Tuesday 30 June 2009

Commonalities in diversity

Working in the fields of personal training, strength & conditioning & corrective exercise in London, I come in to contact with an extremely varied client base. Young, old, post surgery, conditioned amateur athletes, ex athletes & office workers to name but a few, although all completely different & individual, they all have something in common with regards to there bodies.

Postural distortions & compensations have been grouped in to 3 common types describing the position of the pelvis & lumbar spine & the subsequent thoracic/scapulae thoracic compensations that occur. These are sway back, flat back & lordotic postures. Without going in to too much detail about each joint position, these distortions are essentially varying levels of tension & compression throughout the myofascial slings that communicate motion throughout the body & store endless information from emotion to adhesions. When in up right posture, the system recieves the vast majority of information about it's centre of mass & base of support from the only part of the body that is in contact with the ground, the feet.

while describing the process through which I attempt to improve the various posture types is beyond the scope of this post, each & every one of these individuals will benefit from a similar approach & that is to help the system find an improved awareness of centre over it's base of support by providing some balance between the slings.

The way to do this is to access each sling via specific movements from the ground up. Regardless of the pelvic position, the amount of kyphosis or scapular motion, the body will respond with the potential for improved performance instantly if it is shown how to regain centre. Your warm up can become far more than a temperature & heart rate elevator. It can re-educate the body to
instantly improve it's balance, range of motion & potential for strength & power if approached in the right way!