get stuck there unless specific measures are taken.

Dysfunction is likely to present in areas of the lateral fascial line due to the over use, but if opening up and strengthening the spiral line is not the focus of the work, the pain in the lateral fascial line will never be resolved and is likely to continue to spread and/or increase in severity. The waddling walk is an example where the work in the lateral fascial line will diminish as time progresses and work in the spiral facial line will increase as time progresses.

And so just like the practice we started with for the for the superficial front and back line, we are going to start with some subtle movement and progress from there when appropriate. The video here at the top of the blog post is a gentle way to start to start to approach dysfunction in the lateral fascial line.