The Mézières Method

The Mézières method is based on the understanding that most individuals with back pain and other alignment issues (except those that are congenital or caused by fracture) are actually the victims of excess muscle tone in groups of muscles, which Mézières called “muscular chains”. These muscles are banded together in a chain-like manner in which they overlap like tiles on a roof, and therefore each muscle chain behaves as a single unit.

There are four muscular chains in our bodies, the main one being the posterior chain situated at the back, running from head to feet. Although made of several muscles, muscular chains always behave like a single unit. They typically end up becoming too tight and too short, which means they harbor too much muscle tone. The shortening and stiffening of the muscular chains distorts and twist us in any number of different ways. Our bodies attempt to resist this shortening through compensations, which provoke sideways bending and rotations of the spine and unnatural rotations of the limbs. These compensations inevitably cause pain and malfunction and inhibit natural movement.

The Mézières method addresses the primary cause of our muscular-skeletal problems and is among the most efficient and lasting approaches for treating back pain and other muscular-skeletal pain.

Françoise Mézières (1909-1991) was a French physiotherapist and teacher of anatomy who developed the Mézières method. Ms. Mézières was teaching and practicing classical physiotherapy until 1947 when, while treating a patient crippled by pain and distortions, she made the empirical discoveries that were to completely change her understanding of body mechanics. The Mézières method is used by certified physical therapists and personal trainers around the world.