Lateral Line

NOTE TO ONLINE LEARNERS: After recording these lectures we realized that the work of the lateral line is great preparation for working with our front line— that is why it is organized this way in your training. When recording for these lectures, though, we taught the front line first— so don’t be confused if you hear us referring to the ‘front line’ from ‘last class’. We hope this small switcheroo helps the lateral line pave the way for a much richer experience of your upcoming front line.

The lateral line ‘basket weaves’ the front and back line together across the side of our body. You can also think of it like the binding edge of a book. It is a great mediator of force, and stabilizes the trunk and legs to prevent buckling during activity. We’ll see that this line allows for lateral side bending, but also serves as a brake for lateral bending in its eccentric phase. It also serves as a brake for rotational movement.

In Mammals, flexion and extension are dominant. This occurs through our Superficial front and back lines. We don’t move laterally on its own very much— therefore the LL serves to Mitigate and Mediate the forces of SFL & SBL. Fish, though, are Laterally dominant, which means the LL is their primary force. Their front and back lines serve to mitigate the force of their lateral lines. This gives us some perspective on the relationship of the lines— one is not better or more important than the other, they are always working as a team.

From this image of the dissected lateral line we can see just how vital this line is to maintaining stability as we move through more demanding actions such as jogging or running. The force of these kinds of actions doesn’t just exist in a straight line forward, but has alot of lateral force that must be utilized and swept forward into the greater movement. 

You can also see in this image the ITT sheath that begins at the knee and widens to surround the entire hip socket— where most of the lateral force occurs in our leg movement. This sheath of support by the ITT takes the pressure off of the neck of the Femur, when you stand on one leg or during walking and running. Without this lateral line, we would fall side to side during movement. 

ANATOMY OF LATERAL LINES

The lines begins behind the ankle, you can invert the foot to contract the fibulas breves and longus and expose the tendons just behind the ankle. Palpate up that tendon to the later aspect of your calf. We can see that the fibularis sits between the tibialis anterior from the front line and the gastroc nemius of the back line. 

As we trace the fibularis muscle up it can feel like it leads us to the biceps femoris, the lateral aspect of the hamstring, but the lateral line actually turns in towards the knee and goes up to unite with the ITT. To expose the inferior tendons of the ITT, set up in parighasana, then lean away from the extended leg and lift the extended leg and flex the foot. This should fire the abductors and raise the tendons of the ITT to the surface next to the knee. You can see this tendon sitting atop the vests lateralis, the lateral aspect of our quadriceps from the front line. As you follow this thin band up it begins to fan out to surround the entire hip socket. Where it fans out the fibers of the lateral line merge into the Gluteus medius, some of the Maximus, and the TFL on the front. As we said earlier, this wide sheath helps keep the hip socket in place structurally as we move, walk and run. 

• Obliques, Intercostals & Neck: The Diamond and the X

  • Palpable Anatomy

  • From the ITT, we have the bottom of our diamond

    • Stick your hip out to the side to find the head of your femur

    • Bring your fingertips of both hands to the femur head and make the shape of a downward facing triangle with your hands, the thumbs forming the top flat edge of the triangle.

    • This shape marks the first spread of the lateral line, as the ITT stretches to connect the entire lateral surface of the ilac crest

  • From there we go up to find the first X within our diamond

    • The external obliques run slightly backward from the pelvis to the ribs, like putting your hands in the pockets of a tight vest.

      • Leave your left hand in the vest pocket, and then insert your right hand into the palm of that left hand, like making a pocket out of that hand, and you have the direction and placement of your internal obliques.

    • This creates a kind of basket weave, represented by the ‘x’s

      • All of the X’s serve alot of purposes:

      • They hold the side body together like a woven basket, or a wide net, that contains the side body from hip to ear.

      • They also serve to draw the body in like a Chinese finger trap when lengthened from end to end.

      • “The series of ‘X’s or the basket weave that characterizes the LL in the trunk and neck are perfectly situated to modulate and brake these rotatory movements.” This means that they store and release the rotational energy of the ribs when walking, like hundreds of tiny springs.

  • At the neck we see the top of the diamond

    • Bring your fingers to the spine at the back of the neck, walk them down till you feel the first thoracic vertebrae, the one sticking out further than the others. This is T1. The Splenius capitus connects to the fourth vertebrae down from there, the T4. So count your way down from 1 to 4. Now run your hand from that 4th vertabrae up the back of your neck to just behind your ear. This is half of the diamond. The front of the diamond is the SCM, from the front of your collar bone to behind the ear as well.

WORKING WITH THE LATERAL LINE

  • eversion of the foot

    • Stand in tadasna for a moment and let your arches collapse, rolling your foot in. This is a contracting of the LL

    • Now roll your foot out, onto the lateral edge, and see that this is your LL eccentrically lengthening.

    • Most of us would benefit from our LL eccentrically lengthening in poses such as straddled forward fold and Lateral Angle. Pressing down through the outside edge of the foot is a common cue that is silently referencing the LL.

    • Lateral Foot Roll Sequence

  • Lateral Line of Walking

    • Stand on one leg, bring other leg in front neutral. When leg crosses over other leg, that’s add-duction. This is eccentric lengthening of lateral line

    • When leg pulls laterally, that’s abduction. This is concentric shortening of lateral line. Step right foot forward, as if beginning to walk. Let your right hip sway out to the right, and your torso lean to the left. This is the what happens when you walk without the support of your LL

    • Contract the right LL and feel the hip pull under the body.This is ABduction of the hip, a concentric shortening of the LL. Shift your weight back onto the left leg, letting the front right foot hover as it did in the beginning of the exercise. When the foot crosses the leg, that is the equivalent of the LL turning off. When you ABduct the leg it pulls to neutral, this is what happened in our walk. Bring the left foot forward, let your torso tilt to the right— notice the posture, and then engage the LL and feel yourself pull to center.

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