The Kinetic Chain: What is it?
No surprise, our bodies are complex systems. What we sometimes forget, though, is that everything is interconnected. So when one part is not working optimally, it throws off ten others. Remember singing this as a kid?
The head bone’s connected to the neck bone.
The neck bone’s connected to the shoulder bone.
The shoulder bone’s connected to the back bone…
Well, the adult version can go on for days. Muscles, connective tissues, joints, bones, nerves, and gravity, all work together to create a delicate system that, ideally, works effectively and efficiently. This system, a series of moving parts, is referred to as the kinetic chain. The nervous system controls the muscles, which are influenced by gravity, that move our bones and enable joint motion. From there, every motion activates neighboring nerves that control neighboring muscles, which are influenced by gravity, that move neighboring bones and enable neighboring joint motion. In short, every action within our body creates a ripple effect across the whole kinetic chain.
Biomechanics: What does it mean?
Poor biomechanics cause the body to overcompensate for failing links, resulting in increased energy expenditure, muscle fatigue, and pain.
Biomechanics is a term to describe how the kinetic chain is functioning. Healthy biomechanics enable us to move efficiently by properly supporting all the elements of the kinetic chain. Poor biomechanics cause the body to overcompensate for failing links, resulting in increased energy expenditure, muscle fatigue, and pain. What’s worse, any even temporally failing link can influence and alter the brains record on how to move optimally. This is what leads to poor habit formation, and the continuation of poor biomechanics.
Why do we care?
Put simply, pain. When our bodies are consistently functioning with poor biomechanics, elements within the kinetic chain accumulate stress and damage. Over time, this accumulation leads to injury, fatigue, and pain.
If we fail to treat the source of dysfunction within the kinetic chain, our symptoms will likely reoccur.
Understanding of the kinetic chain can enable us to effectively treat our pain. If we just treat the location of the symptoms, or use a singular correction approach, we fail to treat the source of dysfunction within the kinetic chain and the symptoms will likely reoccur.
This is the premise of our posture training shirt. It teaches proper form and develops healthy biomechanical habits for long-lasting relief from pain.