In the sports and strength and conditioning world, it’s long been debated whether posture has much of an impact on injury prevention and performance on the field.
As science evolves, we have a better understanding of how the body produces movements and performs. The answer might be with the old cannon axiom than more than with the academic debate over posture.
Can posture affect power and strength output?
Can posture be a predictor of future injuries?
Can posture change the sports performance of an athlete without disrupting the delicate motor-patterns linked to its skills?
We can now say yes thanks to Posturology!
Posturology is an analysis system based on 30 years of published research in neuroscience. It recognizes the role of key sensory receptors in the development of motor and postural strategies.
Postural control is a highly complex system consisting of multiple sensory systems, central integration, and motor components.
The human body is comprised of many systems that give feedback to one another to regulate its functions. Ultimately, all systems report to the brain, the master regulator of the body. When moving, the systems in action are the nervous system and the joint system. These two collaborate through a series of sensors to “talk” to the brain and enable it to send the best orders possible to enact movement. This talking-to is called “proprioception,” that is, the perception of one’s position in space, while the second is called “motor-pattern,” the proper, time-sensitive sequence of muscle units contractions needed to produce a movement that is both effective and efficient.
The control of human balance during upright standing depends upon the integration of afferent (sensory) information from the skin, muscles, vestibular (inner ear) and visual systems. Sensory receptors interact with each other through feedback loops to ensure postural control and energy preservation. Small changes in sensory input can have striking and unanticipated effects on posture and stability leading to predictable injuries.
The role of the feet in injury prevention
The part of the foot that is the most important is the skin. It is responsible for conveying a significant amount of proprioceptive information to the central nervous system (1) about weight distribution. The skin of the foot is often lacking sensitivity due to the effect of wearing shoes. Therefore, as skin loses sensitivity, global body stability diminishes (2). Force plate studies confirm that an asymmetry of weight bearing is found in more than 72% of the general population.
The foot is the first thing that comes into contact with the ground. Any abnormality of load distribution between the left foot and the right foot will engender a disequilibrium of all of the joints located above the ankle joint and resulting in uneven weight-bearing strategies when required to stand upright (3).
Asymmetrical foot position has been seen with improper timing between the pelvis and upper trunk leading to additional stress and potential injury (4). A pronated foot brings about an anterior pelvis.
A supinated foot brings about a posterior pelvis.
Once the feet have adapted to an imbalance they become fixated in that pathological “foot posture.” To reverse the adaptation the use of an innovative technology is used: 1) A thin Postural Insole (not an orthotic) is required to stimulate the skin at the center reflex zone of each foot. Recent studies confirm that the use of frequency modulated inserts could induce body shifts (7). This creates an even foot stance and enables each foot to send the same information to the brain. Ultimately, this will also create a levelled pelvis and levelled shoulders.
The eye in injury preventions and sports performance
In the world of sports performance, the eye has to be on the ball to succeed… literally! Eye tracking is one of the primary components of sport specific skills: following an object, reading the game, analysing the movements of an opponent, or in fact almost all grasping, catching and moving skills. Famous ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky is known for his ability to track the puck and would often get to it before his opponents not because of his powerful skating, but because he could assess where the puck was going to be. Research has also shown that athletes are better at anticipating the actions of their opponents and the consequences of those actions, based on the visual information. A research group in Italy recently investigated this phenomenon in elite basketball players and found that elite players could predict the outcome of the free-throw earlier and more accurately by using cues from the shooter’s hand movements at ball release (5).
Convergence is the ability of the eyes to move medially, towards the nose, which allow for single (binocular) vision of closer objects.
Convergence insufficiency is the inability to do so. Convergence insufficiency is an imbalance of coordination of the oculomotor muscles, a condition found in 90% of the general population.
The importance of vision in the maintenance of postural control has been well documented in the world of neuroscience (8). When the oculomotor muscles do not move well, perception of the environment changes and greater effort is required to move the eyes medially. This causes eye-strain and pain, just like with any other muscle injury. An asymmetry of tension of the oculomotor muscles leads to an asymmetry of tension of the muscles of the neck as the two are connected neurologically (6). Common symptoms of convergence insufficiency include ankle, knee and back pain, blurred vision, diplopia (double vision), near sighted discomfort, frontal headaches, pulling sensation in eyes, sleepiness, loss of concentration and general fatigue. Eye exercises are incorporated into Posturology protocols to strengthen the eye muscles in order to improve eye convergence and head position.