A coach’s guide to optimizing movement involves understanding biomechanics, improving movement patterns, and applying proper techniques. This guide, presented by CONDUCT.EDU.VN, offers a systematic approach to assess and enhance movement quality, helping athletes achieve peak performance. Discover movement variability and the benefits of functional training principles.
1. Understanding Foundational Movement Questions
Movement is a fundamental aspect of human performance, and as coaches, it’s crucial to evaluate and improve its quality. But why do we need objective standards for movement in the first place? This question drives the need for a systematic approach to categorizing trainable movements and assessing their execution against fixed criteria.
Great fitness coaches have been trying to categorize exercises and training methodologies for a long time. For example, in track and field, training days are often divided by the neurological intensity of the activities. Understanding these categories helps coaches design effective training plans and achieve predictable outcomes. CONDUCT.EDU.VN provides the tools and knowledge to develop a scientific understanding of movement and create targeted training programs.
In medicine, conditions and treatments are carefully defined, quantifiable deficiencies are identified, and specific drugs are administered at regulated doses. If fitness professionals can become more exact with their measurements, definitions, and dosages, we can create better results for a greater number of people.
1.1 The Significance of Structural and Functional Adaptations
The purpose of medicine is to heal, while the purpose of training is to create specific structural and functional adaptations in the body. A structural adaptation is an increase or decrease in a tissue such as muscle, whereas a functional adaptation is when someone’s performance improves in a specific task, like squatting more weight. conduct.edu.vn emphasizes the importance of measuring and managing these adaptations to optimize training outcomes.
To effectively manage these changes, Peter Drucker’s quote, “What gets measured gets managed,” should be on the wall of every gym. You need to decide what variables you want to manage, figure out what specific structural or functional changes you want to drive, and then research what training measures are targeted and appropriate.
Establish baseline measurements before training, and continue to measure as you implement your training plan. Whether you’re working with a runner, a powerlifter, or someone who wants to lose weight, consistent measurement is key to tracking progress and motivating the individual.
1.2 Measuring Progress and Motivation
Identifying the variables you will be measuring in a trainee automatically invites their attention, thought, and effort to focus on those specific variables. If values associated with those variables remain static or change in the opposite direction, this may upset and potentially demotivate the subject. Conversely, seeing a variable improve has the power to motivate him or her.
For new or low-level trainees, measure aerobic performance and slow speed strength at the outset. These aspects change quickly, providing frequent, positive feedback. The reward of improvement will get them hooked on the process, potentially turning them into habitual exercisers. Trainers should provide as much positive reinforcement as possible to reduce the risk of clients quitting due to a lack of perceived return on investment.
1.3 Setting Specific Goals
Setting specific, measurable goals with a target date increases motivation. For example, setting a goal to deadlift a specific weight by a certain date increases the motivation to train consistently and modify behaviors to achieve this goal. This approach allows data to show which practice is best, emphasizing that while science, theory, and practical advice are all great, the numbers are where the rubber meets the road.
1.4 Addressing Vague Goals
Clients with vague “look good/feel good” goals also need to measure and train specific variables. For these clients, focus on aerobic performance and slow speed strength at the beginning of the training process. These aspects change quickly, providing frequent, positive feedback and turning them into habitual exercisers.
Introducing a competitive element to training can also tap into the human desire to win, stand apart, or succeed relative to others. For coaches, working with average individuals can be more rewarding than working with elite athletes because of the significant impact you can have on their lives.
1.5 Understanding the Fickle Nature of Range of Motion
Range of motion is a measurable aspect that directly affects human movement, so we should invite our interest to it. While range of motion can improve immediately after stretching, these effects are acute. Chronic, cumulative improvements require significant time, effort, and volume. Motor neurons are mostly done with myelination by the end of puberty, limiting neuroplasticity.
True change requires conscious effort and high volume. While adults can learn new skills, remodeling into a highly flexible individual takes more than a few yoga classes. It often necessitates a complete lifestyle change. Even then, it might not surpass the flexibility of someone who was a gymnast in their youth.
1.6 Mastering Mechanics for Injury Avoidance
We can all become better movers, and acute changes in range of motion can be parlayed into better movement in training. This book will systematically guide you through this process. If you move improperly, you’re probably going to torque yourself up and not make it as far as you could. Avoidance of unnecessary injuries that come from training with poor form is the biggest culprit that I strive to pin down, and help others avoid. This book is my attempt at bringing my methods to anyone who’d like to benefit from this codified system.
In addition to providing a taxonomy of exercise and standardized execution guidelines, this book will also describe principles for progression and regression, which will act as a troubleshooting guide for athletes/clients who perform exercises improperly.
2. Examining Foundational Movement Principles
Theories provide testable explanations of phenomena, helping us predict outcomes and manipulate subjects for our benefit. They guide us in constructing models to explain the human organism and the world, increasing the likelihood of achieving desired outcomes. According to George Box, “All models are wrong, but some are useful.” Scientists attempt to increase the probability of their predictions being correct.
2.1 Embracing Variability for Survival
Variability, or having multiple capabilities to accomplish the same task, is a key principle. An increased number of options provides security and reduces the chances of an organism being wiped out by catastrophic events. Life on Earth has selected to incorporate variability into its fabric. Movement capabilities can be rigid, variable, or chaotic.
Excellent athletes and teams possess the ability to win through multiple strategies. They can line up with different personnel in different formations to appropriately counteract the offense. Great teams can win using blowouts, shootouts, low scoring field possession games, or in some mix of all of the above circumstances. The variable athlete increases the likelihood that he or she can successfully accomplish the task, regardless of what’s going on around him or her.
2.2 Gaining Movement Variability
Gaining movement variability involves demonstrating movement potential through joint range of motion tests and learning the fundamentals of body control and mechanics. Rigid individuals demonstrate dramatically reduced range of motion, and chaotic individuals demonstrate an inability to control their axial and/or appendicular skeleton while moving. There are techniques and methods to move rigid and chaotic individuals back towards normal ranges of motion and control, which will be discussed in this book.
2.3 The Invariant Representation of Memory
The brain stores memories, including motor programs. The memory “sign your name” is a static, unchanging entity. The only thing that changes is the context under which you are attempting to execute this program. To perform any exercise, it’s best to use its basic, fundamental, standardized, and proper form. Drilling an exercise repeatedly will build and engrain its pattern in the brain, making it possible to execute almost autonomically and identically.
Once the memory of this movement is solidified, we can start to add variation to the movement. Great coaches don’t introduce many different movements at once but teach one or two skills with exceptional emphasis on accuracy and high repetition. All memories, including motor memories, are based on relationships, particularly the relationship of the axial skeleton with the appendicular skeleton.
2.4 Understanding Asymmetry in Movement
You are not a symmetrical organism, and you never will be. This is okay because symmetry should never be your goal. Why? Because gradients are the backbone for movement, and gradients imply a lack of symmetry and balance. In order for movement to occur, a lack of balance has to precede the event.
Kinetic energy requires potential energy to exist, and potential energy cannot exist unless we have more of something in one location than another location. Asymmetry is the driving force of human musculoskeletal movement. The upright bipedal locomotion used by our species is unique and strongly distinctive. During the gait cycle, the left side and the right side are always doing exactly the opposite motion.
Inorganic movement actually preceded life, in the form of alternating mirror asymmetry through which particles flowed down concentration gradients. The wider a gradient—aka, the more of something in one region compared to another region—the faster and more powerful the movement of particles from the more to the less concentrated region. The more that we are able to shift into each of these previously mentioned states—concentric, eccentric, compressing, expanding, overcoming, yielding—the greater the degree to which we can create mirror asymmetry, and the greater the degree we can be efficient in our motor performances.
2.5 Jacksonian Dissolution and Evolutionary Systems
John Hughlings Jackson discovered that during times of stress, the most modern parts of the brain are inhibited, and older parts take over. More sophisticated structures are less resistant to stress. This concept is a universal phenomenon that permeates our reality and behavior.
When it comes to movement, we can plot it on an evolutionary timeline. Primitive animals moved through expansion and compression. Fish and snakes moved in the frontal plane. Mammals evolved a sagittal plane style. Modern humans display a distinctive upright bipedal style featuring sagittal limbs, a frontal plane dominant pelvis, and a transverse dominant ribcage and neck.
2.6 Climbing the Evolutionary Ladder
Are there situations in which we need to rely on older evolutionary systems? Yes, they’ve hung around for a reason. Our stress response is an ancient one. At rest with low stress, our oxidative systems run the show. As stress rises, older energy systems come into play. Sprinting relies on the phosphagen system. The more we toggle between old and new, the greater our ability to rise up to the challenges of the high-stress modern world and allow ourselves to rest and recover after each stressor subsides.
3. Establishing Movement Model Foundations
Exercise program design is an applied solution to strategically manipulating the biological expression of the human form. We are trying to understand and manipulate human physiology through basic science and simple rules that maximize utility and reproducible numerical results. The only way to design a comprehensible and comprehensive training system is to design it around biomechanics rather than physiological principles.
3.1 Movement Quality and Quantity
Biology emerged as a single coherent discipline in the 19th century. Exercise science falls under the umbrella of Biology and is essentially in its infancy from a scientific inquiry timeline perspective. A crucial right of passage for any young scientific realm is the establishment of a taxonomy of the phenomena within that domain. In this model, movement quality is divided into three sections: pattern, stance, and plane.
Movement quantity is likewise divided into three sections: load, velocity, and duration. These elements provide a comprehensive framework for describing and categorizing all forms of exercise.
3.2 The 7 Movement Pillars
Understanding the 7 Movement Pillars provides the tools for becoming an exercise architect, and creating exactly the right combinations of the Pillars to drive users perfectly towards the right adaptations. The first three Pillars will be addressed in this chapter, and Pillars 4 through 7 will be explained in Chapter 4. The following are the 7 Movement Pillars:
- Movement Quality
- Movement Quantity
- Movement Standardization
- Movement Progression
- Movement Strategy
- Muscular Orientation
- Muscular Action
3.3 Defining Movement Quality
Here are the movement patterns that I use in this section of the Exercise Taxonomy:
- Breathing
- Core, Pelvic Focus
- Core, Thorax Focus
- Locomotion
- Change of Direction
- Throwing
- Triple Extension
- Hip Dominant
- Knee Dominant
- Horizontal Push
- Horizontal Pull
- Vertical Push
- Vertical Pull
When I am talking about stance, I am speaking about the arrangement of the feet relative to each other, and relative to the center of mass of the axial skeleton. I divide stance into three realms:
- Bilateral Symmetrical
- Asymmetrical Front/Back
- Asymmetrical Lateral
The front/back stance is seen in any exercise where one foot is in front of the other, or when the feet are arranged with one foot higher than the other. A linear lunge is a simple example of a front/back stance exercise where the feet are separated more horizontally than vertically. A step up is a good example of a front/back stance exercise where the feet are separated more vertically than horizontally.
3.4 Purpose of Cardinal Planes of Motion
Humans evolved for endurance. Our systems have a greater capacity to improve aerobic fitness and slow speed strength than high-velocity, phosphagen-powered activities like sprinting and jumping. The sagittal plane is your anti-gravity plane. Mastering the sagittal plane allows you to be able to avoid falling on your face or your back.
The frontal plane is the plane you have to regulate to be able to ultimately create forward propulsion. Optimal forward propulsion occurs when the center of mass shifts side to side in a sigmoidal pathway, but stays within the boundaries of the base of support, aka inside the feet.
The transverse plane allows us to coil and uncoil for a high rate of force development, like striking and throwing maneuvers.
3.5 Quantifying Movement
Here are the numerical dividers for load, velocity, and duration:
LOAD:
- High: 80-100% 1RM
- Mod: 60-80% 1RM
- Low: Below 60% 1RM
VELOCITY
- High: Greater than 1.0 m/s
- Mod: 0.5 – 1.0 m/s
- Low: Below 0.5 m/s
DURATION
- High: Greater than 120 sec
- Mod: 15 to 120 sec
- Low: Below 15 seconds
3.6 Utilizing Quality and Quantity
How would a coach go about utilizing this information? I would start with the qualitative information. First, what movement pattern are you trying to train? Once you have identified the pattern, what stance are you going to put the athlete in? Now that you have a pattern and a stance, what plane of motion do you want them to move in? Now we shift our attention to the quantitative variables. How much load do you want to provide? At what velocity do you want that load moved? For how long would you like this movement to take place?
You can use the model to choose exercises for various training components, such as warm-ups, speed and agility drills, weightroom activities, assistance lifts, and conditioning exercises. The ability to describe these activities as a function of the type of movement they involve has allowed me to place each in a logical, intuitive place within an exercise program.
3.7 The Importance of Assessing Movement
Every sport features a hierarchy based on what stances athletes assume, what planes they move through, what patterns they execute, what kinds of loads they encounter, what sorts of velocities they need to be able to produce, and what kinds of durations they need to continue to move through. Targeting those qualitative and quantitative realms is a great way to provide fairly specific stimuli during the training process.
Aside from specificity of training, athletes also seem to benefit from performing training movements that target tissue positioned antagonistically to the moves of their sport, as this is believed to have injury prevention potential. It is my opinion that different stances and planes are distinct movement realms with limited carryover to other stances and planes of movement, and that accurately assessing strength, speed.
3.8 The Wizard of Oz Analogy
In just about any endeavor, there are those who strive to improve upon, extrapolate, and perfect it, sport science included. This chapter touches on fitness, program design, and biomechanical proficiency. The systematic approach that will be outlined here is my best attempt to provide a logical and useful model for coaches to follow.
The ultimate problem with this and any other person’s training model is that the central ideas will stem from certain starting assumptions. If those starting assumptions are accurate, then the ideas that will be put forth will probably be correct. But, if the starting assumptions are off, the ideas to which they give rise will be as well, and clever people will pick the model apart.
3.9 The Core of Movement Standardization
The quantitative side of the training movement puzzle is easy. We can measure forces, loads, velocities, and durations of movement fairly effortlessly and precisely. The qualitative component of movement, however, involves the more purely descriptive elements. We can describe the shape the body assumes, the types of movements it is making, and the direction in which it moves. The problem with anything qualitative is that there are far less objective measures. Despite being an ambiguous topic, as execution of movements in a training environment goes, quality is critically important, as proper technique, good movement, and optimal positioning is, in many ways, the foundation of successful sport/training outcomes.
The primary system that controls our movement expression is the nervous system. Therefore, a key feature of determining movement proficiency is that, when grading movement, you must consider both sensory and motor components. If a movement looks good to the coach or observer but the performer of the motion is feeling sensations that should not come with proper execution of that movement, then there is a biomechanical mismatch, and optimal movement is not being displayed.
Motor competencies are visual, observational assessments from the coach, looking for proper alignment of joints and bone structures. Sensory competencies are what the athlete experiences during the movement.
3.10 The Zero Sum Phenomenon and Axial Skeleton
The zero sum phenomenon applies to biomechanics. When viewing the skeleton in the sagittal plane on the posterior side, we see alternating lordotic and kyphotic curves. This allows for the center of mass to reside somewhere in the middle, which is a concept that I will refer to as “sagittal centering.” It’s critical for a bipedal animal to be able to erect itself and remain upright. What you are looking for is the middle of the skull to be positioned directly over and in line with the middle of the pelvic floor.
Centering also applies to the frontal plane. Frontal plane centering occurs when you see someone facing you, and they have their nose over their sternum, over their belly button, over their zipper, over one of their knees, over the big toe of one of their feet. Involves lateralizing the center of mass of the axial skeleton so that it is held over one of your feet at a time.
The transverse plane is built on the motions of internal and external rotation, along with horizontal abduction and adduction. For optimal rotation of the body, the foundational planes of sagittal and frontal must be in place.
3.11 Sensory Competencies in Different Planes
When discussing the sagittal plane, the hamstrings, glute max, and abdominals are the best-suited muscle groups for the task. In regards to a focus on glute max, hamstrings, and abs, it’s more a matter of maximizing their leverage in an upright position, along with tuning for sensory feedback. So, when coaching individuals on being competent in the sagittal plane, I’m always looking to hear that they feel their hamstrings, glutes, and abs engaged in those activities. Sensory competencies in the sagittal plane are as follows:
- Feel weight on their heels
- Feel hamstrings engage when in hip flexion
- Feel glute max engage when in hip extension
- Feel abs engage
Sensory incompetencies in the sagittal plane are as follows (usually from center of mass being too far forward):
- Weight on toes
- Feels knees
- Feels back
- Feels neck
A subject’s ability to feel appropriate frontal plane sensory targets is usually strongly tied to possessing sagittal competency. You want to feel the adductors of the stance side foot, the glute med of the opposite side, the frontal plane abs on the stance side, and the serratus anterior on the opposite side. The competencies zig and zag across the body as we go up each segment. Sensory competencies in the frontal plane are as follows:
- Stance side heel
- Opposite side medial arch
- Stance side adductor
- Opposite side glute med
- Stance side abs
- Opposite side serratus
Sensory incompetencies in the frontal plane (probably lacking sagittal competencies or frontal centering):
- Lats are firing up
- Tensor fascia latae is firing up
- Neck muscles (SCM and/or scalenes) are firing up
- The person is gripping with their hands and feet
- The person is not breathing
Finally, we come to the transverse plane. The glute max is the dominant transverse plane muscle of the pelvis. The ability of the glute max to maximize late stance actions is tied to finishing the stride through the flexion action of the great toe, aka push-off. To breathe well and optimize the human experience, you need the sagittal muscles to do the heavy lifting on the inhalation as well as well coordinated abs driving the exhalation. The glute max is the major muscle you want to feel, but other than that, you truly want to be aware of the first ray of the foot, the great toe, arm swing, and the ribcage. Sensory competencies of the transverse plane:
- First ray of foot and great toe
- Glute max
- Arm swing (front side mechanics)
- Rotation of the ribcage
Sensory incompetencies of the transverse plane
- Outside of foot
- Lumbar spine
- Neck
4. Implementing Movement Progression Principles
If you can establish where you are right now, you can discern the direction you need to go in and the steps you have to take to move toward performing, feeling, and looking the way you want. If something vague and intangible comes to mind, this question deserves a better answer. Some answers that will actually move someone towards his or her goals might be more weight, more reps, more duration, more frequency, more speed, more intensity, more volume.
4.1 The Big 10 Principles of Progression
Sometimes you’re looking to see them perform exercises better. This is where we get sucked back into the world of movement quality. To begin this discussion, I’ll tell you where I think you should start: my list of The Big 10 Principles of Progression. After we go through the Big 10 Principles of Progression, we will explore the Propulsion Arc for guiding us towards manipulating joint actions and positions to increase the likelihood of performing exercises with competence.
- Start Static
- Start Sagittal
- Start Bilateral Symmetrical
- Minimize the Difficulty of Managing Gravity
- Limit ROM to Only the Zone of Sensorimotor Competency (ZSC)
- Start with Short Levers
- Provide Reactive Neuromuscular Training (RNT)
- Maximize References
- Maximize Constraints
- Minimize Load
We again look for guidance from our Big 10 Principles of Progression in where to start, move toward, and end with. Every pattern’s exercise progression roadmap will have its idiosyncrasies, which we’ll save for upcoming chapters. But, from here on out, we’ll continuously fall back on the Big 10 Principles of Progression, as I do in my coaching, whenever I’m struggling to get a client to execute an exercise correctly, and search for ways I can incorporate these principles into the setup for the exercise in question. And, every time I go back to these basics, the outcome is better on the next go-around. To follow, and to see where you go with that, we’ll refer to, and use 10 principles, of progression:
- Static to Dynamic
- Sagittal to Frontal to Transverse
- Bilateral to Front/Back to Lateral Stance
- Challenge position relative to gravity
- Increase the ROM for the Zone of Sensorimotor Competence
- Lengthen Levers
- Reduce RNT input
- Reduce Reference
- Reduce Constraints
- Progressively Increase Load Systematically
4.2 The Propulsion Arc
The Propulsion Arc is a concept that I have learned exclusively from Bill Hartman, the single biggest influencer of my movement thought process, and my ability to produce the model this book presents. To explain the Propulsion Arc, I’ll need to provide you with a little bit of back story on the way that Bill views movement, which should help clarify and synthesize a few key concepts. In this book, Zone 1 and Zone 3 of the arc will be our expansion-dominant zones, and Zone 2 is going to be our compression-dominant zone. We will do the same thing with throwing pattern exercises. With throwing and striking motions, Zone 1 is the windup, Zone 2 is the strike zone, and Zone 3 is the follow-through. Zones 1 and 3 should be characterized by expansion/inhalation/eccentric orientation-related joint actions, while Zone 2 should be characterized by compression/exhalation/concentric-related joint actions.
To reach a large excursion of ROM involving a yielding action, the involved tissues need to reach an eccentric orientation. If you want to purposefully limit ROM with a yielding action, you need to keep the involved tissues in a concentric orientation. An example of this would be jumping rope. If you want to purposefully limit ROM with a yielding action, you need to keep the involved tissues in a concentric orientation.An example of this would be jumping rope. The gastrocnemius, quadriceps, and pelvic floor are maintained in a concentric orientation when the jumper lands.
To finish an overcoming action through full ROM, your muscles need to reach a concentric orientation. If the biceps do not switch from an eccentric orientation to a concentric orientation, overcoming ROM will cease at the midzone of the movement, falling short of achieving the top range of the curl. The arc has three primary zones, which we will refer to as Zone 1, Zone 2, and Zone 3. Bill talks about these concepts as Early Propulsion, Middle Propulsion, and Late Propulsion, which are terms largely based on the gait cycle. Bill has a few categories that he uses to describe motion: Strategy, Orientation and Action.
Strategy: All of the things that we observe bodies doing are simply evolutionary, anatomical solutions that allow us to either expand or compress more effectively.
Orientation: Speaks to whether muscles are in an eccentric or concentric state from a length perspective. There is some length middle-ground for muscles, within which range they are neither eccentric nor concentric.
Action: Speaks to whether tissues are overcoming the forces they are interacting with, or yielding to the forces they are interacting with. Yielding is synonymous with absorbing force. Overcoming is synonymous with producing force. Typically, when we move in the same direction as the pull of gravity, we are yielding, and when we move in the opposite direction of the pull of gravity, we are overcoming. There are a few ways in which you can make easy use of the arc to manipulate exercises for better odds of competent execution. First, there is a general principle to follow for progressing exercises with the arc. Start exercises with a Zone 1 focus, then move to Zone 2, and finally to Zone 3.
5. Breathing Pattern
As discussed, this model is far reaching, and I agree with Bill’s assertion that there is no such thing as a sagittal or frontal plane. The model has already set out rules for both motor and sensory competencies in both planes and movements, and those rules can be used again and again in both contexts. We see, with these concepts, that, as long as people possess a body that has the architecture that can express certain capabilities, and follow a logical process for learning such abilities, the potential for athletic development is almost limitless. We’ve got something to work with. We have a set of tools that can help us decide what to emphasize within the training. We have the basis for creating smart, useful, and actionable training programs, specific to various athletes, to bring out all that he or she can achieve, on and off the field. There is great power in numbers. If you can take and measure various characteristics, traits and competencies from people, then you can determine what they might be a good fit for. More important, you are doing them a disservice if you are not taking measurements. And, to be able to take accurate measurements, one must know what it is that they are trying to measure. The way we are going to train to improve athletic performance, body composition, or all-cause mortality outcomes, has to stem from the knowledge of each movement as related to the axial skeleton, and then understanding the strategies behind all the components discussed in this model.
Now, we can use the principles and frameworks presented so far to create training systems and design specific training programs that can better guide athletes towards maximizing their potentials.
5.1 Qualitative Breathing Perspective
In the fitness industry, breathing tends to be either overhyped or underhyped. This section will focus mostly on the basics and physics of breathing. Proper breathing drills direct people towards exhaling in very specific ways based upon test results, as well as those of controlling a nasal inhale, which can drastically alter skeletal positions, muscle leverages, and joint range of motion. I sought to learn more and more from the influential physical therapists who were popular for being able to improve range of motion and movement quality in their athlete clients. This group of practitioners again led me back to breathing. I guess you could say that I have been primed to think that breathing is important.
The effect we’ll examine here are those of proper breathing drills that direct people towards exhaling in very specific ways based upon test results, as well as those of controlling a nasal inhale, which can drastically alter skeletal positions, muscle leverages, and joint range of motion. The importance of breathing was also emphasized to me while in high school and getting into yoga.
5.2 Janda and the Balance of Upper and Lower Crossed Syndrome
After really digging through Gray Cook’s research, I discovered that a lot of his theory and practice was based on the work of the great Czech practitioners, like Vladimir Janda. Janda was a pioneer in physical therapy, who left an enormous wake behind him. One of the first practitioners to really start looking at the influence of the brain on the conditions he was seeing, he ushered in what is now known as the “Functional” approach to physical therapy. Janda believed that when we had pain or an injury, or a lack of proprioceptive information, our initial reaction to this experience is to tighten up and prevent movement. He classified three patterns of muscle imbalance, referring to them as Upper Crossed Syndrome, Lower Crossed Syndrome, and Layer Syndrome. These different patterns of muscle imbalance are commonly the issues athletes should have to deal with and solve to ensure correct balance of motion and form with each muscle and position.
5.3 Hruska, the Postural Restoration Institute, and Asymmetry
This pursuit of patterns and limitations of skeletal muscle function led me to study the teachings of Ron Hruska, who is the founder and director of the Postural Restoration Institute (PRI). Well-versed in classical osteopathic literature, physical therapy, Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF), podiatry, psychology, dental sciences, and optometry, among a host of other disciplines, Ron possesses a wealth of knowledge about the human condition. One of the most fundamental tenets of Hruska’s patterns is that there is an underlying asymmetry to the human condition. In particular, there is strong asymmetry at the visceral level.
We can reverse the left diaphragm by integrating lumbo-pelvic femoral complex (AIC) with the thoraco-abdominal complex (BC). The BC is part of what walks the upper body through the rotation and bending of the thorax. This chain involves the diaphragm, intercostals, triangularis sterni, subclavius, pecs, and deltoids. The right brachial chain flexes and abducts the right side of the thorax. Together, the left AIC and right BC create the aforementioned frontal plane mirror asymmetry positioning and response, as demonstrated by the posture of the statue of David. What I need to do is position myself so as to close the left anterior thoraco-abdominal space, and open the right side.
5.4 The Inhaled and Exhaled Skeleton
We want to be able to toggle back and forth between a high degree of the old and the new, so that they can be more resilient to being able to demonstrate a high degree of expression in the high stress modern world, and allow themselves to rest and recover after the stress is done. Is there another force that’s at play, keeping one side in its rightful rotation, or one that has moved it and is keeping it stuck? If those forces are strong, we need to take action on them.
5.5 Respiratory Bias and Movement Variability
Within this model, there are only two types of movement strategies, expansion and compression. We are looking to see if people have access to full expansion and compression capabilities. Those who can achieve full expression of both strategies have full movement variability, where breathing is one component of the strategies. In this model, if you do not have respiratory variability, then you do not have movement variability, and vice versa. It’s either open or closed, binary, with everything falling on the same side. I am always looking for tests that give me the ability to evaluate whether or not my subjects have full movement variability.
You would then start with that part, as far as the testing capabilities that I would recommend to see how are the subject has all available movements. I can go to his or her different sides to determine what needs to be done in order to get the movement back that was previously lacking and absent.
5.6 Quantitative Breathing Perspective
What makes breathing a trainable and effective activity to incorporate into a training regimen is the amount of volume needed. These measures are essential to ensuring correct form and output for various physical exertions. Now that I do know where I’m coming from and the value, it’s all about putting myself into the new space.
Most importantly for those with some type of disease, I wanted to come back and be that person. But just that the model that has to be the number one, I said is with those with new training into a high place. The ability to be able and to let it all come through. And the high stress system, there can be able to start seeing those energy systems may come into play, there was also with something, just do not know those is that not the end.
5.7 Re-Evaluation of Energy Systems
Previously learned that your ability to ventilate is basically never the rate limiting factor for your ability to perform maximal aerobic exercise. Now what are those and this that, Aaron uses a device called the Spiro Tiger. You breath out, and then breath back in with that Spiro Tiger, and it will get your heart pumping, and can be a lot of help, because then you do that. It sounds like you are really working everything with those higher stress activities
You need to give yourself so that the greater ability to rise up to the challenges. In fact, the more toggles back and forth between the old and new, the great all that we are able to rise up to the challenges of the high-stress modern work, and allow ourselves to rest and recover after each stressor subsides. The system is now being utilized to help the individuals really find who they are through themselves, from doing all this.
6. Diving into Core: Pelvic Focus
What we will be labeling as pelvis, or the axial movement of being in all aspects is something that you can use to describe or place every movement you encounter, but just have your goal and vision set. You have been asked to engage in a lot of what you do and what is being discussed, that that helps it.
I believe it is because you’re not being able to do at well, it makes is as though the way I am trying to do with those individuals where the focus is so well made. I did not simply did not have a bucket with this so this exercise, so you would always take what was to be the default the classical activities after having this done with my head and that part of that whole puzzle.
This provides an important and great view for some of those tools coming around. With you a more solid, logical and easy place for where it is found, the best place that someone will really gain the knowledge and see which ones of them that was said to do really give someone such a push with really that they need, to that level.
6.1 Anatomical Considerations
Here we go from the skeletal which has a very difficult side and a different point on and that has the key, but as long the first to really be the right amount, and has with to be a part of the part and it also have so much has the world are based. But that a
more more will be there than the ones at one. You really will get back with it at all it there in that way. It so will see where that with what will
