Strength

What is the most consistent movement or strength dysfunction that limits performance?

Unlocking Performance Potential: The Impact of Pelvic Alignment on Movement and Strength

Hi, Jim, that's a great question. What is the most consistent movement or strength? Dysfunction that limits performance? I'm going to look at this and term and answer this in terms of what I see all the time that can eventually lead to an injury and or / / poor performance in their movement, abilities, as well as their strength and that is when the pelvis is out of its optimal position. So we sometimes say out of its neutral alignment and or we have a Function. So you realize this that when the pelvis, it has an up slip and or rotation, then the tensional balance throughout the entire system becomes off. So how we strike the ground when we run is off how I, how my body shifts. Its weight is off. So I'm not going to be as strong because as soon as I try to do something like a squatter, a lunge in my pelvis is is up slipped and rotated on one side and or just rotated opposite of one another. Then the way we receive forces is not very efficient. The hip joint itself is probably not in its instantaneous axis of rotation, the foot and ankle is probably not rotating pronating supinating all at the right times. And of course, that's going to affect all of our motor programs. So one of the things I always do with all the athletes. The first thing they do when they come in, as they do a general warm up just to get some sir. Elation going as I call Global circulation, then we do some local circulation in the form of rub and scrub around the pelvis. We take a foam roller and we wiggle against that and make sure that we line up our pelvis. So we go to Six really important points on the, on the pelvis. We go to the lumbosacral Joint, we go to the sacroiliac joint, we go to the iliofemoral Joint, we go to the pubic symphysis, we go to the greater trochanter, and of course we go to the missing one. on the they say iliofemoral joint. Anyways, those are the places that we go to and make sure we get a good rub and scrub in there and then we do a variety of different squats, body weight, and lunges to make sure that we balance the pelvis out before we ask them to load or to do any of their Dynamic warm-ups.

When the pelvis is out of its neutral alignment it can lead to poor performance and eventually cause an injury. To ensure proper alignment I recommend doing a general warm up then using a foam roller to massage the six important points on the pelvis. After that do a variety of squats and lunges to balance the pelvis before loading or doing dynamic warm-ups.

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The most consistent movement or strength dysfunction that limits performance is when the pelvis is out of its optimal position. This can lead to injuries and poor performance in movement and strength. When the pelvis experiences an up slip or rotation, it disrupts the balance and tension throughout the entire system.

This misalignment affects how we strike the ground when running, how our body shifts its weight, and overall strength. It impacts the efficiency of receiving forces, the alignment of the hip joint, and the rotation of the foot and ankle. Ultimately, it affects our motor programs.

To address this issue, athletes are guided through a warm-up to promote circulation. Then, specific attention is given to the pelvis through foam rolling and targeted rubbing and scrubbing. This helps align the pelvis by focusing on key points such as the lumbosacral joint, sacroiliac joint, iliofemoral joint, pubic symphysis, and greater trochanter. Following this, a variety of squats and lunges are performed to balance the pelvis before engaging in loaded or dynamic warm-ups.

What are your opinions on “knees over toes” guy?

Knees Over Toes: Dispelling Squat Myths for Optimal Fitness

Hi everyone. What do I think about the news? Over tow guy, awesome, guy. I wish I'd get a chance to meet him someday because I love his energy and I love all that real cool. Things he's doing and helping move the fitness industry Beyond this myth, that uni can't go past your toe. However, there is one thing that I would like him to address on time and I might have just missed it and I'm sorry knees over Tokai, if you did say this and I missed it but it's the relationship of the pelvis to the knee relative to the toe. That is really important. So way back when Back when I was going to school, that was a predominant thing. Is that the knees should not go back past the toll when we're squatting. And I can't even really demonstrated all that well, because I'm a need past the toe kind of guy. But here's what we need to think about is the relationship of the pelvic tilt relative to the knee and the ankle. That's really important. So long time ago in physical therapy, we used to think of trying to stay really neutral here. And we would say that if we bring our knee past your toe, with a pelvis, in this position, that could create a lot of Shear forces in through the patellar tendon. Eden and the ACL true story. But if I drive my hips back at the same time that I am bringing my knees forward, then I have all the safety in the world because I'm sharing that responsibility through lots of different joints. So not only the hip joint but the knee joint in the foot and the ankle joint. So think about it. When we do some of our drills is what is the position of your pelvis relative to the knee and the ankle when you're learning how to squat or other exercises that really demand, that need to go past the toe,

One thing I'd like two-time Over Tokai to address is the relationship of the pelvis to the knee relative to the toe when squatting. If the knees go past the toe with a neutral pelvis, there can be a lot of shear forces on the patellar tendon and ACL. However, if we drive the hips back at the same time, then there is lots of safety as the responsibility is shared across multiple joints.

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My opinion on the knees over toes guy is that he's awesome. I admire his energy and the work he's doing to challenge the myth that knees cannot go past the toes in fitness. However, there is one aspect I would like him to address, and I apologize if I missed it. It's the relationship between the pelvis, knee, and toe. This is crucial to consider.

In the past, there was a belief that knees should not go back past the toes when squatting. However, what we need to focus on is the relationship between pelvic tilt, knee position, and ankle position. It used to be thought that bringing the knee past the toe with a neutral pelvis could create shear forces on the patellar tendon and ACL.

But if we drive our hips back while bringing our knees forward, we distribute the responsibility across multiple joints. This includes the hip, knee, foot, and ankle joints. By considering the position of the pelvis relative to the knee and ankle, we can ensure safety and proper form during exercises like squats.

So, when learning how to squat or perform exercises that require going past the toe, it's important to pay attention to the position of the pelvis, knee, and ankle.

What are ways you can ensure your lower back stays neutral/healthy when performing odd position lifts?

Protect Your Lower Back: Tips for Odd Position Lifts

Hey John, this is a great question. Thanks for asking it. You know, Paul the other expert that answered this earlier, did an amazing job of explaining. What needs to happen with your pelvis. What needs to happen with your tea spine to support the lower back. So if you've had low back pain or you're currently in low back pain and you want to do some odd position lifts, you will need to make sure that you think of a couple key things. Number one is we want to make sure that your shoulders stay as wide as possible and your spine stays as long as possible. So if I have to go and reach for an object, I want to try to stay as wide and as spread as part with my shoulders and as long through the spine, and we call that the kite position. If you're to draw kite right, there would be a basically, that's the shape of a kite with a stem in the middle and across The cross bridge is the shoulders, the stem down the middle of the kite is the spine. We want to create as much length and width through that spine as possible. That's what Paul was talking about keeping a long spine. So, in the demonstration, they had where he's reaching and touching the ground. You can see that he created a very large space at the pelvis. So he was widened, his stance, he created a wide pelvis. This is going to Aid in creating leverage for you. Leverage is the most important thing that we could think. Think of when we're thinking about lifting objects so you want to position yourself, to give you the most leverage so that you can anchor into the ground. Be grounded, create a lots of tension in the abdomen to brace and protect the lumbar spine, stay in Long through the spine and that should put you in a really good position to feel safe and secure when lifting things in weird and odd positions.

When lifting objects in weird and odd positions, it's important to make sure that your shoulders stay as wide as possible and your spine stays as long as possible. This will help create leverage and anchor your body into the ground so you can feel safe and secure when lifting.

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To ensure your lower back stays neutral and healthy when performing odd position lifts, there are a few key considerations. First, focus on maintaining a wide shoulder position and a long spine. This is often referred to as the kite position, where the shoulders create the cross bridge and the spine forms the stem of the kite shape. By keeping your shoulders wide and your spine long, you create stability and support for your lower back.

When reaching for an object, aim to stay as wide and spread apart with your shoulders as possible, while also lengthening your spine. This helps create leverage and stability. For example, when reaching and touching the ground, as demonstrated by Paul in a previous answer, notice how he created a wide pelvis and a large space at the pelvis. This widens the stance and provides leverage for lifting.

Position yourself to maximize leverage, anchoring into the ground and creating tension in the abdomen to brace and protect the lumbar spine. By staying grounded and maintaining tension in the abdomen, you can feel safe and secure when lifting objects in odd positions.

Remember, the key is to prioritize leverage, stability, and maintaining a long and wide spine to support your lower back during odd position lifts.

What does a good warmup before athletic performance look like?

Optimizing Athletic Performance: The Four Key Elements of a Good Warmup

Hey Curt, thanks for the question. This is an excellent one and a really important one that we should cover. So I'm going to talk about four key things that we want to do in and preparing yourself for athletic performance. Number one is fluid dynamics. That's fancy term for circulation. We should do some sort of global circulation. And then the second part, is we need to do some local circulation. So maybe warming up a particular joint and or series of joints that are going to help with being able to mitigate Forest. But also to get that joint in the optimal. This axis of rotation, the second thing we're going to look on look to do is increase your small motor unit. Recruitments that's like get teaching muscles to turn on and then teaching them to shut off. So most importantly it's about just turning that muscle on getting that muscle to fire in a particular sequence, depending on the muscle that it is. So if you're a lacrosse player, then we want to be able to do some small motor yeutter unit recruitment for the hips, the legs and the spine, the third part, we're going to look at is Novation. Activation is really about turning muscles on but getting them to shut off quickly, so we call that excitation. So, the activation that I'm talking about is getting muscle to shut off quickly. So, you know, when you throw a lacrosse shot, we don't want those muscles to stay on, right? We want them to shut off so you can get some whip in your shot. So we would do something like, pull a band. Let it out real quick, pull up and let it out real quick or grabbing a towel and whipping a towel, right? So those are all things that we could do to tell a muscle to Off quickly. The other part of activation is stimulation and so, what we want to do is simulations, we want to activate the eyes, the hands and the feet. So what drills can we do to get the eyes moving, right in order to play lots of sports and prepare for athletics. You need your eyes to B function really well. We got to get the hands going. Need to stimulate different parts of the body. You'll see weightlifters. You'll see all kinds of folks. They'll slap themselves to fire the nervous system, and they're sympathetic nervous system up. And then the last thing we want to do is we want to excite your feet. We got to get your feet going from there. That's our general prep. And then we start working on, whatever your sport specific. Athletic preparation is going to be like shooting a ball, passing running changing directions, hope that helps, but

Preparing for athletic performance involves four key steps: fluid dynamics, small motor unit recruitment, activation and stimulation. Fluid dynamics refers to improving circulation in the body, while small motor unit recruitment is about teaching muscles to turn on and off. Activation is getting the muscles to shut off quickly while stimulation is activating the eyes, hands and feet. These steps help prepare athletes for their specific sport, such as shooting a ball, passing, running, or changing directions.

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A good warm-up before athletic performance consists of four key components. First, we focus on fluid dynamics, which means promoting circulation throughout the body. This can be achieved through global circulation exercises. Second, we target local circulation by warming up specific joints to optimize their range of motion and function.

The next step is to increase small motor unit recruitment. This involves activating and teaching muscles to turn on and off in the correct sequence. For example, lacrosse players may focus on recruiting the muscles in the hips, legs, and spine.

Activation is another important aspect of the warm-up. It involves quickly turning muscles on and off, known as excitation. This can be achieved through exercises like pulling a band or whipping a towel to train the muscles to shut off quickly. Additionally, stimulating the eyes, hands, and feet is crucial for optimal performance. Eye movements, hand exercises, and foot drills help activate these important areas.

Lastly, we want to excite the feet by incorporating exercises that engage and prepare them for the demands of the sport. Once these general preparation steps are completed, athletes can move on to sport-specific activities such as shooting, passing, running, and changing directions.

I hope this breakdown helps you understand what a good warm-up before athletic performance should look like.

Any advice for dealing with tight hip flexors?

Unlocking Tight Hip Flexors: Stretch or Compress?

Hi Ed, I'm going to answer your question with a question. How do you know they're tight? So is the Sensation that you're getting tight or is the application of the movements that you're doing showing that they're tight? Because the question might be is a tight, which means is the tissue chronically shortened and you have a hard time getting extensibility or extension in the hip or is it that the tension you're feeling is actually tautness? Perhaps that tension? Is that your sense sensing is? The tissue is too long and it's kind of locked into an extended position. Well, it's an easy answer for you if you have if it is tight and you have a hard time getting extensibility, try to stretch it. Okay. So there's lots of different ways. You can stretch, the hip flexor, our good friend, Haley Hollander, showed an amazing way of how to stretch the hip flexor shoes. Another expert on here. Make sure you go watch her answer. The other way you could do it is if the tissue is too taut and it's actually got Got some too much tension in it and it's locked into that position. Then we need to compress it so really easy way that we can compress it as we take a foam roller, we put it on the ground and I'm going to do kind of a similar idea that Hailey did but I'm going to do it in a little bit different way so I have to compress the tissue and then I'm going to take my heel Through a little bit of a hamstring curl, so I'm taking that tissue and creating movement while pinning and compressing that tissue. Then I'm going to swing it side to side. While it's compressed, then I'm going to create some rotation. So I'm going to rotate my whole body on that hip flexor. Right now, I'm just kind of on the top of the quadricep, which also Needs to get work done. And so there's three different ways that you could approach tautness in that tissue,

To answer your question, it depends on the type of “tightness” you’re feeling. If the hip flexor is chronically shortened and there is difficulty getting extensibility, then stretching can help. If the tension is too much and the tissue is locked into an extended position, then compressing the tissue with a foam roller while moving through some hamstring curls, side to side swings, and rotations can help relieve the tension.

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When dealing with tight hip flexors, it's important to first understand whether the sensation you're experiencing is due to actual tightness or tautness in the tissue. If the tissue is chronically shortened and lacks extensibility, stretching exercises can be helpful. There are various ways to stretch the hip flexors, and you can explore different techniques demonstrated by experts like Haley Hollander.

On the other hand, if the tissue feels taut and locked into an extended position, compression exercises can be beneficial. One approach is to use a foam roller placed on the ground. Apply pressure to compress the tissue and then perform a hamstring curl by bending your heel towards your glutes. While maintaining compression, you can add movement by swinging the leg side to side and incorporating rotation by rotating your entire body on the hip flexor.

Remember to also address the quadriceps, as they may require attention as well. By understanding the nature of the tightness or tautness and applying appropriate stretching or compression techniques, you can effectively address tight hip flexors.

What exercises strengthen your rotator cuff?

Strengthening Rotator Cuff: Unconventional Exercises for Optimal Function

What exercises strengthen your rotator cuff, the rotator cuff comprises of the subscapularis muscle the supraspinatus muscle, the infraspinatus muscle and the teres minor. Now, here is the challenge with strengthening the rotator cuff is that we could take you through an isolated motion of rotation of the glenohumeral joint. So, I think about that, I can do external rotation of the shoulder joint, I can do internal rotation of the shoulder joint. I can do it from many different positions, where my starting position is going to be different and I can create rotation there. I can do that under load in an isolated environment to make that muscle to those All stronger, but here's the kicker, the rotator cuff functions, not just to rotate the shoulder in isolation but to turn on and shut off to optimally position. The head of the humerus in. Its instantaneous axis of rotation in the glenoid. So, if we think about it, those muscles are going to Twitch base to the demand of where my hand needs to be for whatever motor task it is, whether it's swimming, whether it's throwing a ball, whether it's hitting a baseball. All about whether it's swinging a golf club in sport. This glenoid needs to be in its optimal, instantaneous axis of rotation instantly. So if we think of throwing the ball, I don't want to create a lot of internal rotation in the shoulder itself. I want to relax that tissue, so the hand can whip. And the best way that we can do that is through an excitation drill. We asked the muscle I'll turn on and off reflexively or dynamically. And so, one of the ways, We can do is we can do it with a little towel. So I just whip up a little towel here. You've seen this old trick? No, it's not going to be that one, but we can do some whipping motion. So I want to take that towel back and with take that towel back and whip. So as I go into a particular rotation motion with a lightweight, what I'm doing is I'm teaching that muscle to go to turn on and to shut off in this figure eight pattern. And then when I need to create force that muscles going to shut off to get out of the way so that this bone can do what it needs to do.

To strengthen the rotator cuff muscles, an exercise which can be done is to use a lightweight towel and perform a ‘whipping’ motion with it. This helps to teach the muscle to turn on and off reflexively or dynamically in order to optimally position the head of the humerus in its instantaneous axis of rotation.

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Exercises that strengthen the rotator cuff include isolated motions of rotation for the glenohumeral joint. This involves external rotation and internal rotation of the shoulder joint from various starting positions. These exercises can be performed under load to target and strengthen the subscapularis, supraspinatus, infraspinatus, and teres minor muscles.

However, it's important to note that the rotator cuff doesn't just rotate the shoulder in isolation. Its function is to dynamically position the head of the humerus in the glenoid for optimal movement during different motor tasks like swimming, throwing a ball, or swinging a golf club.

To train the rotator cuff reflexively and dynamically, an excitation drill can be used. One example is using a towel to perform a whipping motion. This exercise teaches the muscles to turn on and off in a figure-eight pattern, allowing them to activate and relax as needed during specific movements.

By incorporating these exercises, the rotator cuff can be strengthened and trained to support optimal shoulder function during various activities.

Neither AnyQuestion nor its Experts provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment or otherwise provide professional healthcare services.

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John Sinclair is an experienced sport and training management professional with a bachelors degree in physical education and sport performance, 15 certifications, and 20+ years of coaching experience. He has authored articles, created a programming algorithm, and is a programming consultant. His other achievements include inventing, being a master coach and educator for 7 different companies in the fitness industry, competing and training in 11 different sports, and coaching amateur hockey and baseball. 