I have a posterior tongue tie, why can’t I gain muscle in my butt and abs? How is tight fascia keeping me from gaining strength?
This weekend I saw a facebook post asking two of my favorite questions…why and how. So here is my nerdy response:
First, the basics. We can’t talk about the tongue without talking about the TMJ (tempro-mandibular joint). The TMJ is one of the most used joints in the body. It plays an important role in talking, chewing, facial expressions, proprioception and posture. Most people are aware of the first three parts but it’s the last two that make a huge impact and are largely unrecognized.
Next, some definitions:
PROPRIOCEPTION
Proprioception is the body’s ability to know where you are in space. You can think of it as your body’s natural grounding mechanism. It’s what allows you to walk through a doorway without running into the door frame, it allows you to move your hand to open a window and know where your hand is in relation to the window so you don’t push your hand through the window.
MOTOR CONTROL
Motor control is the body’s ability to do coordinated movement patterns within the body. It both creates movement patterns (such as when a baby is naturally learning to roll, crawl and stand) and also creates compensations for when we are injured or there is stress on the body.
PROPRIOCEPTION, MOTOR CONTROL AND THE BRAIN
The area of the brain that is in charge of proprioception is located in the cerebellum which also helps coordinate movements through motor control. The pons is the part of the brainstem that innervates and controls the TMJ. The cerebellum and pons are embryonically close as both are derived from the metencephalon. The pons also carry information from all senses in our head and face (proprioception). Our bodies were designed to keep us alive and safe so when one area of the brain is downregulated, the area next to it takes over. In this case the pons (TMJ) takes over for loss of motor control elsewhere in the body.
TMJ, TONGUE TIES AND PROPRIOCEPTION
The TMJ has the most proprioception per surface area of any other joint in the body. This has an important role in strength and stability because the body will use the jaw to compensate for loss of motor control elsewhere in the body. A great example of this is when you see someone lifting really heavy weights and they are clenching or shifting their jaw . Only for most of us we aren’t just using our jaw for heavy weights, we may be using our jaw for walking, sitting, and even doing exercises that were meant to target the core or pelvic floor.
It’s because of this proprioception and connection in the brain that when the jaw shifts or clenches, our body will also shift and affect motor control and posture.
POSTURE AND TONGUE TIES
One of the most common positions of the jaw I see is an overbite or jaw retrusion where the mandible (lower jaw) shifts backwards. Another way to think of this is that your top teeth are too far forward compared to your bottom teeth. The shift of the jaw directly causes the center of mass/gravity to shift posteriorly. Since everything from the jaw to the foot is connected through fascia, we see changes in the body from those areas and everything in between.
A posterior shift in center of mass causes an increase in lower abdominal curvature causing a down-regulation of anterior chain core muscles. That was a fancy way to say we might see common compensations:
The temporalis and masseter (think tension headaches and jaw pain) become down-regulated and weak → you might have chronic headaches, tension headaches, or "hold your stress in your shoulders" or you may have even named the trigger point in your shoulder or have jaw or chewing pain
The transverse abdominis becomes weak along with the rectus abdominis and obliques causing an increase in lower abdominal curvature → you may find it difficult to engage your abs, or feel like you can't strengthen your core
Down regulation of anterior pelvic floor → you may have pubic symphysis pain, pelvic pain or incontinence
Deep neck flexors tightness → this is that “chicken neck” that many people complain about having where their neck is lurching forward and head is slightly tilted up along with upper shoulders coming up towards the ears
So yes, an overbite or poor tongue position can cause rounding of the low back and abdominal weakness, pelvic floor tightness along with rounding of the upper back and shoulders.
In many instances you may find yourself constantly trying to stretch and get rid of trigger points anywhere in the body…thanks to fascia and motor contril it isn't just at the tongue/jaw we see this tightness. We have secondary compensations that usually show up in the form of perceived tightness. While we feel like we need to constantly stretch, we really need strength. When someone has an overbite and jaw retrusion, we frequently see really tight muscles listed above as well as:
Ankle dorsiflexors (pointing foot towards head), peronei, hamstrings, and quads —> do you have tight hamstrings no matter how much your stretch? Or maybe you foam roll every day and never feel better? Or you laugh when someone says to touch your toes because you know that isn't going to happen. Or maybe you have never been able to do the butterfly stretch because your adductors are too tight.
You may have found yourself constantly trying to stretch your calves because they feel tight.
You may also notice increased tension in the inguinal ligament (groin) as the pelvis is pushed forward putting pressure on the front hip/groin and causing…
Pancake butt/mom butt/decreased butt (glute) strength. Remember that backwards shift? It commonly comes with tucking the butt under and clenching the butt cheeks for dear life. When that happens the muscles are tight and weak and struggle to gain strength until they can get full mobility.
So yes…your hamstring tightness, lack of butt, pelvic pain and no abdominal strength may be related to your tongue and jaw. If this is you, let's connect and figure out the root cause of the pain and correct it.