Scoliosis as a natural attitude - Idiopathic scoliosis: old and new concepts, clinical case

Edited by Dr. Giovanni Chetta

Posture and tensegrity

The search for the uniqueness of posture is an error as it ignores the fundamental property of the connective tissue that is viscoelasticity. We are not statues. by their functional oscillation. The myofascial-skeletal system is therefore an unstable structure but in continuous dynamic equilibrium. We are a redundant system, ie varying the internal weight distribution does not necessarily imply a change in posture; the control and the efficiency of all this is fundamental for the well-being of the spinal column. As we have seen on the periosteum there is the maximum concentration of stress sensors (interstitial receptors) that quickly carry the relative information (and not just those of pain ) to the brain. The dorsal-lumbar fascia is therefore more of a transmission force, without it there would be no efficient control of the muscles.

There static it is actually a special case of walking, it is characterized by postural oscillations, visible and quantifiable through the stabilometric examination, corresponding to rhythmic movements on the transverse and frontal planes.

As a motion without progression, the upright position includes the inhibition of movement with the relative additional decelerating muscular intervention. It is therefore more difficult and more expensive from an energy point of view than normal locomotion: man is made to walk (on natural ground ).

At the same time, the spasmodic search for symmetry of the various body segments does not actually find any confirmation in nature (a quick glance at our internal organs already gives an idea of it). Not only is it not a guarantee of health but in some cases, when forcibly sought, it can be excessively "stressful" from a physical point of view as well as psychic and therefore harmful. As we have shown, the search for functional harmony is certainly more advantageous as it is more physiological; only important asymmetries can lead to serious problems.

The posture expresses our cybernetic communication with the environment that evolves as a structuring function of helical tensegrity.

Reality Check: 76% of asymptomatic workers have herniated discs (Boos et al., 1995), postural coordination is more important than structure.

Read also: The best postural correctors

The English term "Tensegrity", coined in 1955 by "architect Richard Buckminster-Fuller, from the combination of the words" tensile "and" integrity ", characterizes the ability of a system to mechanically stabilize itself through tension and decompression forces that are distributed and they balance each other. Compressions and tractions balance themselves within a closed vector system.
Tensegrity structures are divided into two categories:

consisting of rigid bars assembled in triangles, pentagons or hexagons;
consisting of rigid bars and flexible cables. The cables constitute a continuous configuration which compresses the bars arranged in a discontinuous manner within it. The bars, in turn, push the cables outward.

The advantages of the tensegrity structure are:

there resistence of the whole it greatly exceeds the sum of the resistances of the single components;
there lightness: with the same mechanical resistance capacity, a tensegrity structure has a weight reduced by half compared to a compression structure;
there flexibility of the system is similar to that of a pneumatic system. This allows a great capacity for reversible adaptation to changes in shape in dynamic equilibrium. Furthermore, the effect of a local deformation, determined by an external force, is modulated by the whole structure, thus minimizing its effect.
L"interconnection mechanical and functional of all the constituent elements allows a continuous two-way communication like a real network.

Starting from the cytoskeleton (Ingber, 1998), the human organism is characterized by a structure of tensegrity.

At the macroscopic level the rigid axes (the bars) are made up of the bones and the flexible structures (the cables) from the myofascial system (Myers, 2002). As is the case at the macroscopic level, at the cellular level the filaments of the cytoskeleton (actin microfilaments and tubulin microtubules) polymerize and depolymerize in response to mechanical stimuli.
Peculiarity of "human tensegrity" is to function as a "variable pitch propellers "or vortices (spirals). It is in fact on the transverse plane that the antigravity of the human cybernetic system develops thanks to a sophisticated system of neuro-biomechanical equilibrium.