Your body function

Spiral muscle chains are crucial for correct movement 🏃‍♀️. Muscle spirals are "ribbons" that leads around our body from the shoulders to the lower limbs🦶. Muscle spirals create pressure on the surface of the body, activate the abdominal muscles, slim the torso in the waist area, spontaneously stretch the spine upwards and create buoyancy, which relieves the vertebrae and discs from permanent vertical pressure.
The spiral chains are activated by the movement of the arm 🤳 and shoulder blade.
Each of these spirals is responsible for muscle activity in a different part of the abdominal area. The muscle spirals enable the spine to have optimal mobility and thereby influence the function of the internal organs. They are also used in the rehabilitation of intervertebral discs. The essential thing for activating the spiral chains is a balanced upright posture 🚶‍♀️ and a sufficient range of movement in the shoulder and hip joints.
In the pictures you can see the individual spirals and how the muscles connect to each other.

Explanations:
IL= ipsilateral = located on the same side
KL= contralateral = located on the opposite side

Have you ever heard that the quadratus lumborum is connected to the calf muscle🦵 (m. soleus)? Or that the straight abdominal muscle (m. re**us abdominis) is connected to the long flexor of the toes🦶 (m. flexor digitorum longus)?
If not, we present to you muscle loops and muscle chains, which connect even such distant muscles.
A muscle chain is a momentary connection of muscle units, joints, and bones which occurs to enable movement and stabilization. Muscle chains can be divided into vertical and spiral. There are four main spiral and four vertical chains involved in movement and stabilization of the spine.
Thanks to this muscle chains, we can relax one muscle 💪 and other muscles that are chained to it will Relax too.
Why would the patient's leg moves 🦵 when the muscle in the shoulder blade area is squeezed?
Therefore, the physiotherapist should not only focus on the area that troubles the patient, but also treat more distant muscles according to the connection.
In the next posts, we will show which muscles are "connected" to each other. 😊

Vertical muscle chains ensure stability of the spine in static positions 🚶‍♀️ with no limbs movement (e.g. standing or sitting). Vertical muscle chains are placed closer to the body center than spiral muscle chains. Their task is to stabilize the body in static positions🚶‍♀️. Vertical chains are ropes placed on the front and back side of the body. These ropes are stretched from the head💆‍♀️ and shoulders vertically towards the pelvis and lower limbs🦵.
Smíšek lists these four main vertical chains (see the photo).
You can see the individual muscle chain-link for each vertical muscle chain. 💪
Chain-link is a great thing, but very complex. Even for a therapist, it is sometimes difficult to find how the muscle chain-link connects to another.

Traditional Gua Sha massage is a healing, cosmetic 💆‍♀️ and diagnostic technique. Gua means to scrape and sha means to sow. Using guasha, we literally "scrape the disease out of the body".
As a healing 👨‍⚕️technique, it is used for preventing symptoms of common cold🤒, smoking🚬, asthma and acute or chronic pain. It can also be used for muscle pain and tension. Gua Sha is also commonly used for respiratory issues🌬 and high fever🤒.
By applying heat to specific areas of the body, Gua Sha releases excess heat and toxins through the skin surface.
Diagnostically 👨‍⚕️ it is used to show the area with stagnation of blood and qi.
In cosmetics 💆‍♀️, the method is used to tone skin and facial muscles. Also for smoothing the skin, increasing blood circulation and giving the shine and vitality to the skin.
The Gua Sha tools are usually made of buffalo horn, jade, water💦 buffalo horn, piece of jade, Chinese soup spoon and many other materials with smooth rounded edges.
According to Western medicine, massage 💆‍♀️ stimulates blood circulation in the capillaries. Gua Sha uses a scraping technique to create a redness🔴 on the skin. Redness shows the degree of blood and qi stagnation in the body. Long moves under sufficient pressure are used to treat the skin. But be carefull, the therapy needs to be painless. After a massage, a person can feel warmth☀️, pleasant burning or tiredness😴. Traditionally, a dense oil is used to lubricate the skin, so the tool can move more smoothly.
We can see results according to the skin reaction: Light red🔴 color means lack of blood. Dark red means the condition is serious. Black or purple⚫ means there is a long-term severe problem. Brown means that the body is dry 🏜 and lack of fluids 🥤.
This method was modernized by using iron tools. This is how, for example, the Graston technique was created.
Before you go to a therapist, do your homework. Find out if the person has completed a Gua Sha course or has some experience with these methods. Trust but verify. 😊😊