Let’s talk about how we apply the four phases of our method: Restore, Align, Maintain, and Progress to clients. The RAMP Method shouldn’t be considered linear, it’s possible to restore one part while the rest of the system is being aligned or maintained. The question is whether or not to attempt progressing systems that don’t show dysfunction, i.e. if the legs show no signs of restriction, can they be progressed while the upper body is being restored?
The simple answer is that no system can progress while a joint is still being protected or hasn’t been re-integrated into the system. This is the type of isolationist thinking we’re hoping to avoid. Our job is to progress those that present minimal or no restriction. But this doesn’t mean our clients have to sit on foam rollers waiting for the day they can take a HIIT class.
The RAMP Method’s intent is to get people thinking about the list of available musculature the brain has to work with. When given a task, most think about the task, add up the materials available to complete the task, check the desired outcome, and decide whether or not they can proceed. No one attempts to build a shed with two nails and a pile of sticks.
We get this mentality from the brain because this is exactly what it does when you think it’s a good idea to snowboard, golf, or garden. But the list of resources dwindles when the brain is faced with muscles caught in skewed length-tension relationships with their counterparts.
Muscles happen to be fiendishly simple. They lengthen or contract. That’s it. The importance placed on the muscular system may be comparable to crediting your tires for powering your car. They certainly add to the experience, but they ‘re not necessarily why the car can move. Tom Myers, in Anatomy Trains, tells us the biomechanical view, that compartmentalizes human movement into the same category as coils and camshafts, ignores the seamlessness fluidity that accompanies perfectly orchestrated movement.
We need to stop thinking mechanically when it comes to human movement.
The Biotensegrity theory states movement occurs within a fascial matrix that forms a system of tension. The bones float within this matrix creating relationships of discontinuous compression that connects through the whole system.
“A model based on Tensegrity…may also be utilized to demonstrate the structural integration of the body. All our previous concepts of biomechanics of the body will have to be reassessed in relation to this model and our therapeutic approaches to the musculo-skeletal system will have to be revised.” ~ Stephen Levine
