COMING IN JULY

 

I am currently studying on a 5 year degree course to be a Sports Performance Coach. This will allow me to show you how to understand the way the body works in a scientific way.

For example, sitting down puts a load pressure of 140% on to L5, the fifth lumbar spine vertebrae commonly referred to as the small of the back. This can cause the following symptoms and more:

·         lower back pain

·         rotated pelvis

·         sciatica

·         joint sprains

·         shin splints

·         muscle pain

·         muscle weakness

We first need to understand how the body works.

The human body is a very complicated system that we take for granted most of the time. Today’s lifestyle, poor diet, sitting down too much and exercising without being assessed are factors that can cause something to go seriously wrong sooner or later. An assessment is used to see what is and what is not working correctly.

A simple example of this is to see if your Gluteus muscles are working. If you sit on these muscles for hours every day, week after week, month after month, the brain will turn these muscles off because of the repetitive movement of sitting down. This creates a a faulty nerve pattern making the abdominal muscles chronically shortened. This pulls the chest downward increasing the first rib angle, which is commonly associated with shoulder dysfunction and impingement of the nerves feeding the arm as they exit the cervical spine. It is also very common to find that a lot of people have chronically shortened hip flexors due to performing sit ups, leg extension and leg lowering exercises that are commonly used in abdominal workouts. This will lengthen the hamstrings and abdominals by pulling the pelvis forward and down, creating pain.

ASSESSMENT TESTS AND EXERCISES

·         Comparative range of motion assessment

·         Inner unit test

·         Outer unit test

·         Scientific back exercises for pain and poor posture

·         Scientific core conditioning exercises

·         Program design , if needed

·         Posture testing

·         Understanding lumbo-pelvic rhythm

·         Understanding physiological load

For Assessments contact Stephen Hunter at Radcliffe Chiropractic Clinic on 0115 933 4544 or 07506691008

Pain and the Inner Unit

A lot of pain in the body is caused by a lack of central generation of stabilization which is called the Inner Unit. The Inner Unit became a term describing the functional synergy between the transversus abdominis and posterior fibres of the internal obliques, pelvic floor muscles, multifidus and lumbar portions of the longissimus and iliocastalis.

To accomplish automatic reflex control of the Inner Unit requires specific isolation training to enhance sensory motor control. Once control has been established, activation of the Inner Unit must be programmed into all movement patterns commonly used by the host. Failure to condition the Inner Unit to a high level of specificity often results in spinal injury and pain due to instability.

A simple understanding of this is as follows;

The hamstrings can be phasic muscles, movement muscles, tonic muscles and posture muscles. A weakness of the abdominal wall will cause instability, so to stabilize the spine the brain will activate more of the hamstrings. It is very common to see people with hamstring dysfunction when the abdominal wall weakens. With no Inner Unit working the brain will recruit more hamstring activity causing hyperactivity in a stabilizing function and in muscle tone, which decreases blood circulation through the muscles. An increase in muscle tone of only 5-10% can decrease blood flow by 50-75%. This will starve the muscle of oxygen and nutrients and reduce the removal of waste which sets up an acidic environment resulting in muscle damage and pain. This is why a force – couple relationship of the Inner and Outer Units is extremely important in the maintenance of a pain free body.