02/20/2026
🔎 CASE STUDY 🔍
It's become really popular to bash the concept of myofascial chains in clinical reasoning recently. And while this can be used by mediocre practitioners to create a narrative that has no basis in reality, this doesn't mean that there is never value in using the concept of myofascial chains for sound clinical reasoning and problem solving.
🤔 Case in point - a client came in today complaining of chronic pain and tightness in her upper hamstrings. She told me that stretching this area in various ways only gave her very temporary relief, and that her symptoms would always return.
🫱 Palpating around revealed that her medial hamstrings were very tight all the way through, and particularly tender at the attachment point. Upon palpating the bottom of her foot, I found a very tight/tender spot where the adductor of her big toe attached.
💪 Muscle testing showed that her medial hamstrings testing super strong, but her lateral hamstring and glutes tested weak. The extensors and flexors of her big toe tested weak as well.
💆🏼♀️ After spending a minute or two releasing the big toe adductor, I retested the big toe extensors and flexors and they tested strong! The lateral hamstring and glutes tested strong now as well. And best of all, the tone of her medial hamstrings had now normalized. The tenderness was already 90% better, and I didnt even treat them!
It's true that sometimes we unnecessarily overcomplicate things, but sometimes it really pays to understand how distant parts can affect the function of the whole.
