Muscles and Meridians

London School of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine, 1986-1990

Keynote Lecture, 1st International Conference on Advances in Osteopathic Research, London 1999

Workshop, 4th Pan Pacific Medical Acupuncture Forum, Taupo, New Zealand, 2004

Private practice, Wellington, New Zealand 2004 -

Manipulation: Theory and Practice; Fibromyalgia Syndrome: A Practitioner's Guide to Treatment, and many more. He is editor of the peer reviewed Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, that offers a multidisciplinary perspective on physical methods of patient care. Leon Chaitow was for many years senior lecturer on the Therapeutic Bodywork degree courses which he helped to design at the School of Integrated Health, University of Westminster, London, where is he now an Honorary Fellow. He continues to teach and practice part-time in London, when not in Corfu, Greece where he focuses on his writing.

Muscles and Meridians is a unique book that breaks new conceptual ground in the realm of human movement. Firmly based in an understanding of evolutionary and developmental biology, this volume introduces some of the keys that open the way to an understanding of the Contractile Field (CF) model - a novel concept which promotes a fresh approach to exercise and represents a valuable means of understanding and treating musculoskeletal disorders. The CF model represents a whole-organism approach to an appreciation of human movement. The fundamental biomechanical architecture of vertebrates imposes patterns of movement on our spine, patterns that offer the keys needed to begin a more robust understanding of human movement. The CF model suggests that sense organs are embedded in fields of contractility, and that the musculature of the viscera and the role of the kidneys need to be incorporated in this attempt to develop such a model. Fields of contractility are defined, borders between fields are identified, and field interaction considered. The model also suggests a new assessment methodology: the Archetypal Postures. Many musculoskeletal aches and pains, such as back pain, are non-attributable to a standard tissue-related diagnosis. Rather we need to focus on the interrelationship of many named tissues via the emergence of postures that are deeply embedded in our evolution and childhood development. Archetypal Postures are essential to the 'tune' of the musculoskeletal system.By showing a pattern of correlation, the CF model also sheds light on the Chinese map of the meridians suggesting a theory that unravels the complexity of the ancient map which the modern biosciences have been unable to comprehend or identify. Muscles and Meridians presents an approach to musculoskeletal anatomy which will be widely applicable to all professionals who have an interest in human movement: physiotherapists, osteopathic physicians, osteopaths, chiropractors, acupuncturists, exercise scientists, manual therapists, and personal trainers.

• Describes a new model of human movement - the Contractile Field model
• Offers a rare and serious attempt to look at whole person movement patterns - akin to 'Anatomy Trains' but with a stronger link to vertebrate evolution and development
• Suggests that much of our endemic back and leg pain is due to a loss of ease in postures that are 'archetypal' to mankind
• Offers a profound new understanding of the world's oldest medical map, the Chinese meridian map

1. A wriggle in deep time

2. Embryological morphogenesis

3. Modelling movement

4. Lateral contractile field (L-CF)

5. Dorso/ventral contractile field (D/V-CF)

6. Helical contractile field (H-CF)

7. Limb contractile fields (Limb-CFs)

8. Radial contractile field (R-CF)

9. Chiralic contractile field (C-CF)

10. Fluid field (F-F)

11. Archetypal postures: a self-tuning mechanism

12. Decoding the Chinese meridial map

13. Manipulating shape

Abbreviations and glossary