Metcon Magazine Preview - 5 Hindering Joint Restrictions

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one leg to the other (i.e. running, lunging, farmer’s walks, etc.) These exercises are examples of locomotive movements for which the goal is going from point A to B. To be efficient, an athlete should perform this movement in a straight line. Think of traveling: You want to take the shortest direction to get to your destination. Taking the scenic route usually costs more in gas and time. Running is no different. If our joints aren’t aligned, we waste energy. An athlete who overpronates pulls their knee closer to the their midline. This means they must constantly compensate with other muscles to prevent their knee from collapsing inward. The end result is likely pain and definitely a waste of calories and increased fatigue from using muscle improperly. A person who overpronates will often complain of plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendinitis, and hip bursitis. Ankle At the ankle, if we find a talus bone that has shifted laterally, then this is an indication we are carrying more of our weight toward the midline of our body. The ankle accommodates this shift in weight distribution by turning the feet outward. In doing so, the Achilles tendon gets twisted around a bit and movement becomes compensated. Dorsiflexion (the turning of the toes up and bending the foot back toward the ankle) is lost and our brain will ask other muscles to pick up the slack, thus creating a compensation pattern. Most functional exercises involve bending at the ankle, knee and hip to absorb impact from below (running, jumping, etc.) or control forces from above (barbell squats, cleans, etc.). When the ankle doesn’t bend well, the knee and hip will try to make up the difference. A restriction at the ankle joint will force the knee to travel forward and ask the quadriceps to carry the burden of slowing the knee down. This puts the glutes in a poor position to load up and limits the amount of force that can be produced. For an athlete who is exploding out of the hole during a barbell squat, this is detrimental to force production. Our ability to create power from our gluteus maximus hinges largely on our ability to extend our hips backward as we descend into a squat. Lacking dorsiflexion pulls our knees and drags our hips with it. An athlete who suffers from a lack of dorsiflexion will often complain of shin splints, knee pain, and low back pain. Hip A lot of people don’t understand the pelvis isn’t just one piece. Although, at first glance it may appear as one cylinder, it really is made up of four pieces: a right and left innominate (hip), the sacrum and the pubis symphysis. With that being said, one hip should be able to flex while the other extends. One of the most common postural deviations that occur is an anterior pelvic tilt. This is when one or both innominate bones tilts forward. This position will lock the back of the pelvis in place and prevent it from extending the hip. Without the proper ability to flex and extend at the hip, an athlete will be forced to compensate their movements when doing things like running. The hip is very dynamic and can perform many different movements. Flexion of the hip comes with external rotation, while extension of the hip is coupled with internal rotation. A person who lacks the ability to extend to an anterior pelvic tilt will also lack the ability to internally rotate well. This will drive the brain to compensate by moving the leg forward, which usually means the leg must be swung forward from the side. As a result, the athlete will 6 METCON | June 2016
shift a lot when they run. Again, energy is wasted and performance suffers. An athlete who has an anterior pelvic tilt will often complain of pain in the sacroiliac (SI) joints, quadratus lumborum (QL) muscle, and knees. Thoracic Spine Excessive thoracic kyphosis (rounding of the shoulders) may have the biggest observable negative impact on global extension. Our scapula is attached to our rib cage. A rounded thoracic spine pushes the scapula up and forward. This closes down on the humerus and makes it impossible to get the arms overhead without manipulating the position of the spine. Excessive rounding also changes the position of the rib cage, because it is normally accompanied by an excessive arch in the lower back. In doing so, the ability to properly recruit the trunk muscles is inhibited. Many functional exercises are performed in the sagittal plane (a vertical plane that passes from anterior to posterior, dividing the body into right and left halves). From the shoulder, there are many exercises that involve flexion and extension of the shoulder. The shoulder is pretty dynamic and can move in and out of multiple planes, but it really depends on the positioning of the scapula to do it efficiently. When the scapula is too high, you will need to compensate by arching at your lower back to get you arms over your head. Again, this is an example of an energy leak, in which the goal is to get weight overhead; but to do so, the entire spine must be deviated. The more kyphotic a person is, the more lordotic (the bigger the arch in the low back) the lumbar spine usually will be. In addition, when a person has an excessive curve in their thoracic vertebrae, they will also lose rotational mobility. Consid- June 2016 | METCON 7
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Metcon Magazine Preview - 5 Hindering Joint Restrictions

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