Health and Performance Made Ridiculously Simple
A deep dive into pelvic floor biomechanics Breathing is super important you know, but the base of breathing is the pelvic floor. Well fam, what if you don’t have the biomechanics on point down there? Then you’ll need some help! We will sift through it in this post. Check out Movement Debrief Episode 157 below to learn more.
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If there is a frontal plane problem, you will want to check this out Are you someone who has a lateral pelvic tilt, a lateral spine shift, or Trendelenburg gait. If so, then this is the post for you, because we outline what is going on movement-wise, and what the heck you can do about it. Check out Movement Debrief Episode 156 below to learn more.
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Those pesky people who have infrasternal angles right in the middle. What do you call him? Well in this case study, we talk about some tips and tricks for pinpointing the ISA that you are dealing. We also dive into the following topics: A couple quick tests to confirm the infrasternal angle Why the xiphoid process is an unreliable reference point How to prioritize treatments for someone who is compressed in all directions with asymmetries. How shifting at different degrees of flexion changes the pelvic mechanics
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Ankle sprains are such a bugger and take some time to heal. But once you’ve let swelling and such run it’s course, when is it safe to run? We answer that in the video below. Here, you’ll learn my criteria and progression that I look for when having someone safely return to running. Watch and learn! Ankle sprain red flags The first thing you have to do after an ankle sprain is make sure you don’t have a fracture. There are these rules to follow called Ottawa Ankle Rules, which are a cluster of findings that would indicate getting some imaging done. These findings include: Inability to weight bear Pain within the viscinity of either malleolus If you have these findings, you most definitely need to get some imaging. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. But if you do not have these findings, move along to the next part 🙂 Returning back to running after an ankle sprain Running is merely a series of bounds (jumping from one leg to the other) for an extended period of time, so after an acute ankle sprain, we have to make sure components leading up to this go okay without any issues. To determine the course of action for this return, we can start from the most fundamental actions of the bound, then build our way up. The steps below are the progression that I use. You want to make sure that you have minimal increases in pain/swelling before moving onto
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What do you do if you have someone who is a narrow infrasternal angle, stiff as all hell, with some glaring asymmetries? Check out this video below, where a colleague and I walk through a case who presents in this manner. It in, you’ll hear about the following: How to test shoulder flexion more reliably How to build someone into half kneeling Moves to utilize for this type of individual Watch the video to learn what we did!
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Many of the moves we use to improve range of motion are a little weird. What if I have a client who wants to lift them heavy-ass weights? They want to feel like they did something. How can we bridge this gap? Watch this video to learn how. Applying the movement model to fitness Don’t underestimate the power of some of these simple breathing moves. When coached well, your clients will shake and get absolutely cooked. It’s a beautiful sight. Often, the key differentiator between feeling nothing and feeling a whole lot with some of the simple breathing moves is the stack. Make sure you have the stack. But remember folks, these moves are not something we just throw into the program willy nilly. These moves are merely regressions of the common moves that we perform in the gym. The Lewitt position is a regression of your midrange depth of the squat. If we understand the different positions we need to utilize to improve various ranges of motion, we can pick common gym moves to get range of motion changes. For example, if someone has a loss of external rotation, we might choose a 2 kettlebell front squat: If I need internal rotation in the arms and legs, pushups could be MONEY: Need to rotate like a boss? Well fam, a 1 arm press could change da game!
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Many times if you don’t get the result you are looking for movement-wise, it is often related to losing the stack (and not talking to Zac). How do you know where the failure occurred? That’s exactly what we sift through in this video. In it, we walk through a failed case, and look at where tweaks could be made to improve the outcome. Watch it to learn more! Looking at each component of the stack In this case of a person with shoulder pain, we look at some of the big limitations this person had: Decreased shoulder internal rotation biliaterally Decreased left shoulder external rotation Narrow infrasternal angle From here, you then need to look at each piece of the stack to determine how to design the activity with the best possible chance of success. What are those components? I’M GLAD YOU ASKED!! Here are the pieces we focus on for the stack in order of importance (though fam, you need to build it all!): Pelvic positioning Full exhale Pause and inhale with ab tension and relaxed upper thorax Reach without crunching Now based on what we need to maximize this person’s movement options, we can then engineer exercises with a high probability of increasing available movement. The keys we need to respect are restoring external rotation before internal rotation, respecting their anthropometric structure, and address asymmetry (shoulder rotation limitations indicate this person has a right rotation bias). Therefore, we can engineer activities that can create high odds for success:
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Having shoulder and hip internal rotation is kind of a big deal. What if you could get it as quickly as possible without a single stretch? That’s exactly what we did in this case. I work with someone who is unfamiliar with my techniques, and in 3 moves (1 of them a failure), we were able to increase shoulder and hip internal rotation. Watch the video below to learn what we did. Case overview The “patient” is my nephew, Brad. He’s a football player and wrestler who is just a stiff bro. No pain. Objective findings Brad’s main initial findings were the following: Test Left Right Infrasternal angle narrow Shoulder flexion 155 155 Shoulder external rotation 95 95 Shoulder Internal rotation 90 50 Hip flexion 95 95 Hip external rotation 60 60 Hip internal rotation 10 10 Straight leg raise 65 65 Intervention selection Given the findings above, are major keys to focus on were making the infrasternal angle dynamic and restoring internal rotation. Brad appears to be a classic narrow infrasternal angle. Lewit tilt I chose this move because the 90 degree angle at the hips biases internal rotation. The supine position promotes lateral ribcage expansion, which is great for narrow infrasternal angles. If you want a super in-depth reasoning for this move, check out this post. After performing this move, B’s test results were as follows (improvements are bolded): Test Left Right Infrasternal angle narrow Shoulder flexion 155 155 Shoulder external rotation 95 95 Shoulder Internal rotation 90
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The supine cross-connect has been one of my favorite moves that I’ve been using lately (kudos to Bill Hartman for this one).
I got asked about the biomechanics on this move, and we deep-dived into it on this video.
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How would you like to get bigger hammies, better leg mobility, and crush your lower body? Then the prone hamstring curl could be a money move for you. Peep this article to learn more about it.
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If you wonder if you can have a wide ribcage and narrow pelvis or ar confused by buckethandle dynamics, and all things inhaled and exhaled ribcage, this will be the post you want to check out.
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If you are struggling with student loans, let this be your guide to debt freedom
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