Anatomy Trains: Myofascial Meridians for Manual and Movement Therapists

by Thomas W. Myers

An accessible and comprehensive approach to the anatomy and function of the fascial system in the body combined with a holitsic overview of myofascial therapy. Many different therapists now use myofascial techniques to influence postural change and pain relief. This book demonstrates exactly how the muscles connect within the connect tissue to affect posture, compensatory strain and pain patterns. The aim is to present scientifically sound and often complicated material in a way which can be easily learned, understood, and applied by those who do not necessarily have a scientific background.

Anatomy Trains is written and presented in a style that allows this new information on the myofascial system to be easily absorbed by a wide range of from the student, athlete, or client to the most experienced therapist.

Genres: Health, Nonfiction, Fitness, Bodies, Science, Reference, Medical

300 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

The originator of the Anatomy Trains Myofascial Meridians

Thomas Myers studied with Drs. Ida Rolf, Moshe Feldenkrais, and Buckminster Fuller, and with a variety of movement and manual therapy pioneers. His work is influenced by cranial, visceral, and intrinsic movement studies he made with European schools of osteopathy. An inveterate traveler, Tom has practiced integrative manual therapy for over 40 years in a variety of clinical and cultural settings.

Tom is the author of Anatomy Trains (2020, 4th ed), co-author of Fascial Release for Structural Balance (North Atlantic, 2010, 2017), co-author of Anatomy Trains in Motion Study Guide (2019), author of Body3, The Anatomist’s Corner, Structural Integration: Collected Articles, and BodyReading: Visual Assessment and The Anatomy Trains, and has also written extensively for Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies (Elsevier).

He has also produced over 20 online learning courses with Anatomy Trains, and others in collaboration with various body-oriented professional groups. Tom lives and sails on the coast of Maine in the USA. Tom and his faculty conduct professional development courses and certification in Structural Integration worldwide.

Reviews

[Janel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used this book when I was working, but never actually read it cover to cover, so I am doing that now. So far it is actually amazing, and has helped add to my must reads. There are some great "before their time" German scientists that were right on even back in the 30's!

[Divya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome place to start in terms of structural integration. Really makes you realize how important connective tissue is in terms of movement, and how it needs to be emphasized more in terms of creating sustainable training programs (or in terms of injury prevention/physical therapy). LENGTHENING is just as important as strengthening. Moreover, shows how the body moves in integration versus isolation, and specific sports specific examples (for example, knowing a judo roll utilizes the deep back arm line really helped the knowledge sink in). What this book really helped me with is which specific cluster of muscles affect whole body dysfunctions, helping me get rid of restrictions to foster more efficient movements.

I do wish the CD ROM provided with this book had more info on it though, I assumed it would since the book was kind of pricey :/ Worth it though.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must if you working with muscles. Tells you how to follow the paths the muscles and myofascial takes.
Exaple: Superficail Back Line
1. Plantar sufrace of toe phalanges
2. Plantar fascia and short toe flexors
3. Calcaneus
4. Gastrocnemius/Achilles tendon
5. Condyles of femur
6. Hamstrings
7. Ischial tubersoity
8. Sacrotuberous ligament
9. Sacrum
10. Sacrolumbar fascia/erector spinae
11. Occipital ridge
12. Galea aponeurotica/scalp fasia
13. Front brow ridge.

"These provides a functional link across the waves that consititute the primary and secondary curves of the spine and legs." pg. 88

[Yusuf · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not a clinician nor a coach, but as an amateur athlete, the book opened my eyes to a whole new way of looking at the body (for me at least). Now obviously an expert or practitioner is going to get a lot more out of this than I (using their experience to connect the dots of their education) but I feel a sense of awareness. For which I am very glad.

If anyone would like, I also wrote what I learned as part of a blog post: http://yusufahmedwriting.com/riding-t...

[Umut · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a true paradigm shifter, where every word counts in one of the most densely packed volumes I've encountered. For me, even Appendix 1 stands alone as a five-star masterpiece. I know I'll return to it many times in the years ahead, and it should be considered fundamental reading for every bodywork practitioner.

[G · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a therapist, I think the concept of individual muscle work is already exhausted and not working much for me anymore. This book gives me a new perspective on how muscle work as a functional unit by analyzing the myofascial meridian.
Chapter 1 was rather technical but the rest of the chapters were interesting read.

[Clove · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our reductionist worldview has had a crippling effect on our ability to understand and be in ourselves and the world. Tom Myers demonstrates the world-changing beauty on the other side of that paradigm. Fascia is fucking fascinating. There is certainly a before Anatomy Trains and after Anatomy Trains demarcation in my life. My literal existence is changed by this understanding.

[Geoff Lister · Rating 5 out of 5]

superb book if you have an interest in massage, rehabilitation, yoga or tai chi. More of a reference that I go back to often. Takes a long time to assimilate the information, but well worth the effort

[Kathy]

this is like Power vs Force for Massage!

[Flavius Ungureanu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book definitely requires coming back when my knowledge is more diverse.
Also,i will keep this in my 'For work' library.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I've perused and heard from others is that this is an outstanding reference. Imagine, thinking of the body from the perspective of motion...!

Brilliantly written. Inspiring and validating and useful.

[Heather Fryling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anatomy Trains. It's a classic. The best part of reading Anatomy Trains was the discovery that Tom Myers has explanations for many of the patterns/associations I frequently see but couldn't explain with a traditional biomechanical model.

[Foxthyme · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is always in the back of my mind when I'm looking for muscle patterns in people. Why does this hurt here? Oh, well, lookee over here...

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

In massage school you hear a lot of "everything is connected" in the body. This book helped me see this in a functional manner that I have been able to integrate into my massage practice.

[Cassandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you do anything with human movement this is a must read. Very clinical and a heavy read but once you get into it, extremely fascinating and highly educational.

[Kirsten Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

The illustrations in this book are brilliant. Great for continued use.

[Felipe Spaolanse · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was originally drawn to this book after being told it was a useful guide for all movement therapists and as an injured athlete with a medical system that had consistently failed me, I needed a solution.

I kept reading the book and implementing what I had learned into my own training, improving my mobility and...

And?

Unfortunately not much. Although it may provide some useful insights into how certain shortened muscles can affect the entire system and change our posture, the method is simply not supported by research. "Fascial release" which is literally core to this book is not supported by research, despite a considerable amount of research being done on it. Fascial release works for short term benefits such as improving mobility and reduced pain... but that's about it.

The anatomical lines drawn within this book have similarly faced scrutiny. It creates lines or "trains" by connecting train tracks with a hint of guesswork and imagination. The drawings are well made and make the book digestible, but unfortunately this book is not what it is marketed to be. It's not evidence based, it's entirely centered around somewhat pointless fascial release methods, and is honestly, to an extent, pseudoscientific. Unlike Tomas Myers, I'm no expert of the field, although I have formulated this criticism surrounding the book through the perspective of evidence-based experts on the field who've given genuine evidence opposing fascial release.

And maybe I'm missing the "bigger picture" or the actual purpose of the book (although movement therapists have been the one to deter me from this book), but there's no show of meta-discussion involving the techniques and anatomy within the book, leading me to conclude that this book has pseudoscientific elements to it and was unfortunately a waste of time.

If you're genuinely interested though, I do recommend reading it if you want to understand the anatomical framework provided in this book, as the book does a good job of communicating it extensively. Just don't expect the methods to work longterm.

[Daniyal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I starting reading this book as a person interested in general anatomy, thinking I would get a quick fix from this book like all other books had before endowed me with.

Oh boy was I wrong.

This book took me on the long 'train' ride of discovering the body and looking at it as a unit than a sum of several parts. While a lot of other 'novice' books take the body piece by piece and describe function of each muscle in isolation and maybe at some point try to relate them to other body parts this one doesn't do that. From the very beginning it is established that the body works as a unit, each muslce affecting the other. There is no function in anatomy that is happening in isolation, the introduction of myofascia and piezoelectric effect establishes this early on.

Overall this book is an amazing read, this is not something you read as a fun read while, it's extremely boring and fascinating at the same time. A lot of the concepts will keep you in sustained fascination forever.

I hope anyone who is remotely interested in anatomy gives this book a read even if it takes them 4 years to complete.

[Jana Rađa · Rating 2 out of 5]

To think I started this in 2020 and then kept glancing at it on my 'currently reading' shelf for four years makes me feel just slightly disgusted with myself. Clearly, I didn’t find the book mesmerising enough to keep me engaged and finish it within at least a reasonable timeframe. Anatomy Trains was first published in 2001, so it’s not exactly new material nowadays (and, according to the chagrined author, it wasn’t entirely original at the time of its publication either). I have no idea whether people are still reading it or if it’s considered ancient history by now, but Thomas W. Myers still holds anatomy courses, as well as yoga and Pilates teaching certifications. I found the book insightful, but the format of an interactive anatomy video course on Coursera has proven far more useful for my purposes.

[Larry Marquardt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I have not read this in its entirety, but certainly will. The appendices alone are well worth the price of the book and provide a reasonable scientific underpinning for the author's understanding of observations made in his massage therapy practices. In a sense, Myers may be attempting to reinvent the wheel given traditional Chinese medicine and other insights he refers to, but he clearly is on to something in the attempt to find a synthesis of the work he mentions and fully acknowledges that his conclusions may not be equivalent. That is the nature of and difference between scientific observation and any application of those observations in medical practice and/or any sort of technology. Both are subject to revision and refinement of course.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

How do all the muscles of the human body connect to one another? How do they interact during the course of movement. The theories in this book map out pretty in depth how the musculature systems in body build an entire system connected through the fascia. This served to be useful to expand my understanding of how my body moves, and gave me some good ideas for new exercises. A physical therapist friend of mine told me I would get the same material out of reading a book within their topic, and as such that may be my next step.

Recommended for :
Physical therapists
doctors
Exercise enthusiasts
those looking to optimize their abilities of movement in sports

[yamiyoghurt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve finally finished this book! It’s a dense book filled with information, deserved a detailed read and probably a few more rounds of close reading to fully digest it. I took the Anatomy Trains Structure and Function course and that was definitely useful in understanding the core concepts of Anatomy Trains. The amount of information in this book is way more than the 3 day course, it’s like a treasure cove with gem everywhere for the person seeking to advance their knowledge about the human body.

[Johnsandberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great paradigm for understanding facial planes for movement and manual therapist. Gives a solid baseline understanding for further application of this concept. His writing style at times gets a little dense. My biggest complaint is the DVD rom that comes with the book. Can't play it on my computer, my blu ray or DVD player.
Why not make a more accessible format for a disk. This is really frustrating because I think to see many of the practical examples on the disc would make the concepts more applicable quickly.

[Nadine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will read this again from cover to cover! It will also be a great reference guide for me. Fantastic. Applause to Ida Rolfe and all her work and applause to Thomas Myers. This book gives a most practical approach to the fasial component of manual bodywork. It is so accessable with sections devote to bridging the anatomy, postural/patient ADL and then clinical aspects. The work you do gives all of us in the healthcare community & the therapy world a great global perspective. Thank you!

[Elissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had I the depth of anatomical vernacular and comprehension, I would’ve given this book the 5 stars it deserves. I simply found it hard going, which is why it took me 8 years to complete. But I’ll be keeping it in my library as a valuable reference text that I am certain will sink into my grey matter fully over time.

[Dimitris Tselios · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book! Incredible mountain of knowledge about how fascia is one of the most important components of our living bodies from the development of a fertilised egg up to the extreme performance of an elite athlete

[Natalie]

Bernie Clark rec from Your Body Your Yoga

[Ana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantástico

[Michael Tong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for explaining TCM

[Doc Cokie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent!