Myeremia comes from the Greek words myos (muscle) & eremos (desolate, deserted, isolated). Within a kinetic muscle chain, if a muscle becomes derelict in its duties, like a bridge officer abandoning their post on a starship, the whole muscle chain becomes compromised and dysfunction and pain ensue.
Not everyone will recognize when one of their muscles become myeremotic, as the onset of myeremia, or myeremogenesis, is typically without noticeable symptoms. However, traumatic injury can most certainly cause myeremia. By the time symptoms have arrived, the myeremotic process has developed to the point of myeremothysia, the supreme sacrifice of the cervical or lumbar vertebrae. Why supreme sacrifice? Because the paraspinal muscles become incredibly tight to compensate for the myeremia of the other muscles of the kinetic chain, which will eventually lead to arthritis, bone spurs, bulging discs and stenosis because of the chronic pressure and pathological posture. The spine is sacrificed to the chain because of the derelict muscles.
Myeremothysia, or chronic neck and/or chronic low back pain is due to syzygomyeremia, myeremia of a “yoked pair”, which is the rhomboids and latissimus dorsi in the case of chronic neck pain, and the glutes and hamstrings in the case of chronic low back pain. These yoked pair function together to maintain a the kinetic muscle chain, which establishes a healthy posture. With syzygomyeremogenesis, the onset of syzygomyeremia, the anterior muscles that work as antagonists, become pathologically contracted, a state known as prosyspasia. Syzygomyeremia of the rhomboids and lats leads to prosyspasia of the pectoralis minor, which causes myeremothysia of the cervical vertebrae. Syzygomyeremia of the glutes and hamstrings leads to prosyspasia of the iliacus, which causes myeremothysia of the lumbar vertebrae.
Chronic neck and low back pain are therefore not problems with the neck and the lumbar, meaning that if the treatment for these conditions focuses only on the neck and lumbar, the condition will almost surely worsen with time. Interventions may slow the process of degradation, but they will not eliminate nor reverse it. Eventually all of the muscles of the kinetic chain abandon their posts in a process known as panmyeremia. If a muscle then completely stops working, like quadriceps that won’t participate in the action of standing, they are known as being in holomyeremia.
To correctly address the underlying cause of myeremothysia (ie neck & lumbar pain), the patient must restore the function of the syzygomyeremotic muscles responsible through the process of anamyeremia. Isometrics, which solely target the myeremotic muscles, are the essential aspect of this process. Compound exercises will recruit muscles in the chain that are not in myeremia, which actually serves to make the condition worse. For example, if one tried to use inclined rows with dumbbells to correct the syzygomyeremia of the rhomboids and lats, it is very likely that they would recruit their pectoralis minor in the compound movement, which would exacerbate the prosyspasia and make the myeremothysia (neck pain) worse.
After the isometrics for the rhomboids and lats, one needs to stretch the pectoralis minor to relieve the prosyspasia. Finally, qigong, or simple tai chi, movements are employed for pananamyeremia, the restoration of the whole muscle chain. Tai chi and qigong are practiced slowly and mindfully expressly for the purpose of ensuring each muscle in the kinetic chain is participating in the movements. Nothing shall be carried through by momentum of compensation. Muscles undergoing anamyeremotic training will eventually enter a state of amyeremia, they will no longer be in desertion from the kinetic muscle chain. At this point prosyspasia will have mostly abated and the myeremothysia (neck/low back pain) will have resolved.
With continued anamyeremia and pananamyeremia, a muscle will flourish in its role in a kinetic chain, a state called eumyeria. When the entire kinetic muscle chain flourishes, the individual is in a state of paneumyeria. All of our physical pursuits benefit from paneumyeria, and we are less likely to suffer injury. This wonderful state is not solely the realm of super athletes or the genetically gifted, it is the natural outcome of a dedicated pananamyeremia practice. It is through frequency (daily), not intensity, that this state is achieved.
Pursuits like weight training and high intensity sports should only be undertaken after we are in a state of paneumyeria, for then we will have both greater success and safety. Tai chi and qigong have a multi-millenia history for keeping old bodies moving about spritely because, when practiced correctly, they promote paneumyeria.
Acupuncture & Wellness in Cumming GA 