A couple of weeks ago in the post More moving in the morning I talked about how you can use the simple act of getting up, and back down, off the ground as a means of introducing interesting and varied movement into your day. Continue reading “Turkish get up”
What’s so special about the human brain?
Whilst this blog is about and I am essentially someone who deals with bodies and how we can help improve our movement, reduce pain, deal with injuries etc I felt this TED talk was well worth sharing as there is no way of getting away from the role the brain has in all of this. Neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel presents some really interesting ideas about the brain.
The Hinge and your golf swing
The hinge movement I’m referring to is that of hip flexion and the movement should occur without any movement in the spine whether at the lumbar, thoracic or cervical areas. So when we hinge the torso should be fixed and all the movement should occur at the hips. In the picture below Adam Scott has gone from a more flexed position through the lumbar and thoracic area with an extended cervical position to having a more neutral position. Continue reading “The Hinge and your golf swing”
Helping yourself
I read a great Gray Cook quote courtesy of Bret Contreras and ties in well with the link I put up on Facebook the other week from Eric Cressey regarding some drills to help work on improving mobility.
“When someone’s back hurts they don’t want to blame their lifestyle, fitness level, or daily patterns. Instead, they want to blame their back pain on starting the lawn mower last week, which, in reality, is probably just the straw that broke the camel’s back. Human beings live under the philosophy of, “I have a snowball and I have to throw it at someone.” No one wants to take responsibility.” Continue reading “Helping yourself”
Flexibility and injury
Todd Hargrove had a great post on his better movement blog; I definitely recommend checking out his site, where he talks about the relationship between flexibility, sports performance and injury prevention. In it he makes some great points on the lack of correlation between flexibility and injury rates. It got me thinking about the issue of improving the range of movement of any joint and how this relates to stretching, of any form, soft tissue work, in the form of hands on and foam roller type work, and strength. Continue reading “Flexibility and injury”
Abdominal/lumbar musculature and pelvic stabilisation
It may be a bit redundant to say it but the abdominals are quite important to how we move but there you go they are. They allow for transference of force from the lower to upper body and vice versa so weak abdominal and lumbar muscles can reduce athletic performance and pain from simply carrying out normal daily activities. They keep the torso stable, try squatting with a heavy weight if you have weak abdominals or lumbar musculature and you will fold over as you try to rise out of the bottom position. Continue reading “Abdominal/lumbar musculature and pelvic stabilisation”
Improving your posture Pt3
In this post we’ll be dealing with upper body issues as they relate to poor posture and as with the lower body there are again a couple of areas that can give us quick results., the thoracic spine and ribs and the big movers of the humerus the lat’s and pec’s. There are obviously other areas that need to be examined but these are a great starting point. Continue reading “Improving your posture Pt3”
Improving your posture Pt2
In part one, we talked about the general idea of good or neutral posture, what may cause us to be unable to maintain this and what we can do to combat these issues. What we will look at this time is what is happening in the lower trunk and legs and what to do about it to help us maintain a more neutral posture. Continue reading “Improving your posture Pt2”
Improving your posture
We see a lot of talk about having good posture and what to do to achieve it but what is good posture? It’s probably easier to think of it as how you would stand if you didn’t sit at a desk for 8 hours a day or hadn’t picked up any injuries from playing your chosen sport. You’re spine has natural curves that get disrupted if you don’t pay attention to how you are sitting and the effects of long periods of doing so even with good posture and what happens to how you move when you get injured. Your hips, knees, ankles, shoulders are all affected by the sitting for long periods and obviously can all be injured playing sport. If your pelvis if not constantly pulled forward and down by overly tight tissues will sit relatively level, your shoulder girdle would sit comfortably back if it wasn’t being pulled forward by your tight pec’s etc (this is simplifying it but you get the point) . All the need for holding yourself in “good posture” would be gone because it would happen on it’s own and a what you may find difficult to do at the moment would be happening without any conscious thought on your part because the imbalances you are trying to counter wouldn’t be there. Continue reading “Improving your posture”
Injury proofing with better mobility
There are quite a few very good reasons for looking to maintain or improve your joint mobility one is having a good range of movement through all your joints will protect you from injury. Why so you may ask? Well, within reason, if you have joints that can operate through a full range of their normal un-injured or affected by years of neglect movement you can safely exert force through a much greater range of movement. This ability to exert force through a greater range of movement ultimately means you are less likely to injure yourself. The second is that that if you don’t use it you’ll lose it. Continue reading “Injury proofing with better mobility”