KMI Structural Integration

Kinesis Myofascial Integration (KMI) is a form of structural integration, a hands-on approach that works with the body's connective tissue, or fascia, and with posture and movement. A practitioner uses slow, sustained pressure with the hands, forearms, or elbows, while you breathe, shift position, or move a joint so the work can meet the tissue in motion. Sessions are usually organized as a series, with each visit attending to a different region and to how the parts of the body relate to one another.

What sets KMI apart is its map. It follows the Anatomy Trains model of Thomas Myers, which describes continuous lines of myofascial connection running through the body, such as the line along the back of the body from the toes to the brow. Practitioners use these lines to decide where to work and in what order. Many seekers come for stiffness, postural strain, or a wish to move with more ease, and others come because they enjoy slow, attentive touch.

KMI is a complementary practice. It is not medical care, and research on KMI itself is very limited. A small number of studies of related structural integration methods have reported changes in pain, range of motion, or movement, but they are mostly small or uncontrolled. Most people find it a deliberate, sometimes intense but usually comfortable experience, and it is generally low risk when practiced by someone trained, with a few situations that call for a clinician's advice first.

KMI descends from the work of Ida P. Rolf (1896 to 1979), an American biochemist who developed a hands-on method she called Structural Integration. Rolf believed that chronic strain patterns in the body's connective tissue could be eased by manual work and better alignment with gravity. Her method, widely known as Rolfing, spread across the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, and the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration was founded in 1971 to train practitioners. Several schools have since grown from her lineage, each with its own emphasis and training standards.

KMI was developed by Thomas Myers, an American author and teacher who trained in Rolf's method and studied with other movement teachers. Myers is best known for the book Anatomy Trains, first published in 2001, which maps continuous lines of myofascial connection that he calls myofascial meridians. KMI organizes a structural integration series around those lines, usually across about a dozen sessions that combine slow manual work with movement education. A 2016 systematic review of dissection studies found anatomical support for parts of several of these lines, but little for others, and noted that the functional importance of the connections remains untested (Wilke and colleagues, 2016). KMI is taught through Anatomy Trains and affiliated schools, and some practitioners also hold Rolfing or other structural integration credentials.