Good morning. Happy Monday. I have neural coffee in hand and it is perfect. Okay. Hope you had a great weekend. Busy, busy week coming up. Let's dive into today's Q&A for Monday. This comes from Brian. Brian prefaced his question as a hamstring question but I think it's gonna be a little bit more than that, Brian. So let's break this down. Brian says, if an individual presents with a significant anterior orientation of the pelvis with a significant limitation of bilateral hip ER, so that is a pretty good indication that you've got the anterior orientation when you lose the hip ER. Would it be worthwhile to focus on proximal hamstrings at 30 to 60 degrees of hip flexion to reorient the pelvis and possibly attempt to bias the lateral hamstrings to promote more hip ER? This individual is a narrow ISA with an excellent squat and hip flexion, but a poor toe touch. So this is going to provide us a little bit of information. It's still incomplete. So we're going to make a couple of assumptions here, Brian. I'm going to break this down for you piece by piece. And so we can get an idea of what we're actually looking at. And then we can come up with a, with a bit of a solution. So let me grab the problems. as usual. Okay, so we've got a narrow ISA person. So we've got an inhale representation of the pelvis and axial skeleton. We've got a counter-neutated sacrum. And so we're looking at something that looks like that from behind and something like that. Give or take a little crooked there. There we go. A little bit like that anteriorly. So we've got a loss of bilateral hippie R. So we've got an anterior orientation from this representation but let's think about this for a second. When we have a narrow ISA we have to think about the compensatory sequence that arose as we get to this anterior orientation. Prior to that anterior orientation you had an anterior compression. which is going to reduce hip IR. Now by its bias alone when we look at the the inhale representation of the axial skeleton what we're going to do is we're going to bias it towards more ER less IR to begin with but in your case you're also going to have that anterior compression so we also know from your description that we're probably going to see an IR deficit. Now let's put together some of the complex movements that you were talking about before. Squat is excellent, hip flexion is excellent, but toe touch is poor. So let's use the toe touch as a quick representation under these circumstances that we've already described. So for me to have a a normal toe touch under this circumstance, I would have to be able to eccentrically orient the posterior musculature below the level of the trochanter. If I can't do that, then toe touch is going to be limited, but I can still squat and I can still get a good hip flexion measurement, but we're gonna have to look at the competitor strategy that we're looking at. So on the table when we're looking at hip flexion under this circumstance, because you're narrow and because you're anteriorly oriented, You're more likely seeing a posterior orientation of the pelvis and the lumbar spine as you're moving into hip flexion, which is why you're getting such a good hip flexion measurement, but you can't access the toe touch. The squat is going to be a very similar representation. So as I squat, the substitution for the hip range of motion that I need to access as I sit down into the squat is again, it's going to be posterior orientation of the pelvis and the lumbar spine as a unit that's going to allow me to capture that depth. or I've got a unilateral compressive strategy on this side and I'm using it sort of like a hip height cheat as I go through this middle range of the squat which is going to allow me to access some internal rotation and that would be my substitution. So the hip height or a side bend through the trunk is going to provide me that substitution that's going to allow me to look like I have a pretty good representation of a squat. But the fact that you don't have the toe touches, kind of the dead giveaway, that we still have this posterior compressive strategy. Now, from a solution standpoint, like I said, I really like where you're thinking about this in that 30 to 60 degree range, but here's what you're gonna have to do. Because you most likely have some element of concentric orientation with this posterior lower compressive strategy, you're going to have to maintain hip internal rotation prior to the reorientation of the post. So you're going to try to get a posterior orientation. The problem that's going to happen is if you don't do something to maintain hip internal rotation, which would be traditional abduction based on the position that you're describing, What's going to happen is I try to posteriorly orient. What you're going to get is you're going to get the little butt squeezer kind of person. So they've already got some constant orientation here. They're going to magnify that as they try to posteriorly orient. And you're going to get the same substitution that you got on the table with hip flexion and the same substitution that you've got with the squat. And all you're going to do is compress this even more. So what you're going to try to attempt to do is try to utilize hamstring to get posterior orientation. All you're going to do is emphasize this compressive therapy. Now, if you maintain adduction internal rotation during that, then you're actually going to open up this pelvic outlet rather than compress it. And so some of the activities that you might need to do If you're dealing with somebody with a painful situation or a lot of limitation or not a lot of movement experience, then maybe start them in a hook lying position, but you're going to have to put something between their knees to help maintain the internal rotation moment at the hip prior to trying to create that reduction in the anterior orientation. From there if you can bring them to their feet then you're going to use partial squat variations which I just love to death. So this might be some sort of a supported squat so they're going to hold on to an upright and you're going to move them through a partial squat again maintaining the adduction internal rotation. We could use a TRX squat variation here but always maintaining the hip internal rotation. From there you want to build them downward so they can get to a parallel squat without a compensatory strategy. So you'll have to monitor the internal and external rotation of the hip after you do these activities to make sure that you are recapturing position. So once you can maintain internal and external rotation, now you take them out into the gym and and now we're to half kneeling variations, we're in split squat variations, we're able to do step ups with cross connects and then that can move towards something even more dynamic if we've got an athlete in this situation or we're moving towards A marches with cross connects forwards and backwards, A skips, etc. And so we're moving towards a very, very dynamic situation there. But again, I think that it's the way you start this that's going to be most important for you, Brian, is to make sure you maintain the induction internal rotation. But again, I think your foundational strategy is right on. So I hope that helps. If it doesn't, then ask me another question. Ask Bill Hartman at gmail.com. And you guys have a great day and I'll see you later.

If I can't do that, then the toe touch is going to be limited, but I can still squat and I can still get a good hip flexion measurement. However, we're going to have to look at the compensatory strategy that's occurring. So on the table when we're looking at hip flexion under these circumstances, because you're narrow and because you're anteriorly oriented, you're more likely seeing a posterior orientation of the pelvis and the lumbar spine as you're moving into hip flexion, which is why you're getting such a good hip flexion measurement, but you can't access the toe touch. The squat is going to be a very similar representation. So as I squat, the substitution for the hip range of motion that I need to access as I sit down into the squat is again, it's going to be posterior orientation of the pelvis and the lumbar spine as a unit that's going to allow me to capture that depth, or I've got a unilateral compressive strategy on this side and I'm using it sort of like a hip height cheat as I go through this middle range of the squat which is going to allow me to access some internal rotation and that would be my substitution. So the hip height or a side bend through the trunk is going to provide me that substitution that's going to allow me to look like I have a pretty good representation of a squat. But the fact that you don't have the toe touches, kind of the dead giveaway, that we still have this posterior compressive strategy. Now, from a solution standpoint, like I said, I really like where you're thinking about this in that 30 to 60 degree range, but here's what you're going to have to do. Because you most likely have some element of concentric extension with this posterior lower compressive strategy, you're going to have to maintain hip internal rotation prior to the reorientation of the pelvis. So you're going to try to get a posterior orientation. The problem that's going to happen is if you don't do something to maintain hip internal rotation, which would be traditional abduction based on the position that you're describing, what's going to happen is I try to posteriorly orient. What you're going to get is you're going to get the little butt squeezer kind of person. So they've already got some constant extension here. They're going to magnify that as they try to posteriorly orient. And you're going to get the same substitution that you got on the table with hip flexion and the same substitution that you've got with the squat. And all you're going to do is compress this even more. So what you're going to try to attempt to do is try to utilize hamstring to get posterior orientation. All you're going to do is emphasize this compressive strategy.

Now, if you maintain adduction internal rotation during that, then you're actually going to open up this pelvic outlet rather than compress it. And so some of the activities that you might need to do, if you're dealing with somebody with a painful situation or a lot of limitation or not a lot of movement experience, then maybe start them in a hook lying position, but you're going to have to put something between their knees to help maintain the internal rotation moment at the hip prior to trying to create that reduction in the anterior orientation. From there, if you can bring them to their feet, then you're going to use partial squat variations which I just love to death. So this might be some sort of a supported squat so they're going to hold on to an upright and you're going to move them through a partial squat again maintaining the adduction internal rotation. We could use a TRX squat variation here, but always maintaining the hip internal rotation. From there, you want to build them downward so they can get to a parallel squat without a compensatory strategy. So you'll have to monitor the internal and external rotation of the hip after you do these activities to make sure that you are recapturing position. So once you can maintain internal and external rotation, now you take them out into the gym and now we're to half kneeling variations, we're in split squat variations, we're able to do step ups with cross connects and then that can move towards something even more dynamic if we've got an athlete in this situation or we're moving towards A marches with cross connects forwards and backwards, A skips, etc. And so we're moving towards a very, very dynamic situation there. But again, I think that it's the way you start this that's going to be most important for you, Brian, is to make sure you maintain the adduction internal rotation. But again, I think your foundational strategy is right on.

Real quick, let me point you to some stuff that's on my YouTube channel that will be helpful. So there's already discussions about the propulsive phase on YouTube. So check those videos out. There's also videos on yielding and overcoming actions which will be very important because we're going to talk about that a little bit in this context. And then I would also look at some of the hip rotation videos as well. And so those will guide, oh curve running is also might be of interest to you since we're going to talk about running versus walking. There's some cool stuff in there as well. But anyway, let's dig into this. So we're going to have some stuff that's in common and we're going to have some things that are different because we got differences in viscoelastic tissue behavior. And to be honest with you, we could probably talk a whole week about this. And I'm not talking about a whole week of these kind of videos. I'm talking about like literally a whole week about this because there is a lot of detail that we could get into. But let's just consider some of the commonalities because we're talking about two forms of locomotion. So they're going to have aspects that are very, very similar. So both walking and running, regardless of speed, we're going to have a max propulsive base. So this is a point where we're going to be applying maximum force into the ground. The cool thing about that is that under almost all circumstances that that position of the foot is going to be the same and so the max propulsive foot it's actually when the heel breaks from the ground so it's not like way up here um it's actually right where the where the heel breaks the ground and so when we're talking about walking we're going to we're going to move through ankle rocker the heel is going to come up if we're talking about sprinting we're coming down from the ground And as we apply force to the ground, the heel is just going to barely miss the ground. It's going to stay slightly above the ground. So we're talking about the same propulsive position of the foot regardless of whether we're talking about any form of locomotion in regards to two feet on the ground kind of a thing. So that's kind of cool, which is really helpful. The ground contact, regardless of running speed or walking, is always going to be slightly in front of the center of gravity. This actually has to happen. So there's actually a little bit of a breaking force, even at top speed running. Because what we have to be able to do is we actually have to be able to create the compressive strategy with ground contact that stores the energy to release it, whether we're walking or running. Now obviously at very high speeds that distance in front of the center of gravity needs to be minimized because we want to minimize the breaking force to run really really fast but it still has to happen otherwise we don't get the compression and expansion that's associated with the the storage and release of energy. The pelvis is still going to move through its inhalation and exhalation bias but obviously the faster we run the faster that's going to occur and actually the excursion is going to be limited and much more biased so the faster we go the more we're going to be biased towards an exhalation strategy and so So now let's go deep into some differences. So walking has a longer period of time between ground contact and max propulsion compared to running. So what this means is that the forces are going to be dissipated over a much longer period of time because of the slower rate of locomotion. We need a longer delay in the propulsive strategy so we can swing the other leg out in front of us so we don't fall on our face. So running has a much shorter period of time, regardless of what running speed we're talking about. There's a shorter period of time between ground contact and max propulsion. At top speed, the elite sprinters, they'll hit ground contact as brief as 0.08 seconds. So it's nearly instantaneous as to how they're landing, which again, it's going to lend us to trying to understand, okay, what is this hip or pelvis actually doing at the point of ground contact and why we have such a strong bias. We still need a delay to swing the other leg through, but it's going to be very brief. One of the coolest things about walking versus running for me is just the behavior of viscoelastic tissue. We're talking about differences in force. There are seven components of force that influence the viscoelastic tissue. Tissue behavior. So we got magnitude, location, direction, duration, frequency, variability, and rate. So I can only say I'm in that order, but there's seven of them. But we're going to talk primarily about the rate-related issue because that's the easiest one that we can visualize with walking versus running because we're dealing with a time constraint. So the higher rate of loading, the higher the rate of loading, so the faster we load tissues, the stiffer that they're going to behave, the harder they become to deform But when we do deform them, they can store a heck of a lot more energy and therefore they can release a lot more energy, which is what we see at higher running speeds. But we also see a lot of cool stuff like stress fractures and tissue related issues that are associated with these high forces over longer periods of time. So if you want to start a great business, what I would suggest you do is you want to work with runners because those people are going to experience a lot of tissue loading over short periods of time. Again, if they're exposed to longer durations, they're going to accumulate a lot more of these issues. At the reduced rate of loading when we see with walking, the tissues are less stiff. We're gonna see a lot more yielding action associated with that because again, we have to dissipate those forces over a much longer period of time and that's gonna help slow us down as we walk. So again, the yielding strategy provides us that delay that's necessary to hold the center of gravity back so we can get the other leg out in front of us. So again, we're talking about rate-related issues here. The faster we move, so whether we walk faster or run, we're gonna see a reduction in the amount of rotation that's available to us. So we've got a time constraint that's associated with this for sure, because again, we have to consider the time from ground contact to max propulsion. So when we're walking, we're gonna land in a fair amount of external rotation. We're gonna move through internal rotation through that max propulsive phase, and then we're gonna go back to external rotation. Well, if we're running at top speed, especially, we're landing it at almost immediate max propulsion. So the amount of rotation that we have one available to us because we don't have time for that, it's gonna be a very, very quick internal rotation that's gonna be associated with that. So this is why we're gonna see biases in runners like the anti-orientation, the pelvis gets us closer to that internal rotation moment that we need at max propulsion. So that's why every sprinter kind of looks the same in that regard. It's because it's just a trained bias that allows them to perform something very, very quickly. So in a nutshell, walking and running are going to demonstrate some very, very similar characteristics because it's still locomotion. We still have to be able to propel ourselves against gravity, move ourselves forward. So again, we're going to have a max propulsion. But the rate at which we would see any form of bias occur is going to be different. The ranges of motion that we're exposed to are going to be a little bit different. The breathing strategy is going to be biased a little bit differently. And certainly the tissue behavior is going to be a little bit different. So again, I would point you towards the yielding and overcoming strategy video to get a little bit of understanding about that. Because at the higher rates of letting, we're going to see a lot more overcoming action. at the slower rates we're gonna see a more yielding action. So David, I hope that kind of points you in a little bit in the right direction.

Now obviously at very high speeds that distance in front of the center of gravity needs to be minimized because we want to minimize the breaking force to run really really fast but it still has to happen otherwise we don't get the compression and expansion that's associated with the the storage and release of energy. the pelvis is still going to move through its inhalation and exhalation bias but obviously the faster we run the faster that's going to occur and actually the excursion is going to be limited and much more biased so the faster we go the more we're going to be biased towards an exhalation strategy and so So now let's go deep into some differences. So walking has a longer period of time between ground contact and max propulsion compared to running. So what this means is that the forces are going to be dissipated over a much longer period of time because of the slower rate of locomotion. We need a longer delay in the propulsive strategy so we can swing the other leg out in front of us so we don't fall on our face. So running has a much shorter period of time, regardless of what running speed we're talking about. There's a shorter period of time between ground contact and max propulsion. At top speed, the elite sprinters, they'll hit ground contact as brief as 0.08 seconds. So it's nearly instantaneous as to how they're landing, which again, it's going to lend us to trying to understand, okay, what is this hip or pelvis actually doing at the point of ground contact and why we have such a strong bias. We still need a delay to swing the other leg through, but it's going to be very brief. One of the coolest things about walking versus running for me is just the behavior of viscoelastic tissue. We're talking about differences in force. There are seven components of force that influence the viscoelastic tissue. Tissue behavior. So we got magnitude, location, direction, duration, frequency, variability, and rate. So I can only say I'm in that order, but there's seven of them. But we're going to talk primarily about the rate-related issue because that's the easiest one that we can visualize with walking versus running because we're dealing with a time constraint. So the higher rate of loading, the higher the rate of loading, so the faster we load tissues, the stiffer that they're going to behave, the harder they become to deform But when we do deform them, they can store a heck of a lot more energy and therefore they can release a lot more energy, which is what we see at higher running speeds. But we also see a lot of cool stuff like stress fractures and tissue related issues that are associated with these high forces over longer periods of time. So if you want to start a great business,

What I would suggest you do is you want to work with runners because those people are going to experience a lot of tissue loading over short periods of time. Again, if they're exposed to longer durations, they're going to accumulate a lot more of these issues. At the reduced rate of loading when we see with walking, the tissues are less stiff. We're going to see a lot more yielding action associated with that because again, we have to dissipate those forces over a much longer period of time and that's going to help slow us down as we walk. So again, the yielding strategy provides us that delay that's necessary to hold the center of gravity back so we can get the other leg out in front of us. So again, we're talking about rate-related issues here. The faster we move, so whether we walk faster or run, we're going to see a reduction in the amount of rotation that's available to us. So we've got a time constraint that's associated with this for sure, because again, we have to consider the time from ground contact to max propulsion. So when we're walking, we're going to land in a fair amount of external rotation. We're going to move through internal rotation through that max propulsive phase, and then we're going to go back to external rotation. Well, if we're running at top speed, especially, we're landing it at almost immediate max propulsion. So the amount of rotation that we have one available to us because we don't have time for that, it's going to be a very, very quick internal rotation that's going to be associated with that. So this is why we're going to see biases in runners like the anti-orientation, the pelvis gets us closer to that internal rotation moment that we need at max propulsion. So that's why every sprinter kind of looks the same in that regard. It's because it's just a trained bias that allows them to perform something very, very quickly. So in a nutshell, walking and running are going to demonstrate some very, very similar characteristics because it's still locomotion. We still have to be able to propel ourselves against gravity, move ourselves forward. So again, we're going to have a max propulsion. But the rate at which we would see any form of bias occur is going to be different. The ranges of motion that we're exposed to are going to be a little bit different. The breathing strategy is going to be biased a little bit differently. And certainly the tissue behavior is going to be a little bit different. So again, I would point you towards the yielding and overcoming strategy video to get a little bit of understanding about that. Because at the higher rates of loading, we're going to see a lot more overcoming action. At the slower rates we're going to see a more yielding action.

If I didn't cover something that you wanted to talk about, please ask me another question at askbillhartman@gmail.com and I will see you guys tomorrow. Good morning. Happy Wednesday. I have neuro coffee in hand and it is perfect. All right, today's Wednesday, that means tomorrow is Thursday, 6 a.m. Please join us for the Coffee and Coaches Conference call. We usually have a great group of people that come together and we talk about all things professional, technical, and every once in a while we grab and complain just to get some things off our chest, so it's all very, very helpful. But it's a great time. So again, please join us for that. I've got a squat hinge question. These questions seem to be very, very popular. People seem to have a lot of questions as to the distinguishing characteristics. And this is actually a pretty good one from Mihail. Mihail says, can you please go over what's going on in the lower posterior rib cage during squatting and hinging? I used to think that hinging will compress the posterior rib cage and squatting will expand it. For example, when performing Goblet Squat with heels elevated, here at us below 60 degrees, the lower rib cage will expand. But you've also said that during hinging the posterior lower rib cage expands. My guess is since the rib cage moves the pelvis there'll be more posterior lower expansion during a hinge. And because it's a new thing, but that contradicts the hinge being more of an exhalation based activity. Thank you for the great info. So the last part of your question gives us an opportunity to really clarify a couple of things that we haven't talked about probably in a long time that is kind of important in regards to just normal breathing as to where we drive some of this expansion. And so I'm gonna bring in the skeleton to give us a little bit of a representation here. So obviously when we breathe in the diaphragm descends and theoretically we're gonna get this sort of uniform expansion throughout the lung because the gravity is gonna fill from the bottom up if we're standing upright And so that's kind of like this normal representation. But when we talk about concerted muscle activity, in addition to the diaphragm that's going to promote thorax expansion, this is why we talk about dorsal rostral expansion a great deal because concerted muscle activity of these intercostals is also going to promote this upper posterior expansion. We're going to get the up pump panel. So the parasternal intercostals, also inhalation bias to create this expansion. But in doing so, We have to consider what's happening in this posterior lower aspect that you mentioned because it is kind of interesting when we talk about squatting versus hinging.

So when we talk about posterior lower, we're looking at the inferior angle of the scapula down to about T10, because that's where the bottom of the lung actually rests in most circumstances. If we talk about the same representation in the pelvis, we're talking about the lower aspect of the sacrum and the coccyx. That's how far down we're talking about now. The cool thing here is we can use my archetypes to represent the two extremes of a hinge versus a squat because we do have a bias by structure that's going to help us identify this representation. So if we talk about someone that is a wide infrastructural angle, their bias is going to be towards an exhalation strategy by design. With the wide ISA, we're going to see much less expansion in the upper thorax. So dorsal rostrum is going to be biased towards an exhalation strategy, and the sternum is going to be biased towards an exhalation strategy. But because of the shape of the diaphragm as it descends in a wide ISA, we're going to see this posterior lower expansion as a compensatory strategy. So we're biased towards an exhalation strategy, which would nutate the sacrum and the coccyx together. As I move into this hinging pattern, that's what I'm going to see. We can't just talk about the sacrum; we also have to talk about this posterior lower aspect. If I perform an effective hinge, then I'm going to see the eccentric orientation of this posterior lower glute max. We're just going to allow this full nutation to occur. So it's not just the sacrum; we also have to talk about the coccyx. I do have more of a compressive strategy at the base of the sacrum, and I do have expansion posterior lower. If I go to my narrow archetype, then we're going to reverse gear. So now I'm going to be biased towards AP expansion, with a little bit more compression, which is what we're going to see in the pelvis from a squatting perspective. So we're going to be biased more towards counter-nutation here, which is my inhalation bias, with the base of the sacrum going back.

So now I'm going to be biased towards AP expansion here, a little bit more compression here, which is what we're going to see in the pelvis from a squatting perspective. So we're going to be biased more towards counter-rotation. Here, so this is my inhalation bias, the base of sacrum going back. The relative position of the lower aspect of the sacrum and the coccyx is going to be more compressed, much like the thorax. So again, this is my design for a squatter. Now, let's go to your example. with the heels elevated goblet squat and how we're going to get the relative expansions that we want to see on this posterior aspect of the rib cage and of the pelvis. So if we use a heels elevated goblet squat, what we're going to try to do is we're going to try to bias this early propulsive strategy, which is going to be an inhalation bias. So what we're actually trying to drive here is this dorsal rostral expansion and the counter-rotation at the base of the sacrum, but As I move through the excursion of the squat, what I'm actually trying to do is I'm trying to restore the normal mechanics of the thorax and the pelvis. And so while I'm starting with this dorsal rostral expansion counter-rotation bias, as I move through the excursion of the squat, what I want to see is I start with my counter-rotation as I move through this middle range of hip flexion I want to see the the IR of the of the ilium and I want to see the rotation of the sacrum which again is that posterior lower expansion and then as I go below my sticking point plus or minus 30 degrees then I want to see this this re expansion into the inhalation counter-rotation so we are getting dorsal rostral expansion we are getting the posterior lower expansion under normal circumstances because that's what we're we're trying to achieve is this normal movement of the relative expansions in the posterior rib cage and in the posterior pelvis. The only thing that I would say is that when you start to add load, when we start to impose load, you're going to see an increase in concentric rotations. You're going to see increase in compressive strategies. just because of the need to create this incompressible axial skeleton that they can superimpose load onto. And so now, all bets are off as far as the strategy is concerned and you'll see all sorts of compensatory strategies that may influence your outcome. So please keep that in mind. What I'm talking about prior to Imposing Load is the fact that what we want to see from a normal mechanical standpoint. So Mihail, I hope that helps you understand this to a small degree.

If you have any other questions, please let me know at askbillhartman@gmail.com and I will see you guys on the Coffee and Coaches conference call tomorrow morning. Good morning. Happy Thursday. I have neuro coffee in hand and it is perfect. Welcome to the Coffee and Coaches conference call. Everybody's going to present with a little bit different representation of how they take information in, how they process it, and then how it's demonstrated through our behaviors, right? And so some people don't have the same tools, right? I mean, all you gotta do, if you look at everybody's picture on the screen—do you have the gallery view up? Everybody's picture on the screen, okay? So here's what I want you to do. Grace, I want you to look at everybody's picture for a second, and I want you to tell me who the strongest person on this call is, like physically strong—the one who could pick the most weight off the ground. Grace: No idea. Bill Hartman: Take a look. Grace: Oh, maybe a little guess.

No idea. Oh, maybe a little guess. OK, why? Why? Is it because of his dashing hairstyle? Yeah, exactly. So you see the neck, and you immediately go, wow, that neck goes on a really big, strong guy, right? OK. So literally, just by looking at someone, you made a judgment call, right? And you're probably right, right? Because again, the muscle mass kind of goes with the territory. But again, you just have to respect the fact that everybody's going to be a little bit different. And so they're going to process information a little bit differently, a little bit more slowly. In many cases, so if I have somebody that has what I perceive to be sort of one end of the movement spectrum capabilities, then I do everything slower. I might need to create a vocabulary for them because if they don't spend much time being aware of movement and I need to teach them how to do that, then that's where we get this difference between sort of like this internal, external queuing kind of a thing, right? because the internal cues are designed to provide a sensation that most people may not be able to acquire themselves. Why do you do manual therapy? Well, you do manual therapy to give them a sensation that they cannot acquire themselves, right? So again, we have lots of tools. So we have physical contact. We have verbal cues. We have movement-based activities. We have awareness. Drills and things like that that we would use and we use them all for everyone to varying degrees. Some people just need a much stronger influence in one of those than the other where you take a high level athlete And literally you just say, go over and do that. And they immediately know what to do. Like they just intuitively know what to do because their movement intelligence is so high. And then you take the guy that's been sitting behind a desk as an accountant for 25 years that can multiply three, four digit numbers in his head in 10 seconds. And we don't appreciate that, but we knock him for not being a great mover, right? Because that's what we do. And we have to approach that just a little bit differently. We have to respect what people are bringing to the table, so to speak, right? And again, it's just sometimes I got to go slow. Sometimes I can go fast. Sometimes I got to develop the movement in vocabulary so we can communicate because they don't know what we're talking about, right? And then don't ever And we all do this, but don't ever, don't ever belittle someone, even internally. Like when you're giving your best cues and everything, you think you just knocked into the park and they just go, what? Because they just don't have that understanding, right? So we just got to find a way to do that.

Take a look. Oh, maybe a little guess. OK, why? Is it because of his dashing hairstyle? Yeah, exactly. So you see the neck, and you immediately go, wow, that neck goes on a really big, strong guy, right? OK. So literally, just by looking at someone, you made a judgment call, right? And you're probably right, right? Because again, the muscle mass kind of goes with the territory. But again, you just have to respect the fact that everybody's going to be a little bit different. And so they're going to process information a little bit differently, a little bit more slowly. In many cases, so if I have somebody that has what I perceive to be sort of one end of the movement spectrum capabilities, then I do everything slower. I might need to create a vocabulary for them because if they don't spend much time being aware of movement and I need to teach them how to do that, then that's where we get this difference between sort of like this internal, external queuing kind of a thing, right? because the internal cues are designed to provide a sensation that most people may not be able to acquire themselves. Why do you do manual therapy? Well, you do manual therapy to give them a sensation that they cannot acquire themselves, right? So again, we have lots of tools. So we have physical contact. We have verbal cues. We have movement-based activities. We have awareness. Drills and things like that that we would use and we use them all for everyone to varying degrees. Some people just need a much stronger influence in one of those than the other where you take a high level athlete And literally you just say, go over and do that. And they immediately know what to do. Like they just intuitively know what to do because their movement intelligence is so high. And then you take the guy that's been sitting behind a desk as an accountant for 25 years that can multiply three, four digit numbers in his head in 10 seconds. And we don't appreciate that, but we knock him for not being a great mover, right? Because that's what we do. And we have to approach that just a little bit differently. We have to respect what people are bringing to the table, so to speak, right? And again, it's just sometimes I got to go slow. Sometimes I can go fast. Sometimes I got to develop the movement in vocabulary so we can communicate because they don't know what we're talking about, right? And then don't ever And we all do this, but don't ever, don't ever belittle someone, even internally. Like when you're giving your best cues and everything, you think you just knocked into the park and they just go, what? Because they just don't have that understanding, right? So we just got to find a way to do that. And that is one of the levels of complexity of working with complex humans, right? We just have to figure out those ways to do that, right? So again, you just slow down and you just find a way. And one of the conversations that I have during the subjective is I always try to find out what people's background was when they were younger. So I say, what sports did you play in school? What was your favorite game? Or all that kind of stuff because that gives me an idea of a frame of reference. So if I get a guy that comes in And he goes, oh, I've done jiu jitsu for 25 years, right? And so now I have a frame of reference. So now when I'm teaching him a hip shift or something like that, or I'm trying to get him to feel something that's back, I go, now it's like, because when you lay them on their side, it feels like a hip escape and jiu jitsu to them. And so I say, now do your right hip escape. And they go, oh, so that's what, OK, now they know what it feels like. So you have to create a frame of reference. So again, you try to find that if you can. And then there's cases where everything just is like the uphill battle where, oh, yeah, I've never played a sport in my life. I've never really moved. I was a sickly kid. I had a lot of allergies. You're gonna have these scenarios that come up. You just, and again, I hate to default to this, but you just sort of find your way, right? But always respect what they're bringing to the table because they do have some, you know, probably specialized intelligence in some way, shape, or form. We just have to kind of figure out how we make that connection. So let's just talk about analogous structures for a second. So when you're looking at situations where you're looking for the analogous structure, you have to look at it from an embryological standpoint. So things that are derived from the same place, that's one possibility. The physical structures are the same. Right. The movement behaviors are the same. OK. And so, so when we look at, when we look at these things, that's how you identify analogous because they don't, they don't all look the same. And so that's what you're looking for. Right? So the point of confusion, when I say that there's five muscles in the glute max, I don't care what you call it. I'm just looking at it behaviorally. And it's like, where else? It does so many things, right? They just said, they just looked at it from a distance 2300 years ago. And the Greek guy looks at the other Greek guy and he goes, what do you want to call that? He goes, I don't know. It's a big one.

Oh, maybe a little guess. OK, why? Is it because of his dashing hairstyle? Yeah, exactly. So you see the neck, and you immediately go, wow, that neck goes on a really big, strong guy, right? OK. So literally, just by looking at someone, you made a judgment call, right? And you're probably right, right? Because again, the muscle mass kind of goes with the territory. But again, you just have to respect the fact that everybody's going to be a little bit different. And so they're going to process information a little bit differently, a little bit more slowly. In many cases, so if I have somebody that has what I perceive to be sort of one end of the movement spectrum capabilities, then I do everything slower. I might need to create a vocabulary for them because if they don't spend much time being aware of movement and I need to teach them how to do that, then that's where we get this difference between sort of like this internal, external queuing kind of a thing, right? because the internal cues are designed to provide a sensation that most people may not be able to acquire themselves. Why do you do manual therapy? Well, you do manual therapy to give them a sensation that they cannot acquire themselves, right? So again, we have lots of tools. So we have physical contact. We have verbal cues. We have movement-based activities. We have awareness. Drills and things like that that we would use and we use them all for everyone to varying degrees. Some people just need a much stronger influence in one of those than the other where you take a high level athlete And literally you just say, go over and do that. And they immediately know what to do. Like they just intuitively know what to do because their movement intelligence is so high. And then you take the guy that's been sitting behind a desk as an accountant for 25 years that can multiply three, four digit numbers in his head in 10 seconds. And we don't appreciate that, but we knock him for not being a great mover, right? Because that's what we do. And we have to approach that just a little bit differently. We have to respect what people are bringing to the table, so to speak, right? And again, it's just sometimes I got to go slow. Sometimes I can go fast. Sometimes I got to develop the movement in vocabulary so we can communicate because they don't know what we're talking about, right? And then don't ever And we all do this, but don't ever, don't ever belittle someone, even internally. Like when you're giving your best cues and everything, you think you just knocked into the park and they just go, what? Because they just don't have that understanding, right? So we just got to find a way to do that.

OK, why? Is it because of his dashing hairstyle? Exactly. So you see the neck and you immediately think, wow, that neck goes on a really big, strong guy, right? Literally, just by looking at someone, you made a judgment call, and you're probably right because the muscle mass kind of goes with the territory. But again, you have to respect the fact that everybody's going to be a little bit different. They're going to process information a little bit differently, more slowly in many cases. So if I have somebody that has what I perceive to be sort of one end of the movement spectrum capabilities, then I do everything slower. I might need to create a vocabulary for them because if they don't spend much time being aware of movement and I need to teach them how to do that, that's where we get this difference between internal and external queuing. Internal cues are designed to provide a sensation that most people may not be able to acquire themselves. Why do you do manual therapy? You do manual therapy to give them a sensation that they cannot acquire themselves. So again, we have lots of tools. We have physical contact, verbal cues, movement-based activities, awareness drills, and things like that that we use for everyone to varying degrees. Some people just need a much stronger influence in one of those than others. You take a high-level athlete and literally just say, go over and do that, and they immediately know what to do because their movement intelligence is so high. Then you take the guy who's been sitting behind a desk as an accountant for 25 years who can multiply three or four-digit numbers in his head in 10 seconds. We don't appreciate that, but we knock him for not being a great mover because that's what we do. We have to approach that just a little bit differently. We have to respect what people are bringing to the table. Sometimes I have to go slow. Sometimes I can go fast. Sometimes I have to develop movement vocabulary so we can communicate because they don't know what we're talking about. And don't ever belittle someone, even internally. When you're giving your best cues and think you knocked it out of the park, and they just go, what? Because they just don't have that understanding. We just have to find a way to do that.

And that is one of the levels of complexity of working with complex humans. We just have to figure out those ways to do that. So again, you just slow down and you just find a way. And one of the conversations that I have during the subjective is I always try to find out what people's background was when they were younger. So I say, what sports did you play in school? What was your favorite game? Or all that kind of stuff because that gives me an idea of a frame of reference. So if I get a guy that comes in and he goes, oh, I've done jiu jitsu for 25 years. And so now I have a frame of reference. So now when I'm teaching him a hip shift or something like that, or I'm trying to get him to feel something that's back, I go, now it's like, because when you lay them on their side, it feels like a hip escape and jiu jitsu to them. And so I say, now do your right hip escape. And they go, oh, so that's what, OK, now they know what it feels like. So you have to create a frame of reference. So again, you try to find that if you can. And then there's cases where everything just is like the uphill battle where, oh, yeah, I've never played a sport in my life. I've never really moved. I was a sickly kid. I had a lot of allergies. You're gonna have these scenarios that come up. You just, and again, I hate to default to this, but you just sort of find your way. But always respect what they're bringing to the table because they do have some, you know, probably specialized intelligence in some way, shape, or form. We just have to kind of figure out how we make that connection. So let's just talk about analogous structures for a second. So when you're looking at situations where you're looking for the analogous structure, you have to look at it from an embryological standpoint. So things that are derived from the same place, that's one possibility. The physical structures are the same. The movement behaviors are the same. So when we look at these things, that's how you identify analogous because they don't all look the same. And so that's what you're looking for. So the point of confusion, when I say that there's five muscles in the glute max, I don't care what you call it. I'm just looking at it behaviorally. And it's like, where else? It does so many things, right? They just said, they just looked at it from a distance 2300 years ago. And the Greek guy looks at the other Greek guy and he goes, what do you want to call that? He goes, I don't know. It's a big one. Let's call it Maximus. Awesome. What they weren't doing, they weren't looking at it from a behavioral standpoint. If they would have done that, they would have said, oh, this part does this, this part does this, this part does this, and this part does that. If they would have done that, we would have a totally different frame of reference for that musculature, and it would have a totally different name. Actually, it wouldn't have a name. There would be five different names.

Let's call it Maximus. Awesome. Right? What they weren't doing, they weren't looking at it from a behavioral standpoint. If they would have done that, they would have said, oh, this part does this, this part does this, this part does this, and this part does that. If they would have done that, we would have a totally different frame of reference for that musculature, and it would have a totally different name. Actually, it wouldn't have a name. There would be five different names.

Got another question that's kind of not pertaining to that.

Well, I mean, it is your show. Let's go.

You think a class in method acting would serve most trainers and physical therapists and coaches well?

You just warmed my heart. So here you go. You ready? The summer before physical therapy school, I took an acting class because I am horrible in interpersonal situations. I basically threw myself to the lions. You have to do improv, and I had to. I've actually been paid three times to be an actor. But it's not a bad idea just because of that. It's just a matter of getting comfortable with the discomfort. Have you ever done anything like that before?

The summer before physical therapy school, I took an acting class. I was horrible in interpersonal situations. So I basically threw myself to the lions. You have to do improv. I've actually been paid three times to be an actor. It's not a bad idea just because of that. The discomfort of trying to interact with somebody. I don't believe in lying to people and I don't think that you should fake anything. It's just a matter of getting comfortable with the discomfort.

The summer before physical therapy school, I took an acting class. I was horrible in interpersonal situations, so I basically threw myself to the lions. You have to do improv, and I actually had to do it. I've been paid three times to be an actor, but that's not why it's a good idea. The point is getting comfortable with the discomfort of interacting with people. I don't believe in lying to people or faking anything—it's just about tolerating discomfort. Have you ever done anything like that before?

I just have a really close friend that's been to acting school. And through him, any discussion we ever have always gets brought to acting from his perspective. So I'll tell him something about coaching and how I did this, and then he'll say, 'Dude, that was just like acting.' He would relate it to his world. We've been buddies for a long time.

Right.

And we've been buddies. Yeah.

Yeah, no, but it again, you don't have to take an acting class per se, but it does help to gain that level of interaction. So you think about like an internship is a lot like that. All you gotta do is have an intern around for like three or four months and then you see the evolution of their behavior where the personality is totally hidden. They're very, very quiet. Unless they've had coaching experience in the past or they have this gigantic personality that walks in the door, you're gonna see this evolution where they're slowly sort of, as they say, come out of their shell. Good morning. Happy Friday. I have no more coffee in hand and it is perfect. Okay. It's been a great week. Today's Friday, we're going to wrap up the week with a really good Q&A from Phillip. Phillip with an F. Phillip says, hope you're doing well. I was wondering if excessive, whatever that means, neck training can lead to difficulties in nose breathing. I've found that to be the case with myself. I took up wrestling again a couple months ago and we started doing weighted neck flexions and extensions. Keep up the Q&A please. It is gold. Well, thank you Phillip for that. I think there might be some stuff here that we can unpack for you that may be useful. So let's dig into this and see what comes up. A couple of things under any circumstance when we're talking about increasing force production, no matter what we're doing from a strength training standpoint, we're going to be using an exhalation strategy so that's how we produce high force and so under those circumstances we're going to trap air we're going to squeeze it and we're going to use some form of compressive strategy and so neck training is no different. Couple things that we need to understand about the pressure management in the neck is that the influence of the pressures from the thorax influence the pressures that are going to be in the upper airway. So the upper airway is gonna change shape just like the thorax does. And so breathing rates and flow mechanics are gonna be influenced here because of that shape change. And so just by changing your breathing rate the volume of air that you're bringing in through your nose can alter the flow mechanics. So we have laminar flow, which is sort of like the smooth type of flow where it's easily flowing through the airway. And then we have turbulent flow, which can actually increase the sensation of nasal resistance. And so the way that I would compare this, if you just took a nice quiet breath in that you couldn't hear and then compared that to an aggressive sniff, as if you were trying to smell something, so the reason that the turbulence increases when you sniff is because we want to actually smell we want to actually try to get a sense of what the odor is and the turbulent flow actually allows us to maintain the air in the airway where we do sense the smell. But when you think about aggressive activities like wrestling or weight training, we're probably using turbulent flow mechanics quite a bit. And so maybe you're a little bit more sensitive in that regard. And so you get that sense of nasal resistance. When you take your neck through flexion and extension, there's also a shape change that takes place in the pharynx. And so that's the airway behind the nasal passage, behind the oral passage and down into the throat. And so there's sort of a sweet spot where that airway is open the most. And so if I go into an extreme in range extension, I will end up compressing the airway as I bring my head through. And while I'm still extended, then the airway is gonna stay open. And then as I go into the extreme flexion, I'm actually going to compress the airway so again it depends on your neck position that you're using as well. There's also a cranial shape change that we might need to consider here. Again, strong exhalation strategies, strong compressive strategies will actually alter the cranial shape into an exhalation position, which can reduce the anterior-posterior diameter of the cranium. And so maybe that narrows your nasopharynx and increases this turbulent airflow like we were talking about before. When we talk about the throat position, we talk a lot about the hyoid and the tongue because it's a great way to identify what strategy people are using in the neck. When we have an elevated hyoid position, the suprahyoid muscles are concentrically oriented. What this does is it pulls the mandible back, which brings the tongue along with it. Then we actually compress that oropharyngeal space. And again, this creates resistance to air flow. And so we always have these consequences that are associated with position. And some of them are actually results of training. So if you're doing a lot of neck training, you're using a lot of compressive strategy. You're increasing, most likely, a lot of concentric orientation above the hyoid. You're gonna elevate that hyoid. And then you're gonna create an airway that compresses from this nice round airway to a nice flat AP airway, which is great for resistance and stability, but probably not so great for breathing mechanics. A couple things that I would say that you probably wanna monitor to make sure that you're not losing this adaptability in your airway shape and mobility is in range shoulder flexion. So in range shoulder flexion is associated with the ability of the lower cervical spine to rotate. So if you lose in range shoulder flexion, you're gonna lose some of that adaptability in the lower cervical spine. So that would be something that you wanna monitor as far as an activity that you might wanna use to sort of offset some of the secondary consequences of the neck strengthening is what I call just lazy rotations. If you lay on your side with your head supported on a pillow and you're just turning your head from side to side with normal quiet nasal breathing, just learning how to turn your head with the lowest energy possible. You can actually reduce some of this concentric orientation and that might help you restore some element of airway adaptability. Worst case scenarios, you may have an oropharyngeal coordination problem that might be resolved with some myofunctional therapy solutions. And some of those activities are very useful as far as tongue positioning, maybe concern. Again, another worst case scenario, maybe you have a palate shaped problem that does not allow you to position your tongue appropriately. So that's something that might be looked at by your dentist to determine whether that's causal in any effect and then also go see your ENT to make sure that you have all structural issues taken care of. So Phillip, I hope that gives you a couple of things to think about and a little bit of understanding about what might be going on. If it doesn't, then please ask me another question at askbillhartmanatgmail.com. Everybody have a great weekend. Enjoy the rest of your Friday. I'll see you guys next week.

As if you were trying to smell something, so the reason that turbulence increases when you sniff is because we actually want to smell; we want to get a sense of what the odor is, and the turbulent flow allows us to maintain the air in the airway where we do sense the smell. But when you think about aggressive activities like wrestling or weight training, we're probably using turbulent flow mechanics quite a bit. And so maybe you're a little bit more sensitive in that regard. And so you get that sense of nasal resistance. When you take your neck through flexion and extension, there's also a shape change that takes place in the pharynx. That's the airway behind the nasal passage, behind the oral passage and down into the throat. So there's sort of a sweet spot where that airway is open the most. And so if I go into an extreme range extension, I will end up compressing the airway as I bring my head through, and while I'm still extended, the airway is going to stay open. And then as I go into extreme flexion, I'm actually going to compress the airway. So again, it depends on your neck position that you're using as well. There's also a cranial shape change that we might need to consider here. Again, strong exhalation strategies, strong compressive strategies will actually alter the cranial shape into an exhalation position, which can reduce the anterior-posterior diameter of the cranium. And so maybe that narrows your nasopharynx and increases this turbulent airflow like we were talking about before. When we talk about the throat position, we talk a lot about the hyoid and the tongue because it's a great way to identify what strategy people are using in the neck. When we have an elevated hyoid position, the suprahyoid muscles are concentrically oriented. What this does is it pulls the mandible back, which brings the tongue along with it. Then we actually compress that oropharyngeal space. And again, this creates resistance to airflow. And so we always have these consequences that are associated with position. And some of them are actually results of training. So if you're doing a lot of neck training, you're using a lot of compressive strategy, you're increasing, most likely, a lot of concentric orientation above the hyoid. You're going to elevate that hyoid and then you're going to create an airway that compresses from this nice round airway to a nice flat anterior-posterior airway, which is great for resistance and stability, but probably not so great for breathing mechanics.

So if you lose in range shoulder flexion, you're gonna lose some of that adaptability in the lower cervical spine. So that would be something that you wanna monitor as far as an activity that you might wanna use to sort of offset some of the secondary consequences of the neck strengthening is what I call just lazy rotations. If you lay on your side with your head supported on a pillow and you're just turning your head from side to side with normal quiet nasal breathing just learning how to turn your head with the lowest energy possible. You can actually reduce some of this concentric orientation and that might help you restore some element of airway adaptability. Worst case scenarios, You may have an organ pharyngeal coordination problem that might be resolved with some myofunctional therapy solutions. And some of those activities are very useful as far as tongue positioning, maybe concern. Again, another worst case scenario, maybe you have a palate shaped problem that does not allow you to position your tongue appropriately. So that's something that might be looked at by your dentist to determine whether that's causal in any effect and then also go see your ENT to make sure that you have all structural issues taken care of. So Phillip, I hope that gives you a couple of things to think about and a little bit of understanding about what might be going on. If it doesn't, then please ask me another question at askbillhartmanatgmail.com. Everybody have a great weekend. Enjoy the rest of your Friday. I'll see you guys next week.