Everything Orbits Around Centre

"Methods are many, principles are few " is a core belief I adhere to.

In previous newsletters I've explored some of the 5 "laws" of Anatomy in

Motion written by my teacher/coach, Gary Ward.

We've talked about "Joints Act, Muscles React" and "muscles lengthen

before they contract"

So lets look at Rule 3: "Everything Orbits Around Centre"

What is "everything" and where is the centre?

If we think simply in terms of Anatomy and Physiology (physiology is

basically how the anatomy moves and interacts, literally Anatomy in

Motion) then we can think of the centre as out centre of mass or centre

of gravity.

Your centre of mass, or the point in the body most central, the middle,

is a few inches forward of the spine down around the L4 or L5 vertebra.

Is it a coincidence that the L4/5 vertebra is also one of the most

common pain & injury sites in the human body?

Oh, and just for fun, google Shaolin Monks balancing on Spears, and

you'll see how they place the tip of the spear right on the point I'm

referring to..

The Centre of Gravity is a little different, it is fluid and moves

around as you move.

As you change shape, your centre of gravity, the point where gravity

appears to have the greatest affect on you moves. So much so, it can

actually move outside of the body.

If you want to geek out, this video takes you through what that really

means: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnbwUa5yz7Y

In application, this means we can think of movement and mostly sporting

actions simply as mass management

We look to keep our centre of gravity inside our base of support, and if

we do so, we can remain upright and functional.

For a martial artists to affect a throw or take down, we do so by

shifting our opponents centre of gravity outside their base of support

causing them to fall.

When we are in the gym, say doing a Squat or Military press we now do

our best to keep the combined centre of gravity, that of our body and

the weight, right over the middle of our feet.

This is most easily observed by moving from a front squat to back squat

and seeing how the body changes shape to accommodate the bar.

In a more dynamic action like a kettlebell snatch, that combined centre

is balanced between the motion of the kettlebell, the hips and the head,

these three points shift in an attempt to keep that centre of gravity as

close to the centre of our base of support as possible. Failure to do so

is when we feel excess muscle strain, loss of balance or worst case, injury.

How does this information help us with pain and injury?

Lets say we have pain in our left hip for example.

When we see you walk we notice the stride is uneven, we notice the hip

stays left and doesn't get across to the right very well

The right leg swings through nice and slow, but as soon as hit hits

down, the left swings through way quicker.

And we discover an old ankle injury from a few years ago in that right

ankle.

Could it be a case that in order to let the ankle recover, we shifted

our mass over towards the left?

In doing so, we need to maintain balance and not fall, that centre of

gravity needs to be kept inside the base of support, so how do we then

stack up the rest of the body?

In stacking the body up in such a way that we remain upright and stable,

how are we now loading and stressing out tissues?

Very often (not always unfortunately) this thought process resolves many

folks chronic pain issues.

Once we figure out how to manage the mass more effectively, the stress

on the tissues is more evenly spread, so there's less acute strain on

any single part.

It always amazes me how by helping a person reflexively and

subconsciously manage their centre of gravity more efficiently changes

how they move and how much pain they are in.

how simply reintroducing them to the foot tripod and some nice pronation

mechanics they feel muscles fire up all over the body leading to a

feeling lightness and ease.

In my mind, this idea of everything revolving around centre if far more

useful than any discussion about posture, about lever lengths (length of

limbs), balance etc.

Watch for how a person manages their centre, watch how you manage your

centre, and good stuff starts to happen.

I do wonder if this is the real origin of practices like Standing Chi

Gung, the slow movements seen across many martial arts and also where

the value of crawling drills and swinging weights (kettlebells, clubs,

maces etc) really lies.

Now, <<First Name>> you have found this newsletter interesting, or it has

raised a question or comment, please hit reply and let me know.

Or hit forward, and send it on.

This is your newsletter, so I always look forward to hearing back from

you when I send these out.

Especially if you have a question that I can look at for future editions.

Till next time

--

Regards

Dave Hedges

www.DaveHedges.net

Heroes, Pain & Simone Biles

We start today's email with a bit of a story coming in from one of my online clients:

"OK a quick addition to the last email...I watched the Simone Biles documentary series, Rising, last night on Netflix (I admire her so much as an athlete and an example of mental strength) ................

........in the qualifiers for the finals at the Olympics, she tore her calf on the first day. And it was clearly sore because she was CRAWLING back from her first vault and then was hopping on one leg so she didn't have to put weight on it. And they talked to her medical team and they strapped her up and her coach said to her,

"Well, you know, you have the pain and the pain is there but you also have the readiness, you are ready, you know this so you can still do it".

And she KEPT GOING and did that fierce run up they do to do her second vault and SPRUNG on that sore leg on the platform and did her vault, and did it perfectly. reach."

I haven't watched the series yet, it is on my watchlist and I will get to it, especially after the above email (the full email is longer, I cut it down for privacy and brevity)

This raises a number of points.

Pain does not necessarily mean injury

Injury does not always bring pain

Pain is extremely personal

A person has a degree of choice as to how much they listen to pain

Ignoring pain is the right thing to do sometimes, and very wrong other times.

We all need heroes to look up to, but not necessarily emulate

Lets start with the last one, as that's the easiest.

As a man of a certain age, I grew up through the 80's an 90's, it was the golden era of action heroes on screen and in real life.

We has Arnie, Stallone, Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, Jackie Chan, Hulk Hogan, Big Daddy, the recently deceased Geoff Capes, the original series of Gladiators (Wolf, Jet etc) and so many more huge characters, with huge muscles doing larger than life magic on the TV screens.

Yeah, some were actors acting, others were sports stars, and they were all heroes.

In fact, I'd been on a binge of martial arts flicks, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and the Karate Kid just before I took up Karate myself.

I related to the Karate kid, so that got me going.

Watching these on screen heroes helps shape you, helps you develop your psyche, your drive. Helps you figure out what you will and will not accept about yourself in your own life.

And the training montages.

If you're of a certain age and your hair doesn't stand up on the back of your neck whenever you hear "Heart on Fire"........

Modern heroes are the likes of Biles.

This unique little powerhouse of a human being has earned her legendary status.

And the struggle pointed out in the paragraphs above show just how much a hero has to push themselves to achieve legendary status.

One of my all time heroes is Steve Redgrave, the rower. His autobiography is almost frightening reading about how much he putt himself through in the face of the chronic illnesses he had to battle.

It shows how much real strength is a in between the ears.

It's not the size of the muscles, but the heart, the spirit.

So what about pain?

All these heroes, fictional or real, show us how we can push through pain. We can choose to let pain take control, or we can take control of the pain.

Is what Biles did healthy?

Is it something we ought to look to replicate?

That is totally contextual.

Biles was at the Olympics, so yeah, it's all out, no holding back. As her coach pointed out, she was ready,

She also, and don't misinterpret this, does a power sport where most of the activities last seconds. As opposed to hours. Duration matters.

What we do learn from our heroes is that we have agency over our bodies.

We know that we can work through pain so long as we perceive benefit.

When I have athletes and clients coming to me for injury rehab, we have to find context, we have to work out how the pain is perceived and how much the person will or will not tolerate pain.

Some, especially those of us with traditional martial arts backgrounds, will almost tolerate too much.

Others, will stop at the first twinge.

And while pain is incredibly complex, I do like helping people try to understand that is merely a warning (it's way more than that, but it's a good start point)

A warning to stop doing something, or to move away from something.

Pain in the calf will send your weight over to the other leg and you'll limp. Pain in the shoulder will stop you lifting your arm.

But to get back to centre

To get back to performance

To get back to a body that moves well and is pain free, we may have to work into the pain somewhat, to reduce the perceived need for a warning.

Assuming any structural damage is healed, the calf tear has resolved, then any pain is now just a warning signal that serves no further purpose.

Now that is a big assumption, but bones heal in around 6 weeks, muscle faster, ligaments slower, but once healed, pain should no longer be needed.

Now we very often need to work on movement and how the body perceives safety.

This may involve a little pain.

But we have agency.

We can listen to the body, we can decide of the pain is just pain or if there is an injury present.

We can choose to lie down and stop

Or we can become our own hero and get out and work on the things we can still work on, while getting on with our rehab.

It's simple, but not easy

But it's why I'm here, I will help you.

It's a line I've walked many times myself and many times with clients.

--

Regards

Dave Hedges

www.DaveHedges.net

www.WG-Fit.com

The Value of Doing Something Unusual

I went to a Yoga class yesterday.

Big Dave, who lifts stuff and hits things went to Yoga.

It was a charity fundraising class by one of the yoga instructors my wife goes to at the Torrent Centre just outside of Dungannon.

She is a good instructor.

So why am I telling you this?

Two points really.

First, Mobility.

Yoga is probably the worlds most popular mobility system, and who knows, maybe it’s oldest.

My first introduction to it was way back in my teenage yeats when Jack Parker, my Karate Instructor had been to a few classes and implemented it into our training for parts of the warm up and cool down.

He even arranged for the Yoga teacher to come in and run occasional workshops for us.

As kids I have to say we were extremely fortunate to train under Jack as he was always looking for better ways to train us.

And while Jack knew we had to stretch to get our kicks up, something in him, either knowledge, experience, possibly intuition, he knew simply holding a stretch for time was inefficient.

Jack had us move into and out of stretch positions, often under load. This seemed echoed by Yoga.

Postures were never held more than a few seconds, and a lot of emphasis seemed to be placed on how to enter and exit a position, which required strength and control.

Yesterday's Yoga session was no different. And even though I was in the gym the day before, I do have some DOMS from the class, which is kinda cool.

While Yoga will not develop high levels of strength, it will certainly help coordinate your strength and maybe even demonstrate strength more effectively.

With this history in mind, and the influences I’ve had from Jack and the other coaches I’ve been exposed to since, my own views on mobility are influenced by Yoga. Anyone who’s trained with me, especially in a group setting will remember the Sun Salutation based “Quick Yoga” 

Now, you don’t need to be a student of Yoga or Martial Arts to deveop better mobility, but take heed of their teachings.

Find your tight lines and move into and out of it with care.

The actual shpe you make with your body isn’t as important as what you feel in your body.

Which, I suppose, is why so many movement styles and systems have so many positions in common.

Even the Anatomy in Motion methods I employ with injured clients revolves around 6 “stretches” that while based on identifiable phases of the gait cycle, still have a passing resemblance to the classic Yoga poses.

They’re just precise, as they are incredibly regress-able and can be broken down into smaller and more specific parts based on individual assessments.

Now, point 2

Doing something different.

We all get into our thing.

Sometimes our thing becomes the only thing we do.

And this is folly.

This is where training scars arise.

Or where overuse injuries happen.

Cross training is, in my mind essential.

At least some of the year, we must step outside our favourite training methodology and do something different and expose ourselves to different stimuli and discover where the holes in our armour may be.

Taking a Yoga class will show you areas of neglect in your mobility, maybe you don’t rotate a certain way out of habit, maybe you’ll find a tightness that will hint as to why the knees may hurt and so on.

Of course it doesn't have to be Yoga, that’s simply in my head and the inspiration of this email.

You could take any sort of class or challenge or event on. So long as it’s different from your norm.

We gain experience and learn about our bodies by exposure to different stimuli, so make a point of getting out and trying something different from time to time.

If you play a seasonal sport, utilise to off season to “cross train”

If your sport is all year round, look for periods of lull where you can put energy elsewhere for a few sessions.

Your health, and therefore your performance will likely improve and you may learn a few things that will help you in the long term.

And may keep you from booking in with me because you’ve injured yourself …..again!

Regards

Dave Hedges

www.davehedges.net