Anyone out there interested in the Body Tensegrity Concept ?

[Mike Baldwin]

I strived to sow some seeds a while back re viewing the body from a Tensegrity viewpoint: Useful Toy for the Shelf.

Some more seeds:

http://www.saltspring.com/smallshaw/itd-biotensegrity/biotensegrity.html
[ Click "Models" .]
http://www.synearth.net/TensegrityHtml/Tensegrity.html

http://www.biotensegrity.com/paper5.html

http://www.biotensegrity.com/paper3.html

http://www.kennethsnelson.net/

http://www.biotensegrity.com/paper1.html

http://www.biotensegrity.com/paper4.html

Is there anybody out there whose neurons resonate when they see this concept applied to Scott's material ????

Cheers :D

[rbibbs]

The anatomical models would make a great demonstration when one was explaining how an ankle stress can make your neck sore. The wire-wheel analogy demonstrates that to strengthen a distributed-tension network like the MS system, tonus must be developed symmetrically in all planes; e.g., over-tightening one spoke on a bicycle wheel deforms it, does not make it stronger. I'm sure there are more parallels.

Rick

[Jay76]

Can someone explain more on this please???
:shock:
Jay

[rbibbs]

The links explain it pretty thoroughly, although wrought with structural-engineering terms/concepts interwoven with anatomy... but that's kinda what we're dealing with, the MS system-as-engineered structure.

Abbreviated, and using the most familiar examples, it works like this: on a 6-spoke 'wagon-wheel', each spoke, as it rotates into the bottom position perpendicular to the ground, has to be strong enough to hold up that whole corner of the wagon under compression (that is, gravity pulling on the wagon is trying to shorten the spoke, and the spoke's incompressibility is the only thing holding the wagon up). The other 5 spokes are just waiting their turn on the bottom, they're contributing to the weight of the wheel, but not the strength. Accordingly, the rim and hub have to be massive enough to withstand the load of the whole corner of the wagon, concentrated on one spoke. Human muscular anatomy is better compared to a bicycle wheel. A bicycle wheel is a tension network... all the spokes are pulling the rim toward the hub all the time... all the structural elements are actively part of the strength... obviously the bicycle is much lighter than the 'wagon'... but also obvious is the fact that at no time is the weight of the bicycle+rider being supported by the incompressibility of one tiny wire at the bottom of each wheel.

The principle comes up here, in the context of Circular Strength. To make the wagon-wheel stronger, all the parts have to get a lot bigger; the structure works largely in one plane, downward (compression). Relatively small increases in component mass make the bicycle wheel, or tension wheel, much stronger... because the strength of the structure is distributed throughout its components... and the applicable parallel is, the human shoulder. Another example of a tension structure is a suspension bridge (Golden Gate, etc.). To have built that as a compression structure may not have been possible... as you make the parts bigger/heavier to withstand single-point loads... the weight of the structure itself becomes unmanageable... you can't make it bigger fast enough to keep up with the overhead of supporting its own weight increases. The functional strength is much greater per-unit-mass in a tension structure, because loads are uniformly distributed and supported throughout the structure, not bearing down on one component at a time.

Rick

[Randell Waddell]

Sorry guys - tweaked this concept again - Matt logged in today and Jarlo the other day indicated that he was familiar with this also.

"Some more seeds:

http://www.saltspring.com/smallshaw/itd-biotensegrity/biotensegrity.html
[ Click "Models" .]
http://www.synearth.net/TensegrityHtml/Tensegrity.html

http://www.biotensegrity.com/paper5.html

http://www.biotensegrity.com/paper3.html

http://www.kennethsnelson.net/

http://www.biotensegrity.com/paper1.html

http://www.biotensegrity.com/paper4.html

Is there anybody out there whose neurons resonate when they see this concept applied to Scott's material ???? "

Very cheeky of me, I know - I get frustrated because I believe the basic concept will certainly help us to explain how the body functions, the importance of daily Warrior Wellness type exercises, highlighting the connectivity of the whole body, how the pain location may not be the source of the problem, etc, and generally be part of the way of the future.

Perhaps the references are too "heavy" ? Is this a problem ????

Cheers
Randell
:D

[Jarlo Ilano]

Randell,

I know a little bit about tensegrity...

I will post something a little later on, suddenly I've been mired in work! :(

It really is a great theory. The book Anatomy Trains described it as concisely as I think is possible, without diluting it too much.

Regards,