Regional Interdependence: Understand Your Body’s Movement Patterns
Have you ever heard of regional interdependence as it relates to your body’s movement?
Regional interdependence is the concept that seemingly unrelated parts of the body could be contributing to pain you experience elsewhere.
Many people suffer from recurring pain because the root of the problem is never addressed. One way that we can consider and understand this concept is by looking at the relationship between mobile and stable joints in the body.
Function follows design
For optimal function, our bodies need to follow the pattern in which they were designed. When this pattern is altered, dysfunction occurs and can ultimately lead to pain. Let’s look at how the joints of our body should support us. We will start from the ground and work our way up.
Regional interdependence in your lower body
Your feet should provide you with STABILITY as you walk.
Your ankle moves in many planes and provides you with MOBILITY.
Your knee is designed to be very STABLE.
Your hip is designed to move in many planes of motion and give you MOBILITY.
Your low back should be very STABLE.
Your mid back, also known as your thoracic spine, should be MOBILE.
Your neck, although it has a lot of available motion, should provide you with STABILITY.
The same pattern of mobility and stability is also present in your upper body.
Joint pain and stiffness
Sometimes, stable joints become hypermobile and the result is pain. Other times, mobile joints become stiff and tight. The result? You sacrifice that stability to obtain more motion. Our bodies are good at compensating and will do what is necessary to accomplish our daily tasks. However, if the root problem of joint stiffness is never addressed, this repeated compensation can lead to pain.
Low back pain
Let’s look closely at a popular example: low back pain. As noted above, our low back should be very stable. However, when the hip joint or mid back become stiff and tight, the low back will sacrifice its stability to give you the motion required to do your daily tasks. The result? Disc, facet, soft tissue and other possible injuries.
The good news is, with a screening such as a Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA), we can better identify these dysfunctions and address them. Then create a personalized treatment plan with manual therapy and therapeutic exercise interventions to restore lost function and prevent future pain issues.