Good morning. Happy Monday. I have neuro coffee in hand and it is perfect. All right, coming up on a very busy Monday, an unusual Monday, but we will get it done. A quick housekeeping item, IFAST University. We have a call today at 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. If you are not a member of IFAST University, please go to ifastuniversity.com, get yourself signed up, and join us for the 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time call. We're going to dig straight into today's Q&A. This was Zhang. Zhang asked a great foundational question in regards to connective tissue behaviors. And so he still has a question in his mind as to how we influence connective tissue behaviors in the relationship to muscle output. And so this is one of the reasons why we have to consider direction of gravity and body position and such because we have internal and external forces that we have to manage. This is going to tune up and tune down motor output, which is also going to influence and tune the connective tissue behaviors. So a great question, Zhang, and like I said, we covered a lot of ground here in a very short period of time. I hope it clarifies this point for a lot of people. Everybody have an outstanding Monday, and I will see you tomorrow.

So I have a series of many questions about muscle activities and connective tissue behaviors.

Is this like an Alex series of questions?

Not. I don't think so. Probably shorter than that. So you talked about in the last week, you talked about with Manuel, at the bottom of the squat. So the anterior pelvic outlet is eccentrically biased until you hit the bottom. Yeah, in the bottom of the squat. Until you hit the bottom. And you said the reduction of the muscle activity will increase the yielding potential of the connective tissue.

Until you hit the bottom.

Until you hit the bottom. And you said the reduction of the muscle activity will increase the yielding potential of the connective tissue.

Reduced motor output. So it's not the orientation of the muscle, it's how many motor units are active.

Okay, I guess that's one of my many questions. Is there a difference between? Do that. Do that.

Okay, look at the angle. See it? Push on it, but don't let the arm move. Okay. Do you feel, do you feel the muscle working harder? Yes. Did you change the joint angle? No. Okay. So you increased the motor output, but there was no orientation change. See the difference? Yeah. So one had more motor units active than the other, but yet the orientation was the same.

Okay. So if I put this concept into practice, when I see someone whose center of gravity is shifted way forward and I lie them down, they will reduce motor output, right? Potentially. Potentially.

That's one of the reasons why you change positions. That's one of the reasons why you might lay someone down to do an activity is because you're taking gravity out of the equation so they don't have to use as much motor output. But that doesn't guarantee that they will reduce the motor output sufficiently.

OK.

So does that mean these are learned behaviors? These are learned behaviors. So I could take somebody that stands in a late propulsive representation, lay them down, and it doesn't guarantee that they're going to go into an early propulsive strategy, right? They can still be utilizing the late propulsive strategy, right? And I still have the interference.

So how would you reduce muscle activity enough to capture the early representations when you lie down. Is it a matter of somebody who's not relaxed enough in that position?

You can look at it that way. I would hesitate to use the relaxed term because if I'm setting someone up and let's just say I'm putting them in a hook lying activity because when they stand up they can't reduce the motor output. So I lay them on their back. So I'm capturing certain sensations that would promote a shape change and muscle activity that would allow me to access the connective tissue behaviors that I want for an early propulsive strategy. Okay, so again, it's a combination of factors. It's like, okay, I got to deal with gravity. I've got forces that are inside of me that I've got to control. I've got forces outside of me that I've got to control. If I can capture the right sensation, so that might be a foot contact, that might be a pelvis contact on the table, right? That might be the way that I inhale and exhale, like all of those things come into play to promote the desired output or behavior. So that's what we're doing is we're trying to provide the appropriate inputs to get the behavior we want. And so all we're doing is manipulating the influences. Some people can do it standing up right away. Some people can't. Some people need manual therapy to feel what we want them to feel so they create the right output.

I wanted to talk about the water balloon concept and how that relates to a joint position and how that relates to center of gravity. A water balloon, if you press one side, fluid shifts to the other side, right?

I'm aware.

Right, yeah. So if you're looking at that in the context of two bones that are on top of each other, if you're compressing one side, the fluid's shifting that way.

I draw this picture all the time, Peter.

So that means that the person's heavier on this side because their bones are getting closer together and their shape overall is changing into that direction.

Yes, so there'd be expansion in the opposing direction. Therefore, compression would increase where you brought your hands closer together. This is a two-dimensional representation of a four-dimensional problem.

Okay.

This is a two-dimensional representation of a four-dimensional problem.

I know, yeah. I just need to keep it simple.

No, I'm with you. That's why we draw flat pictures because it does make it simple. So go ahead.

The person's center of gravity has shifted from my perspective. I'm unsure where it is now.

Okay. You've been on the call the whole time, right? Simple rule. We were just talking with Robbie on the golf swing rule.

Yes.

Simple rule. We were just talking with Robbie on the golf swing rule.

You move in the direction of expansion.