motionline – Motion line

August 8, 2025

Understanding pain through fascia: trigger points, myofascial release & posture Fixes

Learn how fascia, posture, and trigger points cause pain, even in muscles that aren’t tight. Discover when to use myofascial release vs. activation for lasting relief.

FASCIA PROBLEM

If you’ve been stretching for months but still feel tight or worse, sometimes more sore, there’s a good chance you’re missing a key piece of the fascia puzzle.

Pain doesn’t always mean a muscle is short and stiff. Fascia, the connective tissue that wraps every muscle, can develop trigger points in both short, overactive muscles and long, underactive ones. Treating them the wrong way can actually make your posture worse and keep pain around longer.

Here’s what you need to know.

1️⃣ Shortened & Tight Muscles

These muscles stay in a constant state of contraction. The fascia around them loses elasticity, building tension and developing trigger points, those hypersensitive spots that can refer pain elsewhere.

Common examples:

Hours at a desk → shortened hip flexors → low back pain.
Slouched posture → tight pectorals → rounded shoulders and upper-back discomfort.

Best approach:

Myofascial release to soften the tissue.
Posture-friendly mobility drills.
Breathing patterns to help the muscle let go.

posture

2️⃣ Elongated & Inactive Muscles

These muscles are constantly pulled long. They look “loose” but are actually weak and unstable, and the fascia in these areas can still develop trigger points from overstrain.

Common examples:

Rounded upper back → overstretched rhomboids → tension between the shoulder blades.
Weak, elongated glutes → lower back overworks → chronic back tightness.

Best approach:

Activation work to re-engage the muscle.
Stability exercises to support posture.
Corrective movement to stop the over-stretch cycle.

Why This Matters for Pain, Fascia, and Posture

If you assume all pain means “stretch it out,” you might be stretching a muscle that’s already overstretched nor strengthening one that’s locked tight. Both can make trigger points worse.

Quick and simple guide to get started:

Short & tight? → Release the fascia, then mobilise.
Long & inactive? → Activate the muscle, then strengthen.

By identifying the pattern, you can use myofascial release and smart posture training to restore balance, reduce trigger points, and move with more freedom.

Final Thought

Fascia health isn’t just about flexibility, it’s about balance.
When you learn to tell the difference between muscles that need releasing and ones that need firing up, you’ll improve your posture, prevent injury, and finally get lasting relief from pain.

James Body therapist

March 17, 2025

Janes daime

Body | Back fascia

Sacrum tension and lower back pain: what you need to know

Lower back pain, especially around the sacrum, is a common issue caused by sitting too much, poor walking mechanics, and a lack of movement variety. Over time, these habits can dehydrate and tighten the muscles surrounding the sacrum, making them unresponsive.

When this happens, you may feel hip weakness, restricted mobility in the pelvis area, and ultimately, lower back pain—particularly near the sacrum.

The role of these muscles in movement

The muscles around the sacrum are not just there to support—they need to be mobile. Their primary job is to assist in standing up movements, rotation of the body, and hinging patterns like bending forward.

If these muscles lose mobility, the lower back takes on extra strain, leading to discomfort, stiffness, and pain.

How to manage pain and restore healthy movement

To keep the fascia surrounding these muscles hydrated and functional, two key approaches can help:

1. Myofascial release (MFR)

Using a tennis ball, lacrosse ball, or massage ball to target these areas can restore hydration and improve sensory awareness. This helps release tension and reconnect the fascia network from your feet to your lower back.

2. Movement integration

Engaging in movement that involves both the thoracic cage (upper body) and the hips is crucial. One essential concept to understand is thoracic and hip rotation:

When your thoracic cage rotates (for example, when you twist your upper body to look behind you), there should be a natural rotation of the hips in response.
However, if your fascia is tight and your sacral region lacks mobility, this connection gets lost, leading to compensation patterns and added strain on the lower back.
Restoring this coordinated movement through rotational exercises and mobility work can significantly ease tension and improve the way you move.

Have a look at this exercise, the rotation of the legs are very subtle on this video, I hope that will help you understand what I mean 🙂

The impact on daily movement

Combining MFR and movement practice will help restore natural function to these muscles, reducing tension and improving the way you walk and stand.

By maintaining hydrated, responsive fascia, you give your body the ability to move with less restriction, better support, and less pain.

Take care and remember if you want more inforamtion and you are struggling with making progress in your pain free journey, get in touch via wahtsapp or make a free call appointment to discuss your questions.

James Body therapist

January 15, 2025

Janes daime

Body | Back fascia

Why would you ignore something so important in the human body?

Let me give you two examples to help you grasp one fundamental aspect of fascia.

First, picture the scaffolding used in construction—structures that connect the bottom of a building to its very top, providing stability and support. You see it, right?

Now, think about the fascinating documentaries on trees—how they communicate through their root networks, spreading signals across vast distances. A single tree can warn another miles away about a potential threat.

Now, put these two together: a scaffolding system combined with an intricate communication network. That’s one way to understand fascia.

Fascia is a supportive, connective tissue embedded with neurotransmitters. It runs throughout your entire body, influencing how you move, stand, and feel—and it all starts from the plantar fascia.

Why does this matter?

When you experience pain (excluding injuries from contact sports or accidents), the culprit is often weak or poorly connected fascia—most commonly due to dehydration.

A weak fascia network forces the body to compensate, creating inefficient movement patterns. Over time, these compensations lead to overload and excessive stress on certain areas, resulting in pain.

The big mistake in pain management

If you treat chronic pain with a muscle-segmented approach, focusing only on the site of pain instead of the fascia’s structural integrity, you’re setting yourself up for a long and frustrating battle.

This outdated method often leads to mediocre results, increased fatigue, and even more stress on your body.

The key? Address the fascia. Hydrate it, restore its connections, and give your body the structural support it needs to move efficiently and pain-free.

Lower Back Pain and Its Misconceptions, What You Should Know !

Lower back pain is a huge problem that affects lots of people all over the world, making daily life tough for many. There’s a lot of advice out there, but also a lot of misunderstanding about what causes lower back pain and how to fix it. This post will help clear up some of those misunderstandings by showing how everything in our body is connected, which can lead us to better ways of dealing with the pain. You’ll get an idea of how I approach treating lower back pain.

back pain

Understand the Job of Your Joints/Sections of Your Body🦴

Our bodies are like well-oiled machines, with each part doing its own thing to keep us balanced and moving. Scott Hogan talks about this in his book “Built from Broken” (website). He says our ankles need to move freely to walk on different surfaces, while our knees need to be stable to hold up our upper body. Our hips need to be loose for all kinds of movements, like walking or bending, which means our lower back needs to be strong to hold up our upper body. Being able to move our upper body well is crucial for movement and breathing right. Knowing how all these parts work together helps stop lower back pain and keeps our body working well.

Do Not Focus Where the Pain Is 🎯

A lot of people try to make their lower back stronger because they think it will stop the pain. But if you don’t also work on making your hips and upper body (thoracic cage) more flexible, you might actually make things worse. This shows that just working on the sore spot isn’t enough. We need to think about our whole body to really solve the problem.

Understand How Your Spine Can Move Is Key🗝️

The spine’s ability to bend, stretch, twist, and turn is really important for how we move. Keeping our spine flexible and strong means we can do our everyday activities without pain. The best way to keep your spine happy is to use it in all the ways it can move. This includes standing up straight and making sure your feet, ankles, knees, and hips are all lined up right.

I know this might sound complicated, but it’s actually pretty straightforward. Just by being aware of how you move your body in daily activities, like walking or squatting, you can make a big difference.

TIPS FOR YOU, TO ACT ON NOW

Understanding Body Mechanics

Stay Active Throughout the Day: Keep moving around during your day. Changing how you sit or stand and taking short walks can help keep your hips and upper back flexible.
Incorporate Movement Variety: Do different activities that get you moving in various ways. This could be gardening, dancing, or anything that gets your whole body involved. Movement is key, so keep moving but don’t push through pain.
See instagram post for movement to get you out of sitting position

back pain

Core Engagement

Core Engagement: Pay attention to using your core muscles during your daily activities. A strong core helps support your lower back and lowers the chance of getting hurt. Practicing deep breathing helps support your back too.
See instagram post for optimal breathing

Lifestyle Adjustments

Ergonomic Adjustments: Change your workspace and home to make sure you’re sitting and moving in ways that don’t hurt your back. Use chairs that help keep your spine’s natural curve and make sure your screens are at the right height.
Stress Management: Being stressed can make your muscles tense, especially around your shoulders and mid-back. Trying out deep breathing or mindfulness can help relax these muscles.

Listening to Your Body

Recognize Pain Signals: Pay attention to your body and notice when it’s telling you something hurts. Changing how you move or taking breaks can help avoid making the pain worse. Include break every 20/30 minutes
Hydration and Nutrition: Drink plenty of water and eat well to help your body, including your muscles and joints, work better. Be careful with coffee though—I love it too, but it can dehydrate you, so make sure it’s not all you’re drinking!

Conclusion

Getting to know the balance between moving freely and being stable helps us see lower back pain in a new way. By looking at our body as a whole, we can find better relief and improve our overall health. Remember, your spine is super important for everything you do—take good care of it!

If you have been struggling with chronic pain for too long and you are looking for a long term solution, I have been helping people with corrective exercises and functional training.

Feel free to reach out

Keep it up

Posture, 2 myth busting facts and 2 tips !

Defining good posture.

posture
A question I get often at my studio in Rotterdam where I spend time helping people.
They stand straight and ask me: ‘What do you think, is my posture good?’

To answer the question, what is good posture? I would simply say that it is the flawless way you move in space. Considering your skeleton and muscles, without creating unnecessary tension in certain group of muscles.

We often examine posture while we sit or stand. These two positions of course do matter. To emphasize the importance of posture I would rather push it further by claiming that it is the way you move that actually matters the most. The question should be: ‘How do I move?’

Having a poor static forward head posture with the pelvis tilted anteriorly (drawing 2 and 4) is indeed not ideal at all. For me this is one of the signals on predicting how you probably move afterwards.

posture

For a good static posture you want to have your pelvis aligned with you feet and your thoracic cage right above your pelvis (drawing 1) and not backward or forward.

Based on the knowledge of the body and my experience that I have cumulated over the years, I would like to tackle two points before we go any further.

One in particular that has been going for way too long: the army posture.

Source: https://lesliemcnabb.wordpress.com/tag/movement/

I have nothing against army people. I actually have lots of respect for what they do and their dedication to their country.

What I am trying to say here is that if there is one thing you should not desire it is their posture. When they are on “garde a vous”, focus on their organization and discipline for your everyday life, not the posture.

Often talking about posture with patients in my practise they almost immediately acknowledge that their posture can be improved. In their attempt to show the good way, they automatically bring their shoulders backwards and lift their chest up. This posture definitely transcends more confidence than the one with the infamous forward heard posture (which has the tendency to create neck pain and headaches). However, this confident look will create tensions: the muscles between your shoulder blades and neck (rhomboids, inferior trapezius, posterior deltoid, lats and more) are constantly contracting and shortened. While the (pectoral) muscles at the front of the body will be in constant stretch tension. Which can weaken the muscle and in the long run create trigger points.

This brings me to the other point I wanted to touch: tools to ‘improve’ posture and in particular the brace for shoulders.

shoulder

Source: somewhere on the world wide web, definitely not planning to do any advertising.

Again I know that in nowadays world having rounded shoulders and forward head posture is a big issue. I also admit that it is not the most esthetical posture to have. Many companies also figured that out. Posture correction braces have popped out in the market. As I mentioned above you do not correct a posture by simply bringing your shoulder backward and your chest out.

This tool can be good for only two points in a really short (!) term gain:

It will release the tension on your back, mostly top and shoulder muscles, as it is going to hold back your shoulders from the tension you have most likely cumulated at the front (pectoral muscle, front line).
You won’t have these rounded shoulders which no one likes to have.

However, on top of the monetary price there is also a physical price tag. Braces take over the work of some of the muscles involved in helping the extension of the spine (opposite flexion). You will slowly inhibit those muscles and as you do not use them you might end up…losing them!

Having your shoulders forced backward on an unadapted system creates more constraints than anything else. As the back side of your ribcage is losing mobility and cannot expand due to the braces holding your shoulder back, it has negative impact on your breathing. Then that could also reduce rotational mobility of the thoracic cage as your ribs move when you rotate to the right or left.

If you have rounded shoulder it is a result of the entire body, shifting into that position it is not only your shoulders rounding. Your pelvis has a big share in how you move and stand as it is the gravity center of your whole body.

I look at the body with lines (that’s actually where the name MotionLine is based on 😉). Considering the whole body as one, directed by many lines helping the body to move in different plans. Above is all about the ‘front’ and ‘back line’ of the body. Tom Millers and his team did a brilliant work in the book Anatomy Trains by explaining how we move via lines. The book takes into account the different interrelated myofascial meridians that make us move.

Be gentle with your body and do not create unnecessary tension.

Now as promised, I give you two tips to work on your posture and especially helping to get rid of the tension you might have on top of your shoulder and neck.

TIP #1

Release the muscles in front of your shoulders. We tend to forget those ones way too often. I created two videos using two different tools.

https://motionline.nl/video-exercises-stretches-faster-recovery/

Section : Shoulder / releases / movement
Video : 02 and 03

TIP #2

While sitting or standing in front of a mirror, put both hands on your sternum (chest bone). Make sure you are not curving your lower back to get your sternum to move away from your spine.

Take a deep inhale intentionally making your chest bigger, feeling it moving away from your spine. Exhale while keeping the same posture, feeling your chest moving towards your spine.

Do that 5 times while looking at yourself in the mirror. Now let your arms hang next to your body and repeat 5 more times. Notice your shoulders automatically adjusting themselves without almost any effort.

Click here to watch video explanation.

To close this article I would like to accentuate the fact that you do not correct a posture by just changing one thing on the body. Bringing awareness on the matter is probably the best thing you can start with.

If you notice that you have more and more difficulties doing certain movements, holding yourself straight, cannot breath properly…start thinking about your posture!

If you need help I am more than happy to help you in that journey, check the link below for my page move better, and book a 30 minute assessment session to plan your journey back to pain free.

https://motionline.nl/movepainfree/

Take care

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Understanding pain through fascia: trigger points, myofascial release & posture Fixes