Don't Allow Your Athletic Posture Become Your Daily Living Posture

There is a quote that has been rattling around in my head for a while,

so long in fact I have it a little mixed up and am no longer even

convinced of the source.

However, it's a quote I have paraphrased a lot, especially these last

couple of weeks with a number of clients.

"Do not allow your athletic posture become your everyday posture" -

possibly from Grey Cook and butchered by Dave Hedges.....

If someone has heard this and has confirmation of both the source and

correct wording, I'd be grateful if you'd pass it on, google has come up

short so far.

Anyhow, sources and diction aside, what does it mean and why is it

important?

In short, all sports have strengths and weaknesses.

Some sports are one sided

Some sports favour certain positions

For example, if you're a Golfist, you'll likely always swing the club in

the same direction, usually left to right

If you're a Tennis player, you strike the ball with the right hand (yes,

I'm generalising for right handed folk simply because there are more of

you, doesn't mean I don't know about you lefties)

Striking martial arts folk tend to favour a particular leg forward

Grapplers live in scapula protraction

And we could go on.

These positions and movements mentioned are perfect for the activity,

but may not be ideal for outside of said activity.

Many is the time I would have a Muay Thai fighter come to me with a sore

shoulder or knee.

It would plague them all day, even affect their sleep.

These flare ups usually happened in the lead up to a fight when the

training became more voluminous and more intense

Yet, they mostly didn't notice it in training.

And when I asked them to take a fighting stance, they suddenly looked

relaxed and comfortable, pain no longer felt

This athletic posture had become their default position

The exact same thing happened when a young Olympic Lifter was brought to

me for back pain.

This lad was a horse of a man, dwarfing me. But had back pain on one

side that he just couldn't shift no matter who he saw, and he'd been to

every therapist in his area.

I checked his posture and noticed his pelvis sat a bit shifted and bit

hiked on one side.

No matter what we looked at, it wouldn't come level.

Until I asked him to show me his catch position on the Jerk.

And this lad could Jerk my Deadlift, he was a big boy.

So he got into the catch, essentially a lunge position, and I checked him.

Plumbline.

Hips level, spine straight, pain not present.

This position was his place of safety. This is where he was used to

catching massive amounts of force.

His nervous system wanted him here as it's likely where it felt the most

safe.

Lifting posture became living posture, it became a "training scar"

Stories like these fascinate me and I could go on.

I had a hockey player the other day, similar story

Hurler, similar story

Each person may receive their own individual interventions, as their

body and symptoms require, but the nature of the issue was always the same.

This is why we do supplemental training in the gym.

It's why we do mobility and things like the 100 Rep Warm up

(https://youtu.be/HrgizUMCY0A?si=Sp80CkD0DKs-abyR) to remind the body to

move in all manner of ways.

To remind the "somatosensory cortex" that joints can and should access

both ends of their movement spectrum

And then adding load by way of lifting weights, well that ought to

strengthen all these movement patterns.

For our Olympic Lifting kid, who's sport IS lifting weights, I advised

him to spend some time lifting "goofy" ie opposite foot forward. Of

course this is to be done during off-season or well away from

competition times.

As a basic rule, keep the gym training as general as possible, forget

this idea of sports specific training, it's nonsense.

The sport specific training is the training for the sport.

The gym is about strength, mobility and endurance.

It's as much about filling the gaps left by the sport as it is prepping

you for the sport

And the prep is mostly done by way of ensuring good movement mechanics,

good force production and good energy system development.

Skills are not improved in the gym, that done out in the arena,

Now, as always this is your newsletter, for you, so have your say.

Hit reply and send in your questions, your comments.

Hit forward and share it with someone who you think may benefit from

this information

And I'll chat soon

Oh, and before I forget, all Online Training clients should be getting

an invite to an Online Meet Up to get together and discuss who the

training is going. I have promised this in the past but not followed

through, but as several folk have asked for better accountability, this

is how we're doing it.

What I want is for this to become a peer support call, yes, I'll do the

expert bit, but you checking in and and chatting with fellow trainees is

where the gold lies.

You can have the craic, brag about PR's, ask questions about your

program and much more.

I don't expect everyone to show up every week, maybe only show up if you

have things to say or ask, but it would be great to see you there.

Non Online training folk, I may allow you lot to all join in maybe once

per month as an open forum chat. What do you think?

Chat soon

--

Regards

Dave Hedges

www.DaveHedges.net

Box 7, The Cube, 2 Coalisland Road · Dungannon, Co Tyrone BT71 6JT · United Kingdom