Scott Sonnon
06-01-2004, 10:52 AM
A tension chain (or "kinetic chain") refers to a muscle to muscle linkage of tension which forms from any action. Imagine when you walk, as the left leg heel impacts, a chain of tension forms up your left leg across your pelvis and up your right side to your right arm.
Muscle only knows outcomes, adaptation and progress, so if the FORM (or technique) is inefficient, it produces a negative outcome, adaptation and progression - resulting in sustained tension in that area. This obviously can happen from repetitive motion like people at a computer desk, or working a foundry assembly line.
The real problem that happens is when we suddenly and/or dramatically load a muscle which is already tense from that "tension chain." A defensive stretch reflex occurs to protect the area and we either have a muscle "pull" or even worse a tear (and even worse still - the comprimise of the integrity of one of our joints!)
Often the original SOURCE of the issue (where the impact originally embedded) creates an irradiation of tension producing a SITE of injury, pain, or limited range of motion in another area. The muscles between the SOURCE and the SITE are a "kinetic" chain of tension. They are kinetic and not "potential" because although you may not be structurally moving, the muscle remains contracting (called "Residual Muscular Tension.")
Often health professionals only treat the various SITES and never get to the SOURCE of the issue. In general, sports medicine docs and musculo-skeletal therapists are the best choices to consult when you have these issues since they look at the body as a inextricably intertwined organism.
Through our movement exploration in Warrior Wellness, we can find locate and release these chains of tension.
When you address only the SITE, you may resolve the issue there, but it only recedes to a more prior point along the chain (not always all the way back to the SOURCE). And if left unaddressed, a later dramatic or sudden loading may cause a new SITE to manifest. This is where people start to condition themselves to believe that they are "injury-prone."
In the deepening of your daily personal practice, you will find that you can chase the tension from SITE to SITE to SOURCE and resolve the "kinetic chain" of tension that way. Sometimes if you listen to your intuition, you can use the images and feelings as "satellites" to detect the SOURCE issue and go directly to it - resolving it at the beginning. A CST Wellness coordinator can help facilitate this process for you as well.
But once on the Path and understanding the tools, you CAN do this on your own. Just don't be attached to expectations. Go on your hunches rather. Try not to "think it out," but rather draw hypotheses from inductive conclusions.
When you do find a SITE or a SOURCE, just remember that it is your nervous system's defensive mechanism. It is a genetic GIFT to have this ability to protect you when things go awry, or movements deviate from the expected. You need to be patient and compassionate with yourself. Tell the area that you appreciate the work that it did, that it fulfilled its job description and doesn't need to do anymore, that it's now time to heal. Then exhale into the area, and smile.
Movement heals from that point forward.
Muscle only knows outcomes, adaptation and progress, so if the FORM (or technique) is inefficient, it produces a negative outcome, adaptation and progression - resulting in sustained tension in that area. This obviously can happen from repetitive motion like people at a computer desk, or working a foundry assembly line.
The real problem that happens is when we suddenly and/or dramatically load a muscle which is already tense from that "tension chain." A defensive stretch reflex occurs to protect the area and we either have a muscle "pull" or even worse a tear (and even worse still - the comprimise of the integrity of one of our joints!)
Often the original SOURCE of the issue (where the impact originally embedded) creates an irradiation of tension producing a SITE of injury, pain, or limited range of motion in another area. The muscles between the SOURCE and the SITE are a "kinetic" chain of tension. They are kinetic and not "potential" because although you may not be structurally moving, the muscle remains contracting (called "Residual Muscular Tension.")
Often health professionals only treat the various SITES and never get to the SOURCE of the issue. In general, sports medicine docs and musculo-skeletal therapists are the best choices to consult when you have these issues since they look at the body as a inextricably intertwined organism.
Through our movement exploration in Warrior Wellness, we can find locate and release these chains of tension.
When you address only the SITE, you may resolve the issue there, but it only recedes to a more prior point along the chain (not always all the way back to the SOURCE). And if left unaddressed, a later dramatic or sudden loading may cause a new SITE to manifest. This is where people start to condition themselves to believe that they are "injury-prone."
In the deepening of your daily personal practice, you will find that you can chase the tension from SITE to SITE to SOURCE and resolve the "kinetic chain" of tension that way. Sometimes if you listen to your intuition, you can use the images and feelings as "satellites" to detect the SOURCE issue and go directly to it - resolving it at the beginning. A CST Wellness coordinator can help facilitate this process for you as well.
But once on the Path and understanding the tools, you CAN do this on your own. Just don't be attached to expectations. Go on your hunches rather. Try not to "think it out," but rather draw hypotheses from inductive conclusions.
When you do find a SITE or a SOURCE, just remember that it is your nervous system's defensive mechanism. It is a genetic GIFT to have this ability to protect you when things go awry, or movements deviate from the expected. You need to be patient and compassionate with yourself. Tell the area that you appreciate the work that it did, that it fulfilled its job description and doesn't need to do anymore, that it's now time to heal. Then exhale into the area, and smile.
Movement heals from that point forward.