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INTRODUCTION TO THERAPEUTIC KINESIOLOGY Muscle Palpation: The Erector Spinae Locate the erector spinae (ES) with a cross-fiber strumming motion across the muscles next to the spine. The fascicles often feel like dense mounds of muscle and can also feel ropey, in which case your fingertips will roll across them. Explore all three sections that are the widest in the thoracic region. They are the smallest and most difficult to palpate in the cervical region, where they are buried under larger overlying muscles. Ask yourself, "Do the vertical fascicles of the ES feel ropey?" To feel the ES contract, add an active movement and have your partner arch the back and raise the legs and head, then relax several times. Ask yourself, "Can I feel the erector spinae bulge and shorten as they contract?" Run your hand along the spine and note the general continuity of muscular tone in the ES. In areas where the ES is well developed, you will feel large, elevated mounds of muscle along the sides of the spine. In areas where it is taut, weak, or overstretched, the muscle fascicles will feel thin and ropey. This usually occurs in the thoracic spine of a thin person with an exaggerated kyphosis. Ask yourself, "Do the thoracic fascicles lie closer to the spine or the scapula than the lumbar fascicles?" Longissimus capitis Longissimus cervicis Iliocostalis thoracis (retracted) Longissimus thoracis Spinalis thoracis Iliocostalis lumborum Spinalis cervicis 4 Erector spinae. MUSCLES OF THE SPINE: ERECTOR SPINAE The muscles of the spine are of particular importance given that one of the primary reasons that people receive massage is to alleviate back pain. The type of back pain that practitioners can treat the most effectively comes from muscular dysfunction associated with poor posture. Deep to the outer layer of spinal muscles and posterior to the spine lies another large group of spinal extensors called the erector spinae (ES) muscles. The large, ropy fascicles (muscle slips) of this complex group of muscles cascade along the back from the occiput to the sacrum. Each individual fascicle spans 6–8 vertebral segments. The ES group is made up of three sections that run parallel to each other—the spinalis, longissimus, and iliocostalis (Image 4). Each of these sections has three or four subsections named after the part of the spine they cross: the lumborum (lumbar), thoracis (thoracic), cervicis (cervical), and capitis (cranial). Each subsection is innervated by the spinal nerves at that respective segment. The spinalis lies closest to the spine. The vertical fascicles of the thin spinalis cervicis arise from and attach to the spinous processes of the cervical vertebra in a curved configuration like rings on a target. The vertical fascicles of the spinalis thoracis are functionally more significant. They arise from the spinous processes of the midthoracic 74 massage & bodywork november/december 2012