In order to find the root cause of pain it is important to evaluate the body as a whole functional unit. A patient may come to physical therapy experiencing chronic low back pain; however, this does not necessarily mean the cause is located in the low back area. Focusing the patient’s treatment only on the pain in the low back area would temporarily relieve their symptoms but, would not take care of the cause of the problem resulting in a poor outcome. Evaluating the whole body would allow the physical therapist to determine the root cause of the pain and thus, start treating the appropriate area.

“What you think you see may be deceptive.”
Edward Stiles, D.O., F.A.A.O.

As the therapist evaluates a patient, they find the greatest area where movement is restricted and then treats that area. Once complete, therapist evaluates the patient again finding the next area of greatest restriction and also treats that area. This treatment process is called sequencing, and hence the name, provides a sequenced order of finding and treating restricted areas of movement throughout the entire body. Sequencing is complimentary to other physical therapy evaluation methods that allows the therapist to confidently identify where to start treatment and prevent them falling into the trap of “chasing pain”.

When you take the restriction out of a tensegrity unit, you balance the system so that compression and tension forces are equal throughout the whole system allowing each component in the system to move as they were designed to move.