Stretching: Untangling The Truth

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Rick Merriam| Leave a comment

“Secondary only to stress, tight muscles are the result of the nervous system’s response to instability. Think about walking on ice or on a wet tile floor. Do you walk tall with full, rapid strides or do you walk with a more flexed spine posture and shorter, less confident steps? Of course, our nervous system chooses the latter response as its’ strategy to unstable situations.”  – Excerpt from Is it Possible to Be More Flexible Without Stretching?  Evan Osar, D.C. 

(Biomechanics)

If you have ever experienced a setback in your training because of an injury, then you know exactly what Evan Osar is referring to.

If you have ever struggled with plantar fasciitis, then you have experienced how difficult it is to take those initial steps when you first wake up in the wee hours of the morning.  I know exactly how that feels. You can’t hobble to the bathroom fast enough!  Meanwhile, the calf muscles are trying to tell you that those stretches you keep doing are not getting to the source of the problem and that is the reason you keep feeling the need to do the same stretches.

Similarly, if you have ever rolled an ankle and been diagnosed with a sprained ligament, then you have also felt how incredibly difficult it was to utilize your normal stride when walking.  Once again, the muscles around your ankle joint are tightening up to protect you from further injury.  Do you see a pattern here?  And the pattern doesn’t change just because the label for the injury changed.  No.  Without fail, the muscles’ response is always the same.

Within a short amount of time after the injury you can feel you are not capable of striding out as much, no matter how much conscious effort you put into it.  After limping around the place for a couple of days, the sensation of pain drives your body in any way that it can to stay away from the discomfort.  Your body’s natural protective mechanism is to tighten up the muscles that cross the joint(s).

 

But just because it is natural does not mean it is normal.

 

And that is one of the connections that I’m trying to make in this post.  Stretching may (or may not!?) relax a muscle for the time being, but the body will still figure out a way to tighten up as a compensation for the weak muscle.

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Runner’s Knee: Staying on Track

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Rick Merriam| 1 Comment

“Elite runners have the most stiffness, while lesser runners like us could use a lot more of it.  The type of stiffness I am referring to is the type that physicists talk about in relation to springs.  The human body does in fact function as a sort of spring during running, and just as a spring with adequate stiffness will bounce more efficiently than a spring that’s too loose, a runner who exhibits sufficient muscular stiffness when his or her foot strikes the ground will run more efficiently than a runner whose muscles are too loose on impact.”  – Excerpt from Brain Training For Runners by Matt Fitzgerald

 (Biomechanics)

Runner’s Knee has also been aptly named Patella Femoral Dysfunction (PFPS).

Like with most running injuries, I feel like it is a big mistake to look locally when addressing the discomfort that you are feeling in the knee.  Yes, it is true that the patella (knee cap) is not staying on the track that is provided by the trochlear groove at the end of your femur.  But that does not mean that your knee cap is the source of the problem.

After all, the knee cap is only following the path that is provided for it.  In order for it to stay on track, the femur has to be moving well at the hip joint and the lower leg has to be moving well at the knee, ankle, and the subtalar joint.

In other words, I have a choice.  I can chase the pain (the most common conventional approach!).  Or, I can go out to the edge, provide more value and do the work that truly matters.  How?  By first finding the drivers of the dysfunction.

Before we look at the drivers, and explore the source of your Runner’s Knee, I would like to get you up to speed on the anatomy.

This might come as a surprise:  you are more familiar with the trochlear groove than you might think.  How?  Well your trochlear groove looks like the white, smooth, irregular surface that you have seen at the very end of a chicken leg.  The white stuff is made up of articular cartilage that is consistent with a synovial joint.

You are also equipped with articular cartilage on the underside of your patella-a convex surface.

You guessed it.  Just like two pieces of a puzzle, the convex contact surfaces of the patella meet the concave surfaces of your femur to form the secondary joint of your knee complex.  And just like that, the pearly white, frictionless surface that is provided by the cartilage allows the patella to slide on the femur.

 

Knee Joint

Hover over this image for more information

 

So, what is driving the femur and ultimately the patella (that has very little wiggle room)?

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Stretching: Scratching The Itch

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Rick Merriam| Leave a comment
“I do not have much of a role for passive stretching when someone is in a corrective mode. If the muscle or fascia is to blame for a lack of joint mobility, I don’t think yanking on it more is [not ]the way it’s going to get longer. My assumption is that the lack of length is a protective mechanism from the brain, and trying to override this is poor form. Do we even know if this “short” muscle is short from viscoelastic constituency that have no resting neural input or contractile components that do?

How do you know what you’re stretching or elongating?  How do you know your elongating what you want to elongate…”– Charlie Weingroff, DPT

 

(Biomechanics)

 

My friend Bob emailed me that quote from Charlie Weingroff yesterday.  It is a great quote, and a gift that came at an opportune time.  I love it when stuff like that happens.

 

Running, jumping, throwing  and squatting all require a major contribution from individual muscles that have to work together in sequence.  On one side of the joint, you have individual muscles lengthening, and on the other side of the same joint, you have the opposing muscles shortening.

 

At least that is the story they tell us in college.  But you (and I!) don’t have to stick to the same story; we can dive deeper.  Yes.  We don’t have to base our decisions on a worldview that allows for very little range when it comes to practical application.

 

And that is where our ability to choose a different path begins.

 

In order to reach the root cause of  any pain and/or injury, it helps to start with one very practical question first:  Does any form of stretching change the interaction (a conversation!) between the muscle and the brain?

 

And when the science whispers ‘no’ in your ear, you are presented with a tremendous opportunity to help more people.  But first, you have to be willing to change your mindset.

 

This is an opportunity to improve the depth of communication within the vast network residing in the space between the brain and the muscle.  And when this connection is restored, it is a flow of power that can not be seen with the naked eye.

 

But this power within the muscle can be felt, and it is capable of reaching far and wide.

 

Example:  if you want to improve your cadence without having to think about it, all you have to do is restore the neurological input to each and every muscle in the chain.  Then, assuming your foot can feel the ground, you will have a much faster turnover.

 

Anything else is just a conscious compensation.  (emphasis added)

 

Just to reinforce my point:  we are talking about 100 billion nerve cells that make up the Central Nervous System (brain and spinal cord).

 

And to say it another way, the brain is the only living structure that can think for the muscles while at the same time essentially thinking about itself.  Without this powerful super-computer to guide them, the muscles are just a bunch of slabs of meat that happen to be equipped with the potential to move joints…but it is not a given.  And it is never given for free.  Without a strong connection to the brain, a muscle is not capable of pulling the joint into a position.

 

This message should resonate with a Chiropractor.  For many years, the theory (a story!) has always been the same:  relax the muscle so that the partial dislocation can be adjusted more easily.

 

In theory, that does make sense, but once again it comes up short.  Why?  Because the science tells us a very different story that is not only far-reaching–it is also all-encompassing.

 

At the end of the day, the tight muscle is pulling with all of its might and hanging on for dear life.  Why?  Because the muscle on the other side of the joint is not playing its role.  And here is the rub: the super-computer that we call the brain will not allow the joint to go into any position that the muscles are not capable of stabilizing.  So, it’s not the tight muscle’s fault that the adjustment did not hold.

 

(Principles)

 

It’s pretty easy to put yourself in the consumer/patient/athlete’s shoes in this case.  I’m sure they are questioning the validity of the same adjustments over and over again with little to no relief.

 

All the while, the neurologically inhibited muscle sits by and waits for somebody (anybody!) to come relieve the tight muscle of a role that it was never meant to play.  Of course, the tight muscle is trying to tell you, and anybody that will listen, a very important message.  And the message is this:  address the opposing muscle instead.

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Skora Form Review: A Running Shoe That Feels As Good As It Looks

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Rick Merriam| Leave a comment

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that I encourage all of the athletes that I work with to walk, run and train in lightweight, zero-drop shoes.  Why?  I want your foot to be in an environment that allows for more ground- feel.  And not only that, I want you to take advantage of the natural (normal!) motion that allows the foot and the entire chain to flex (pronate) and extend (supinate) at the right time.  Yes.  It doesn’t matter if you are walking, running, lunging or jumping, the foot has to be in an environment that allows it to move freely.

The truth is, a rigid, highly-cushioned conventional running shoe will not allow your foot to utilize the dynamic motions that are naturally occurring when your foot is on the ground.

The science of biomechanics tells us that a conventional running shoe is making the foot, and the entire chain, weaker and more susceptible to an injury long-term.  Feel free to Tweet.

And focusing on improving your cadence with a stiff conventional shoe underfoot is not going to decrease your chances of an injury.  Why?  The answer is simple.  A conventional shoe does not allow for it.

The anatomy of a conventional running shoe consists of 12 mm of thick mid-sole cushioning, a sock-liner, and an outer-sole which is blocking all of the potential for tactile feedback.  And that is enough to reinforce my point.

But there is more:  combine all of that interference between the ground and your bare foot with a 8 mm – 14 mm drop from the rear-foot to the front-foot and you have a recipe for disaster in the form of a running injury.

And like I wrote in a recent post on plantar fasciitis:  try holding a microphone up to your bare foot.  Then, listen for a response.  I promise you this: the multitude of joints, mechanoreceptors throughout the skin on the sole of your foot, ligaments and muscles will tell you a story that rings true throughout the human chain.

Just in case you don’t believe me, let’s start with the two most practical questions first, (1) Is there a drop from the rear-foot of your naked foot to the front of your foot?  And (2) when you slide your foot along the floor so that it is pointing out, is your entire foot moving in all three planes? The answer to both questions is a resounding YES!  Why?  Because it has to.  Anything else would be extremely unnatural and unproductive when the overall goal is efficient function throughout the human chain.

Oh, before I forget to mention it, when you slid your foot along the floor, your heel (calcaneus) turned out and you suddenly have less of an arch.  Why?  Your heel everted (a component part of pronation!) and so did your mid-foot and your front-foot.  Ultimately, everything moved in the same direction, which is by definition pronation.

Your ability to pronate is completely normal.  In fact, it is essential to your quality of motion.  You can not effectively absorb and dissipate force without it.  Feel free to Tweet  in 140 characters.

To say it another way, in order to fully utilize your ability to supinate, which is your ability to overcome gravity on every single leg landing, you have to have your foot in an environment that allows your foot to pronate.

In other words, you can not supinate without first pronating.  And luckily for you (and me!) the Skora Form and the Skora Base  allows for both.

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