Does anyone ever talk about Pronation?

“A semi-related question, Dave. I had flat feet (Pes Planus). Over the past 5 years, I've developed a nice arch. The only thing I've done differently is Flow Rope work, which indirectly develops leg pronation and supination. My abductor digiti minimi muscles (of both the hand and feet) are both stronger. From where I stand, this looks like a dramatic improvement in function to me.

I've never heard anything about a relationship between strengthening that muscle and good foot posture. Am I missing something? Does anyone ever talk about this? Do you ever recommend any pronation/supination leg work for your clients?

Thanks!”

This is from Facebook and a conversation with a very smart gentleman there by the name of Phil Earnhardt

Phil is a nerd of the highest order and comes up with great questions and some seriously deep interpretations of movement which he explains through mathematical means often going into vibration and other physics based thought processes.

He is great.

So this question or series of questions, was very welcomed.

Let's start at the start, does strengthening the abductor digiti minimi muscle help foot posture?

Short answer: I don't care about individual muscles and postures are a limited way of looking at the body.

Longer answer:

A muscle tends to look or feel weak if it isn't given a job to do.

Its actual strength, by itself, isn't that important.

It's strength as part of a larger whole, now that is important.

And if a muscle exists to move a joint or joints, if those joints don't ever really move very much, how can you expect that muscle to do its job and be strong?

What if that muscles line of pull is at an angle that we don’t regularly put force through?

When does Phils Adductor Digiti get to pull?

It is the muscle running on the outside of the foot and hand to the pinky.

So it contracts when the pinky grips especially if we also cock the wrist, and stretches when the hand opens and extends. In the foot, it stretches as the foot pronates (flattens) and contracts as it supinates (arches)

Abductor Digit Minimi muscle in the Foot (L) and Hand (R)

In most people most of the time, good foot Motion and varied hand activities are limited.

Even gym folk using barbells have limited joint action in the hands. Machines even more so.

So Phil's rolling ropes probably offer him some movement vocabulary that's been missing.

If you manipulate tools, for fun or work, your hand is probably quite well developed.

What about the foot?

No one in the decade or more that I've been looking at feet has good pronation and supination mechanics.

Part of my coaching is to sneak in drills to help improve these mechanics (it is hidden in the 100 rep warm up) and as I moved more towards injury management and rehab, I stopped sneaking it and we work on it deliberately.

What then about foot posture?

Posture is a snapshot.

It is a paused movement.

A position

We have ranges of motion meaning we can create many postures.

The key is to have access to these ranges.

In the foot we move from supinated, to pronated and back again.

As the foot loads it ought to pronate, and as we push out of the foot or prepare to land onto the foot it ought to supinate.

Supinated is arched and ready to accept force. Pronated is loaded and ready to produce force.

The two end positions are where things change direction, from Supinated we can only move towards pronation and vice versa.

When we do this we'll, smooth, with good timing.

When we challenge our bodies with load, either running, jumping, lifting etc

Then the muscles through the lower leg really all should get plenty of stimulus.

But supportive or cushioned shoes, flat ground, sedentary jobs etc all rob us of stimulation.

So we must exercise.

Exercise to develop the feet and lower leg muscles, to keep joint actions and interactions fluid, to have the proprioception to manage our mass easily as we move.

It sounds like a lot.

And it is.

But Phil with his rolling ropes (do search rolling ropes and rope flow on YouTube and Instagram I've included a clip of my little mate Yuri showing his use of the rope) is moving in various directions, the movement of the rope is shifting his centre of mass and he's asking his body to react and reflexively adapt to these rapid inputs from the rope.

And because of the multi planar stimulus the ropes offer, his body moves in ways I bet he doesn't even realise its doing.

Which is just beautiful.

Movement that is reflexive, reactive and multi planar is possibly some of the best we can do.

It's what we did as kids, it's what modern kids and most adults are missing out on.

If you have read this far, congratulations, that was a hell of a journey you went on!

If you have a question or questions, feel free to send them to me for future newsletters

Thanks for reading

Chat soon

Regards

Dave Hedges

www.davehedges.net