Good morning. Happy Monday. I have neuro coffee in hand and it is perfect. All right. A very busy Monday. We're going to dig straight into today's Q&A. This is with Ivan. It starts off as a pretty typical Q&A, where we talk about neutral position, connectivity, behavior, split squat, compensatory strategies. So that's interesting. But I think the big takeaway here is to recognize the fact that performance is multifactorial in nature. And so when I talk about performance, we're talking about generalized movement all the way up through our highest levels of athletic performance. I think that especially in our industry with a low barrier to entry, I think people get told stories or they tell themselves stories, and this creates a system of limited beliefs and therefore the outcomes become restricted. This is why you have sort of like the turf areas such as the people that say kettlebell is the best activity or the best tool, or Olympic weightlifting is the best way to train athletes, and we have these sects that still exist. When the reality is, we want to think a little more like a mixed martial artist where we say, hey, I just need the best tool for the job in this circumstance. If we can get over these limited beliefs and we can start to recognize the multifactorial nature and we start to expand the lenses through which we are looking at things, I think we're going to do a whole lot better. And so I think that's the big takeaway from today's Q&A is it's time to start expanding your lenses. It's time to start attacking those limited beliefs and become better at what we do. So hopefully you will recognize that in today's Q&A. Thank you, Ivan. If you would like to participate in a 15-minute consultation, please go to askbillhartman.gmail.com. We will arrange that at our mutual convenience. Everybody have an outstanding Monday and I will see you tomorrow.

It's really good for visualizing. So that was cool. Would you see the same thing, but opposite if somebody's knees were caving in?

Yeah.

Would you see the same thing, but opposite if somebody's knees were caving in?

Well, would there be any tension on the bow string under those circumstances?

Well, not in the middle, but if you put it on the other side or you can do that.

Okay. I see where you're going. Yes, it would not be as effective because as your center of gravity moves down and in, it would just keep going in that direction.

Okay.

Hang on. I've got somebody that's moving out towards an ER representation. Okay. I'm sticking them out there and I'm going to pull them in against it and then release it. Okay. So where is force and where is velocity?

Well, force is in the middle, velocity.

Force is in IR, velocity is in ER. OK, you see it? Yeah. If I tighten the bow string and I push them more towards force, OK, and there's no spring back, they are already yielding. This is the difference between, it's like the people that walk in with the so-called valgus representation, they could be very, very strong. They just tend to be less explosive because they don't demonstrate velocity because it's very difficult for them to move towards ER.

So are they better at yielding?

They are yielding. A lot of the times already.

OK.

Right, because they are in a sustained position of constantly trying to pull themselves out of that stance. This is why you see the lower arches in those people oftentimes, because they are pushing. Just by standing up against gravity, they're pushing.

Okay.

So that is a sustained duration. When you think about something that's really fast and explosive, the time at which they apply force is very, very small. Somebody else that has to push for a longer period of time pushes over a longer period of time. They are less explosive because they can't release the energy as fast. These are the people that try to muscle the activities. Have you ever seen like the two types of vertical jumps, the really springy guy and the guy that has to push really, really long? That is your difference.

So one is more yielding biased than the other one, more overcoming biased. To a degree, yes.

But again, you're looking at a lot of influences here in regards to just the position. The forces of the internal forces that are going to be influencing this. So you're correct, I think. But don't weight that as the only thing. You still have internal forces to manage. You still have physical structure that you have to manage. You still have foot positions that you have to manage, et cetera.

But if you were to look at a really good weight lifter, he would have a systemic bias of more towards yielding than overcoming just because of the rate of loading. Yes or no, it doesn't work like that.

I don't think so. I don't think so. I mean, it would be unusual to see in the most accomplished lifters.

You would have a combination of factors. So, for example, if you have somebody who's a funnel shape, like they have that upward bias but with varus, that would—if they had that yielding capacity—make them a really good squat jerk performer. You know, because you can drop down really fast but still have the funnel shape to stand up with it.

Okay. Well, thanks for clearing that up. So it's not that simple as I thought it was.

Well, so here's the thing from a learning perspective. When you think you understand something and you're looking through a very specific lens, a viewpoint, understand that it's one viewpoint. And the more ways that you can see it, the more solutions you can create and the greater your understanding of all of those influences. Because it's never one of them. It's never one.

Okay. So in terms of connective tissues, it's not just rate of loading. You have other things that you have to look at to determine this seven magnitude rate of loading and okay.

There are seven of them and they're all there at the same time to different degrees and different relative importance. Rate is the easiest one to see and discuss, because all I gotta do is pull out my silly putty and you can see the difference in the two.

Okay. Then just one more thing. So let's say we have somebody in a split squat and I was thinking like if the knee goes outwards in the split squat, that's because that's the space that's available to this person. So he has external rotation space and that's where he's moving. But if the knee goes inwards, does that mean that that's like internal rotation space that's available to him? So he's missing external rotation or again, is it not that simple?

You're probably looking at orientation to produce internal rotation into the ground.

So it is downward.

ER goes up and out. IR goes down and in. If I see something go down and in, that is somebody that is trying to produce force. And so it's under the circumstances that you're describing where it's a position that we tend to not like. That's probably a compensatory strategy to produce the IR. So you'll see the arch of the foot get closer to the ground, you'll see the knee track in, you'll see that side of the pelvis anteriorly orient, and you'll see the spine turn in the direction that the knee is going. That's IR, that's a systemic representation of IR. Like you got a lot of stuff in play there. But it's somebody that is trying to produce force into the ground under those circumstances.