Be a FASCIA’ista about your Lateral Chain……or that side of body you tend to always forget. It’s the part of the body where you bend, reach, and roll. This week you’ll spend 5 minutes working on your right and left side of the body.

For whatever reason we humans have a tendency to spend time thinking about how we look from the front, and from that back side as well. We do exercises to make us look lean and mean, but end up always ignoring the side bending and rotational plane of the body. From the jaw down to the side of your foot you have the lateral line. Muscles, bones, connective tissue, and fascia are what your body is comprised, and to ignore this aspect may be exactly what you need to work on to fix your pain.

This can be the rib cage, that space between the rib cage and your hip bone. It could be the space between the ITBand and the Quad. It could be the spaces between the Soleus and Fibula on your lower leg. It can be working on the Lats or even your Deltoids (go to images.google.com to look these all up).

Use your hands, a roller, a lacrosse ball (be nice to yourself though) or find a partner to just help to loosen up these areas.

• 

• 

• 

You can see in the second picture how the diaphragm is connected to the psoas, which in turn is connected to all the lateral muscles along the leg to the foot. If you have an issue in your lower legs, chances are just by breathing better you will create better movement. By working on the sides of your neck you may help to open up the shoulders.

Being aware of how everything is connected in your body is so important for you to be able to rationally look at your pain and limitations. Most people always go to the point of pain, and don’t realize that the source of the pain is not in that spot, but most likely somewhere along the kinetic chain either upstream (above) or downstream (below) the injured or tight spot.

Remember – just five minutes a day!