The contractile field—A new model of human movement—Part 3

SummaryA new model, conceptually informed by the embryology and evolutionary biomechanics of vertebrate movement patterns, describes fields of interacting contractility. Each contractile field is modelled as embedding a primary sense organ. Contractile fields are whole organism in scope and are drawn from core mammalian movement patterns such as flexing/extending, lateral flexing, twisting left/right, sucking/squeezing, pulsating and peristaltic movements. Fields of contractility are textile-like in that they warp and weft, river-like in that they widen and narrow. Contractile fields converge to nodes and decussative (crossed) lines, from which they again reradiate.Tuning between muscles within a contractile field, and tuning between fields, shapes movement patterns. An assessment methodology called ‘archetypal postures’ offers insight to the body's state of biomechanical tune.