A dynamic fascial spine

The dynamism of the spine means we have wonderful opportunities for moving in different complex combinations. The spine has 24 vertebrae bones. The relationships between vertebrae and other parts of the body, mean that the spine has 364 joints. That’s a lot of places of connection! The spine twists, extends and compresses, translating forces that arrive through our body-wide fascial net.

Yet many of us don't seem to have a dynamic spine - it is instead held straight and rigid. It's as though we have an idea of our body as something that is upright because of a rigid column - the spine. And so we start to lean on the spine, leaving the spine unable to move dynamically. Instead of allowing the spine to move as we walk, we believe our walk comes (only) from our feet and our legs, and we move accordingly. We start to use our legs to pull us through the world, rather than connecting with a dynamic fascial net. 

I am drawing on the work of Sergei Gracovetsky here. A researcher in varied fields, including nuclear physics and software engineering, he has inquired into the spine from an evolutionary perspective. What are the benefits of having a supple moving spine, rather than a supporting column?Humans have evolved to be upright, bipedal, and we locomote, both walking and running. Our head can remain free to scan the environment in different directions even when locomoting. These evolutions provided us humans with survival advantages – we could better escape from predators, we could gather and hunt. For most survival potential, we humans would use as little energy as possible in locomoting so that we have more for the bigger movements of throwing, leaping, fighting, and so on. The most effective walk is the most energy-efficient.

The spine is not a straight line, but has natural curves. Many people have come across the sense of a lordosis in the lower back lumbar area – a curve towards the centre of the body. Less commonly understood is that we have a lordosis at the neck (and behind the knees, and underneath the big toes). Opposite curves are (kyphoses) at the upper/mid back, the sacrum and the heels. Often in Western exercise practices there are dark comments about this lumbar curve – as something to eradicate. People receive many messages to straighten their spine, and so hold it straight, using (exhausting) muscular force to do so. Of course some people have overly flexible spines. And of course a complex body-wide system uses some muscles to help create support for the spine as we move, but it probably draws more on the fascia. And the support should not be rigid. 

Perhaps this concern about the lumbar curve arose because, over time, post-industrialisation in particular, we have lost soft tissue robustness. We have reduced the amount of complex movement that we do, and sit around on furniture often in one position for hours. (Anything you can to do counter these patterns in yourself is a great step forward to better health).

There is some evidence that over the last few hundred years, the lumbar curve has become more wedged together, more compressed, with less capacity and adaptability to extend, flex, side-bend and rotate.

Easeful and graceful locomotion requires a well-moving spine. As we walk, the lumbar lordosis helps the spine to side-bend to convert the side-bend into a rotation. This movement then brings the pelvis into rotation, helping to move us forward. If our spine and pelvis are free to respond and we take feet and legs away, we can even locomote on our pelvis.

We can come away from the idea of feet and legs as levers and into an understanding of movement as coming through a body-wide resilient fascial system – soft tissue that glides and stiffens in different places to create easeful movement.

Legs and feet of course play an important role in walking and running – it’s just that if you believe and move as though walking only comes from there you are likely preventing the spine moving, and making it energetically harder to take every step.

If we have a desire to move, and we keep find ways of connecting into the soft tissue fascial matrix, then our desire can initiate a complex fascial relationship from big toe through hip extensors (think backs of legs and buttocks), trunk, spine, back down trunk, leg to heel contact. There is a pulse through the fascial system which spirals up and down. At our neck, our cervical spine, will counteract the spiral allowing us to move our head in any direction whilst moving forward. We can turn towards someone as we walk, scan the horizon whilst running.

This way of walking is beautiful to behold in its effortlessness and spacious to experience. The spine is an extending, compressing, moving place, not something we want to hold as we stomp through life on legs and feet. We often, subconsciously, try to find support down the spinal column, and yet for energy-efficient movement we need to come more into our soft tissue matrix. Our spine responds dynamically, setting in motion spiralling movements through our fascial web. 

In gratitude to Aline Newton for her words and insight on this topic. 

Further Info

Bojairami and Driscoll, Coordination between Trunk Muscles, Thorocalumbar Fascia and Intra-Abdominal Pressure toward Static Spine Stability, Spine Biomechanics, June 2022.

Serge Gracovestky, The Spinal Engine, 2009.

Aline Newton, Gracovetsky on Walking, Structural Integration, February 2003.