Better Movement, Better Performance Part II

David Fleming

This is a starting point for those who want to learn quality movement. By carefully learning the drills in this article you will be less likely to get injured and on the road to being a better athlete. These are not static stretches but careful, focused joint control drills that will relax your nervous system, free your joints and teach you to control your body...

Ok, so I've banged on about it for long enough now. Mobility is important, really important, there are several examples of drills to follow on the site but here are a few more isolated joint motions that will aid to reduce tension within the body and make a big difference to your over all movement capabilities.

The premise for mobility

Lest say you've never worked on moving and controlling your joints in isolation or otherwise ever before. You will probably be tight and inflexible. While there are factors such as genetics, heredity, fascial density, number of myofibroblasts within the fascia, injury history, joint shape, joint fixations and poor diet and sleep patterns that all will affect your available range of motion, more often than not you've probably got the body and movement that you've asked for.

It sounds harsh but its true. Put crap in, you get crap out. Never move your joints smoothly through available ranges of motion, loose the ability to do so etc.

Joint capsules are filled with mechanoreceptors These little fellas send information about movement within the joint to the brain. The more precise this information the more the brain trusts the joints and strength, flexibility and performance is improved. The less information or the worse the input from the mechanoreceptors the less the brain will trust the joint and as a result the tighter the area around the joint will become.

This creates a bit of a viscous cycle. Through injury, misuse/under-use or some systemic or nutritional factor a joint isn't moving optimally. As I have described above the brains response is essentially to lock the surrounding muscles down as it isn't getting the good input to inform it otherwise. The longer a joint goes without moving something else begins to happen. The friendly little mechanoreceptors begin to disappear and are replaced by another gang called nociceptors. Nociceptors job is to carry noxious stimulus (alarm signals) to the brain. That means the information being transmitted from the joint is more threatening than trust building for the majority of the time. So hopefully this goes a little way as to explaining how you probably have the body you've earned. Generally speaking poor function doesn't just happen by accident.

The Drills

Here are several dynamic movement drills focusing around the ankles, pelvis and shoulder blades. These should be performed extremely slowly. You are trying to re-learn how to control the body segments that you are moving so don't just throw them around with no purpose or accuracy. Move slowly and precisely and try walking around a bit in bare feet after the drills to see how different your body feels. You may find that you're lighter on your feet, feel taller or that your body is rotating more as you move.

Once again if you haven't taken care of your body, don't expect these movements to be easy. There will be a learning process. Perform the drills every day and you will get better at them.

Ankle drills

Flexion/extension waves 1.
1. Stand or sit tall and relax any tension from your body.
2. Without wiggling the toes around gently pull the foot up towards the shin. Don't jam it at the end of its range
3. Gently wave the foot back towards the floor. Don't jam it at the end of it's range - repeat for 5-10 repetitions

Lateral/medial glides 1.
1. Stand or sit tall and relax any tension from your body.
2. Without wiggling the toes around gently glide the sole of the foot to face in toward the other leg. Don't jam it at the end of it's range.
3. The lateral (outside) aspect of the ankle is now open, gently wave it away to the side of the body.
4. From here, gently glide the sole of the foot to face away from the body and wave it back towards the kid line of the body. Don't jam it at the end of it's range - repeat smoothly side to side for 5-10 repetitions

Flexion/extension waves 2.
Once you have mastered the two motions above try incorporating them with movement of the lower leg.
1. Stand or sit tall and relax any tension from your body.
2. Without wiggling the toes around gently push the foot down towards the floor while simultaneously extending the lower leg from a bent to straight position. Don't jam it at the end of its range
3. Gently wave the foot back up towards the shin while simultaneously flexing the lower leg back to a bent position. Don't jam it at the end of it's range - repeat for 5-10 repetitions

Lateral/medial glides 2.
1. Stand or sit tall and relax any tension from your body.
2. Without wiggling the toes around gently glide the sole of the foot to face in toward the other leg while simultaneously gliding the lower leg away from the midline Don't jam it at the end of it's range.
3. From here, gently glide the sole of the foot to face away from the body and wave it back towards the mid line of the body while simultaneously bringing the lower leg back across the mid line. Don't jam it at the end of it's range - repeat smoothly side to side for 5-10 repetitions.

Pelvic Drills

Anterior/Posterior tilts
1. Stand tall and relax any tension from your body.
2. Soften the knees.
3. Place the hands on the iliac crests (top of the pelvis at the sides of your waist)
4. Very slowly tuck your tail in (front of pelvis comes up towards your stomach) and transition slowly to sticking your tail out (back of pelvis sticks out at the back or font of pelvis moves away from the stomach)
5. Don't move your low back. Make the motion small and smooth.

Scapula - Shoulder blade drills

Protraction/retraction 1.
1. Stand or sit tall and relax any tension from your body.
2. Extend both arms out in front of you a little below shoulder height with thumbs on top. 3. Keep the elbows straight by reaching out in front of you through your finger tips.
4. From here, gently glide both shoulder blades forward (protraction). Don't jam into the end of the range.
5. Slowly glide the shoulder blades back to neutral.
6. Now pull the shoulder blades back around the rib cage (retraction). Don't jam into the end of the range.
7. Repeat smoothly for 5-10 reps.

Elevation/Depression 1.
1. Stand or sit tall and relax any tension from your body.
2. Extend both arms out in front of you a little below shoulder height with thumbs on top.
3. Keep the elbows straight by reaching out in front of you through your finger tips.
4. From here, gently glide both shoulder blades up towards your ears (elevation) Don't jam into the end of the range.
5. Slowly glide the shoulder blades back to neutral.
6. Now pull the shoulder blades down (depression). Don't jam into the end of the range.
7. Repeat smoothly for 5-10 reps.

Protraction/retraction 2.
As a progression, perform the drill with opposing motion at each shoulder blade. As you protract one side, retract the other and transition smoothly between the two.

Elevation/Depression 2.
As in protraction/retraction 2, perform the drill with opposing motion at each shoulder blade. As you elevate one side, depress the other and transition smoothly between the two.

If you perform these movements too quickly at first you will gain nothing from them. Move slowly and precisely. As you do so, you may notice juddering in the motion. This is normal and indication to slow down again. The juddering or shaking depicts a real lack of control of the joint and this will disappear as you improve.The drills described above are a quick introduction to regaining control of your body.

For a truly comprehensive approach to joint mobility I recommend the ZHealth R Phase system available at www.ZHealth.net

About the Author

David Fleming is one of London’s top personal trainers. He is obsessed with helping people get stronger and helping people to get More-Athletic. He has studied and learned from the best strength coaches in the world. He is happily married and can lift heavy weights. His mother is very proud of him and he writes a good article.It took him until the age of 30 to pass his driving test, but other than that he is a solid chap.

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