The Functional Lines (Fig. 8.1) extend the Arm Lines across the surface of the trunk to the contralateral pelvis and leg (or up from the leg to the pelvis across to the opposite rib cage, shoulder, and arm, since our meridians run in either direction). These lines are called the ‘functional’ lines because they are rarely employed, as the other lines are, in modulating standing posture. They come into play primarily during athletic or other activities where one appendicular complex is stabilized, counterbalanced, or powered by its contralateral complement (Fig. 8.2/Table 8.1). An example is in a javelin throw or a baseball pitch, where the player powers up through the left leg and hip to impart extra speed to an object thrown from the right hand (Fig. 8.3).
As mentioned, these lines are less involved in standing posture than any of the others under discussion in this book. They involve superficial muscles, for the most part, that are so much in use during day-to-day activi- ties that their opportunity to stiffen or fascially shorten to maintain posture is minimal. If they do distort posture as a whole, their action is to bring one shoulder closer to its opposite hip, either across the front or across the back. Although the pattern just described is certainly not uncommon – especially closing across the front – the source usually resides in the Spiral Line or in the deeper layers. Once these other myofascial structures have been balanced, these Functional Lines often fall into place without presenting significant further problems of their own.
These lines do, however, have strong postural stabi- lizing functions in positions outside the resting standing posture. In many yoga poses, or postures that require stabilizing the upper girdle to the trunk (as, for example,
when working above the head), these lines transmit the strain downward or provide the stability upward to fix the base of support for the upper limb. Less frequently, they can be used to provide stability or counterbalance for the work of the lower limb in a similar way, as in a football kick.
There is but one common postural compensation pattern associated with the Functional Lines and that is a preference rotation usually associated with handed- ness or a specific and oft-repeated activity such as a sport preference, bringing one shoulder closer to the opposite hip, although this affects all four Functional Lines, as well as having a Spiral or Lateral Line element to the pattern.
These lines enable us to give extra power and precision to the movements of the limbs by lengthening their lever arm through linking them across the body to the opposite limb in the other girdle. Thus the weight of the arms can be employed in giving additional momentum to a kick, and the movement of the pelvis contributes to a tennis backhand. While the applications to sport spring to mind when considering these lines, the mundane but essential example is the contralateral counterbalance between shoulder and hip in every walking step.
The Functional Lines appear as spirals on the body, and always work in helical patterns. They could be con- sidered as appendicular supplements to the Spiral Line, or, as stated above, the trunk extensions of the Arm Lines. In real-time activity, the lines of pull change con- stantly, and the precision of the lines detailed below is a summary of a central moment in the sweep of forces.
