Let me preface this entry by saying that Gray Cook is an incredibly intelligent guy and he has been at the forefront of the "movement to movement", so for that I have to thank him. He has definitely influenced my education in only positive ways.
That being said, I'm going to roll up my sleeves and get right into this. The Functional Movement Screen system is a great tool for certain sectors of health and fitness, but it does not belong at the elite level of athletics. FMS has positively started to shift the focus of performance training to that of proper movement patterns rather than trying to pile strength and power on top of a weak foundation. In the injury rehabilitation world, tools like FMS and SFMA have helped practitioners look at injuries as a result of inefficient or poor movement throughout the body, instead of focusing solely on pain or the area of chief complaint. For these reasons it has been a blessing to many of us.
A few years back Gray Cook, who is a physical therapist by education, wrote a book called "Movement" that introduced the FMS/SFMA screens. The Functional Movement Screens are a group of movements that can be scored, and based upon standardized scores are deemed acceptable or not. The Selective Functional Movement Assessments are tailored more towards movement screening for those people who already have an injury. These screening protocols, and many that have sprung up just like it, have spread like wildfire through the fitness and healthcare industries. The popularity is due in part to the fact that they really do help practitioners/trainers recognize true causes of injuries, and the fact that they can be taught and implemented in a weekend seminar. Being a recent graduate of chiropractic school, I know just how "dangerous" a weekend seminar can be. All of the sudden every patient presentation needs exactly what you just learned the past weekend, WHAT A COINCIDENCE!!!
Well, with out making too many enemies I believe that the FMS screening protocol is horrible...at the elite level of athletic or for those who are educated beyond an online certification. Now let me explain. Most everyone has heard of the NFL combine, a series of tests that are scored and then analyzed by scouts in order to take raw talent and make it somewhat measurable. Some of the more popular tests in the draft are the 40-yard dash, the 225 bench press test and the vertical jump. All of these tests can be boiled down to hard, fast numbers; numbers that can be improved upon by proper training and hard work. Now compare this to the scoring done in an FMS screen, some of the more popular screens in this protocol are the overhead squat and the step-over inline lunge. Now quantify these movements, provide them to a psychological fragile athlete (which we know all elite athletes are), and then try to get them to improve on something that may not be able to change. There are some developmental issues, sports specific training and many other reasons why a certain movement pattern may not be achievable by all athletes. So when you tell an athlete that they have failed a test, but they do not possess the ability to truly improve upon this area, you are setting them up for a shot to the ego that is not easily remedied.
Now I know some of you are saying, why does an athlete care if they fail a screen or not? Well they do. Elite athletes are notorious perfectionists, and when we place so much emphasis on something that may not be able to be changed, or more importantly that may not NEED to be changed. Well, that is where the rubber meets the road. So what do I propose?
While working with the Sports Performance department at Bradley University, one of the first things brought to my attention was, "we are using FMS, but what do we do when we get the scores?". Now this is a perfect example of what I'm trying to convey here. The Bradley Sports Performance staff is at the top of the collegiate training world, but even at that level they were a little lost as what to do with these "scores". My job while at Bradley came to be one of integration between the athletic training staff and the sports performance coaches. A marriage between injury prevention, proper injury treatment and cutting edge sports injury rehabilitation. One day while performing a set of "screens" that I have developed on an athlete I was questioned by the athletic training staff as to where I "learned" this screening protocol. My simple response was that these assessments were a culmination of 4 years of chiropractic education, 3 years of a masters in sports science and rehabilitation, and hundreds of hours of working with the top practitioners in the field of sports manual medicine. I know it sounds like I'm bragging, but what I'm trying to say is that cookie cutter screening protocols, lead to cookie cutter diagnosis and treatment.
The most powerful tool in the toolbox of any practitioner or trainer is his or her education and experience. The FMS is literally a step backward for most of the people that end up implementing it. Then why is the popularity soaring? For one, Gray Cook has the education and the experience needed to be a great practitioner, and he is a motivational and charismatic speaker. That paired with the ease of implementation have led to an FMS take over.
Stop quantifying movement, and start qualifying it. No two people are the same and in fact the left and right side of one person are never the same either. So what does that mean? It means that you have to be a student of human movement, an anatomy superstar and most importantly you must trust your knowledge and be supremely confident when dealing with athletes. You have to treat each individual as an INDIVIDUAL. Evidence based treatment will never fall out of favor, nor will there ever be a replacement for those professionals who go beyond the normal curriculum and beyond the norms of the their field. Break the mold, if you have a hunch and can back it with sufficient data go with it. That is how progress is made.
Until next time...
"All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward"
- Ellen Glasgow
Dr. Beau Beard, DC
'Move Well 2 Live Better' #MW2LB
Monday, December 23, 2013
Thursday, December 12, 2013
The Most Important Muscle
First of all I apologize for missing a few weeks, we have been extremely busy trying to the get The FARM office open here in Birmingham. Exciting stuff!
Since we are still in the infancy stages of this blog I really need start laying the groundwork on some major issues.
As more and more information pours out on a daily basis about functional training and as I call "the movement to movement" sometimes information easily becomes misinformation or missed information all together. One of the central themes surrounding functional training, or at least it should be, is the importance of the THORACIC DIAPHRAGM.
And yes, this does answer the question, what is the most important muscle, and it doesn't matter if your a sprinter, a marathoner or any other sport. The diaphragm is central, pun intended, to every athletic movement and the quality of that movement. And yes it is the THORACIC DIAPHRAGM, there are actually 4 diaphragms in the human body; the CRANIAL, CERVICAL, THORACIC, and PELVIC. All of these have play an integral role within the body and between one another. At the foundation of the functional training and athletic training platform rests the thoracic diaphragm.
First lets discuss the action of the diaphragm, the human lungs work on a negative pressure system which essentially means that when we inhale we are essentially forcing air in and when we exhale we allowing it to escape, this is a very simple explanation but this is not meant to be a physiology lesson. So when we inhale the diaphragm contracts and moves inferior causing a vacuum for the lungs and when we exhale the diaphragm relaxes and rises allowing air out. During these same actions an incredible things happens, as the diaphragm contracts and moves downward it builds pressure between itself and the pelvic diaphragm or pelvic floor, this is known as intrabdominal pressure or IAP, this IAP is THE PRIME STABILIZER OF THE SPINE! No not the lumbar musculature, not the abs and not the mystical CORE that everyone is training into oblivion. Now in order for the diaphragm and IAP to properly stabilize the spine and in effect the rest of the body, we must first remember how to breathe.
"Remember how to breathe?" This is a common patient response, and then they lose their minds when I tell them they can keep themselves out of back pain by learning how to breathe. Stick with me, if you have ever watched an infant breathing, not in a creepy way, you have probably noticed that their giant Buddha-like belly expands and falls with little to no movement of the ribs or chest. This is the exact opposite of how 90% of the adult population breathes. Instead most adults, due to extended amounts of seated posture and general lack of movement start to breathe using accessory breathing muscles in the neck and shoulders. These accessory muscles are only meant to be used for labored breathing, as in exercising. Switching to these back-up muscles as the main breathing apparatus leads to shoulder tension, lumbar spine pain, headaches and a whole host of other problems. Here is a video showing this type of breathing, also known as paradoxical breathing.
I'm sure some you reading this are saying, what about the glutes, they are the cannon or the powerhouse for running! What about the quads, runners are always getting a bad rap for being quad dominant. What about, what about, what about...all of these are true, but without the ability to properly breathe using the full potential of the thoracic diaphragm, you are working at poor efficiency level and power output is decreased. As I stated before when the diaphragm works properly a tremendous amount of IAP is built which acts as a balloon, or better yet as a WEIGHT BELT! Yeah that giant leather belt used by powerlifters, well for some reason we were built with a spinal stabilizer that beats any bull-skin, belly-binding belt you'll ever find. When a runner breathes properly through the abdomen, they link the upper body to the lower, they stabilize the spine, thereby stabilizing what is above and below, and most importantly the diaphragm is in essence the best shock absorber of the body. I'm going to nerd out for a second but bear with me, when a muscle eccentrically stretches (relaxes), like those of the diaphragm when we exhale, the muscle fibers are introduced to almost double the vibrational load. The muscle fibers do this with only 50% muscle activation, but what does this mean. It means that by breathing via the diaphragm, we are muscularly more efficient, and the increased vibrational load capacity means that ground reaction forces are dampened through the entire body. For an endurance athlete this is a HUGE deal, when we start running marathons or ultras, every step starts to take a toll, so why not get the most out of each stride.
Diaphragmal breathing does not only equate to increased efficiency, but also increased power. If you have ever had the pleasure of reading Anatomy Trains, then you know that the body is now seen more as one giant muscle with multiple fascial pockets, rather than individual muscles encased in fascia. For those of you who don't know, fascia is the connective tissue that is infused through EVERY structure of the body, it is much like the thin sinew you see in a nice marbled steak. The importance of paying attention to fascia for training and treatment purposes grows as the body of research constantly mounts. Back to the diaphragm, these fascial pockets or slings connect all parts of the body, but some areas have stronger connections, such as the fascia around the low back, abdomen and the glutes. When we have the cortical ability to relax the abdomen while still breathing properly we allow for a tremendous power transfer from arm swing, to CORE (I just threw up a little), to the glutes and finally to the ground. I'm not going into a huge amount of details on this, but think of it like a bull-whip, yeah the Indian Jones weapon of choice. The supple leather of the whip is very flexible, with just a small flick of your arm, the power is transferred down the entire length, until it reaches the end with enough power to cut that rose in half that your beautiful side-kick has been holding in her teeth. This transfer of energy in a runner cannot happen without this same type of supple energy transfer through the thoracic diaphragm. Sure, good and sometimes great runners, who have poor breathing habits can make it to the peak of running, but this is true for all sports. Athletes are tremendous compensators, and they always find a way to excel, but it is up to practitioners like myself and others in like fields to educate, treat and train people to maximize their performance and decrease injuries.
In future articles I will discuss different techniques, exercises and training protocols to work on the unicorn of proper breathing. Until that time, if you are dealing with injuries you think are related to this or just want to increase your performance, I urge you to find a practitioner or trainer versed in this area, here are some links.
http://www.rehabps.com/REHABILITATION/Home.html
www.chirofarm.com
Until next time....
"When a man has lost all happiness, he's not alive, call him a BREATHING corpse"
-Sophocles
Stay light, stay fast.
Dr. Beau
Since we are still in the infancy stages of this blog I really need start laying the groundwork on some major issues.
As more and more information pours out on a daily basis about functional training and as I call "the movement to movement" sometimes information easily becomes misinformation or missed information all together. One of the central themes surrounding functional training, or at least it should be, is the importance of the THORACIC DIAPHRAGM.
And yes, this does answer the question, what is the most important muscle, and it doesn't matter if your a sprinter, a marathoner or any other sport. The diaphragm is central, pun intended, to every athletic movement and the quality of that movement. And yes it is the THORACIC DIAPHRAGM, there are actually 4 diaphragms in the human body; the CRANIAL, CERVICAL, THORACIC, and PELVIC. All of these have play an integral role within the body and between one another. At the foundation of the functional training and athletic training platform rests the thoracic diaphragm.
First lets discuss the action of the diaphragm, the human lungs work on a negative pressure system which essentially means that when we inhale we are essentially forcing air in and when we exhale we allowing it to escape, this is a very simple explanation but this is not meant to be a physiology lesson. So when we inhale the diaphragm contracts and moves inferior causing a vacuum for the lungs and when we exhale the diaphragm relaxes and rises allowing air out. During these same actions an incredible things happens, as the diaphragm contracts and moves downward it builds pressure between itself and the pelvic diaphragm or pelvic floor, this is known as intrabdominal pressure or IAP, this IAP is THE PRIME STABILIZER OF THE SPINE! No not the lumbar musculature, not the abs and not the mystical CORE that everyone is training into oblivion. Now in order for the diaphragm and IAP to properly stabilize the spine and in effect the rest of the body, we must first remember how to breathe.
"Remember how to breathe?" This is a common patient response, and then they lose their minds when I tell them they can keep themselves out of back pain by learning how to breathe. Stick with me, if you have ever watched an infant breathing, not in a creepy way, you have probably noticed that their giant Buddha-like belly expands and falls with little to no movement of the ribs or chest. This is the exact opposite of how 90% of the adult population breathes. Instead most adults, due to extended amounts of seated posture and general lack of movement start to breathe using accessory breathing muscles in the neck and shoulders. These accessory muscles are only meant to be used for labored breathing, as in exercising. Switching to these back-up muscles as the main breathing apparatus leads to shoulder tension, lumbar spine pain, headaches and a whole host of other problems. Here is a video showing this type of breathing, also known as paradoxical breathing.
Now that we have discussed the general issues with the thoracic diaphragm, we will now move to why it is an athletes most crucial muscle. For the purpose of this article I will use a distance runner, but this does not mean that the diaphragm is not equally important for non-endurance athletes.
All runners have at some time probably heard that you should try to breathe in a 3:2 ratio (3 steps breathing in, 2 steps breathing out) this is supposedly done to keep the runner from landing on the same foot with full exhalation. This theory on breathing is absolutely right, but it needs more specification: 3:2 ratio of ABDOMINAL BREATHING.
I'm sure some you reading this are saying, what about the glutes, they are the cannon or the powerhouse for running! What about the quads, runners are always getting a bad rap for being quad dominant. What about, what about, what about...all of these are true, but without the ability to properly breathe using the full potential of the thoracic diaphragm, you are working at poor efficiency level and power output is decreased. As I stated before when the diaphragm works properly a tremendous amount of IAP is built which acts as a balloon, or better yet as a WEIGHT BELT! Yeah that giant leather belt used by powerlifters, well for some reason we were built with a spinal stabilizer that beats any bull-skin, belly-binding belt you'll ever find. When a runner breathes properly through the abdomen, they link the upper body to the lower, they stabilize the spine, thereby stabilizing what is above and below, and most importantly the diaphragm is in essence the best shock absorber of the body. I'm going to nerd out for a second but bear with me, when a muscle eccentrically stretches (relaxes), like those of the diaphragm when we exhale, the muscle fibers are introduced to almost double the vibrational load. The muscle fibers do this with only 50% muscle activation, but what does this mean. It means that by breathing via the diaphragm, we are muscularly more efficient, and the increased vibrational load capacity means that ground reaction forces are dampened through the entire body. For an endurance athlete this is a HUGE deal, when we start running marathons or ultras, every step starts to take a toll, so why not get the most out of each stride.
Diaphragmal breathing does not only equate to increased efficiency, but also increased power. If you have ever had the pleasure of reading Anatomy Trains, then you know that the body is now seen more as one giant muscle with multiple fascial pockets, rather than individual muscles encased in fascia. For those of you who don't know, fascia is the connective tissue that is infused through EVERY structure of the body, it is much like the thin sinew you see in a nice marbled steak. The importance of paying attention to fascia for training and treatment purposes grows as the body of research constantly mounts. Back to the diaphragm, these fascial pockets or slings connect all parts of the body, but some areas have stronger connections, such as the fascia around the low back, abdomen and the glutes. When we have the cortical ability to relax the abdomen while still breathing properly we allow for a tremendous power transfer from arm swing, to CORE (I just threw up a little), to the glutes and finally to the ground. I'm not going into a huge amount of details on this, but think of it like a bull-whip, yeah the Indian Jones weapon of choice. The supple leather of the whip is very flexible, with just a small flick of your arm, the power is transferred down the entire length, until it reaches the end with enough power to cut that rose in half that your beautiful side-kick has been holding in her teeth. This transfer of energy in a runner cannot happen without this same type of supple energy transfer through the thoracic diaphragm. Sure, good and sometimes great runners, who have poor breathing habits can make it to the peak of running, but this is true for all sports. Athletes are tremendous compensators, and they always find a way to excel, but it is up to practitioners like myself and others in like fields to educate, treat and train people to maximize their performance and decrease injuries.
In future articles I will discuss different techniques, exercises and training protocols to work on the unicorn of proper breathing. Until that time, if you are dealing with injuries you think are related to this or just want to increase your performance, I urge you to find a practitioner or trainer versed in this area, here are some links.
http://www.rehabps.com/REHABILITATION/Home.html
www.chirofarm.com
Until next time....
"When a man has lost all happiness, he's not alive, call him a BREATHING corpse"
-Sophocles
Stay light, stay fast.
Dr. Beau
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