“Islands of compression in a sea of tension”

— R. Buckminster Fuller, the very intelligent architect/engineer/thinker who advanced the concept and coined the term, “tensegrity”.

Tensegrity – the balance of tension that makes the body strong.

The term “tensegrity” derives from “tension integrity”. It refers to a structure that is held strong by a series of elements maintaining tension across the whole. Think a tent, a kite, a tension bridge and, of course, the human body. Without the right balance of tension (muscles, tendons, soft tissues) maintaining position and control of our skeleton, we would be no more than a pile of bones. Another principle here is that when one part is out of balance it will affect other parts in the chain, and the whole body is compromised. So tensegrity is fundamental to understanding how the human body works.

The Stack Physio logo is an illustration of a tensegrity structure called an icosahedron. It represents the way we work with the human body, as our physiotherapy practice aims to act on components, physical and beyond, that cause problems within the body. It also acts as a really nice image for other elements of life – we humans are complex beasts, and we aim to keep the various elements of ourselves in balance.