Why Are the Contacts in NetworkSpinal So Gentle?

If you’re used to thinking of a chiropractic adjustment as something involving more force, twisting or a noticeable “crack”, your first experience of NetworkSpinal can be surprising.

NetworkSpinal adjustments use very gentle, specific contacts at particular areas around the spine. One of the questions we're asked most often is, “How can something this light actually be doing anything?”

It’s a good question, particularly when we’re so used to associating bodywork with pressure, stretching or physically moving something.

NetworkSpinal takes a different approach. Rather than relying on greater force, we use gentle, specific contacts around particular areas of the spine. To understand why, it helps to look at how sensitive our sensory system actually is.

Your nervous system is constantly receiving information

Your skin contains specialised sensory receptors called mechanoreceptors, which detect different types of mechanical information, including touch, pressure, movement, vibration and stretch. These receptors convert mechanical stimuli into neural signals that can be communicated through the nervous system.¹

Some of these receptors are remarkably sensitive. They allow us to distinguish between different types of touch, from a light brush across the skin to sustained pressure or vibration.

The amount of pressure is only one part of the sensory information being received. Different receptors respond to different characteristics of touch, including movement, vibration, stretch and sustained pressure. Our sensory system can also distinguish features such as the location, direction, speed and duration of a stimulus.²

So why doesn't NetworkSpinal use more force?

Because more pressure isn’t necessarily what we’re looking for.

NetworkSpinal uses gentle, specific contacts at particular areas of the spine. Rather than using force to physically move or manipulate the spine, the contacts provide mechanical sensory input, and we observe how the body responds.

You may notice your chiropractor making a very light contact around your neck, sacrum or another area of your spine. Although the contact can feel subtle, it is still something your sensory system can detect, as we discussed above.

Specificity is an important part of how NetworkSpinal is practised. The location of the contact, its direction and depth, and what we observe before and after the contact all help guide the adjustment.³

What does fascia have to do with it?

Fascia is something we often talk about when explaining why the contacts can be so gentle. Fascia is a network of connective tissue found throughout the body, surrounding and connecting muscles, bones, nerves, blood vessels and organs. While it has traditionally been recognised for its structural and mechanical roles, research has also shown that fascial tissue is richly innervated, containing both free nerve endings and specialised sensory receptors.⁴

These nerve endings and receptors contribute to the sensory information the nervous system receives from the body’s tissues, including information related to mechanical changes, movement and body position.⁴

This doesn’t mean that a NetworkSpinal contact simply “releases the fascia”, or that contacting fascia automatically creates a particular nervous system response. The relationship between fascia, sensory input and manual care is more complex than that. What the research does help us appreciate is that fascia isn’t simply passive connective tissue. It also has a sensory role, and can detect and communicate mechanical information to the nervous system.⁴

Specificity matters NetworkSpinal isn’t simply about applying a light touch somewhere along the spine. Where and how the contact is made matters.

Practitioners are trained to assess the spine and use specific contact points, directions and depths based on what they observe during care.³

When we make what might feel like a very small contact, we're considering where we're contacting, the direction and depth of the contact, and what we observe before and afterwards.

There’s a lot of specificity behind something that can look deceptively simple from the outside. It’s one of the reasons people are often surprised by their first experience of NetworkSpinal.

Why might you notice movement or changes in your breathing?

During a NetworkSpinal adjustment, you may become aware of changes in your breathing, posture, muscular tension or movement while you’re lying on the table.

Everyone responds differently, and your experience can also vary from one session to another. Sometimes the changes are subtle. You might notice your breathing deepen, become aware of an area you hadn’t noticed before, or simply notice more of what’s happening through your spine and body.

At other times, there may be more noticeable movement. Research examining NetworkSpinal has described a characteristic wave-like movement of the spine that can occur during care, alongside changes in respiration.³

We don’t need to give every movement a particular meaning. The nervous system is continually processing sensory information and coordinating movement, muscle activity and breathing.

Part of the NetworkSpinal approach is observing these responses as they occur, rather than trying to make the body produce a particular response.

Gentle care doesn’t mean nothing is happening If you’re used to chiropractic care that involves more force or movement, the subtlety of NetworkSpinal can take some getting used to.

As we’ve explored, our sensory system can detect very small changes in touch, pressure and movement. The amount of force used is only one part of that sensory information.¹,²

With NetworkSpinal, the focus is on the specificity of the contact and the response we observe, rather than how much pressure is applied. Two contacts that look almost identical may differ in their location, direction or depth.

What does the research actually tell us?

There is well-established neuroscience showing that mechanical stimulation of the skin is detected by specialised sensory receptors and communicated through the nervous system.¹,² Research has also demonstrated that fascia is richly innervated and contributes to the sensory information coming from the body’s tissues.⁴

Research into NetworkSpinal has documented a distinct wave-like movement of the spine that can emerge during care. Researchers have examined this pattern alongside changes in breathing and muscle activity, and proposed that it may represent an organised motor response involving coordination between the nervous system, spine and respiration.³

Other research into NetworkSpinal has explored changes in self-reported wellness and quality of life, with participants reporting improvements across physical, emotional and stress-related measures.⁵ These findings are interesting, although self-reported outcomes are different from objective physiological measures and should be interpreted accordingly.

When we combine this emerging NetworkSpinal research with the broader neuroscience we’ve discussed above, we have a clearer picture of what we currently know: the body can detect very subtle mechanical input, fascia has an important sensory role, and characteristic neurological and movement responses have been observed during NetworkSpinal care.¹,²,³,⁴

Research into NetworkSpinal is still developing, so we remain careful to distinguish between what has been observed, what has been proposed and what has been firmly established.

What does a NetworkSpinal session actually feel like?

If you’ve never experienced NetworkSpinal before, the gentleness of the adjustment may be different from what you expect from chiropractic care.

During a NetworkSpinal adjustment, you’ll be comfortably positioned on the table while we assess your spine and observe how your body responds. We then use gentle, specific contacts at particular areas around the spine.

You may notice changes in your breathing, movement or areas of tension, or the experience may feel much more subtle. There’s no particular response you need to have or need to make happen. Your experience can be different each session, and often part of the process is simply becoming more aware of what you notice.

Curious about NetworkSpinal for yourself?

NetworkSpinal is one of the gentle chiropractic approaches offered at Heal Thy Being Integrative Wellness in Abbotsford, Melbourne. All care begins with an individual consultation and assessment. This gives us time to understand your health and stress history, what has brought you in, and what you’re hoping to gain from care. We’ll also assess how your body is currently presenting and discuss whether our approach is appropriate for you.

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References

1. Handler A, Ginty DD. The mechanosensory neurons of touch and their mechanisms of activation. Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 2021;22(9):521–537.

   
   

2. Hao J, Bonnet C, Amsalem M, Ruel J, Delmas P. Transduction and encoding sensory information by skin mechanoreceptors. Pflügers Archiv. 2015;467(1):109–119.  
   

3. Senzon SA, Epstein DM, Lemberger D. The Network Spinal Wave as a Central Pattern Generator. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 2016;22(6):473–478.
   

4. Suarez-Rodriguez V, Fede C, Pirri C, et al. Fascial Innervation: A Systematic Review of the Literature. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2022;23(10):5674.
   

5. Blanks RHI, Schuster TL, Dobson M. A retrospective assessment of Network Care using a survey of self-rated health, wellness and quality of life. Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research. 1997;1(4):15–31.