Tomorrow I will be attending the Anatomy Trains for Personal Training Seminar by Thomas Myers and I’m psyched!  This will be the first time Mr. Myers will be speaking specifically to the personal training field about his concept, anatomy trains.  If you are in the field and haven’t heard about Myers work or read his book get on it, I’ll have some more links for you below, if you’re too busy to read because you are trying to make it as an actor please get a new job.

Myers is the manual therapist who is responsible for changing the way we perceive fascia, “Fascia (făsh’ē-ə), pl. fas·ci·ae (făsh’ē-ē), adj. fascial (făsh’ē-əl) (from latin: a band) is the soft tissue component of the connective tissue system that permeates the human body. It interpenetrates and surrounds muscles, bones, organs, nerves, blood vessels and other structures. Fascia is an uninterrupted, three-dimensional web of tissue that extends from head to toe, from front to back, from interior to exterior.” -Wikipedia

In my early days as a trainer I’d mention fascia from time to time, but with an extremely limited knowledge I would usually just spout off, “it’s a web-like structure that surrounds your muscles, bones, joints, etc and just…you know holds everything together”  I also knew it felt good to massage it.  Apparently not many other folks were paying much attention to this stuff either, everybody just wanted to know about muscles.  This is where Myers made his breakthrough, maybe there is more to this stuff he thought, in a new Men’s Heath article which you can read here Myers describes “The anatomists he was working with were slicing right through it(fascia) because they wanted a good, unobstructed view of the muscle underneath. …”all I had to do was turn my scalpel sideways”, Myers recalls.  Instead of slicing through the gunk, he sliced along it, gently freeing it from the bone.”

In doing so Myers revealed  that  multiple muscle groups were linked via fascia.  He demonstrated this by removing very large pieces of fascia, often times running from head to toe.  This was eye-opening and has changed the way a lot of people view injury and anatomy.  No longer do the educated only look at the injury/pain site for the cure, but also above and below in part thanks to Tom Myers work with dead people.

For more images, information, and practitioners in your area check out Anatomytrains.com .  I also must mention that I will be attending this seminar with none other than my good friend Michael Wolf, who has pointed out to me on many occasion that he often is mentioned in my blog simply as “friend”.  Sorry Michael.  Also, I intended to include more links and demonstrate how Myer’s work has influenced the personal training/strength coach industry, but I’m out of words, I’ve been told I must keep these posts at 500 words, which sounds good to me because I’ve got some weights to lift.  Stay tuned for more.