The Spine as a Tension Mast
Most people are taught to experience the spine as a stack of joints: vertebrae that compress, slip, tighten, or “go out of place.” From that view, stiffness appears to be a local mechanical failure and mobility becomes the obvious solution. But in a fascial body, the spine does not function as a column of blocks. It functions as a tension mast.
A mast does not hold itself upright through rigidity alone. It stays upright because forces are distributed through a network of cables and pressure systems. When those systems are coordinated, the mast can move with wind and load without collapsing. When they fail, the mast stiffens or buckles. The spine behaves the same way.
When the Mast Has to Work Too Hard
A “tight back” is rarely a problem of missing flexibility. It is far more often a compensatory response to instability elsewhere. The spine is the most reliable structure in the system. When load-sharing fails, the nervous system assigns it the job of keeping things together. That job falls to what can be described as the pressure cylinder: the ribcage, diaphragm, abdominal wall, and pelvis functioning as a coordinated unit. This cylinder regulates intra-abdominal pressure, distributes force between upper and lower body, and allows movement without collapse or bracing.
When the cylinder is coordinated:
- Pressure rises and falls smoothly
- Load spreads through multiple pathways
- The spine can remain mobile and responsive
- Muscles cycle between work and rest
When the cylinder is uncoordinated:
- Pressure leaks or spikes unpredictably
- Load concentrates rather than disperses
- The nervous system reduces degrees of freedom
- The spine stiffens to maintain predictability
Stiffness, in this sense, is not failure. It is strategy of the body to adapt to a new and more unhealthy situation.
Fascia as the Force Distributor
This is where fascia becomes central to the story. Fascia is not passive wrapping. It is a continuous force-transmission network. Deep fascial lines connect foot to pelvis, pelvis to diaphragm, diaphragm to psoas, psoas to thoracolumbar fascia, and onward through the spine. When pressure beneath the mast is adequate, these lines share load elastically. When pressure drops or coordination fails, they tighten like guy wires under sudden wind. The thoracolumbar fascia, in particular, becomes an emergency stabiliser:
- Erectors remain tonically active
- Hip flexors maintain grip
- Diaphragm excursion reduces
- Pelvic adaptability disappears
The system chooses reliability over efficiency. Movement becomes smaller, stiffer, more predictable. The back “feels tight” not because it cannot move, but because the system does not trust movement. You see this if you look at elderly people how they move and compare it with the grace of movement in a young person.
Stiffness Is also Biochemistry: when functionality solidifies!
Mechanical bracing does not happen in isolation. It is supported by our biochemistry. Bracing requires fuel. Sympathetic tone increases. Catecholamines bias muscle recruitment toward speed and readiness. Glucose remains available for immediate output. Short term, this creates stability.
But alas, in the longer term, it alters pathological regulation:
- Cortisol rhythms lose precision
- Sleep fragments
- Tissue repair windows shrink
- Fascia remains in a guarded state
The nervous system begins to associate looseness with risk. And you slowly circle into rigidity. Rigidity in Body and Mind!
Our Connecting Tissue in its role of the great distributor
Fascial glide depends on more than stretching. It depends on tissue environment. Fascia is collagen suspended in ground substance. That ground substance requires:
- Adequate water
- Electrolyte balance
- Normal metabolic turnover
Under sympathetic overtone there is not an optimal system and poor recovery from trauma/lesions:
- Viscosity increases
- Slide becomes stick
- Elastic recoil requires effort
- Movement feels resistant rather than springy
The spine feels tight not because it is short, but because the tissues surrounding it are less willing to yield. A self-protective mechanism shoots over.
When Inflammation comes in
Inflammation further shifts the equation. A primed immune system amplifies sensory input. Nociceptors become more responsive. Mechanical signals feel louder and less predictable. The nervous system responds by reducing degrees of freedom. Stiffness increases to limit surprise of the body and unpredictability.
Thus the back becomes a barometer:
- Thoracic tightness reflects reduced ribcage motion
- Lumbar guarding reflects pelvic bracing and limited diaphragm descent
- A thoracolumbar “knot” reflects fascia acting as a stabilising strap
A protective step but leading into rigidity, loss of flexibility and thus into being more un-responsive.
Why Stretching Often Plateaus
This is why relief gained from stretching alone sometimes stalls. Stretching targets tissue length, but the nervous system continues to demand stiffness as long as the ribcage–diaphragm–pelvis cylinder remains unreliable, weak and untrained. Mobility without load-sharing simply invites the system to re-brace. The spine stays stiff because it is still needed as a splint….
Restoring Load-Sharing
The aim is not to force mobility. The aim is to restore trust.
That means:
- Restoring ribcage motion so the diaphragm can descend
- Restoring abdominal–pelvic coordination so pressure distributes
- Restoring foot and hip mechanics so ground force travels cleanly
- Supporting hydration, minerals, sleep, and recovery
- Reducing inflammatory background noise so movement feels safer
As these conditions improve, stiffness becomes unnecessary.
The spine regains movement not because it was stretched, but because it is no longer required to hold the system together.
The Spine Relaxes When the System Organises
The spine is not stubborn, but responsive. We have seen it behaves like a tension mast responding to:
- the physics beneath it
- the fascial lines around it
- and the neurochemical weather within it
When the cylinder becomes trustworthy, the mast no longer needs to brace. It starts to move again.
Self Healing From Within, Why Sensing Works
Most approaches to pain, stiffness, and dysfunction assume that something in the body must be corrected. A joint must be mobilised, a muscle lengthened, a pattern retrained. Even subtle approaches often retain the same premise: the body is a problem to be solved.
Inner sensing begins from a different assumption.
It assumes that the body already contains the intelligence required for reorganisation, but that this intelligence only becomes accessible when the body is felt from within rather than managed from above.
Self healing, in this context, is not an act. It is an emergent process that arises when awareness and sensation meet without interference.
The Missing Ingredient, Full Bodily Presence
Pain and chronic tension are rarely just mechanical phenomena. They are expressions of how the nervous system has learned to maintain predictability under uncertainty. When load sharing is unreliable, when pressure fluctuates, when movement feels unsafe, the system chooses stiffness.
This stiffness persists not because the tissue is incapable of change, but because the system does not yet perceive sufficient safety to allow change. Inner sensing directly addresses this.
When attention rests inside the body, not analysing, not directing, not correcting, the nervous system receives a different signal: this territory is being inhabited, not avoided. Sensation is no longer interpreted as threat, but as information. That shift alone alters regulation already.
Awareness as a Regulatory Input
Awareness is not neutral. It is a biological input. Sustained, non judgemental sensing reduces nociceptive gain, quiets excessive sympathetic tone, and increases the system’s tolerance for variability. In practical terms, this means the body becomes more willing to explore movement rather than brace against it. The spine responds immediately to this shift.
When the ribcage, diaphragm, abdomen, and pelvis are felt as one living field, pressure begins to distribute more evenly. Fascia regains elasticity. Muscles no longer need to hold continuously. The spine stops functioning as a splint and resumes its role as a responsive mast. The system reorganises because the conditions for reorganisation are finally present. Awareness and sensing what the bhody needs.
Why This Is Healing From Within
Inner sensing does not attempt to override protection. It invites protection to stand down. By staying present with sensation, even discomfort, without trying to fix it, the body learns that sensation itself is not dangerous. That learning is the gateway to self regulation. Healing, then, is not something done to the body.
From Strategy to Flexibility
Chronic stiffness is intelligence locked into a single strategy. Inner sensing restores optionality.
As awareness fills the body, movement emerges spontaneously. Small adjustments appear. Breathing deepens without instruction. The pelvis relaxes more. The ribcage regains subtle motion. These are not techniques, they are signs that the system is redistributing load again. The spine relaxes not because it was persuaded, but because it is no longer required to compensate. This is the often underestimated power of sensing.
Practice Guide
Of course we cannot give a whole course here. Do not forget the muscle strength and especially train your core muscles and do stability and coordination exercises!
Inner Sensing for Load Sharing and Spinal Relief
This is not an exercise sequence. It is a context for reorganisation.
Setting
Lie down or sit in a position that feels stable and non demanding. The body should not need to hold itself upright with effort.
Close the eyes if that feels safe.
Step 1, Establish the Field
Let attention widen to include the whole body at once. Not scanning, not focusing, simply allowing the sense of “being in a body” to become present.
If thoughts arise, let them pass without following.
Step 2, Sense Weight and Contact
Notice where the body meets the ground or chair. Feel weight spreading rather than concentrating.
Do not adjust posture. Let the system reveal itself.
Step 3, Invite the Cylinder
Without controlling the breath, notice the movement of the ribcage, abdomen, and pelvis as breathing happens by itself.
If movement is small or restricted, do not change it. Simply sense it.
This sensing alone often allows excursion to increase.
Step 4, Let Sensation Lead
If areas of tightness or discomfort appear, stay with them in your field of attention. Do not stretch them. Do not analyse them. Remain curious:
- Is the sensation static or moving
- Does it have temperature, texture, rhythm
- Does it shift when attention stays present
Micro movement may arise. Let it be and follow it. Enable and allow.
Step 5, Allow Redistribution
Over time, sensation often spreads. Areas that were dominant soften. Breathing becomes more three dimensional. The spine may feel less “held together.”
This is load sharing returning. Stay until the system feels complete for now.
Duration and Frequency
5 to 15 minutes is sufficient. Once or twice daily is more effective than long sessions. The effect is cumulative, not dramatic.
Important Note
If you feel the urge to “do it right,” you have already left sensing and returned to control. The body reorganises only when it is allowed.
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