The industry and its standards are missing out on an important piece of the puzzle to truly address the cause of movement dysfunction.

We have learned our anatomy in the most pedagogical manner… joints, muscles, and movements.

We assess range of motion. We test the reactivity or the strength of individual muscles.

We assess patterns like the squat and we suggest corrective exercises. We might use colorful tape to address muscle chains in action. We stretch it out… we strengthen and we cue clients as they attempt to correct their very own discrepancies. This is 2015. We can do better. We can do much better.

Anatomy 101 – the lies…

If it’s true that it might be useful to study anatomy joint by joint, muscle by muscle, the issue is that most of us then assess and treat it as is. I hear of hip mobility dysfunctions. I hear of inhibited muscles. I hear of a compacted talus bone limiting ankle motion. I hear about mechanics… biomechanics.

We argue over if the psoas major is an external or an internal rotator of the femur. We wonder which of the many muscles of the scapular girdle is responsible for inhibiting others of its kind.

Some practitioners speak of muscle or myofascial chains. The topic of discussion is tissues, biomechanics… once more…I have no issues addressing biomechanics… but it if you are going to take the brain out of the equation, you are missing the point.

Anatomy, in the field of training and rehabilitation, is only worth discussing, if it is about neuro-anatomy what we will be speaking of. Last time I checked, it was the brain that controlled the muscular sphere. Let’s respect the various systems that allow for movement to take place. Let’s treat the central nervous system (CNS), as the conductor that it is, shall we?

Posture and movement… could they be the same thing?

Some think that there is no point in actually addressing posture as a part of the treatment or training plan to improve performance. The classic mistake they make is the following: they assume posture is static. Stability is an illusion. It does not exist. Standing quiet is not so quiet. We stand and oscillate and our postural system works on creating stability.

In the best of conditions, just about 4 degrees of oscillation stand between stillness and us. So posture is movement. Let’s get that straight. There is no such thing as static posture. There is only and always movement. Posture is at the origin of movement and it concludes it as well. Posture is found in every movement and every movement is made up of a succession of postures. In terms of assessment, we then have two options. We can assess squats, dead lifts, pulls and pushes of many kinds. We can make assumptions, we can deduct and we can hypothesize.

We can also assess the most fundamental of the motor patterns that define us as a species, standing. We can do that, and ever so simply, find all of the imbalances in the 3 planes of space that make us a prisoner in our own body.

These postural imbalances are the very reason for the movement dysfunction since they alter the optimal joint position around which muscles operate. Basic neurophysiology stipulates that an alteration in the afferents of the joint receptors to the spinal cord modulates the gamma loop and changes the length and the tension of the muscles of that joint.

Moral of the story: a muscle problem is a joint problem… and a joint problem is a postural problem.

Do you care about proprioception?

Proprioception here, proprioception there, proprioception, it seems, everywhere. Proprioception wins the trophy for utilized concept in fitness. So you want to increase proprioception in your athletes? You are willing to develop a proprioception specific training program, as such improving proprioception with training is almost impossible.

Why? Here’s why…

Proprioception is directly proportional to the resting length-tension relationship of your muscles. It has nothing to do with training. It has to do with resting tone of the spindle.

 

The resting tone of a muscle is a function between the interactions of the cerebellum, the vestibular system and the brainstem, all of which cannot be controlled voluntarily. Yet, they are responsible for how you stand and your posture, which dictates how you will move.

 

We work on movement by attempting to improve movement… and that’s at the core of the issue. We take for granted that the baseline is efficient. The baseline is the position you were in before you moved, really. The baseline is posture. Posture is alignment. When joints are misaligned, some muscles are short and some muscles are long. In either case, they are less sensitive. The muscle spindle (which carries sensitivity) is less sensitive. You feel less… you can’t move what you don’t feel.

That’s what you call a proprioception deficit. You can’t train your way out of one.

Optimal exteroception will create great proprioception.

Isn’t it funny how you’ve heard about proprioception but not exteroception, yet proprioception is secondary to exteroception.

Exteroception is how your body positions itself in space. What is proprioception’s worth if it is not to guide us in moving in our environment?

Step 1 for the body is to assess the environment. We do so with our feet and our eyes. They inform the brain on the strategy to develop in order to resist gravity. The muscles and their length is an adaptation to this demand.

Proprioception is, truly exteroception’s slave.

You want optimal performance? Are you ready for a paradigm shift?

Posturology utilizes innovative technology and exercises to train primary motor patterns in order to radically transform the
brain-body relationship.

 

This technology and these exercises stimulate the very sensors that create the postural strategy discussed above. Since it is the brain that is targeted, results are immediate and, if treatment is done long enough, these results are permanent. This is neuro plasticity at its very best. The stimulus provided by Posturology is the most frequent, durable and intense. In fact, it is just right.

The result is posture that is aligned in all 3 planes = optimal proprioception = the best opportunity to engrain primary motor patterns, when necessary.

So… mobility drills… to mobilize a hip… to loosen things up… to reduce injuries… Really?

If it’s about improving movement, it’s about correcting posture.

If it’s about correcting posture, it’s Posturology!

 

The Posturepro Team
Copyright © 2015 Posturepro™