1. Deep Dive: The “Victim” vs. The “Culprit”

In traditional medicine, we are trained to “point to where it hurts.” If your neck hurts, you rub your neck. If your foot hurts, you cushion your foot. Anatomy chains teach us that this is like trying to fix a leaky ceiling by just mopping the floor.

The Mechanical “Handshake”

Because the fascia is a continuous web, every muscle has a “handshake” with the one next to it. If one muscle in the chain stops doing its job (due to injury, sitting too long, or surgery), the rest of the chain has to pick up the slack.

• The Culprit (The Silent One): Usually, the culprit is hypo-mobile (it doesn’t move enough). It has become “glued” or stuck. Because it doesn’t move, it doesn’t hurt. It’s just “quiet.”
• The Victim (The Screamer): The victim is usually hyper-mobile (it’s moving too much). It is being pulled from both ends by the stuck parts of the chain. Because it is being overstretched and overworked, it becomes inflamed and painful.

A Classic Example: The Lower Back

Imagine the Superficial Back Line, which runs from your toes, up your calves, hamstrings, back, and over your head.

• The Scenario: You have chronic lower back pain.
• The Traditional Fix: Massage the back, do back stretches. (Treating the Victim).
• The Anatomy Chain Fix: Check the calves and the soles of the feet (the Plantar Fascia). If the tissue at the bottom of your feet is tight, it “tugs” on the entire line. Your lower back—which is the most flexible part of that chain—takes all that tugging.
• The Result: You can massage your back forever, but until you roll your feet out on a lacrosse ball to “release the anchor,” the back will stay in pain.

Why the Victim “Screams”

The pain you feel is often the nervous system’s way of saying, “I can’t hold this tension anymore!” When we look at anatomy chains, we learn to look “upstream” and “downstream” from the pain.

Key Takeaway: If you have a recurring “knot” that always comes back in the same spot, it is almost certainly a Victim. The Culprit is hiding somewhere else in the chain, usually where you don’t feel any pain at all.

How to spot a “Culprit” in your own body:

1. Look for the “Still” Spots: Where in your body feels “dead” or “heavy”?
2. Look for Old Injuries: Did you sprain an ankle ten years ago? That old scar tissue might be the culprit pulling on your hip today.
3. Look for the Opposite: If the front of your body hurts, the culprit is often in the back (and vice versa).