"Complexes" — clusters of skin, muscles, and joints — are incredibly practical for soft tissue therapists like us.
- They equal motion. Each complex facilitates and regulates motion around the axis of its respective plane, clockwise and counterclockwise.
- They are holistic. A complex contains interconnected skin, muscles, and joints that share a similar function, location, innervation, circulation, and so on. Moreover, complexes interlock with one another, linking the entire body from head to toe.
- They simplify our work. Instead of addressing the whole body or focusing solely on individual muscles, joints, and dermatomes, complexes allow us to treat and exercise in manageable, motion-based “clusters” or “groups.”
For instance, a simple hip abduction exercise targets the entire frontal hip complex: the hip abductor muscles, the hip adductor muscles, the hip joint, and its related skin. Mobilizing the frontal hip dermatomes and treating the adductor longus has the same positive, complex-wide effect.
But that’s not all. It gets even better.
Because complexes interconnect like gears, because one complex moves another, treating and exercising one enhances the function of all. For example, treating and exercising the frontal hip improves the frontal pubic symphysis, the frontal sacroiliac, and the frontal knee and ankle (see chapter 4.3).
It’s straightforward and highly effective. I resolve musculoskeletal pain, one complex at a time.
Manual therapy and exercises always target an entire complex and all its interconnecting complexes.
