There's an old saying:
"Methods are Many, Priciples are Few"
It's something Paul Cox would say to a lot of students back when I first met him in the early 2000's
Paul was using it as a tool to bypass other instructors poor instruction and helping students get the most out their practice.
One principle I lean heavily into was given to me my the creator of Anatomy in Motion, Mr Gary Ward.
It's the second of his "Big 5 Rules" I may talk about all five if there's interest.
Anyhow, Rule 2: "Joints act, muscles react" - Gary Ward.
They are 4 words that have really made me look deeply into the exercise prescriptions I give out.
The simplicity of this statement, the elegance of it, belies the depth of it.
Joints act Muscles react
This statement does a couple of things.
First, it separates us from the way we usually consider muscle actions, that is when we're in the gym.
In the gym we largely work with conscious, concentric muscle contractions.
But, did you consider muscle action this morning running for the bus?
Did you consider muscle action while standing on one leg putting you pants on?
Did you consider muscle action when jumping to catch that high ball at practice?
Or when throwing a punch into the heavy bag?
Let's go back to the recent Olympics and consider the Pole Vault.
What does that pole do in order to fling the jumper 6.25 meters into the air?
It flexes It loads up like a big spring and then "contracts" to launch the jumper skywards
Our bodies do similar.
As we move, the first movement is very often a shift in center of gravity.
Then the bones start to move, this puts a stretch into the tendons, which then stretches the muscle, which then sets of a reflexive recoil in the muscle and the muscle begins to contract to arrest that stretch.
Think about skipping, or about plyometrics, this is precisely what goes on, most obviously in the foot and ankle complex, but also the knee, even the hip with every landing.
The joints all flex on impact, the foot and calf muscles contract against that flex, the quads contract against the knee flexion, the (upper) hamstrings and glutes contract against the hip flexion, the fast they can react, the quicker they respond and the more force they can bring, the faster and more powerfully we rebound upwards.
What's our take away from this right now, today?
If you want to be genuinely efficient in your movement.
Be that for endurance purposes
Be that for maximal power generation
I will urge you to be relaxed as much as is appropriate.
Let the body do it's thing, it is way smarter than you or I
Stop trying to hold your core tight
Don't try keeping your glutes "active" while walking or worse, sprinting
And watch as the body begins to find it's real potential.
The second thing..... Yeah, I nearly forgot I said there was a couple of things.
I mentioned plyo's.
But if you've followed my work for any length of time, you'll know I love ballistic or swinging exercises.
I use Kettlebells, Maces, Clubs, Skipping, Jumping, all of which are movement focused with a momentum base.
When I take a BJJ player for example and introduce these tool to them especially if they've come from a more typical training background, they immediately start feeling better and noticing their BJJ performance improves.
Ballistic / momentum based training is eccentric in nature and leaves out that muscle control element (which has it's place, don't get me wrong) and let's the body figure out what it needs to do.
The momentum moves the joints, the muscles react.
Their ability to react improves
Joint integrity improves
Movement becomes more accessible, faster, more efficient, more powerful.
Is that why we get outsized performance results from these relatively light tools?
I really couldn't say.
But it fits with Rule 2 So I'll take that as a core principle until I find a better one.
As always this newsletter is for you, so please feel free to send in your questions for discussion in future editions.
And don't forget to subscribe to the YouTube channel where I discuss these same topics on video:
And I'll be back next week, see you then. Regards Dave Hedges www.davehedges.net www.WG-Fit.com
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