The Mézières method was invented in 1947 in France by a physiotherapist named Françoise Mézières.
The Mézierist approach in a schematic way consists first of all in normalizing the shape (structure) of a body according to some criteria, knowing that it is essentially through the play of muscle retraction and shortening (more often in the posterior part of the muscular dress) that one they manifest dysmorphisms (scoliosis, hyperlordosis, kyphosis, varus or valgus knee, cancellation of curves, etc.).
In summary, if the shape of a body is deformed, the resulting function is distorted.
If there are morphological disharmonies there will be compensations and / or bad synergies, therefore potential for pathologies and pain.
There is an absolute complementarity between the Mézières method and osteopathy. Same approach / contact as the patient (bones, bowels, fascias, muscles)
(1) Movement is life, all anatomical structures are in motion in relation to each other
(2) Structure determines function
(3) Homeostasis which is the body's ability to rebalance and repair itself.
Many times the evil is far from the place of origin, so we must not confuse the cause of the disease and the symptom! (4) A sprained ankle badly treated, which leaves as a consequence, for example, a limitation in the extent of the flexion, will have to compensate itself at each step:
- in some people the knee, which will have to stretch a little more and force the ligaments, thus generating pain,
- in others in the hip, whose tissues will no longer be able to withstand compensation (groin pain),
- in still others, at the bottom of the vertebral column (sacro-iliac joint) which will be "rubbed" "forced" at each posterior step, pulling the ligaments and sometimes causing low back pain resistant to any local treatment,
- a large number of other compensations can be made in sometimes the most unexpected areas.
A dorsal and thoracic region may find itself stiffened, and thus deprived of its physiological mobility, due to too short breathing (generated by a state of permanent anxiety or restlessness), for positions in office work that are excessively fixed, for an old trauma to the back, due to a certain rigid "behavior", due to an arthrosis that "nails" the dorsal region a little at a time.
Thus, every time it is necessary to look back, make a parking maneuver between two cars, take a sheet of paper behind you in the office, etc ..., the amount of movements necessary will have to be carried out largely from the cervical spine, from the lumbar region , from the shoulders, and very little from the dorsal column as it is almost blocked.
If the compensating organization starts out badly, the cervicals of one will find themselves overloaded with work and very quickly painful (neck pain, stiff necks), the lower backs of the other will have to operate in a job for which they do not have a primary vocation and will be able " blocking "during a so-called" false movement ", the shoulders of yet another will have to" force "and, depending on their susceptibility, can generate chronic inflammatory phenomena (peri-arthritis, tendonitis) (2).
It is thus noted that very often the pain appears in areas of compensation and that the true evil remains hidden in the shadows, without manifesting itself.
"Evil is never where it manifests itself," Mézières said.
The naivety and stupidity of a therapy that addresses only the symptoms in the context of a chronic pathology is thus evident. And even in acute cases, the real cause of your lumbago or stiff neck lies in parts other than the lower back and neck.
It is our job to find them! (2).
Many times such a biomechanical analysis is not possible: the game of compensation is so complex that it becomes impossible to trace the root cause. Then the only guide remains the form whose normalization, through the parameters of the "fine lines", represents the only strategy in the most intricate cases. The Mezieres treatment aims at achieving a better shape, through a structural work made of postures (i.e. stretching), articulating movements, "undoing" (in which certain muscle groups are made to work without the usual "bad synergies ") (3).
The principles of the method are simple and logical. But the practical actualization of a Mézières treatment is much more difficult to achieve! A Mézières treatment requires great precision on the part of the therapist and requires a rigorous and meticulous observation of the whole body in its various adaptive behaviors (4).
The problem is to be able to correct the main lesion, which is the cause of the patient's condition, starting from the multiple dysmorphisms and pains of the latter, correcting the different adaptations one after the other in the opposite direction. Often, major injuries disappear on their own, when the different adaptations become fixed with even more serious consequences than those that had been caused by the initial injuries. Consequently these can become major injuries and so on ..... The mezierist becomes an investigating therapist!
Carrying out a Mézières treatment:
PURPOSE: - to relieve muscle tension - to restore the original length to the shortened muscles
MEANS: - placing the patient in the positions of global stretching, exercising a
continuous and simultaneous traction to the ends of the muscle chains and preventing, as far as possible, the compensations - adaptations (also called cheating).
These global and total positions must be held with great rigor and for a fairly long time (unlike stretching) and associated with an exhalation work that fights lordosis and lengthens the diaphragm, which is also a very important muscle for statics. .
This exhalation work is an additional and powerful method of intensifying the tension of the different shortened muscle chains (4).
Other articles on 'The Mézières method'
- Mezieres session: purpose and indications
- Benefits of the Mezieres method
