When you imagine your skeleton, you probably picture a rigid frame— bones stacked like steel beams, holding you upright through compression. This mental model shapes how you think about posture, alignment, and pain.
But your body doesn't work that way at all.
The human body is a tensegrity structure—a system that maintains stability not through rigid compression but through continuous tension.
The term "tensegrity" combines "tensional integrity." In a tensegrity structure, compression elements (bones) float within an unbroken network of tension elements (muscles, fascia, ligaments, tendons). These compression struts never directly touch each other. Instead, they're suspended in a web of tension that keeps them spaced and stable.
This is radically different from a building frame where rigid connections stack weight through compression. In your body, stability emerges from balanced tension throughout the entire system.
Why does this matter?
Because when tension becomes imbalanced in a tensegrity structure, the entire system deforms—even if every compression strut remains perfectly intact. Bones can misalign without being damaged. Joints can drift without trauma. Posture can collapse without injury.
The system fails upstream, at the tension level, not at the bone.
This explains why X-rays and MRIs often show "normal" bone structure while you experience significant pain or dysfunction. The imaging captures compression elements (bones) but cannot reveal the tension imbalances driving your symptoms. Your bones may be perfectly healthy while the fascial and muscular tension network pulls them into dysfunctional positions.
Consider a tensegrity model—pull one cable too tight, and the entire structure warps. Release tension in one area, and compensatory tension increases elsewhere. This is exactly how your body responds to sustained positions, repetitive movements, injury compensation, or chronic stress.
Tensegrity structures have unique properties:
- Pre-stressed: The system is always under tension, ready to respond instantly to force
- Globally responsive: Force applied anywhere affects the entire structure
- Self-stabilizing: When disturbed, the system naturally returns toward equilibrium
- Energy efficient: Distributes load through the entire network rather than concentrating stress at single points
This is why local treatment often fails. You can massage one tight muscle, adjust one "stuck" joint, or stretch one limited area—but if you don't address the global tension imbalances creating that local symptom, the problem returns. The tensegrity system simply pulls back into its learned pattern.
Understanding your body as tensegrity changes the question from "What's broken?" to "Where is tension imbalanced?" It shifts treatment from fixing parts to restoring balance throughout the whole system.
Your bones aren't the problem. They're floating in a sea of tension— and that tension tells the real story.