James Kiernan

As my education about the body continues and yoga continues, a common theme continues to show itself in that 'everything is connected.'  I have found more and more that mechanics when applied to the field of biology becomes fairly insufficient in describing the overall functionality of our anatomy.  This is why I would like to preface this information of the body with a message beforehand. 

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In each of the subsets that I have created in this section, they take a localized approach at explaining the details of that particular area of the body.  As useful as it is to understand the individualized areas of the body, this only gives you part of the picture.  So this intro is to give you an idea of how individualized structures work in the whole, leading to a better understanding of how to induce benefit to the body via your practice.

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This concept of a global perspective has been gaining attention from the work of people such as Tom Myers.  He has a great quote to describe this idea of a global perspective of the body. "While every anatomy test lists around 600 separate muscles, it is more accurate to say that there is one muscle poured into six hundred pockets of the fascial webbing"  This new interest of the global perspective is in part due to the discovery of fascia, or myofascial lines.  This type of research describes the interconnectedness between one muscle and it blending into another by way of the connective tissue called fascia. 

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Fascia is a tissue that surrounds muscles as a whole, as well as surrounding individualized bundles and muscle cells.  It acts as a continuum connecting our muscles throughout the entire body.

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Although we have a better understanding of how gross tissues connect to one another, this  concept of myofascial lines still does not account for the extent of connectivity throughout the entire body.  These lines are not the only thing that connect,  there are many more connections occurring if we look a little bit closer. 

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Fascia is only one of several substances forming  the most abundant of human tissues known as connective tissue. Other types of connective tissue are bone, tendon, ligament, capsule, blood and lymphatic, cartilage, and around 80% of nerves.  The composition of the cells, fibers, and ground substance determines the distinction for which the tissue gets named.   The only difference between these tissues is the change in the percentages or amounts of the cells, fibers, and ground substances.

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If we look at how tissues connect, we have muscles that then connect into tendon, that then connect  into ligament/ joint capsule, that then connect into bone.  Now its important to see that how these transitions occur.  At the cellular level, there isn't a clear point where one can say "this is the ligament, and this is the bone" or "this is the muscle, and this is the tendon"  All the change between the structures is just an alteration of the composition of the connective tissue.   All of the connective tissues flow into one another, they are not separate. 

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Why is this important?

Because the continuum of our tissue occurs seamlessly.  All tissues are interconnected.  Any and all loads will be felt by all tissues at some extent.   We can use this concept to our advantage, especially as it relates to our mobility and range of motion, which will be discussed  later.  But do know that the body is connected from head to toe, and all parts of the body affect one another.

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