"Tensegrity" is a
word compounded of "tensional" and "integrity." It
is debatable if the word was actually created by Buckminster Fuller,
the philosopher, architect, and writer, or if it was just promoted by
him. An artist who attended a seminar taught by Fuller, Kenneth
Snelson, also claimed to be the first to coin the term tensegrity.
Snelson was an
art student at Black Mountain College in North Carolina and Fuller was
an architecture professor in his first teaching job when they met in
the summer of 1948. Fuller's natural charisma and mathematically-based
ideas impressed and inspired Snelson. In the winter of 1948 Snelson
built his first 'tensegrity' sculpture: two X-shaped forms, one
suspended above the other. He showed Fuller the model, and they
probably discussed the concept of tension and its artistic and scientific fusion with materials' integrity
as applied to the construct.
Snelson went
on to a distinguished career in art, creating beautiful and
scientifically sophisticated sculptures. Fuller had a high-profile
career as a lecturer and architect, eventually building the ultimate
tensegrity sphere: his Geodesic Dome. Both men patented their
structures, and for a while Fuller carefully referenced Snelson in
letters and books. However, Snelson's name-attachment to the concept
of tensegrity eventually disappeared from Fuller's writings, and
Buckminster Fuller was the one honored when his name was bestowed on a
cellular carbon-based structure called the bucminsterfullerene, or,
commonly, the "buckyball," a molecule that strongly
resembles the Geodesic Dome. Modern scientists in the know now cite
Fuller as the architect and Snelson as the artist of the building
principle of continuous tension that is applied through tensegrity.
So, how do we
get from architecture, sculpture, and science to biology and the human
form? Tensegrity explains how our structure makes it possible for the
body to operate in movement. If dissected into its discreet
parts—skeletal, muscular, venal/organic—the body would fall apart
and pool on the floor, like a body in a segment of the TV show,
"Bones." The fascia of the connective tissue transfers the
forces of movement from one function to another, skeletal to muscular
and vice versa. A skeletal (compression) structure is needed when we
move to protect our shape. This not only contributes to storing
energy, but a flexible (fascial/muscular) structure is needed to keep
the body in balance and to help the bones absorb the force of our
weight striking the ground. The contracting and stretching of the
muscles also helps pump blood through our veins, which in turn brings
nourishment to our entire system, including the organs.
To sum up:
tensegrity structures (domes, towers, bodies) employ tension primarily
and compression secondarily. Compression members (bones or a
building's framework/pillars) provide necessary strength and rigidity.
A network of tensed cables (the body's fascial connective tissue,
tendons, and muscles) translates forces through and within the body.
It is helpful
for our understanding of how the human body works to compare the
structure of the body to architecture, since there are many
corollaries. The Greeks designed and built using concepts of
compression to hold their buildings up. For example, the flying
buttress used for vaulted ceilings in medieval cathedrals introduced
the ability to support a roof over a larger area, thus making possible
different architectural profiles. Similarly, modern-day theories of
tensegrity once again changed buildings' shapes and made possible
unique structures such as the winged roof of the Sydney Opera House.
Structures
that make up the body—bones, muscles, organs, veins/nerves,
connective tissues—are easily compared to architectural components.
Consider the following:
BUILDING
= BODY
foundation = feet
internal framework = bones
electrical/telephonic/electronic systems = neural systems
corridors, stairs, doorways, windows = circulatory systems
roof and siding = skin
rooms = muscle groups
activities within or people = organs
The necessary
balance we need between structure/compression and tension/tissue is
well demonstrated by the curves of our spine and in our walking gait.
The S-shaped spinal curves deliver a directional line of force toward
our foundation, the feet, which are themselves designed to spread the
force through muscles, ligaments, and tendons over a strong, yet
flexible, base. One study by a shoe company, Z-Tech (maker of the
Z-Coil shoe), found that a runner could exert three-and-a-half times
their body weight during running. This means that a person weighing
150 pounds exerts 525 pounds of force on the foot! The accumulative
effect of these pressures over the course of a day (even if not spent
at a run) is of hundreds of tons of force applied to the arches and
bones of the foot—and this is only
the compressive downward force, not the rotational or forward
forces involved in a stride, which are handled by the muscular,
ligamental, and connective tissues.
To deal with
these forces we need strong bones and strong materials—muscles and
fascia—connecting them. The 600 muscles of the body make up half the
weight of males and one-fourth the body weight of females. The tendons
which anchor the muscles to the bones through the periosteum covering
of the bones are 500 times stronger than the muscles themselves.
Thinking of the body in structural engineering terms is important
because some of the same problems and solutions seen in architecture
and engineering can also be seen in humans.
The physical
manifestation of these strong tensegrity forces in our bodies is our
connective tissue. Connective tissue determines our shape through its
actions, restrictions, inhibitions, and performance. It holds together
all tissue—muscular, skeletal, and organic—and also provides
communicating (mechanical and chemical) links between the body's parts
through what is called the extra cellular matrix. Connective tissue
transmits those tensegrity forces.
How a
grapefruit looks is a good way to describe how connective tissue
works. Inside the grapefruit the walls between the sections and the
walls of the individual juice cells are comparative to connective
tissue. In human beings, this is formed out of pliable collagen
instead of vegetable cellulose. Without those little bags of
‘connective tissue’ around the grapefruit juice, all fluid would
pool at the bottom of the rind and we would drink the juice through a
straw like a tropical cocktail!
So what does
all this mean to our physical health? Injury, lack of exercise and bad
posture are examples of stressors that affect the body. Since
connective tissue is influenced by those stressors, its distortions
can literally reshape us. Even birth trauma and improper developmental
patterns in crawling remain with us as part of our adult physical
makeup.
One example of
connective tissue compensation is the posture called “secretary's
slump” or “dowager's hump.” This is revealed in the collapsed
chest and forward-thrusting jaw and neck (also often seen after a
whiplash injury). Over-stretched muscles of the back which are doing
their best to hold the head from falling forward spasm from their
attempts to spring back to their proper length. The underlying
skeletal structure is changed. A pad of tissue begins to build up
around the 7th cervical and upper thoracic vertebrae (lower neck and
upper back), and collagen begins to form to make a matrix or
protective skin around the struggling muscle.
For full
recovery the muscles must be relaxed and proper structural function
and circulation restored. Indeed, proper therapy must address all these problems, structural and soft tissue, for complete
recovery. Changing the tensional balance through the soft tissue
allows the bones to rearrange themselves. Techniques to determine how
much pressure or traction will effectively relax the injury must
employ an understanding of the barrier point: the point where if the
pressure is just enough, the tissue will absorb new information and
realign its cellular pattern. Just as important, if not more so, is
the point beyond (too much pressure), where the tissue will lock into
spasm and fight back.
It is a
Goldilocks' problem: not too much, not too little, but just right. A
well-trained practitioner wants to reach the therapeutic level where
the right pressure over enough time will “inform” the tissue; on a
cellular level, the tissue thus realigns, reshapes and relaxes. When
appropriate techniques are used, the spindle cell mechanism at the
core of the tissue will flood with neurochemicals (primarily dopamine)
which allow it to relax. If the pressure or traction applied is too
great for the tissue to “understand,” then it will spasm, tighten,
or simply not release. It won't necessarily become thicker, nor may
the symptoms increase, but it will not give up its hold on the
negative pattern. It is like forcing learning on a child in a bad
temper.
Treat the body
right and it will treat us well. Then we, in turn, will have a chance
to occupy a healthy place in our world. The wise American Indian,
Chief Seattle, said in 1854: "All things are connected, like the
blood which unites one family." He could have been describing our
world—or our bodies.
This article
is excerpted from The Body
Royale, Connective Tissue in Practice and Action by Jocelyn Paine.
Ms. Paine has taught connective tissue history and theory at UAA and
has presented the course to massage schools and in private workshops.
Her illustrated CD Text is in the process of receiving copyright
permissions for possible publication.
Jocelyn
Paine has
been in practice for 30 years in cranial-sacral therapy; skeletal,
movement, and postural analysis; and most recently in connective
tissue release. Her business, Movement Relaxation Therapy, is located
in Anchorage at (907) 276-8195.
