What Are Myofascial Slings?
Updated: 3 hours ago
How your hips, core, and shoulders work together
Picking up a toddler and settling them on your hip. Pulling a heavy deadlift off the floor. Reaching up to the top shelf, or getting down on the floor with your grandkids and back up again.
None of these movements comes from one muscle working alone. Your body links muscles, connective tissue, and joints into chains that work together to create and control movement. One helpful way to understand those chains is through something called myofascial slings.
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What Is a Myofascial Sling?
Fascia is the connective tissue that wraps and links muscles throughout your body. A myofascial sling is a group of muscles and fascia that tend to work together, often crossing from one side of the body to the other, to transfer force and keep you stable while you move.Clinicians commonly describe four slings:
Back (Posterior Oblique) Sling: Connects the broad muscle of your upper back to the opposite glute through connective tissue in your lower back. This connection helps your upper and lower body work together when you walk, run, pull, or lift.
Front (Anterior Oblique) Sling: Links your abdominal muscles on one side with the inner-thigh muscles on the opposite side. This connection helps your trunk and pelvis work together when you rotate, throw, run, or change direction.
Deep Longitudinal Sling: Involves muscles and connective tissue along the back of your spine and pelvis, with connections into your hamstrings. This system helps your body transfer force and coordinate movement when you walk, run, or land.
Lateral Sling: Involves the muscles along the side of your hip and trunk working together to support your pelvis. These muscles are especially important when you balance on one leg, climb stairs, or walk.
Slings are a useful way to think about movement, not a map that explains every ache. But they help show why a physical therapist might look at your hip when your knee hurts, or your upper back when your shoulder does.
What This Looks Like in Real Life
If you lift or train. A strong deadlift or kettlebell swing depends on your back sling transferring force from your hips through your trunk. If one hip is weaker or your upper back is stiff, other areas often pick up the slack, and that can show up as low back fatigue or a lift that feels lopsided.
If you're a mom. Carrying a baby on one hip, twisting to buckle a car seat, and lifting a stroller into the trunk all ask your lateral and oblique slings to stabilize you under uneven load. After pregnancy, rebuilding core, hip, and pelvic floor strength helps these everyday lifts feel solid again.
If you want to stay strong as you age. Walking with confidence, catching yourself if you trip, and getting up from the floor all depend on your slings keeping your pelvis and trunk steady. Strength and balance in these chains are a big part of staying active and independent for years to come.
Why These Connections Matter
When one link in the chain is limited, your body finds another way to get the job done. That's normal, and there's rarely one perfect way to move. But over time or under heavier demands, those workarounds can shift extra stress onto areas that aren't ready for it.
The goal isn't to fix every tight muscle or imperfect rep. It's to find the limitations that actually matter for your symptoms, your goals, and the way you live.
What a Movement Assessment Can Reveal
A movement assessment may look at how you squat, hinge, reach, rotate, balance on one leg, and get up from the floor, along with your strength, mobility, and any activities that bother you. We put those findings together with your history and goals to decide what is worth working on.
From there, your plan may include progressive strengthening, mobility work, practicing better movement patterns, and hands-on treatment when helpful. The goal is to make the things you care about feel easier and more sustainable.
We Come to You
Because Divine Physical Therapy is mobile, we see how you move in your real life: lifting in your garage gym, picking up your child from the floor, or climbing the stairs in your own home in Stafford County. That context tells us far more than a clinic hallway ever could.
The Divine Restore & Reset Movement Method™
Assess: Understand your goals and the movement demands of your daily life.
Restore: Build mobility, strength, and tolerance for the activities that matter to you.
Own It: Practice skills that help you manage your progress on your own.
Reset: Reassess as your activities, training, or season of life changes.
The Bottom Line
Your body is connected, and it's also adaptable. Whether you're chasing a new PR, carrying little ones all day, or staying active for the long haul, understanding how you move helps you build strength without fearing every tight muscle or imperfect rep.
From My Clinical Experience
While treating a patient recovering from a stroke with right-sided hemiparesis (weakness affecting both the right arm and leg), I incorporated a modified bird dog exercise in a quadruped (hands-and-knees) position, using an exercise ball beneath the hips for support. Within three days, I observed a noticeable improvement in the patient’s standing stability and balance during walking.
What stood out to me was how working on trunk stability and coordinated movement between the upper and lower body appeared to translate into functional activities. This experience reinforced why I consider interconnected movement systems, including the posterior oblique (back) sling, when developing rehabilitation strategies, not just individual muscles or isolated areas of weakness.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
Divine Physical Therapy, LLC provides one-on-one mobile concierge physical therapy for active adults, athletes, moms, and adults who want to stay strong as they age, in Stafford County and surrounding Virginia communities. Start with a complimentary 15-minute Discovery Consultation to talk through your goals and whether a Comprehensive Movement Evaluation is the right fit.
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About the Author
Dr. Paige, PT, DPT, CMTPT, PCES is the owner of Divine Physical Therapy, LLC, a mobile concierge practice serving Stafford County, Virginia. She earned her Doctor of Physical Therapy from The George Washington University in 2015 and has 11 years of clinical experience. She holds CMTPT and PCES certifications and works one-on-one with lifters and athletes, moms, and adults who want to stay strong as they age, in their homes and gyms. Virginia PT License #VA2305209500. Learn more on our About page.
References
Willard FH, Vleeming A, Schuenke MD, Danneels L, Schleip R. The thoracolumbar fascia: anatomy, function and clinical considerations. J Anat. 2012;221(6):507–536. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3512278/
Sueki DG, Cleland JA, Wainner RS. A regional interdependence model of musculoskeletal dysfunction: research, mechanisms, and clinical implications. J Man Manip Ther. 2013;21(2):90–102. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3649356/
This article is for general education and is not a substitute for an individual evaluation. If you have new, severe, or worsening symptoms, contact your healthcare provider.
Written by Dr. Paige, PT, DPT, CMTPT, PCES | Licensed Physical Therapist, Virginia | Last reviewed: November 2, 2026
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