Sway Back and Layered Syndrome

Layered syndrome is the most challenging of all the common muscle imbalance postural syndromes. People often say this syndrome is the same as sway back, which is a little misleading. Layered syndrome is the layering of short tight with long weak muscles throughout the body. Someone having a sway back doesn’t mean he/she has a layered syndrome. However, if the person does not fix his imbalances and allows the body to go to compensation mechanism, other postural syndromes will start to appear and thus lead to a layered syndrome.

So what is sway back?

When a you place a plumbline on the side of a person, an ideal posture will show a complete straight line bisecting his earlobe, humerus, greater trochanter, and cutting through the first third of his lateral malleolus. When someone has a sway back, you can see his pelvis or greater trochanter is pushed forward than the plumbline. The more forward one’s hip is, the more sway the back is. The middle of our body is right around the lumbosacral junction, sway back divides out body into the upper half and lower half. That means all the weight from the upper body is now being held up only by the low back. This can lead to serious low back issues since the sway is putting additional pressure on the low back region.

Sway back, commonly misunderstood as excessive lumbar curve, is actually the exact opposite. People who have sway back in fact usually have reduced lumbar curvature. They usually have weakened and lengthened hip flexors and lumbar erector coupled with tightened and shortened hamstrings and glutes.

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For the ones who have layered syndrome, their hamstrings and lower abdominals are shortened and tightened while their lumbar erectors, rectus femoris, and iliopsoas are lengthened and weakened.

This is usually a very chronic, complex adaptation syndrome. When our body is out of balance, it goes to this compensation mechanism. When there are more injuries or imbalances, it compensates again. When the body compensate to a certain degree, de-compensation will eventually occur. That means our body has run out of compensatory strategies. Layered syndrome is thus usually related to chronic fatigue syndromes and fibromyalgia (widespread chronic pain around the body).

How do I know if I have layered syndrome or sway back?

The only way is to measure. In TAO Movement, we identify different postural syndromes by simply doing a few measurements on clients using the CHEK tools. Comparing the numbers objectively, we will be able to tell if you have any postural imbalance syndrome.

If you have or are suffering from chronic joint or muscle pain, this could be why! I highly recommend you giving us a try if you have tried many ways and still don’t feel free from pain. As CHEK Practitioners, we design conditioning programs that are completely tailored to you and your needs. Schedule a FREE 60-minute consultation today!