The Human Spring Approach to Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, Human Biomechanics, and Non-Surgical Recovery
I know the treatment approaches used by the chiropractor, physical therapist, family doctor, orthopedic surgeon, neurosurgeon, sports medicine physician, and pain management specialist aren't working for your thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS), thoracic outlet syndrome symptoms, chronic neck pain, shoulder pain, upper back pain, arm numbness, and hand tingling, because they're not working for anyone! It is because they are all based on a severely flawed model of biomechanics, human movement, musculoskeletal biomechanics, and functional biomechanics that doesn't even abide by the laws of physics and nature! This flawed approach fails to identify the true cause of thoracic outlet syndrome compression, brachial plexus compression, nerve compression, vascular compression, and chronic pain.
We assume that all doctors, physical therapists, chiropractors, athletic trainers, sports medicine specialists, rehabilitation professionals, and fitness trainers approach the human body according to the equivalent principles used by an engineer or physicist. In fact, they don't. Instead, most continue to evaluate and treat the body using an outdated lever model of biomechanics rather than understanding the Integrated Spring-Mass Model, Human Spring Approach, spring biomechanics, and human movement mechanics that govern normal function.
Why do I know this? I have given formal presentations to more than 50,000 doctors, surgeons, physical therapists, chiropractors, sports medicine physicians, rehabilitation specialists, engineers, and scientists from more than 50 countries. Many of your health problems—including thoracic outlet syndrome, herniated discs, chronic neck pain, chronic shoulder pain, headaches, chronic pain, nerve compression syndromes, repetitive strain injuries, and movement disorders—come from you and your doctor not knowing how your body is engineered, how your human spring mechanism functions, and how to live in harmony with Earth's gravity, the laws of physics, and the principles of human biomechanics.
The study of how your body is engineered is called biomechanics, also known as human biomechanics, movement biomechanics, or functional biomechanics.
Page of one of the first works of biomechanics (De Motu Animalium by Giovanni Alfonso Borelli) in the 17th century.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, biomechanics is the study of the mechanical laws, human movement, and structure of living organisms, explaining how the body moves according to the laws of physics and human engineering.
Biomechanics might seem like a complicated subject, but there is a lot you already know about human movement, body mechanics, and movement mechanics on a practical level that forms the basis for everyday decisions, such as these concepts.
- How to run efficiently.
- How to throw a baseball.
- How to type on a computer with proper posture and body mechanics.
However, a deeper understanding of biomechanics, sports biomechanics, movement science, and human engineering is necessary to perform these tasks more effectively and with less risk of injury.
- How to run the hurdles at full speed with maximum efficiency.
- How to throw a 90-mile-per-hour curveball using proper throwing biomechanics.
- How to type on a computer with the least neck strain, shoulder strain, repetitive strain, and musculoskeletal stress.
The five essential questions that must be answered to determine the most accurate model of human biomechanics, human movement, and human engineering are as follows.
- How is the human body designed, engineered, or biomechanically organized?
- How does the body safely absorb impacts, collisions, and shock forces?
- How does the body recycle and conserve energy for maximum movement efficiency and athletic performance?
- How does the body engineer, maintain, and preserve healthy joint spaces and joint alignment?
- How does the body provide and maintain space for the safe passage of blood vessels, nerves, and the neurovascular bundle?
The last idea is the most important for understanding how the safe passage for the nerves and blood vessels, known as the thoracic outlet, becomes compressed, causing thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS), brachial plexus compression, nerve compression, vascular compression, chronic pain, arm numbness, and hand tingling.
You might think that all doctors develop a vast knowledge of biomechanics, human movement, functional anatomy, and movement science; however, this is a relatively new science. I have only taught a relative handful of doctors my more advanced model of human spring biomechanics, the Human Spring Approach, and the Integrated Spring-Mass Model. The majority of health professionals know little to nothing about these advanced concepts of human biomechanics and compression disorders.
So, it's highly unlikely you'll be learning this from your local physician, thoracic outlet syndrome specialist, or healthcare provider anytime soon.
Therefore, if you really want to know how to get out of chronic pain, reverse thoracic outlet syndrome, improve human movement, and restore normal biomechanics, you have to be willing to learn on your own.
What is exciting is that with this knowledge, you will be able to make more informed decisions about which thoracic outlet syndrome treatments, non-surgical treatment options, conservative treatments, physical therapy approaches, and rehabilitation strategies will help reverse thoracic outlet syndrome, compression syndromes, and many other chronic musculoskeletal conditions, which treatments will not work, and which may make your condition worse over the long term.
I assure you that after you read this chapter, you will know more about the cause of thoracic outlet syndrome, biomechanics, compression of the brachial plexus, chronic neck pain, shoulder pain, and upper back pain than 99 percent of licensed physicians.
Many solutions to biomechanical disorders, movement dysfunction, compression syndromes, and musculoskeletal pain have long been available to doctors; only a few have bothered to look for answers with any intensity until recent decades. Even if they were looking for answers, the secrets to how the body really works, how it maintains the thoracic outlet, and how it prevents nerve compression and blood vessel compression were not readily available.
To compile this information, I interviewed approximately 1,000 national and world champions, elite athletes, Olympic coaches, top trainers, sports medicine physicians, physical therapists, biomechanists, engineers, and sports scientists. I also read several thousand pages of biomechanics research, sports medicine research, anatomy research, movement science, and peer-reviewed scientific literature.
When it comes to the study of human biomechanics, the medical community is stuck in the dark ages, left behind with a painful misunderstanding of human movement, musculoskeletal biomechanics, and human engineering that is so outdated that it does not even abide by the laws of physics and nature.
Therefore, employing these outdated biomechanical models, examination methods, and conservative treatment approaches will almost guarantee the failure of your conservative treatment for thoracic outlet syndrome, chronic neck pain, shoulder pain, upper back pain, and other compression syndromes, leaving you in a state of chronic pain for years.
Until the 20th century, orthopedics, the branch of medicine related directly to the musculoskeletal system, including the skeleton, muscles, joints, ligaments, tendons, and connective tissues, was mainly focused on straightening scoliosis, fixing broken bones, treating infections of the bones and joints, and other relatively simple orthopedic procedures.
It was not until the development of modern orthopedic surgery, including arthroscopic surgery, minimally invasive orthopedic procedures, joint replacement surgery, and limb replacement surgery, that doctors and scientists were compelled to advance the science of human movement, functional biomechanics, musculoskeletal biomechanics, movement science, and human performance to a new level.
The top five advancements in musculoskeletal medicine, orthopedic surgery, sports medicine, and musculoskeletal imaging have been these.
- Arthroscopic surgery (minimally invasive orthopedic surgery)
- The use of orthopedic nails, surgical screws, fixation plates, and internal fixation devices to stabilize unstable joints, fractures, damaged bones, and degenerative musculoskeletal conditions
- Total joint replacement surgery (joint arthroplasty), including hip replacement, knee replacement, and shoulder replacement
- Digital X-rays (digital radiography) for musculoskeletal diagnosis and orthopedic imaging
- Three-dimensional (3D) models generated from computed tomography (CT) scans, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, and advanced medical imaging studies
Bioengineering
The science of bioengineering, biomedical engineering, and orthopedic bioengineering is the use of artificial tissues, biomaterials, prosthetic devices, implants, and bioengineered components to replace damaged or absent parts of the body, such as artificial limbs (prosthetic limbs), joint implants, and orthopedic prostheses. The continual effort to improve the outcomes of total joint replacement surgery, limb replacement, orthopedic implants, and musculoskeletal reconstruction eventually led orthopedic surgeons to place greater emphasis on biomechanics, musculoskeletal biomechanics, functional biomechanics, and bioengineering to better understand human movement, joint mechanics, force transmission, movement efficiency, and how the musculoskeletal system functions during daily activities and sports.
Photo Caption: 1Sgt. Jerrod Fields, a U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program Paralympic sprinter hopeful, works out at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California. A below-the-knee amputee, Fields won a gold medal in the 100 meters with a time of 12.15 seconds at the Endeavor Games in Edmond, Oklahoma, on June 13, 2009.
The irony is that doctors work harder on understanding biomechanics, joint biomechanics, and musculoskeletal biomechanics so they can develop better hip replacements, knee replacements, and joint replacement surgery, instead of understanding the biomechanics of joint compression, chronic joint compression, and abnormal movement patterns that lead to joint degeneration, cartilage degeneration, osteoarthritis, and degenerative joint disease. There is more money in joint replacement procedures than the prevention of joint degeneration and chronic musculoskeletal disorders.
Most important, doctors need to know how the thoracic outlet remains open, what maintains thoracic outlet space, what controls thoracic outlet muscle tension, and what causes thoracic outlet compression. Simple human anatomy, functional anatomy, thoracic outlet anatomy, and musculoskeletal anatomy have been the foundation of medical education, medical diagnosis, medical intervention, and medical communication for hundreds of years. With all the educational resources multiplying on the Internet, doctors should have a better grasp of human anatomy and thoracic outlet anatomy than in the days I went to school, when we learned by dissecting a cadaver with the help of a paperback anatomy guide.
But in fact, doctors are having a more difficult time understanding human anatomy, specifically thoracic outlet anatomy, brachial plexus anatomy, first rib anatomy, clavicle anatomy, scalene muscle anatomy, pectoralis minor anatomy, and neurovascular anatomy. That is because, in recent years, human gross anatomy and cadaveric anatomy education have been slowly squeezed from the medical curriculum. Some researchers suggest that the level of anatomical knowledge has fallen below what is necessary for the safe diagnosis and treatment of patients.
Not only is there evidence that doctors are not learning enough human anatomy, clinical anatomy, and functional anatomy to provide effective patient care, there is also evidence that inadequate knowledge of thoracic outlet anatomy, musculoskeletal anatomy, and neurovascular anatomy has made the practice of medicine less safe, contributing to misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis, diagnostic errors, ineffective treatment, unnecessary surgery, and poorer patient outcomes.
Between 1995 and 2000, there was a seven-fold increase in medical malpractice claims associated with anatomical errors submitted to the United Kingdom Medical Defence Union (MDU), and 32 percent of all medical negligence claims made to the MDU involved anatomical errors. Medical malpractice claims involving vascular surgery were reported most commonly for damage to underlying anatomical structures, including blood vessels, nerves, and surrounding soft tissues, during vascular surgical procedures. (1).
This is incredibly important, considering that vascular surgeons and thoracic outlet syndrome surgeons are the specialists called to perform thoracic outlet syndrome surgery. They are expected to remove blood clots, repair damaged blood vessels, perform scalene muscle surgery (scalenectomy), release or remove the pectoralis minor muscle (pectoralis minor tenotomy), and surgically remove the first rib (first rib resection) to relieve brachial plexus compression, subclavian artery compression, and subclavian vein compression, all without causing damage to the underlying nerves, arteries, veins, muscles, and connective tissues. There are numerous delicate nerves and blood vessels throughout the neck, thoracic outlet, shoulder, and upper chest that require meticulous surgical technique.
Doctors' overreliance on MRI scans, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), CT scans, X-rays, and diagnostic imaging to diagnose thoracic outlet syndrome demonstrates they do not fully understand the body as an interconnected biomechanical system. They often rely on medications, injections, and chemical treatments to manage symptoms when the underlying problem is frequently a mechanical compression disorder, biomechanical dysfunction, or compression of the brachial plexus and blood vessels.
People keep defending these physicians by saying, "That's how they do it, according to the way they were taught or believe." If the way they diagnose and treat thoracic outlet syndrome, chronic neck pain, shoulder pain, upper back pain, arm numbness, hand tingling, and other compression syndromes leaves you in chronic pain for life instead of addressing the underlying cause, then it is an incorrect approach to thoracic outlet syndrome diagnosis, thoracic outlet syndrome treatment, and thoracic outlet syndrome recovery. Period.
What is the evidence that your doctor does not use the knowledge of biomechanics, human movement, and functional anatomy in the clinical decision-making process when diagnosing and treating thoracic outlet syndrome?
Clue 1
Your doctor doesn't take the time to ask you detailed questions about your activities of daily living, work posture, sports participation, repetitive movements, sleeping position, computer use, or other biomechanical factors that could be triggering or worsening your thoracic outlet syndrome symptoms, nerve compression, and chronic neck and shoulder pain.
Clue 2
Your doctor gives you a prescription for a pain medication, analgesic, anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), muscle relaxant, or other medication when your problem is mechanical, biomechanical, and caused by compression of the thoracic outlet, rather than identifying and correcting the underlying cause.
Clue 3
Your doctor orders an MRI, CT scan, or other diagnostic imaging test based primarily on your symptoms instead of performing a comprehensive thoracic outlet syndrome examination, including a thorough physical examination, orthopedic examination, functional movement assessment, and hands-on evaluation. They don't touch you where it hurts.
When you think about it, these doctors are really not engineers of the human body, biomechanics, or human movement, but merely technicians who know how to remove fluids, replace fluids, prescribe medications, and replace worn-out body parts. The fact is that many hospitals would rather employ technicians who carry out procedures that generate substantial revenue than independent thinkers who spend the time necessary to determine the true cause of thoracic outlet syndrome, chronic pain, and compression disorders, because those procedures generate more income for the hospital.
So, if your doctor isn't going to learn human biomechanics, functional anatomy, and the true engineering of the human body, you have to learn it yourself.
When you go to a personal trainer and ask, "What book would you recommend to learn how to train the human body?" most well-educated trainers will first ask you to clarify your goals, your current condition, your movement limitations, and your desired level of fitness, performance, injury prevention, or recovery.
"Do you want to do resistance exercise or plyometric training? Resistance exercise uses lever biomechanics and traditional strength training principles, while plyometric exercise, plyometric training, and explosive movement training use the body's spring mechanics, elastic energy storage, and Integrated Spring-Mass Model.
Obviously, both are different. So, which one is the right one?
Both are right. The trainer is just developing one system over the other. Next time, ask your trainer to train the human spring system, improve spring biomechanics, and develop elastic energy efficiency, then hand him or her a copy of this book.
Most doctors give you the owner's manual, describing how your body moves using lever biomechanics and the traditional lever model of human movement. What they give you is only half the owner's manual—lesson one. This chapter you are reading now is the second half of your owner's manual—lesson two—which is most important because it explains the Human Spring Approach, the Integrated Spring-Mass Model, and the spring engineering of the thoracic outlet, thoracic outlet tunnel, and human biomechanics.
In this chapter, you will come to recognize, beyond doubt, that the current model of how doctors believe the body is engineered—the lever model of biomechanics—is a 340-year-old outdated model that does not comply with the most basic principles of physics, human biomechanics, mechanical engineering, movement science, or common-sense scientific principles.
Then, I am going to present you with a new, more logical model of human engineering, the Human Spring Approach, and the Integrated Spring-Mass Model of Biomechanics, a breakthrough model that has garnered me invitations to lecture at prestigious sports medicine, orthopedic, physical medicine, rehabilitation, and medical conferences throughout the world.
We need these questions answered to determine how the body is engineered.
To understand the cause of any particular musculoskeletal condition, including thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS), neck pain, shoulder pain, back pain, chronic pain, herniated discs, carpal tunnel syndrome, and other compression syndromes, we need to understand human biomechanics and how the body is engineered. To better understand that, we must examine how the body functions in harmony with a world governed by the fundamental laws of physics, biomechanics, engineering, and nature. These are some of the most important questions that must be answered to understand human movement, injury prevention, chronic pain, and musculoskeletal health.
How is the body designed or engineered?
- How is the human body engineered to absorb impacts, reduce joint stress, and protect itself from collisions during walking, running, and daily movement?
- How is the body designed to store, recycle, and conserve energy for maximum movement efficiency, athletic performance, and fatigue prevention?
- How is the body engineered to maintain healthy joint spaces, prevent joint compression, and reduce wear, degeneration, arthritis, and chronic pain?
- How is the body engineered to maintain safe passageways for nerves and blood vessels through anatomical spaces and tunnels, such as the thoracic outlet, thoracic tunnel, carpal tunnel, cubital tunnel, and spinal foramina, preventing nerve compression and vascular compression disorders?
Then, we must consider these questions of how the tension of the mechanism is controlled. That will give us the answers to how the tension of the human spring mechanism becomes abnormal and compressed, causing thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS), brachial plexus compression, nerve compression, vascular compression, chronic neck pain, shoulder pain, upper back pain, herniated discs, carpal tunnel syndrome, and a dozen or more other compression syndromes and musculoskeletal conditions that doctors find difficult to diagnose and treat.
First, I think it is important to review the history of how these biomechanical models, human movement models, and medical models of biomechanics have been developed, so you can better understand how long it takes to develop new models and approaches to human movement, exercise science, sports medicine, physical medicine, rehabilitation, and modern medicine.
It's also important to study the history to understand how slowly the medical world innovates its diagnostic methods, physical examination techniques, treatment protocols, and standard-of-care approaches, and how long doctors will allow patients with thoracic outlet syndrome, chronic pain, compression disorders, and other musculoskeletal conditions to suffer before adopting new, common-sense, evidence-informed, biomechanics-based approaches that provide far superior patient outcomes.
Then, we must consider these questions of how the tension of the mechanism is controlled. That will give us the answers to how the tension of the human spring mechanism becomes abnormal and compressed, causing thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS), brachial plexus compression, nerve compression, vascular compression, chronic neck pain, shoulder pain, arm numbness, hand tingling, headaches, herniated discs, carpal tunnel syndrome, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and many other compression syndromes that doctors find difficult to diagnose and treat.
First, I think it is important to review the history of how these biomechanical models, models of human movement, and models of human engineering have been developed, so you can better understand how long it takes to develop new models and approaches to biomechanics, exercise science, sports medicine, physical rehabilitation, and modern medicine.
It's also important to study the history to understand how slowly the medical world adopts innovation in biomechanics, diagnosis, examination, conservative treatment, and rehabilitation, and how long doctors will allow patients to suffer before embracing new, common-sense, science-based, physics-based, and evidence-informed approaches that provide far superior patient outcomes and long-term recovery.
History
Greek physician Hippocrates (460–370 BCE) wrote about many sensible treatments of common ailments in his time and authored more than 171 books and articles on medicine, surgery, anatomy, and clinical medicine. He is regarded as the Father of Medicine and was the inspiration for the Hippocratic Oath, a text in which new physicians agree to uphold ethical standards in medical practice and patient care.
The first real biomechanics experts date back to artist, engineer, and mathematician Leonardo da Vinci and physicist Galileo Galilei in the 15th and 16th centuries, and later mathematicians and physicists Joseph Louis Lagrange, Daniel Bernoulli, Leonhard Euler, and Thomas Young. All these scientists had a primary interest in applying engineering, mechanics, physics, biomechanics, and human movement science to the study of walking, running, posture, balance, force, motion, and human movement.
It was Leonardo da Vinci who said, "The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art," recognizing the remarkable biomechanics of the foot, ankle, and lower extremity. He also stated, "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication," and reminded us that, "Learning never exhausts the mind." So, I will try to keep this simple while helping you understand the remarkable engineering, biomechanics, anatomy, and movement science behind your own masterpiece of human engineering.
Leonardo da Vinci: "The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art."
Let's walk through the history of biomechanics, human movement, engineering, and the Human Spring Approach together.
These are the models of human movement, biomechanics, and human engineering we are going to examine.
- Inverted pendulum model of human movement, which is 340 years old and remains the primary model of biomechanics, gait analysis, walking, running, and human movement used by most doctors, physical therapists, and researchers.
- Resistance exercise and the lever-series model of biomechanics, which views exercise, human movement, posture, and musculoskeletal function as being propelled by a series of rigid lever-like connections powered by muscles.
- Spring-mass model of human movement, which recognizes that the lower half of the body functions as a spring mechanism during walking, running, jumping, shock absorption, energy storage, and energy return.
- Integrated spring-mass model of human movement and biomechanics, which is an advancement of the Harvard University spring-mass model that incorporates the upper body, head, spine, shoulders, thoracic outlet, and the entire human body into one integrated spring mechanism responsible for shock absorption, energy recycling, joint space preservation, and the safe passage of nerves and blood vessels.
- The body moves as a lever series, when performing resistance training, strength training, weightlifting, and resistance exercise movements. • The body moves with spring mechanisms, spring engineering, and the Integrated Spring-Mass Model when walking, running, sprinting, jumping, landing, and performing plyometric exercises.
The Inverted Pendulum Model
The inverted pendulum model depicts human beings using the body as a series of levers to step forward with a stiff lead leg while the back leg pushes the body over the straight lead leg in a pole-vaulting-like manner. This inverted pendulum model of human movement is the traditional lever model of biomechanics used to explain walking biomechanics, human gait, locomotion, and human movement.
A vision of exercising the body and human movement propelled with a series of lever-like biomechanical connections, emphasizing lever biomechanics, rigid body mechanics, and traditional biomechanics.
The Spring-Mass Model
The spring-mass model represents the legs as springs and the torso and head as the non-spring-like mass. This spring-mass model of biomechanics explains running biomechanics, walking biomechanics, elastic energy storage, energy return, shock absorption, impact attenuation, and human locomotion more effectively than a rigid lever model.
The Integrated Spring-Mass Model
The Integrated Spring-Mass Model of Biomechanics that I developed suggests that the entire body is an integrated or interconnected series of springs forming one giant spring mechanism. Rather than functioning as isolated levers, the body operates as an integrated spring system that absorbs impact, recycles elastic energy, preserves joint spaces, and maintains the safe passage of nerves and blood vessels. The primary non-spring mass is the head because it does not possess significant spring capabilities.
Inverted Pendulum Model
In 1685, Renaissance Italian physiologist, physicist, and mathematician Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, often considered the father of biomechanics, made major contributions to explaining human movement, human biomechanics, musculoskeletal biomechanics, and locomotion through the inverted pendulum model, a traditional lever model of human movement that continues to influence modern biomechanics, physical therapy, sports medicine, and orthopedic medicine.(2). Giovanni Alfonso Borelli
His publications, De Motu Animalia I and De Motu Animalium II (On the Movement of Animals), made comparisons between how animals, the human body, and biomechanical machines moved, helping establish the foundation for the lever model of biomechanics, human movement biomechanics, and musculoskeletal biomechanics.
He attempted to support his theories of human movement, biomechanical engineering, and lever mechanics with mathematics.
Borelli's core idea of human walking biomechanics was that we use the body's lever system to take our first step, leading with a stiff, straight leg (little or no bending at the knee) and then employing the back leg to vault the body's mass over the planted limb. This concept aligns with the traditional heel-to-toe walking or heel-toe gait recommendations many people were taught decades ago.
Running, according to Borelli, was perceived to be a different process—as a rebounding or bouncing movement off compliant or bent legs, forming the basis for later theories of running biomechanics, human locomotion, ground reaction forces, and elastic energy storage during running.(2)
This is where his model of human biomechanics breaks down and makes no sense. However, doctors and scientists still embraced this illogical lever model of biomechanics and, in fact, based all standard-of-care examination and treatment approaches around it. This is why, to many of you suffering from thoracic outlet syndrome, chronic neck pain, shoulder pain, upper back pain, herniated discs, headaches, fibromyalgia, and other compression disorders, the method of medical examination, diagnosis, and treatment currently used by doctors makes no sense.
However, because of this early important work, Borelli has been labeled as the father of modern biomechanics. The American Society of Biomechanics awards its highest honor for biomechanics research, the Borelli Award.
His walking model became known as the inverted pendulum model of human gait and remains a foundational concept in traditional biomechanics, gait analysis, and walking mechanics. It is still the go-to reference for many doctors, physical therapists, chiropractors, and movement specialists today. You know a doctor is using this outdated concept when they promote the heel-to-toe walking technique as the primary model of human movement. It relies mainly on the idea that the body is a fixed, rigid structure that moves by pushing with lever biomechanics rather than functioning as an integrated spring mechanism.
If you knew a machine you were designing had to take 10,000 steps a day for 365 days a year—more than 3,650,000 foot strikes, ground impacts, or collisions with the ground every year—would you design it using only rigid levers?
Impossible!
Levers are not designed to absorb impact forces, dissipate ground reaction forces, reduce joint stress, or protect the body from repetitive impact injuries. In fact, I guarantee that if you approached every engineer in the world and asked, "How can I design the human body to safely absorb approximately 287,000,000 lifetime collisions with the ground using only levers?" they would tell you it is impossible. That is compelling evidence that the traditional lever model of biomechanics, human movement, walking mechanics, and gait biomechanics is incomplete and helps explain why the medical profession has misunderstood the true biomechanical model of human movement.
So, for close to 340 years and counting, scientists and doctors followed this illogical lever-series model of human biomechanics, which said that walking biomechanics were performed by using an inverted pendulum model, such as vaulting over stiff legs, while running biomechanics were explained as rebounding off compliant legs (3–4).
Resistance Exercise and the Lever-Series Model
In the early 1980s, the sports and fitness community modeled the early strength training, weight training, and resistance exercise approach after the lever-series model of biomechanics. That gave birth to weight lifting, resistance training, and strength training, which were made popular by the sport of bodybuilding. Early on, weight training, resistance exercise, and strength and conditioning were the primary approaches taught in fitness clubs and through Joe Weider's fitness magazines, such as Shape and Muscle & Fitness, featuring fitness icons, including globally recognized bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger.
At the time, the majority of physicians warned against weight training, strength training, and resistance exercise, believing they would enlarge the heart and cause other health problems. However, Joe Weider and others, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, devoted their careers to educating physicians and the public about the health benefits of strength training, resistance exercise, fitness, and exercise science—another illustration of how physicians' understanding of human movement, sports biomechanics, and sports medicine often lagged decades behind advances in the sports sciences.
The medical profession, for centuries, has based nearly all physical examinations, orthopedic examinations, musculoskeletal examinations, and treatment approaches on the theory that the human body moves only through lever mechanics. Therefore, the primary way doctors examine patients is by bending and testing their levers, or joints, rather than evaluating the body's integrated biomechanics, spring mechanics, and movement patterns.
Think of how doctors examine your knee. They bend it back and forth, up and down, and almost never evaluate how the ankle, hip, pelvis, spine, and other joints are integrated or affect knee biomechanics, human movement, and functional movement patterns. When they cannot determine the cause of your knee pain, joint pain, or musculoskeletal pain, they often order an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) or other diagnostic imaging study.
Many lever-model-only biomechanics thinkers believe impact forces during walking, running, and sports injure the body, which is why they recommend cushioned running shoes, cushioned athletic shoes, and shock-absorbing footwear for all running and sports activities. This idea was put to the test by researchers led by Daniel E. Lieberman, a professor in Harvard University's Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, in a landmark paper published in Nature in 2010 that examined barefoot running, running biomechanics, foot strike patterns, impact forces, and injury prevention.(5).
They concluded— "Most people today think barefoot running is dangerous and hurts, but actually you can run barefoot on the world's hardest surfaces without the slightest discomfort and pain.
All you need is a few calluses to avoid roughing up the skin of the foot. Further, it might be less injurious than the way some people run in shoes" (5).
I was the first science lecturer to say, three years before the Harvard study was published, that barefoot training was better than using shoes. I presented this lecture, "Elastic Recoil Mechanisms—How Footwear Accelerates the Aging Process," to more than 2,500 doctors and scientists at the 15th Annual World Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine and Regenerative Biomedical Technologies in 2007 in Chicago, Illinois.
It was the most advanced conceptual model at that time for our understanding of how the body moves and (6–7) incorporated many of the concepts understood from plyometrics experts.
The researchers perceived that when walking or running, the muscles, tendons, and ligaments in our legs behave together, like single, linear springs (8). Their model assigns the human leg with the properties of a simple spring (9) and describes the mechanics of running and other bouncing gaits remarkably well (7) (10 –13).
A spring can be defined as an object that deforms in shape and absorbs and stores energy when force is applied. Ideally, it reforms to its original shape on the release of that energy. It provides protection from impacts and recycles energy; the more spring, the more protection and energy.
The presumptions behind the model fail to allow for an explanation of how the body protects itself from those 287 million collisions, how the body recycles energy, and how it provides spaces and tunnels for the safe passage of blood vessels and nerves throughout the body.
This is the main reason why the current medical model, fails you when you are suffering from the symptoms of your body being chronically compressed, like a herniated disc or thoracic outlet syndrome. It is also why doctors have no luck reversing chronic arthritis pain, degeneration, and chronic fatigue.
Go to my website www.teamdoctorsblog.com and read the article, "Why I Run Barefoot."
Plyometrics
In 1986, I had just graduated from chiropractic college. My goal was to treat elite athletes with sports medicine, sports chiropractic, and sports rehabilitation, while also training them to improve sports performance, athletic performance, explosive power, speed, and create champions. With this in mind, I was curious why the Russians were winning so many gold medals at the Olympic Games. I contacted Dr. Michael Yessis, a teacher, sports scientist, sports performance coach, biomechanist, and author, who had translated into English many of the more important scientific papers of the top Russian sports scientists, strength and conditioning researchers, and Olympic training experts.
He published these important sports science, strength and conditioning, biomechanics, plyometric training, and athletic performance papers in the Soviet Sports Review periodical. I repeatedly read every single study from 1966 to 1986, noting many of the same names kept appearing throughout the research, especially Professor Yuri Verkhoshansky, the father of plyometrics, shock method training, and explosive strength training.
In 1986, at age 24, I was chosen to be the doctor for the U.S. powerlifting team to compete in Moscow and Leningrad against the Soviet Union. While in Moscow in 1987, I asked the competition organizers if they could facilitate a meeting with Professor Yuri Verkhoshansky, one of the world's leading authorities on plyometrics, sports biomechanics, explosive power development, and Olympic athletic performance, and the request was granted.
Subsequently, I had an opportunity to study under one of the most influential sports scientists, biomechanics researchers, and sports performance experts of the last century. At age 26, I expanded on that experience by organizing the first sports medicine, sports rehabilitation, and sports science course for Western doctors in the former Soviet Union at the National Moscow Institute of Physical Culture and Sport in Moscow, Russia, in 1988. The program featured scientific presentations from Professor Yuri Verkhoshansky, the father of plyometric training, along with many other leading Russian sports scientists, exercise physiologists, biomechanics researchers, and athletic performance experts.
Professor Verkhoshansky developed a training approach that was vastly different from traditional weight training, resistance training, strength training, and conventional exercise programs. Rather than focusing primarily on the body's lever systems, his methods trained the body's elastic energy systems, stretch-shortening cycle, spring mechanisms, and neuromuscular power. This revolutionary discipline became known as plyometric training (plyometrics) and transformed modern sports performance training, explosive power development, athletic conditioning, injury prevention, biomechanics, and human movement science.
Photo of Dr James Stoxen DC, FSSEMM (Hon) and Dr Professor Yuri Verkhoshansky taken at National Institute of Physical Culture and Sports Sciences, in Moscow USSR 1989
This photo appears in Yuri Verkhoshansky's answers with a preface on related topics of his final work, A compendium of Prof. Verkhoshansky's answers with a preface on the related topics.
https://www.verkhoshansky.com/Portals/0/Book/Verkhoshansky_Forum.pdf
This new approach to plyometric training, also known as jump training, was developed as early as the late 1960s and early 1970s. Fred Wilt, a former US Olympic long-distance runner, is credited with coining the term plyometrics. He first introduced plyometric exercises and jump training to US coaches and athletes. He could not understand why the Russians were training with explosive jumps and plyometric drills, while Americans were content with weightlifting, strength training, and multiple static stretching exercises.
The fundamental concept in plyometrics is that there is a form of elastic energy, stored elastic energy, and spring-like energy in the body that can be trained. In this process, when the body lands, it deforms its shape as it compresses to absorb the force of impact and ground reaction forces. It then stores this elastic potential energy within the body's spring mechanism. When it returns to its exact, original shape during the jump, it releases this stored energy to produce explosive movement. This is the exact definition of a biological spring and forms the foundation of human spring biomechanics.
It demonstrated to sports scientists that using traditional lever-based resistance exercises, such as weightlifting, bodybuilding, and conventional strength training, was not a complete approach to improving athletic performance. Instead, they introduced high-impact plyometric drills, jump training, and explosive movement exercises that tuned the body's elastic recoil capacity, improved the stretch-shortening cycle, reduced the risk of sports injuries and impact-related injuries, while increasing speed, power, quickness, agility, vertical jump performance, and endurance.
Fast, powerful movements performed in rapid sequence formed the core of plyometric training, plyometric exercises, explosive power training, jump training, and athletic performance training, which continue to be refined in modern sports science, sports medicine, strength and conditioning, and biomechanics.
In those early days (the 1980s), when plyometric training was new on the sports scene, there was some controversy stemming from negative claims about its safety led by medical professionals. At that time, many doctors had a limited understanding of functional anatomy, human biomechanics, impact biomechanics, force absorption, elastic energy storage, and movement science. This made it difficult for them to form an educated opinion about what was beneficial or potentially harmful to the human body.
Because of this limited understanding, they warned athletes that high-impact plyometric training, explosive jump training, and impact-loading exercises would damage the body because they believed the body functioned only as a system of levers, and that lever biomechanics were not designed to absorb or resist repeated ground reaction forces, high-impact collisions, or the stresses of running, jumping, sprinting, and athletic performance.
Coincidentally, that is when running shoe manufacturers pounded the airwaves with commercials suggesting that running, jogging, marathon running, sports, and leisure activities involving repetitive impact were not safe without adding an artificial spring engineered with thick rubber, air, or gel cushioning in the sole. These cushioned running shoes were promoted as essential for shock absorption, injury prevention, joint protection, and improved running performance.
In fact, they tried to persuade top barefoot marathon runners, like Abebe Bikila, with huge sums of money to convince the public that you could not compete and win an Olympic marathon without wearing their running shoes. However, Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia won the 1960 Olympic marathon running barefoot through the hard cobblestone streets of Rome, Italy. Winning the Olympic gold medal established Bikila as the fastest long-distance runner in the world and became one of the greatest examples of barefoot running performance, natural running biomechanics, and human movement efficiency. Now you know why I am a barefoot runner.
I am not only a barefoot runner, but also one of the first doctors invited to lecture internationally on the science of barefoot running, running biomechanics, foot biomechanics, elastic recoil, spring mechanics, human spring biomechanics, and natural human movement. As early as 2007, I presented "Elastic Recoil Mechanisms—How Footwear Accelerates the Aging Process" to more than 2,500 doctors and scientists at the 15th Annual World Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine and Regenerative Biomedical Technologies in Chicago, Illinois, United States. This presentation explored how footwear biomechanics, elastic energy storage, energy recycling, shock absorption, and the Human Spring Approach influence running performance, injury prevention, joint health, and the aging process.
I lectured again about how we can run safely barefoot, with lectures at medical conferences in Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, and China, by understanding that the human body is engineered as an integrated spring mechanism rather than a traditional lever system. This spring-based model of human biomechanics better explains barefoot running, impact absorption, energy conservation, injury prevention, and human movement than the conventional lever model.
Not only do we all have a powerful, natural spring integrated into our body's engineering, but our brain and nervous system also have the remarkable ability to precisely control the tension on our human spring mechanism, allowing us to safely land on the hardest surfaces on Earth. This dynamic spring tension enables shock absorption, elastic energy storage, energy return, joint protection, and efficient movement, while allowing the body to spring back from impacts generating forces up to 10 times body weight without causing damage to muscles, joints, blood vessels, or nerves.
Understanding how the brain and nervous system regulate the tension on your human spring mechanism is the key to understanding the true biomechanics of thoracic outlet syndrome. Abnormal muscle tension, altered spring mechanics, and dysfunctional movement patterns can create internal compression of the thoracic outlet and thoracic tunnel, resulting in compression of the brachial plexus, subclavian artery, and subclavian vein—the underlying cause of neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome, venous thoracic outlet syndrome, arterial thoracic outlet syndrome, and many other compression syndromes.
Fortunately, athletes, strength and conditioning coaches, sports scientists, and elite performance trainers embraced plyometric training and ignored the doctors' warnings—after all, they understood more about the body's athletic performance, explosive power, movement efficiency, spring mechanics, shock absorption, and human performance capabilities than the medical community.
Gradually, plyometric training, jump training, explosive power training, and spring-based athletic training made their way into every U.S. college and the country's top professional sports teams, as they were promoted by leading professors, sports scientists, athletic trainers, strength coaches, and elite athletes as the most advanced sports performance, speed, power, and athletic conditioning approach ever developed.
Today, plyometric training is a popular, evidence-based, and safe method of strength training, power training, athletic performance training, and injury prevention for athletes, nonathletes, and even children, complementing other major components of training programs, especially resistance training, weightlifting, and traditional lever-based strength training.
So how does the body really move? Does it move as a lever or as a spring mechanism?
The answer is both!
Your human spring engineering is what allows you to safely land your body during walking, running, jumping, and athletic activities, so the impact doesn't place excessive stress on your joints, cartilage, intervertebral discs, and spine, which can contribute to early degenerative arthritis, osteoarthritis, joint degeneration, chronic pain, and musculoskeletal injuries. The spring mechanism also provides the engineering to store and recycle elastic energy during walking and running, allowing the body to move with maximum efficiency. When these spring mechanisms become compressed, locked, or dysfunctional, they can contribute to chronic fatigue, movement inefficiency, reduced athletic performance, and chronic musculoskeletal pain.
Most important for this book, the intervertebral discs of the spine, the thoracic outlet, and the thoracic outlet tunnel are engineered with spring mechanics to maintain the safe passage of the brachial plexus, blood vessels, nerves, subclavian artery, and subclavian vein. That is why many doctors have such a difficult time understanding, evaluating, diagnosing, and treating thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS), neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome, vascular thoracic outlet syndrome, venous thoracic outlet syndrome, arterial thoracic outlet syndrome, cervical disc herniations, herniated discs, bulging discs, pinched nerves, and other compression syndromes.
But what does the doctor do?
Doctors examine and treat you primarily as a lever mechanism, when in fact the human body functions as a combined lever and spring mechanism. Subsequently, the rehabilitation process focuses on restoring the lever component, while the spring mechanisms that maintain joint spaces, nerve pathways, blood vessel pathways, and the thoracic outlet tunnel remain compressed, restricted, or locked. As a result, exercise, rehabilitation, and conventional treatment approaches may actually accelerate joint degeneration, chronic pain, and the aging process rather than restore normal biomechanics, movement efficiency, and healthy human spring function.
Are you starting to get the picture?
Spring-Mass Model
Even though sports scientists were convinced as far back as the 1970s that the body's spring was the key component in optimizing human movement efficiency, athletic performance, running biomechanics, walking biomechanics, shock absorption, elastic energy storage, energy recycling, and plyometric performance, the medical community continued to cling to the idea that the body was only designed as a lever mechanism or lever model of biomechanics.
This atmosphere of conflict between the traditional medical and sports science communities was still rampant when a group of scientists at Harvard University developed a spring-mass model of biomechanics that elaborated on the concepts that many sports scientists, trainers, coaches, runners, and athletes had embraced for decades.
About 1989–1990, Harvard University scientists Blickhan, Cheng, and McMahon introduced the Spring-Mass Model (also known as the spring-mass model of locomotion). This biomechanical model represented the lower extremities (legs) as springs and the head, arms, and trunk as the non-spring-like mass. The Spring-Mass Model better explains human locomotion, walking, running, shock absorption, impact absorption, ground reaction forces, elastic energy storage, elastic energy return, movement efficiency, and energy recycling than the traditional lever model of biomechanics. It also provides a more logical explanation for how the body absorbs collisions with the ground while minimizing injury risk and maximizing movement efficiency.
It was the most advanced conceptual model at that time for our understanding of human biomechanics, human movement, gait biomechanics, walking mechanics, running biomechanics, sports biomechanics, and how the body moves (6–7), and incorporated many of the concepts understood from plyometrics, plyometric training, elastic energy storage, stretch-shortening cycle (SSC), and sports performance experts.
The researchers perceived that when walking, running, sprinting, jogging, or performing other human movements, the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and connective tissues in our legs behave together like single, linear springs (8). Their model assigns the human leg, lower extremity, and musculoskeletal system the properties of a simple spring (9) and describes the biomechanics, mechanics of running, walking mechanics, running gait, gait mechanics, locomotion, elastic recoil, energy recycling, energy conservation, impact absorption, shock absorption, and other bouncing gaits remarkably well (7) (10) (11) (12–13).
A spring can be defined as an object that deforms in shape and absorbs, stores, and returns mechanical energy when force is applied. Ideally, it reforms to its original shape upon the release of that energy. In biomechanics, the human spring mechanism provides protection from impacts, recycles elastic energy, improves movement efficiency, and enhances athletic performance; the greater the spring function, the greater the protection from impact forces and the greater the energy conservation.
When walking or running, your body repeatedly makes impacts or collisions with the ground. Human spring mechanisms not only cushion impacts and reduce joint stress, but also perform substantial mechanical work by absorbing, storing, and returning elastic energy during every step.
The human spring suspension system—including the muscles, tendons, ligaments, joints, fascia, and bones—is designed specifically to dissipate impact forces, store elastic energy, recycle mechanical energy, and return substantial energy to the body during walking, running, jumping, and other athletic movements (14).
Most important for you, the stronger and healthier the human spring mechanism is, the more capable it is of maintaining the thoracic outlet, preserving the thoracic outlet space, and keeping the thoracic outlet tunnel open for the safe passage of the brachial plexus, subclavian artery, and subclavian vein, helping reduce nerve compression and blood vessel compression associated with thoracic outlet syndrome.
The majority of the work performed by the body's human spring mechanism is accomplished not by the muscles themselves, but by the elastic tendons, which efficiently store and return energy during walking, running, and other repetitive movements.
The majority of the work performed by the body's human spring mechanism is performed not by muscles, but by the tendons during walking and running. In fact, numerous biomechanics and sports medicine studies have found that when your foot lands on the ground, the calf muscles contract almost isometrically, maintaining nearly the same length while the Achilles tendon stretches, stores elastic energy, and then releases that energy as your body weight is transferred across the foot and ankle, improving movement efficiency while reducing muscular energy expenditure.
The weight of the body loads into the ankle and foot. Upon landing, the muscles of the calf contract to set the exact tension on the tendons to safely absorb impact forces during walking, running, jumping, and other weight-bearing activities. The force of the landing is loaded into the arch by stretching the tendons, like pulling back the elastic bands of a human slingshot, allowing the foot arch to function as a natural spring mechanism.
The energy does not come from muscle contraction alone. It comes primarily from the stretching of the tendons (15). Tendons are considered extension springs because they stretch to store elastic energy, then recoil back to their normal length during toe-off, releasing stored energy that propels the body forward with greater movement efficiency and reduced muscle fatigue.
Although the stretching of tendons provides much of this work, the elastic energy stored in tendons (16–17), together with coordinated muscle contraction, generates the force necessary to support body weight, maintain optimal spring tension, improve shock absorption, recycle energy, and maximize biomechanical efficiency during human movement.
So, when the body's spring mechanism is intact, properly balanced, and functioning with optimal spring tension, it efficiently recycles energy to spring the body off the ground, reducing muscle fatigue, decreasing impact forces, protecting the joints, spine, intervertebral discs, and connective tissues, and minimizing repetitive stress injuries throughout the human spring system.
The spring-mass theory suggests that the majority of shock absorption occurs in the legs and, to a lesser degree, in the spine (18). Although the researchers acknowledged that the spine functions as a spring mechanism, they did not incorporate the spinal spring into their primary biomechanical model. This omission helps explain why many healthcare professionals have difficulty understanding the biomechanics, diagnosis, and non-surgical treatment of compression disorders such as herniated discs, bulging discs, degenerative disc disease, spinal stenosis, cervical radiculopathy, and thoracic outlet syndrome.
There might only be a handful of physicians in the world who have ever heard of the spring-mass model, the integrated spring-mass model, or any recognized model of human movement, human biomechanics, or movement biomechanics, for that matter. Most are technicians and not engineers.
In fact, the doctors from the 35 countries who attended my lecture introducing my new Integrated Spring-Mass Model of Biomechanics at the 2014 World Congress in Sports and Exercise Medicine asked me after the presentation, "Where did you get all this from?"
How does the spring-mass model of biomechanics provide an explanation for conditions caused by compression of nerves and blood vessels in the neck, shoulders, and chest, such as herniated discs, cervical disc herniation, thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS), and other compression syndromes? This is where the spring-mass model is lacking; it does not provide a model for the foot and the entire body above the waist. So, it is limited to explaining the legs as springs.
The spring-mass model does not provide a model for the entire foot, including the foot arch, longitudinal arch, and elastic spring function of the foot.
Instead, it models all the body parts above the waist simply as mass.
Obviously, for those of you who suffer from chronic neck pain, upper back pain, shoulder pain, headaches, arm numbness, hand tingling, and a diagnosed or suspected thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS), this is the region that must be modeled correctly so we can determine the best biomechanical approach, non-surgical treatment approach, and thoracic outlet syndrome treatment to restore the thoracic outlet and thoracic tunnel opening.
Just think about how athletes tackle one another at top speeds with violent shoulder and neck contact. If the human body were not designed as a spring mechanism with elastic energy storage, shock absorption, and impact absorption, allowing it to spring back from these impacts, the neck would be crushed with every tackle, sending us immediately to the emergency room on a stretcher. Sports such as football, ice hockey, rugby, gymnastics, tumbling, parkour, martial arts, and even running would cease to exist because the body could not safely withstand these repeated collisions.
How does this apply to your thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS)?
The only way to answer how the body maintains the safe passage of blood vessels, arteries, veins, and nerves through the thoracic outlet, thoracic tunnel, and neurovascular passageway is by understanding my more advanced model, the Integrated Spring-Mass Model, nicknamed the Human Spring Model. This advanced biomechanical model of human movement explains the engineering required to maintain the safe passage of the brachial plexus, subclavian artery, and subclavian vein through the thoracic outlet while helping explain the underlying cause of thoracic outlet syndrome.
Integrated Spring-Mass Model, aka the Human Spring Model
I theorized the more advanced Integrated Spring-Mass Model, nicknamed the Human Spring Model, out of necessity because there was no other model of human biomechanics that explained the five essential functions of human movement, spring biomechanics, shock absorption, energy recycling, joint space preservation, and the safe passage of nerves and blood vessels that we discussed earlier. I presented components of the model and demonstrated how it applies to the diagnosis, examination, treatment, rehabilitation, prevention, and non-surgical management of thoracic outlet syndrome at medical conferences in Bangkok, Thailand; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and throughout the United States.
The Integrated Spring-Mass Model suggests that the entire human body functions as an integrated, interconnected series of springs, forming one continuous human spring mechanism. The mass is the head because it does not possess the same spring-like biomechanical properties as the rest of the body.
Crucially, this is the only biomechanical model that fully abides by the laws of physics, the laws of nature, and sound engineering principles while also explaining how the body maintains healthy joint spaces, the thoracic outlet, spinal canals, neural tunnels, and other anatomical passageways. Because the entire theory presented in my lectures is supported by scientific studies published in peer-reviewed medical journals, not one medical professional has successfully disputed this approach during my lectures and keynote presentations throughout the world over the past decade.
The original spring-mass model does not include a nervous system capable of controlling the stiffness, tension, and elasticity of the spring mechanism to adapt to changing environmental conditions, posture, movement, repetitive strain, athletic performance, or the habitual movement patterns of everyday life, such as walking, running, jumping, lifting, and reaching.
You will learn how the central nervous system, peripheral nervous system, muscle reflexes, and neuromuscular control mechanisms regulate the tension, stiffness, and compression of your Human Spring Mechanism and how these processes contribute to thoracic outlet syndrome, chronic pain, nerve compression, vascular compression, and musculoskeletal dysfunction in Chapter 4.
"The Control of Tension on Your Human Spring."
Human Spring Model Explains the Mysteries that the Lever Model Cannot
1. The Human Spring Model demonstrates the lower limbs and spine as torsion springs that absorb collisions, store elastic energy, recycle energy, and spring the body back from ground reaction forces during walking, running, jumping, and athletic movement.
This is similar to the advancement from the old suspension systems used in early automobiles to the modern torsion bar suspension, also known as torsion spring suspension. It is a general term for any vehicle suspension system that uses weight-bearing compression springs together with a torsion spring that absorbs mechanical stress through a twisting, spring-like motion while storing and releasing elastic energy.
A simple demonstration of how a torsion spring works occurs when you wring out a wet towel.
When you wring it out, the towel twists, changes shape, and stores elastic potential energy. When you release it, the towel unwinds back toward its original shape, releasing the stored energy. This is a simple example of torsional spring mechanics and elastic energy storage.
The Human Spring Model views the foot, foot arch, ankle, lower leg, knee, hip, pelvis, and spine as an integrated spring suspension system. The plantar fascia, Achilles tendon, and other tendons function as extension springs, allowing the body to absorb impacts, store elastic energy, recycle energy, improve movement efficiency, and spring the body off the ground during walking, running, sprinting, jumping, and other athletic activities. The lower limbs and spine function together as torsion springs capable of storing and releasing elastic energy through controlled torsional movements.
The Human Spring Model also views the intervertebral discs as compression springs positioned between the vertebrae, allowing the spine to function as a torsion spring that absorbs compressive forces, stores elastic energy, maintains spinal flexibility, protects the spinal joints, preserves disc spacing, and helps maintain open spaces for the safe passage of the spinal cord, nerve roots, blood vessels, and other soft tissues.
2. The human spring model extends spring biomechanics and spring engineering beyond the legs to model the spine as a torsion spring composed of compression springs, which are the intervertebral discs between the vertebrae. This integrated spring-mass model provides a new understanding of spinal biomechanics, spinal stability, shock absorption, energy recycling, and the prevention of compression-related disorders.
Because we have extended the model to the head, neck, and cervical spine, we can now better understand how to study the anatomy, biomechanics, and movement patterns where thoracic outlet syndrome develops. It also allows us to develop better approaches to the examination, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, and prevention of thoracic outlet syndrome, cervical herniated discs, cervical disc herniation, bulging discs, pinched nerves, cervical radiculopathy, and other compression syndromes. Therefore, if the treatment I outline here is effective for thoracic outlet syndrome, it is equally effective for many patients with herniated discs in the neck and other compression-related disorders.
More important, it is a better biomechanical model for predicting which standing postures, sitting postures, repetitive movements, occupational activities, sports movements, and lifestyle habits create excessive friction, mechanical strain, abnormal tension, and compression throughout your body's spring system. To understand this, we must better understand how the nervous system controls muscle tension, spring tension, posture, balance, movement, and joint stability during standing, sitting, walking, running, lifting, and other functional movements that influence spinal health, thoracic outlet syndrome, herniated discs, chronic neck pain, shoulder pain, upper back pain, and chronic musculoskeletal pain.
3. The human spring model shows the head as a mass that balances on top of the spring.
The Human Spring Model and Integrated Spring-Mass Model show the head as a mass that balances on top of the body's spring mechanism.
The head is modeled as a bowling ball structure that balances precariously on top of a six-story torsion spring.
This analogy helps explain human biomechanics, head posture, forward head posture, and how the positions of the head, neck, shoulders, and arms affect the tension on the human spring, the thoracic outlet, and the thoracic outlet tunnel.
We can use the laws of physics (gravity), the laws of nature (spring weakness versus spring strength), and an understanding of how the brain develops repetitive postures and movement patterns to determine how your human spring mechanism can be expanded for injury prevention, sports performance, and healthy posture, or how it can become compressed, leading to thoracic outlet syndrome, nerve compression, blood vessel compression, and an increased risk of injury.
This explains how you acquired thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS), why your thoracic outlet syndrome symptoms developed, and why your chronic neck pain, shoulder pain, upper back pain, arm numbness, and hand tingling may not go away without correcting the underlying cause of the compression.
4. The Human Spring Model provides the shoulder with suspension springs that form the thoracic outlet and thoracic outlet tunnel, creating a safe passage for the brachial plexus, subclavian artery, and subclavian vein.
Your shoulder is suspended from above by muscles that attach to the neck, forming the thoracic outlet tunnel, which provides a safe passage for the nerves and blood vessels. Other opposing muscles pull the shoulder downward into the tunnel, creating thoracic outlet compression.
Understanding this provides a clear understanding of which muscles should be treated to reduce nerve compression, release vascular compression, and restore a wider, stronger thoracic outlet by strengthening the muscles that suspend the shoulder in its proper position.
In the Integrated Spring-Mass Model, your entire body functions as one giant spring composed of multiple levels of interconnected springs.
Millions of microscopic springs—including muscle fibers, ligaments, tendons, fascia, and other connective tissues—store elastic energy and return that energy efficiently during movement, making human movement possible while reducing stress on the joints.
There are extension springs that suspend body parts, compression springs that cushion body parts against one another, and elastic balloon-like springs that allow the heart to pump efficiently and the chest to expand and contract during breathing. Together these spring mechanisms improve shock absorption, energy recycling, joint space preservation, and the protection of nerves and blood vessels throughout the body.
This helps explain how I can run barefoot for miles on solid concrete at age 53. It also explains how elite athletes can collide head-on and neck-first at high speeds without developing thoracic outlet syndrome, while another person may simply sit at a computer for hours with poor posture, forward head posture, and rounded shoulders, gradually developing severe thoracic outlet compression, chronic neck pain, shoulder pain, arm numbness, hand tingling, and chronic suffering without experiencing any obvious trauma.
How the body functions as a human spring mechanism, how the nervous system regulates spring tension, and how excessive spring tension affects human performance, sports performance, injury prevention, and thoracic outlet syndrome formed the basis of my presentation at the World Congress in Sports and Exercise Medicine on August 26, 2014, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The title of the lecture was, How Athletes, Coaches, Trainers and Physicians Can Improve Human Performance by the Earliest Detection, Intervention and Prevention of Spring Stiffness Over Modulation.
On September 4, 2015, I presented the keynote lecture, The Sports Medicine Approach to Anti-Aging Medicine, at the Seventh Annual Thailand Congress on Anti-Aging and Aesthetic Medicine in Bangkok, Thailand. You can watch the entire presentation on the Team Doctors YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/TeamDoctorsCenter
You can also watch my lecture, The Integrated Spring-Mass Model to Understanding the Earliest Detection, Intervention, and Prevention of Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, presented at the A4M Thailand World Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine in 2017.
In these presentations, I expanded on the concept that overactivity of the nervous system, abnormal muscle tension, and spring stiffness produce compression throughout the human spring mechanism.
This chronic compression is a likely contributor to thoracic outlet syndrome, herniated discs, degenerative arthritis, chronic neck pain, chronic back pain, compression neuropathies, and many other chronic musculoskeletal disorders.
Once you understand the principles of human spring engineering, spring biomechanics, and the Integrated Spring-Mass Model, you will begin solving the mysteries behind many chronic pain conditions, movement disorders, nerve compression syndromes, and degenerative diseases.
In the next two chapters, we will continue building this foundation and reveal even more of the engineering principles that explain how the body works according to the laws of physics and nature.
Now let's spring into action!