Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/72098
BODYREADING THE MERIDIANS A B C The Superficial Back Line (SBL) is not an act of the imagination or simply a concept—it is a dissectible, real entity. Here we see: a) an embalmed specimen of the SBL as a whole—with labels on the familiar parts, b) the same specimen laid onto a classroom skeleton, and c) the same set of structures from a fresh- tissue dissection. The donor body was about 68 inches tall, but the SBL, once dissected away from the skeleton and laid out, was more than 90 inches long. Let us begin with 1) the physiological differences—that will only take a minute. Then we can go on to 2) the structural layout of the SBL and the SFL-SBL balance—in other words, some anatomy and biomechanics, then into 3) a glance at the meaning the SBL has as a whole, and finally lay out 4) some flags to watch for in BodyReading the SBL. WHAT IS THE SUPERFICIAL BACK LINE? The SBL is a continuity of fascial fabric from the bottom of the foot to the top of the head (Image 3). Along the way, many muscles participate in holding this fascia—either shortening it or preventing the SBL's fascial guy-wires from getting longer. If we totally relaxed in standing, this back sheet of fascia would lose its tension and we would collapse more or less into the fetal position. In the foot, the plantar fascia is accompanied and tensed by the short toe flexors that lie just above the plantar fascia itself. The fascia passes around the heel into the Achilles tendon, which spreads into an aponeurosis that has the strong soleus on its deep side and the two heads of the gastrocnemius on the superficial side. This interconnects with the hamstring tendons, which are highly tendinous and membranous muscles that blend at the top across the ischial tuberosity into the sacrotuberous ligament and sacral fascia. The sacro-lumbar fascia is the origin for the highly complex and stubbornly fascial erector spinae and transversospinalis muscles that span the length of the spine to the back of the head. The final soft-tissue track of the SBL is the scalp, which is primarily fascial but contains the little occipitalis in back (with which you move your scalp, if you can) and the frontalis on your forehead in front that lifts your eyebrows. Altogether, this fascial sheet stretches from the tips of the toes to the top of the nose around your entire back in one structurally and functionally connected sheet. It is 72 massage & bodywork september/october 2011