Everything after that is followed through, which is a re-extra rotation of the body to create the appropriate deceleration. And that's where arm velocity can be demonstrated. So again, hopefully that clarifies where this max propulsion actually is. It doesn't mean that we're always gonna hit the optimum maximum propulsion. And so now we're gonna talk about that in regards to some cutting and some curved running if you will so so actually running on a curve which you'll see wide receivers will do these curved runs or you're going to see it in track and field obviously when they have to run to 200 or 400 meters where they're going to run on a curve. And under those circumstances, the inside foot of the curve and the outside foot of the curve are not doing the same thing, but we can relate it to other things that we do see in agility. So let me go to Justin's second question here. He says, I've been interested in the curve sprinting. He came across some information. And he says that they found a more lateral center of pressure relative to the second ray at push-off. And he's talking about the inside foot of the curve. So if you're running a curve to the left, as you would in track and field, we're going to talk about the left foot under these circumstances. And they suggested that one of the limiting factors in curve sprinting performance is the inside leg, because it's been shown to be more affected by the curve than the outside leg. And you want to know how this is going to affect the propulsive strategy under these circumstances, and are there any training considerations? Okay, so inside foot. We have a couple of considerations on the inside foot. The ground contact time is going to be longer. The relative orientation of the rear foot. So they describe it as eversion in the literature. And I'm going to call it the late propulsive foot because what we have is a lack of relative motion between the talus and the calcaneus and so we're going to see a lot of that type of an action on this inside foot. When they're talking about pushing off the lateral aspect, we're going to push off the second, third, fourth and fifth metatarsal relative to the first and the second. So the outside foot is going to push off of these two as they're running the curve. The inside of the foot is going to push off of these two. We have a stronger medial to lateral force through the foot on the inside foot because we have to maintain a centripetal force towards the center of the curve. Otherwise we don't run a curve. We run in a straight line.

So these people can keep showing up for what they do for a living. I wanted to talk a little bit about that so we can talk about some training strategies because I'm sure there's many of you out there that are dealing with kind of the same issue is you want to do really, really well in the gym, you want to perform well in your sport. And so there's always the consequence that's associated with trying to raise performance. And so let's talk about how we're going to structure things and how we're going to do that. For those of you living under a rock, the ISA is this little angle right here at the bottom of the rib cage that we use as a proxy measure for the design and structure of your skeleton and then certain behaviors that are associated with that and then certain consequences that are associated with training or rehabilitation. And so with the ISA strategy, so this is our exhaled axial skeleton with a compensatory inhalation strategy that's superimposed on top of it, thus this physical presentation. But because we are dealing with a bias towards exhalation, as we try to drive performance, we are actually reinforcing what these people are genetically pre-designed to be good at. And so we always have to be careful because we can take things too far, too quickly, and then we sacrifice something else. And so what we wanna make sure is that when we're talking about performance, we have a well-defined intention when we're talking about it. So I want this person to be able to do such and such for my performance standpoint and then what activities are gonna be supportive of that. And so again, in most cases, in most cases of force production, we're going to be talking about exhalation based activities. So there's always a forceful exhalation strategy that is superimposed on top of that activity, the stronger the exhalation strategy, the greater my force production. And again, because of the bias, as we move towards higher and higher levels of performance, if we don't monitor things that we would associate with health or skill level, then obviously we're going to have detrimental secondary consequences for that. So we always want to determine what our key performance indicators are going to be. So what are the things that we cannot sacrifice? in regards to performance and so if we were talking about say a golfer and we want to increase his long drive capabilities well obviously that's a force production issue but we also don't want to sacrifice his ability to turn adjust his swing based on any number of influence that are associated with things from uneven ground to obstacles and such. If we're talking about a baseball pitcher obviously we want to increase their their velocity which again is a force producing need but I don't want to sacrifice ranges of motion that that may be essential for him to be able to perform without a compensatory strategy that would eventually load a tissue and result in an injury as well. We also consider things that we think about like normal behaviors. Okay, how's your sleep? How's your ability to focus? Are you making progress in the gym or are you plateaued or stagnated? So again, it's not just skill. It's not just ranges of motion. It's all of these behaviors that underlie this.

Because the behavior of synovial joints is really important to understand, especially with any exercise prescription, but especially with things like these. When this type of activity is useful, it does have utility, and it's usually because of the exact reason that you state: we're actually capturing relative motions. So I think it's been misguided that there's strengthening going on. And I won't deny that there's potential for hypertrophy and force production and things like that. But I don't think that these activities are remotely important for such things because from a load perspective, there's not a whole lot of overloading going on here. But what there is is a lot of coordinated activity that becomes incredibly useful to recapture normal synovial joint function. So we need to start thinking about how that works. So let's just touch on that briefly. When we talk about any synovial joint, they are filled with synovial fluid. So we're just going to call that water for the sake of argument. And that water is incompressible. And so for a synovial joint to move through its normal excursion, I have to be able to create pressure in certain areas so the volume will shift in certain directions to allow movement to occur. So let's use an elbow as an example. If I compress the front side of my elbow, I create pressure here, the volume moves to the backside of the elbow, and that allows me to bend the elbow. If I put pressure here, I extend the elbow, the volume goes this way, and I can extend the elbow. So all synovial joints behave the same way. And so the muscles that are the closest to the joint, and they're actually attached to the joint capsules, they are the pressure manipulators. So they are the ones that are moving the fluid volumes that allows all of this motion to occur. So if we're doing rotator cuff strengthening exercises—and I have to throw the air quotes in there because again, I'm not looking at it from that perspective at all—what we're actually doing is restoring the ability to move the humerus relative to the scapula and the scapula relative to the humerus and the scapula relative to the thorax and any number of things that we have to talk about. So if we look at this from a load perspective, if you look at the typical prescriptions for retraining the rotator cuff as it is in the literature, everything is based on a very, very low load and for very good reason because if we use higher loads, we tend to reduce the relative motion capabilities.

I talk about experience a lot because I think it's very valuable, but we always have to understand that it's not just one individual's experience that we can utilize to determine whether something is useful or effective because of the way that the outliers impact things. So if I have an extreme capability that I'm able to demonstrate because of my physical structure or some genetic capability, it's fascinating to look at. It's interesting. It actually may be useful in guiding us in a direction, but because it is based on the individual himself and their unique capabilities, we cannot use that as a standard of anything. Like I said, it might provide us with some information that might be useful at some point in time, but we can't rely on it as an absolute. Everything that we talk about from a health perspective, so we're talking about like healthy knees, healthy ankles, etc., this is all multifactorial. There are so many potential influences. And a lot of times these things are presented as this is the one thing that you need, and it is rarely one thing, because we have this massive interaction. I'm always talking about like even during treatment. I really don't know why people get better, but what I am capable of doing is narrowing probabilities to determine what might be the best intervention under these circumstances for this individual in this context. So we have to narrow these things down in that way. But again, we can't say that, oh, it's this one thing that's going to make this massive amount of difference. It is possible that it is. It's just really, really rare. So again, this is one of those filters that we have to run things through. When you're looking at some of these extremes, so I actually looked some of this stuff up and I actually looked at it so I would be able to speak minimally intelligently about this. If you look at the way some of these people are accessing these end ranges of motion, this is about as idiosyncratic as it gets. So I was looking at one gentleman who has this extreme amount of knee flexion. He has a very, very deep squat, but the way that he accesses his deep squat under most circumstances would be considered a compensatory strategy. But if you look at the way that he does it, he also has two things that are very unique to him. So he has an anteverted hip and he has a twist in his femur. And this is actually one of the ways that he is actually capable of accessing these extreme ranges of motion. So if you are one of those people that actually have these same capabilities, you might be able to do what he does and you might actually find it beneficial under some circumstance. But for the people that don't have these little idiosyncratic elements in their anatomy, they will merely be frustrated in their inability to actually access these movements or positions. So again, we have to consider how this works. It's always going to be an n equals one scenario. That's why we work off of principles and we apply these principles to the individual and we work through progression to determine what would be best for this person in these circumstances. So again, we can't apply one person's capabilities broad stroke. So what you actually need to find out through experimentation, very careful experimentation, always safe to fail experiments under the guidance of someone with a broad scope of knowledge, understanding and experience would be the best way to do it. You have to find out what is normal for you and what is best for you under the circumstances within a specific context. So Rachel, I hope that answers your question in regards to that. Now, when we look at the extreme end ranges that these people are demonstrating, it would be rare that we ever be exposed to these ranges of motion except under these exercise circumstances. So when we talk about the extreme ankle range of motion, you're actually beyond what would be typical end range propulsive strategies. So some people may find that useful. Some people may not. Again, their ability to access these extreme ankle ranges of motion. If you look at some populations that were squatting as part of their culture, they actually have changes in the ankle bones themselves. So the end of the tibia has an extra facet on it that makes it easier to deep squat at an extreme angle of dorsiflexion. The talus is also shaped differently, which allows some of these extremes. But again, we're not really accessing these during normal activities, during normal performance. So again, the question that becomes, is this beneficial on any level at all? So always a question mark. But the thing that you want to do with these types of things, especially when we look at the extremes is we want to try to filter this information as much as possible through as many lenses as we can to determine what can we take away from this that may apply to a much broader audience or a broader population.

So if you're a thrower, a golfer, a tennis player, a shot putter, or anybody that uses an implement that you turn into a projectile, this is going to be very applicable. We're going to do it under the guise of a golf question, but I want you to understand that the principles that we're going to talk about today apply to all of those types of activities. So, Brian went through askbillharman at gmail.com and he says, in a right-handed golfer, is there a hip shift that occurs in the downswing that causes the left hip ER or IR. This is a really, really good question because I think there's a lot of confusion as to what we're actually looking at—whether we're looking at ERs or IRs—and there's a darn good reason that it's one or the other. I actually get to use my pelvis as always, which is always fun. So I will grab it and then we will talk our way through this. At the top of the backswing on a right-handed golfer, we have to have eccentric orientation. We have to have expansion of certain areas to allow us to turn and to capture this external rotation position. So during periods of especially high velocity motion, we have to have these expanded strategies because we can't move through concentric orientations. We use high levels of muscle activity to actually stop motion to create acceleration into the implement. At the top of the backswing on a right-handed golfer, this hip is going to be in an early propulsive strategy, so we're going to move this hip into an ER position. Then we have an oblique turn of the pelvis, but both hips are going to be in an ER. My left hip for a right-handed golfer is actually in a late propulsive strategy, so again, also an ER position. So I'm starting at the top of the backswing with both sides of the pelvis and both hips in an ER inhalation strategy. As I pull the club down into the downswing, there are two moments of maximum propulsion in the golf swing: when the arms are parallel to the ground. Propulsion number one: I have to stop motion and bring the club towards the center of my body to accelerate the club head from this parallel arm position, so the club's still up and behind me relative to my arms, but I'm stopping the motion here to accelerate the club head. The second propulsive strategy is at impact. So if we were talking about baseball, when the lead foot hits the ground for a baseball pitcher and the heel hits the ground, that's propulsion number one; at ball release, that's propulsion number two. So again, anytime we have an implement, we're going to have two episodes of maximum propulsion. Under those circumstances, I have to be in IR because I have to be able to produce a high level of internal pressure, which means I'm going to be driving the pelvic diaphragm upward. I'm going to be expanding the bottom of the pelvis, which is going to be an IR strategy on both sides because I have to stop motion from occurring to allow the implement to accelerate. The smaller and lighter the implement, the shorter the duration of my maximum propulsion episode, or impulse if you will. So I like to tell a little joke here: with a golf swing or a baseball pitch where the implement is really light—baseball is what, five ounces? You get really, really light golf clubs—and it's about this fast. And then I say, you want to hear it again because it's really, really fast. Now if we were a shot putter, we have to sustain the output for a longer period of time because if we're throwing a 16-pound shot, we don't have the same time constraint as we do with something that's high velocity like a golf swing or a baseball pitch. So again, we're going to move in from these ER positions to IR for maximum propulsion under all circumstances. Anytime we need to produce that high level of force, it's going to be an IR strategy. It's going to be exhalation based and it's going to be concentrically oriented because I need that high pressure to stop motion from occurring to allow the implement to accelerate. The follow-through is going to mirror the backswing to a certain degree, whether we're throwing a baseball, a shot put, etc. So Brian, I hope that helps. So again, ER, IR, ER—just like when you're walking, just like when you're throwing, just like when you're reaching. It's the same thing over and over and over again. Make sure that you're training appropriately. If you have a sustained, propulsive impulse like something that's heavier, then heavier strength training is going to be more of your friend. If we're talking about high velocity stuff, we're at the other end of the spectrum; what we need is a much shorter, briefer impulse. We need to train that strategy to allow it to occur very, very quickly, very, very forcefully, but not to sustain it as we will reduce our velocity if we spend too much time in a propulsive strategy. So again, Brian, hope that's helpful.

Then I love your lateral orientation comment because that's what I think is going on. If we look at the pelvis here and if I shift him straight over to the right, what's going to happen is I'm going to pick up some concentric orientation of the upper portion of the right adductor magnus. So the right adductor magnus, especially in this upper area, has a very strong external rotation element to it. So if I lateralize myself this way, so if I shift straight over to the right, I'm going to pick up concentric orientation there. So it helps me maintain my external rotation because it doesn't limit external rotation, but it's going to limit internal rotation. And because the adductor magnus has a component of what we would consider traditional hip extension, it's also going to limit the hip flexion on that side. So I think that while you're trying to get hip flexion into orientation, you're going to get that compressive strategy on the front. And therefore, that's going to be your client's groin issue, if you will. So we want to think about taking somebody from this sort of right shifted over strategy to a left shifted over strategy. So the reason that this occurs in the first place is you probably got somebody that is in a left late propulsive strategy. And so we want to try to flip flop that, Carmine. So here's what you're going to do. You're probably going to have to put them in a sideline position, especially left sideline and drive right propulsive strategies if you're in a rehab mode. Once you get past that, you start to see the recapturing of normal hip ranges of motion, normal pelvic orientations and full excursion of your breathing strategies, then what I would probably do is take him into the gym and I would start with a shallow parallel stance cable chop to the left. So we're actually going to try to recreate or we're going to try to delay that propulsive strategy on the left and improve the propulsive strategy from the right. There's a couple videos on Instagram that actually utilize that stance probably within the last few weeks. So look back on those and start to apply those. Sled drags to the left, definitely going to create the delay on the left and increase the right propulsive strategy. Staggered stance, high to low cable pressing then comes into play. We're actually going to be pushing backwards on the left, pushing back and to the left with the right side. Half kneeling cable chop, left knee down, going high, right to low left, will also be on the table there. So those are your early gym strategies. Later on, now we can start to impose some more dynamics. So this is where we're going to actually start to increase the load and increase the ability to manage this left propulsive strategy under load so we don't reinforce it so we can overcome it by maintaining the right propulsive strategy.

So the calcaneus and talus doesn't come back up as it does as the foot tries to reciprocate. So because it pushes you medially and forward, you end up with a foot that is in a laterally propulsive position from the get-go. So what this does is it lowers the arch, it accelerates the rate at which the tibia moves over the foot, and then you have an anterior orientation of the pelvis. Now, if you have a wide infrapubic angle and you have this conical shape to your thorax relative to the pelvis, then you're also going to be standing in an antiverted position of the hip, which will actually allow this to occur a little bit easier than if you were, say, a narrow. But the narrows will experience some valgus orientation as well. They tend to have it show up a little bit more towards the performance end of the spectrum versus just standing around. But the thing I want you to recognize is that under both circumstances, whether I'm landing a jump as a narrow and the knees come together or as I'm standing, if I'm a wide ISA or if I'm a larger body size and I'm standing in this valgus orientation, your center of mass is medial and forward. And what that does is it quickly maxes out how much dorsiflexion that you're actually going to have. So you'll have overactivity of the posterior compartment of lower leg, it's going to limit dorsiflexion and then the valgus is going to occur under those circumstances.

When we're talking about moving towards an exercise strategy, the quadruped activities are a great place to start because we're going to get dorsal rostral compression under those circumstances, but we're going to get the up pump handle. The downward pump handle is typically going to be associated with this forward head posture as well as the compressive strategy that we'll see on the posterior aspect of the rib cage below the scapula. Quadruped fits really well because we get expansion in both of those areas that are typically compressed. So your forward reaches also fall into this. There's a whole series of arm bar activities that would be effective in the gym. Your cable reaches are going to be effective in the gym. And so again, we don't have to throw people on the ground and turn them into rehab clients. This is a little counterintuitive. So we think about the strategies associated with the narrow ISAs and where we're going to see those compressive strategies. If I bring up my model again, we're going to see compression from the scapula down into the lower posterior rib cage. We're also going to see the compressive strategy in the lower part of the pelvis. Hinging activities are now on the table as far as helping us to restore movement options. What we're looking to do is we're trying to restore a normal exhalation strategy without compensation. So now, if we can teach somebody to hinge effectively, that posterior lower aspect of the pelvis will move from its concentric to eccentric orientation. If we can effectively maintain position in the thorax under those circumstances as well, then we're going to get the lower posterior rib cage to expand as well. So we can actually use deadlifts to help us restore normal movement options in these cases of forward head posture. That's actually pretty cool when you think about it because we rarely talk about deadlifts being useful in restoring movement options because of their compressive nature. The thing that we have to consider in these circumstances is: do I have any other superficial compressive strategies that would preclude me from using a deadlift under these circumstances? So there's a lot of variations that we can use. We could use like a kettlebell deadlift, which would help us promote the expansive capabilities. A snatch grip RDL is actually very effective in keeping the lower posterior rib cage expanded with the appropriate instructions. Again, there's a lot of how you do things in influencing this as well. But like I said, the really cool thing about this is we can use our hinging activities. And once we've actually restored our movement capabilities, now we can actually keep some of these activities in the training program. So now you've got your kettlebell swings that are back on the table. And like I said, all of your deadlift variations as well. So we don't have to look at this forward head thing in isolation as it would typically be prescribed. We have to look at this as a relationship problem and the forward head posture is merely the result.

So we look at the pelvis from the side. For us to access full excursion of the hip joint, I have to be able to inhale and exhale. That changes the orientation. The retroverted hip socket is going to help us capture external rotation. The anteverted hip socket is going to help us capture internal rotation. So for someone to have a laterally oriented acetabulum, what has to happen under those circumstances is I'm most likely going to experience some form of compressive strategy on the posterior aspect and some form of compressive strategy on the anterior aspect. So I'm squeezing the pelvis front to back, and then I'm going to get kind of stuck in the middle because if I can move volume in the pelvis forward, I'll have internal rotation. If I can move volume backward, I'll have external rotation. So again, to get stuck in the middle, I'll have to compress on both sides. And so that's typically what we're going to see under those circumstances, someone that would be more laterally oriented. The dead giveaway, of course, is that if I'm compressed on the front side, I lose internal rotation. If I'm compressed on the back side, I lose external rotation. So what you're going to see is you're going to see some form of orientation starting to take place where we're going to lose the physiological motion of the hip. So under most circumstances, if we say that external rotation is 60 degrees, internal rotation is 40 degrees, our numbers are going to be less than those standards of normal range of motion when we get this lateralization. For instance, I've measured power lifters, they're really strong guys that have given up a lot of hip range of motion for their craft. And they might have 20 degrees of external rotation and 10 degrees of internal rotation because they're very oriented laterally due to the amount of compression that they have to use to lift such heavy weights. Now if we go to the second half, and you asked, what would we see in a more rightward orientation? When we talk about orientations, we're going to talk about the pelvis moving as a single unit. So an orientation forward would be the entire pelvis, the sacrum and the ilium moving together, posteriorly or anteriorly. When we talk about an orientation to the right, we can have any number of tilts and turns because I have two hip sockets. I have a way that I can move any number of different orientations because of the shape of the sockets themselves. I could have a relative position change into exhalation. So I could have a nutated sacrum with an anteverted ilium and then have the orientation tipping on an oblique axis or straight ahead, typically going to be trying to manage internal forces. We'll get that right orientation. I could have a relative position change where I have a counter-nutation of the sacrum with an anteverted ilium and then see the orientations as well. And under those circumstances, my internal rotations and my external rotations are going to be different. And that's how you would know. So you could also use your ISA measure as a clue as to whether I'm starting from my inhaled position, where I have lots of external rotation and then orient, or I have my nutated position, which I'm exhaled, and then capture the orientation. So I would go from a position where I had more internal rotation, and I would eventually lose that internal rotation. So hopefully that gives you a little bit of an idea. Oh, let me back up. I could also have that where I have an inhaled position on one side, exhale position on the other, and then drive the orientations. So again, I think that understanding the normal excursion of the hip joint as it moves through the full excursion of breathing is essential. So you do understand how you capture those motions. And then it's just a matter of looking at ISA orientation will help you determine where their bias is. And then you look at whether I'm losing the physiological range of the hip range of motion to determine whether you have an orientation. So if you put all those pieces together, I think it will help you with your diagnostic capabilities as to positions.

I still have the same interactions of the fluid volumes in the joint and within the muscles themselves, but I have a compressive strategy that does not allow the fluid volumes or the tissue behavior that allows me to access that internal rotation. So there becomes the limitation. Each of those limitations is going to promote some form of an end feel. So, if I look at viscoelastic tissues and the way they're loaded, they behave differently under certain circumstances. One of the representations that I always use is silica putty because it is viscoelastic in its nature and so it behaves just like viscoelastic tissues do. So one of the things that we need to represent when we're talking about end feels is that if I pull on viscoelastic tissues very, very slowly, they elongate under my tension. This would be much like a yielding action that would be associated with some form of active motion. But I can actually produce these yielding actions passively under these circumstances where I load the tissues very gradually. However, if I pull very, very quickly, you'll see that the tissues become very, very stiff and then they snap off very, very clean. So we have to understand that certain tissues are loaded at different rates, even when we're moving someone passively, because if I have concentric orientation of musculature, the surrounding connective tissues within a reasonable range of that concentric muscle activity are already loaded. And so as I move them through space, they will behave in a stiffer representation than something that I was loading much slower where I had some eccentric orientation that allowed greater movement to occur. Those tissues might be loaded slower, so I'll get a softer end feel that's associated with that. So I have to understand that I have these interactions. Again, what all this does is allows me to identify, one, what ranges of motion can I access? What strategies do I have that are limiting the shape change of, in this case, the pelvis? And then is there any other influences from a tissue behavior standpoint that might allow me to determine what strategy this individual is using from an eccentric to concentric yielding to overcoming strategy. So again, there are a lot of interactions here that I believe are influences in the hip range of motion. But the thing that I want you to understand is that it is always, always a shape change. And then the muscle activities, the compressive strategies that are superficial create greater stiffness, they limit the fluid shifts. And so that's why we're going to start to see these deficits in passive range of motion because it is me that is inducing the shape change during passive range of motion. It is the individual that has to coordinate the shape change to allow active range of motion.

As you overhead press, you'll see this on any number of people. If they do a one-arm press at a time, they tend to move away from the implement and keep their palm facing forward. They actually turn their body away or lean away or perform some strategy that allows them to get that position overhead because they have to capture the internal rotation. Again, it's an exhalation-based, internally rotated-based propulsive strategy against the load. When I just reach, I just expand and get my arm up overhead. Most likely, Eli, here's what you're going to need to do. You're going to actually have to develop some anterior expansion that's going to allow you to finish your presses overhead in the internally rotated position without too much compression. Here's what you're going to do. If you look back at a couple of my videos, I've got a series of arm bars and such that we can start with using kettlebells in the gym. So we don't have to do anything unusual here. You can actually build this into your training. So start with the supine arm bar. I just did one for a bench press lockout, and you're gonna actually gonna use that strategy to recapture some internal rotation at the shoulder. So it's gonna be an exhalation-based strategy as you internally rotate the kettlebell. So you're doing a supine screwdriver where you're gonna turn and we're gonna exhale. Then you turn that into the rolling version of your arm bar, so you're going to roll away from the kettlebell. Again, do the screwdriver with the internal rotation, extra rotation, exhaling on the internal rotation to start to develop the pump handle action. That's not an overhead position of the arm. So now we're going to take a standing activity. So we're going to use a kettlebell windmill to actually help you recapture the overhead position. But here's what I need you to be able to do. The kettlebell windmill is going to move you from an externally rotated to an internally rotated position overhead because of the load in your hands, but I need you to respect the end range. Don't force the end range. It will come over time and with repetition, but using that sequence of building you from sort of the ground up to recapture this expansive position on the front side of the rib cage, so getting your sternum to move when you breathe, and timing your sequences appropriately, you're going to develop the ability to inhale and exhale anteriorly, which will support your press overhead and allow you to maintain the range of motion that you're going to need to avoid the impingement at the top.

is any direction that we want to go but with limited excursion. And then you're going to see the red rectangle is where we're going to try to expand movement first and foremost. Okay, so I want to have a wide ISA and I have this compressor strategy all the way up and down. For me to try to force a turn under those circumstances is very, very difficult to do. They have limited hip flexion. They have limited hip abduction. They have limited hip extension. And then all their traditional ERs and IR measurements are going to be limited. So I have to stay within this small square of movement. So instead of a split stance type of an activity, I'm going to use a staggered stance. So my feet would be just offset. And then I'm going to drive a number of different reaching patterns or pressing patterns, but I have to use angles that are below shoulder level. So let me give you a for instance on this. So we would have a staggered stance high to low cable press, which would keep the pressing motion below shoulder level. And I'm just offsetting the feet. And so I'm gonna gradually move into these turns because, again, if I try to go too far into a turn, all I'm going to do is create this massive orientation of the whole system, which is not really a turn. It's just changing what direction that I'm facing. And I want to create the ability to actually turn and rotate. So I got my water balloon, so another visual aid today. And so I have somebody that's compressed anterior to posterior. So this is looking down on somebody. And so they're compressed. So if I try to turn them too far, all I do is get this. And that's not really a turn. That's just a reorientation of the entire system. What I want to try to do is I want to try to create compression on one side, expansion on the other side. And if I can do that with my activities, that's going to actually start to restore my ability to create turns in these people and start to restore the rotations. And so if you go back to the red rectangle, those are going to be activities where I'm gonna start to deviate from center outward to the sides. So I'm gonna start with lateral stepping. So consider if I was doing conditioning with somebody like this, we'd be doing sideways sled drags or I'd be doing suitcase carries, because what those activities do is they could create compression on one side, expansion on the other, compression on one side, expansion on the other. And this is how I'm going to start to improve the excursions and restore their ability to turn because, once again, if I try to force this, all I'm going to do is get compensatory strategies. So staggered stances, pressing and pulling below shoulder level, lateral movement. So this is where your side lunges, your side split squats, your low step ups come into play because that's what these people need because they only have a limited excursion in their peripheral joints and so we have to take advantage of what they do have and then slowly progress them out of that.

They're kind of really good practical application questions and they're kind of related to some videos that I've done. And so I'll mention that as we go through this. The first one comes from Mike in regards to some elbow pain issues as he unwracks the bar with a low bar squat position. And so Mike, what we have to start to recognize is what are the advantages and disadvantages of this low bar position? The advantages of low bar position in a back squat is that you can create really, really high levels of intratheurastic and intra-abdominal pressure. The drawback is that under those circumstances, you're also gonna give up a lot of shoulder range of motion to acquire that position. So you think about bringing the scaps together posteriorly. So people will call that scapular retraction. You think about the hard arch that you're probably gonna use under those circumstances as well. So the whole backside is compressed, much like an arch in a bench press. So the arch in the bench press allows us to increase internal pressures, which allows us to lift more weight. Same thing with the back squat. We're creating this compressive strategy. Here's the dilemma that you have. So to position your arms to hold onto the bar and to place it in the low rack position, instead of using your external rotation capabilities, you're going to reorient the glenoid. So you're going to turn the socket of the scapula outward as a substitution for external rotation, which means that you're actually going to internally rotate your shoulder to get into this low bar position. Your hand is also fixed on the barbell in a pronated position. So what happens is you max out the internal rotation of your shoulder and you're pronated. So now you've got internal rotation on internal rotation. So we've lost a lot of relative motion in the elbow and now you're going to get a tremendous amount of load directly onto the elbow position. It's usually going to show up on the medial side. So on the inside of the elbows where you're typically going to feel that kind of stress. So that's why you're feeling it. Now, so what's the solution? Number one, I'm not gonna talk you out of this low bar position chances bar because it'll actually lift more weight and I know you wanna lift more weight. So what you have to do is you have to work to maintain the extra rotation capabilities by expanding the posterior aspect of your thorax. So the space between your shoulder blades and the space below your shoulder blades needs to stay expanded. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna post a video today on Instagram and probably up on YouTube that will give you a strategy to allow you to maintain those capabilities. And so be looking for that. So basically the answer to your solution is maintain post to your expansion between the scaps and below the level of the scapula. And then that's going to allow you an opportunity to maintain the shoulder range of motion that you're gonna give up with this low bar position over time. Okay, so hopefully that's an answer for you. Second Mike question. Different Mike. In a split stance like a lunge or a back lunge or a split squat, why do you see the knee deviating outward, especially on the back leg as you're lowering into the split squat? This is actually a pretty simple question. When you see this, what you have is somebody that's trying to move through the maximum propulsive base in this split orientation without being able to capture the max propulsive position of the hip and the pelvis. And so under those circumstances, that max propulsive position is going to be an internally rotated, exhaled position of the pelvis. And when you have somebody that's trying to do this using an externally rotated, inhaled position of the pelvis, which is early lay propulsion, they don't have enough force producing capabilities under those circumstances. And the pelvis is oriented as such that it's going to create this deviation into a more abducted or externally rotated position. So you can see this on the front knee. So you'll see the front knee deviate outward or you'll see the back knee deviate outward. A lot of these people will complain about anterior knee pain, whether it be the back leg or the front leg. So I do have a video that's up on YouTube and Instagram in regard to a split stance strategy to alleviate the pain on the backside knee. It's the same problem whether it be front knee or back knee. I just wanted to give a very specific representation because a lot of people complain about the stress on the back knee but it's an orientation problem and so what you need to do under those circumstances is learn how to recapture the propulsive position. So now I would direct you towards videos that I have posted up on YouTube that are designed to recapture hip internal rotation because if you can capture this internal rotation, you'll capture the propulsive position. One, you'll be able to maintain your position and orientation as you move through the lunge. And then secondly, you'll probably alleviate a lot of knee pain and you'll be able to increase load. So if your goal is hypertrophy, force production, strength, you'll have a much greater level of success with that. So hopefully those two answers help both of you, Mike's. If you have any other questions or problems, please let me know. Go to askbillharmonetgmail.com, send me a question.

Okay John, so you've got an orientation problem here that you might not be able to identify or there's a little confounding factor in there that might make this a little bit confusing. So let's go through what the possibilities are and maybe some of this stuff will jive with you and you'll get your aha moment and then we'll have a solution for you, okay? Since I don't have all the chess board, I don't have all the information, I gotta make a couple educated guesses here. Let's just talk about dead guy anatomy for a second. Intensive fascialitis is kind of here-ish. It's on the front side. It's anterior to the trochanter. Again, in dead guy anatomy, they say it's a flexor abductor internal rotator. Right away we have a little bit of confusion because you have two opposing activities here that the muscle is going to produce. So if it's an internal rotator and an abductor, that means it internally rotates and it externally rotates, which means that the orientation of the pelvis is going to come into play here in probably a pretty major way. So think about an inhaled position of the pelvis right off the bat. So if I ER that ilium, I immediately pick up some concentric orientation. I'm bringing the two ends of the muscle close together so it can concentrically orient. But now I got to start playing with other angles. And I've got to start looking at where this pelvis is positioned in space. So if I'm more forward, if I'm more anteriorly oriented, that tensor fascia lab, because it does have concentric orientation, is going to pick up that IR position, so I'm going to lose extra rotation. So right away, if my ER measures are reduced, then I know I've got more anterior orientation to play with, and then that's going to influence my decision making as far as my intervention is concerned. If I'm just tilted more what you would consider laterally or abducted as that relative position, I get a tremendous amount of concentric orientation, again, of tensor fascia lata, but this time I pick up ER, lose IR. Under those circumstances, I have to look at the position of my initial tuberosity here because as it approximates to the femur, I'm already in what you would consider a hip-extended position. And then I'm going to pick up more concentric orientation posteriorly. So not only do I have TensorFlow Latin in a concentric orientation, but I can pick up concentric orientation posteriorly here. And that shoves me forward. anterior on the left. So what happens is I get a sacrum that is now right facing. So if you're trying to extend the hip, as you said, then I'm already in a relatively hip extended position. So that can't be the solution. But what I do have on the other side, because I've got the sacrum oriented to the right, I have an expansive strategy on the right side. So what I would be doing is I would be probably trying to drive a concentric orientation here on this side to get that sacrum to reorient and then I can actually recapture the exhaled position of this ilium and chances are your problem is solved. So again, you get to play with the orientation of the pelvis when you're dealing with a lot of this concentric orientation, especially of some muscles that, again, behave differently based on the orientation of the ilium and based on the orientation of the hip. So, John, I hope that helps you a little bit as far as coming up with a strategy.

My position would be that we're moving that shoulder into a position of external rotation during arm swing because of the reorientation of the thorax. So Sasha, I hope that answers your question. Have a great, great Monday and I will see you guys tomorrow. Good morning. Happy Tuesday. I have neuro coffee in hand. And it is perfect, ladies and gentlemen. Okay. I got to dive right into the Q&A. Got a busy day. Just got off a mentorship call. Got another call coming up. So I'm squeezing this one in, in between. And I got two questions that came through that are very, very similar. They kind of build on one another. So Rachel sent me a question and basically she sort of reviewed what she saw from her perspective as the orientations of our typical archetypes of the wide and the narrows that we refer to with the ISA, IPA relationships. And then she wanted to know why we would see these additional superficial compressive strategies arise. And then Jang sent me a question that says, okay, so we do have these compressive strategies. Is there a sequence to them? And then how do we resolve these things? And so what I wanna do is do a quick review. We'll use the pelvis as a representation, because it's really, really easy to see. And then we can talk about how these arise and then what to do. If we look at our two archetypes, we have our wide ISA IPA relationship. So we'll use that as our representation there. And I'm going to have the nutated sacrum that goes along with that. And so then if I have a narrow IPA, I have counter-nutation. So that's the base of the sacrum coming back. that relationship there if we look at just the one side. And so what we have to respect is that this is all based on my ability to stand and walk on two legs. And so if I have these expansion and compressive strategies going on, it creates a shift in my center of gravity. So the whole premise behind these strategies is for me to maintain my balance. And so if I'm looking at say the wide representation, so I have an expanded position of the outlet of the pelvis, which is a mutated sacrum. So you can see that as I mutate the sacrum, I get a posterior expansion here. That posterior expansion is actually going to push me backwards. Same things happening in the thorax. So I get a posterior expansion, posterior expansion. I will fall backwards. So my initial compensatory strategy that will superimpose on top of the archetype will be a compressive strategy from posterior to anterior in a wide. And the opposing strategy is going to happen in the narrow. So if I If I'm counterintuitive here, I'm going to get an anterior expansion, which is going to throw me forward. So I'm going to compress from the front. So there's the big difference between your two archetypes in regards to how these strategies are layered on. So if my structural bias puts me at one end of the spectrum, I will always have to superimpose some other compensatory strategy, depending on the context within which I am performing. So the higher physical stress or the demands of the activity, or if my structure is so biased towards one end of the spectrum, I will have to superimpose some other superficial strategy that helps me maintain my balance. These will change and these will fluctuate depending on the, like I said, the physical stresses and the context. And so over time, I will learn to use these strategies. But what's gonna happen because each of these layers of strategy is compressive in nature, exhale based, I will start to lose ranges of motion and so this is why the extremity ranges of motion become so important because what they will do is they will allow us to identify what those compressive strategies are. The compressive strategies typically are bottom up because of the way gravity works so everything rests down in the pelvis or down in the thorax as we think about expanding the lung volume the lungs are going to fill from the bottom up. And so that's why we see these layers sort of accumulate upward and we'll see the losses of range of motion upward as well. And so this is why the extremity motions become so important. They let us know that we do not have this full excursion of breathing. We do not have full relative motions available to us. And this either creates problems for people that are trying to be more adaptable and to move through their full excursion or we use these intentionally to reduce The degrees of freedom will reduce the relative motions to produce a performance related outcome. So hopefully Zhang and Rachel, I hope that gives you an idea of what we're talking about with these compressor strategies, how they show up in the two archetypes. If you're going to try to alleviate these, yes, you're going to reverse engineer it. So invert the problem. The client or the patient or the athlete shows you the representation that they are utilizing at the time. If I'm trying to make a change, I have to strip them away in the reverse order that they would show up. So again, if they arise from the bottom up, I'm going to strip them away from the top down. So again, hopefully that answers your question, guys. Have a great Tuesday and I'll see you guys later. Good morning. Happy Wednesday. I have neuro coffee in hand and it is perfect. I got a very busy Wednesday so I want to dive right into this Q&A because it's kind of a cool one because I posted a couple of videos on Instagram recently about activities to offset a left shift of the squat and a right shift of the squat and it produced a lot of questions and I think even Tim on Instagram asked if I could give him a little bit of a chess board so we'll try to do that too but let's talk through this because what we're dealing with is normal squat mechanics and then we're superimposing some altered initial conditions which produces a left shift or a right shift in the squat. So let's go through these. Let me grab the pelvis. Typically, we're going to see this with somebody that's biased towards a wide ISA. When I say that, it doesn't have to be the extreme. It's just somebody that does not close the ISA very well. They're going to have this tendency to have this nutated position of the sacrum as part of their starting mechanics. If we look through normal squat mechanics at the top where we would have the hip near zero degrees of extension, we're going to be towards an inhaled position. It's going to be an externally rotated position at the hip as I pass through the sticking point. That's our primary internal rotation position. And so we're going to see a widening. We'll see a widening of the IPA and internal rotation of the hip through the middle. And then at the end, we're going to see the hip flexion. We're going to see the re-external rotation, if you will, of the pelvis. So we get sacral movement and ilial movement at the top of hip flexion, which would be the bottom of the squat. So those are our normal kicks. Go extra rotation, intro rotation, extra rotation. Okay. So if I disturb those in any way, I'm going to see something happen in the squat. So in most cases, what we're going to see, I'm going to tip it this way. If I start in this nutated position for the wide, but I have a compressive strategy in this upper posterior left. So I'm holding the left sacral base forward. What's going to happen is I'll get a tip of the left side of the pelvis that goes forward more than the right. And this steals external rotation. from this hip, but because I'm biased towards the wide, I preserve my internal rotation. Now, as I squat, what happens is, I have to take advantage of my internal rotation as I get there, and because I can't re-extremely rotate As I pass through the sticking point, the sacrum is going to stay biased to be turned to the right. I have the same strategy going on in the thorax. So essentially what I've done is I've turned the whole axial skeleton to the right, but... My femurs, my hips are facing straight ahead. So I've got that kind of a squat. So as I squat, my straight down is actually back into the left. And so that's why you see the left hip shift, okay? Now, let's take another layer of strategy D. I start from that same compressive strategy that I saw with the left shift, but now I'm going to superimpose an anterior compressive strategy on the left side in addition to that. So what happens is I get a shape change around the acetabin, which is actually going to turn it a little bit. So I actually pick up concentric orientation of the extra rotation muscles right off of the trochanter here, but that's going to bring the femur and the sacrum a little bit closer together. on this side and so I get an oblique tilt of the of the pelvis in this case and now I've tipped my right side a little bit farther forward than the left side so that's what the orientation looks like so I'm closing this space right here and this that will push it forward on the left now on the right side I still have the right side tip forward so remember I've lost my hip extra rotation and so as I squat under these circumstances this stays forward and then I take advantage of the IR that I do have and I open up that space right here. So this space is going to open up. So if I create space there, that's the direction that I'm going to go. So as I sit down, because I've got more compressive strategy on this side, holding this forward, this side stays open more as I squat. And then I'm going to shift over into that right space. Now, in this case, I'm definitely going to have a decreased left straight leg raise, decreased left hip flexion. In the first case with the left shift, I'm going to have a normal straight leg raise in most cases, but still lose the end range hip flexion. So keep that in mind. So hopefully that gives you a little bit of a taste. I'm sure there'll be more questions in that regard. because it does require a little bit of complexity in regards to the compressive strategies that we're using, but this should get you started. So feel free to ask questions. I'll be posting this up on YouTube as well, so you'll be able to access that there and we can clarify things as we go, because like I said, I know I threw a lot at you at once here, and I'd be happy to go through it again. Have a great Wednesday, and I'll see you guys later. And we're on happy Thursday. I have neuro coffee in hand and Hey, Dr. Mike.

He wrote some really cool stuff about how we influence breathing and how some of it is actually even meditative, which I thought was really, really cool. But the thing that he asked in the Q&A is basically how to distinguish between genetically determined structure of being a narrow versus a wide. And a body that starts, for example, as a wide, does a ton of compressive hardcore weight work and results in a narrow with excessive external oblique and that has to deal with two or three layers of compensatory strategies over one of the body. Well, first and foremost, you're never gonna turn a wide into a narrow or narrow into a wide. Okay, what we're gonna see are compressive strategies that may make things look a little bit differently. But the genetically predetermined structure is always going to be there. Think about this for a second. If I wanted to turn a narrow into a wide, I would have to smash them down. I would have to take away their height to change the helical angles. And so we're not actually doing that. What we're doing is we're probably bending a few things to make it look a little bit differently. So let me give you a, for instance, people often will say that they had a narrow that is now a wide. The reality is it's just a shape change because of the superficial musculature like rectus abdominis and pecs behaving as such that they compress the actual skeleton. I can take a narrow so when you lay your hands on a narrow your hands might be in that shape right there but if they do a lot of compressive strength work it'll start to square off in the front like that but they'll still be a narrow but because they're getting compressed flat it will seem like the ISA is actually wider and it's not. So you still treat those people like a narrow. It would be really really difficult to take a wide individual and turn them into a narrow to begin with once again because you can't change the helical angles but because other than the external oblique there is nothing on the on the sides of the body that are squeezers because we really don't have that plane to play in as humans. Point being though, because we're dealing with superficial strategies here, Ed, the thing you got to do is you got to get the ISA to move. So your comment at the end of your question is, yes, you have to get the ISA to move, but I will offer you this. The deeper that people go and do these compensatory strategies, the more help they're going to need. So chances are you're going to have to lay hands on them. You're going to have to do some manual therapies to get the rib cage to move because of the compensatory strategies being exhale based their concentric orientation. And so you have to teach one side of the body to eccentrically orient as you compress the other. So you're actually going to have to increase the compressive strategy on one side of the body manually so they can eccentrically orient on the opposing side. So start there. Get your manual therapist. If you're a trainer or coach in the gym, this is where laying people over pads over on their side to create a compressive strategy on one side and expand the other is where you're going to be playing. You can also use some like a side bridge or side planking type activities with some active motion as they're breathing so you're creating compression expansion compression expansion. So this is where some some dynamic stuff in the gym gets really really interesting because what you're trying to do is restore sort of like that worm like quality to the to the thorax so it can bend and turn and twist and so doing static holds under these circumstances is not necessarily the best choice. So people that are trying to lock the rib cage and the abdomen into a place thinking that, oh, more stability is better, this is the exact wrong strategy under those circumstances. We want the rib cage to move. We want the spine to move. We want the pelvis to move. We always want to have that mobility available to us. So constantly training these anti-positions of the anti-rotation, anti-bend, not always a good strategy, especially when you've already got somebody that's very, very rigid.

Pete asked a bunch of questions and I hope you don't mind Pete, but I want to paraphrase this stuff a little bit just to make it a little bit more digestible. But basically, Pete's first question is, how are you dissociating sacral movements to pelvic orientations and how do they show up in testing? So this is actually a really, really good question because it allows us to differentiate the difference between relative motion within the pelvis and then an absolute orientation of the pelvis. Let me grab my pelvis for a sec to show you what I mean. So if we're talking about normal stuff here, right, we're going to talk about normal range of motion first. So if we look at your typical average norms, we get about 60 degrees of hip ER and 40 degrees of hip IR by dead guy anatomy. So what that requires though is that I have this normal nutation counter-nutation element of relative position change in the pelvis. So when I am nutated and I have that IR ileum that allows me to capture my normal IR motion. When I have the counter-nutation and the ER ileum that allows me to capture my ER motion. Now if I would have measures, let's just say 75 degrees of ER, 25 degrees of IR, that still demonstrates the relative motion within the pelvis. It just means that I'm biased towards my inhalation strategies because I've got 75 degrees of ER. What that does is it just means that I've retroverted the acetabulum to allow that 75 to show up. If I still have 25 degrees, that means I still have some relative motion here. It's just that I'm biased way back towards my inhalation strategy. So keep that in mind. When I have orientations take place, what that means is I'm going to start to lose my physiological motion. So if I would anteriorly orient the pelvis, what you're gonna see over time because of the compressive strategy that takes place on the posterior aspect of the pelvis that starts to drive this orientation is I'm gonna start to lose my ER measure. Because the musculature above the level of the trochanter is compressing the posterior pelvis. It's going to create this orientation and I'm going to start to lose my ER measure because these muscles reorient and become IRs and they start to bring myself into that hip IR position. So that's a great way to distinguish between the orientations and the relative motions because when I have relative motion of the pelvis, I still have this full physiological range. When I lose my physiological range, then you can pretty much guarantee that I've got an orientation problem going on. Okay, so Pete's second question.

Enjoy your neural coffee, as I will mine. And we'll see you later. Good morning. Happy Thursday. Or as we call it here, chips and salsa day because this is the typical day where we have our little intermittent fasting family dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant, which is currently closed. So we're going to figure something out. For those of you that live in my area, if you have any ideas as to where I can get some really good Mexican carryout, I would really appreciate it because I've been going to the same restaurant for eight years and I really don't like to change but looks like I'm gonna have to do it. So let me know on that if you guys like to know me know where I live kind of a thing. I have my neuro coffee in hand as usual and it is perfect. I got a question from Vikram and Vikram had a question about the squat video that I posted about six days ago. I believe it was March 19th. where we're talking about the transition from inhalation to exhalation to inhalation during the heel's elevated squat pattern to reduce the anterior posterior compressive strategy. And so he has some really good questions about this and I'm sure everybody has a similar question. So I thought I would go through these because he broke it down into three pieces for me here. He says, number one, is the reason for pushing through the medial heel on the ascent to promote pronation and exhalation strategy? Absolutely. So remember when you're at the bottom of the squat, and I'm going to grab my pelvis here so we can sort of simulate this. So when you're at the bottom of the squat, we are actually in a position of inhalation in ER. So we've got counter-nutation of the sacrum. We've got ER of the ilium. We have a descent of the pelvic diaphragm because we are in this early propulsive position. Therefore, it is biased towards inhalation. So we need to exhale to push the pelvic diaphragm upward as we push through the sticking point to get above the sticking point. So yes, we definitely want to push on the medial heel and exhale at the same time. And that actually helps us restore a normal exhalation strategy without compensatory strategies being superimposed. So that's kind of a big deal. During the ascent, would there be any benefit to reversing the exact sequence as in the descent of the squat? So what he's referring to here. So remember, we're biasing ourselves towards inhalation. At the top of the squat, we exhale to the sticking point and then we inhale again to full descent. And what we're trying to do there with that sequence is to, again, restore a normal inhalation to exhalation behavior without the compensatory strategies. So we go from inhalation, exhalation to the sticking point, which is normal, and then to inhalation again to get to the full descent. As we reverse gears and push up, it is unnecessary to reverse the sequence because it's going to happen naturally. We're starting from a bias of inhalation. We push through the sticking point, which are our concentric pelvic diaphragm. So the pelvic diaphragm is descended at the bottom. We exhale through the sticking point, it pushes up, and then you're just gonna take a normal inhale at the top and reestablish your anterior posterior expansion at that point. So it is unnecessary to intentionally reproduce the same strategy that we use on the descent, but that's a really good question. Finally, he says, what superficial compressive strategy would be reinforcing by taking the breath that you took at the top and held it through the middle propulsive phase? Doesn't really matter. Point being is that you will use a superficial compression strategy and chances are you will use everything that's available to you under those circumstances to some degree because all the superficial compressive strategies are superimposed at the same time just to varying degrees. So the whole point of performing the heels elevated squat in the sequence as I demonstrate on the March 19th video. So the whole premise behind that is one is to reduce the superficial compressive strategies that happen from an anterior posterior aspect. Okay? So we're biasing ourselves towards the ability to inhale without compensation, exhale without compensatory strategy, and then to re-inhale in the depth of the squat, and then restore the normal pattern on the ascent as well. So this is a really good question, Vikram. I'm glad you asked it. I'm sure you've helped someone else today by asking this question. Have a fabulous Thursday. I am going to find some Mexican carryout no matter what it takes today. I'm going to enjoy the rest of my neuro coffee this morning and I will see you guys later. Good morning. Happy Friday. I have neuro coffee in hand and I have been killing it this week. This is perfect. Alright, I got a question from Josh. Josh made some reference to an Instagram video that I posted. We were talking about flywheel training and so Josh asked on the Instagram live you mentioned flywheel training having the potential to help certain people and not others. Can you be more specific about why someone would use or avoid exercises on a flywheel? So this just goes toward looking at any training tool or modality as just being broad scope application and it's okay for everybody because it's hard work. When the reality is, I think we can be very, very specific if we understand who it is that we're working with and what their actual capabilities are. So rather than just blindly applying certain methods or blindly programming and just like once again, just relying on hard work trying to be the solution to a problem. We can be very, very specific. So essentially what we're talking about with flywheel training is this ability to overload the eccentric element. So we can turn this into a broad scope discussion of just eccentric overload methods. So we could say, oh, maybe you're using weight releasers to emphasize the eccentric element. And we'll get a similar effect here. But what we want to consider is do we want to amplify the current strategy that our patient client or athlete is using or do we want to dampen that strategy and try to recapture some element of adaptability that they don't have. And so that's the first thing that we have to decide based on what they're presenting with. So let me give you a, for instance, let me grab my pelvis real quick. So if I have somebody that is concentrically oriented in the pelvic diaphragm, so somebody that is reliant on high force outputs, and so they've trained themselves to maintain some measure of concentric orientation in the pelvic diaphragm, so they would have the nutated sacrum, they emphasize exhalation strategies And again, there are just so many that produces high-force. So power left are an offensive lineman, somebody that has to spend a lot of time producing prolonged efforts at high-force output. So what we could do is we could say, well, I want to continue to emphasize this. I want to magnify it to the nth degree. And so I'm going to use my flywheel strategy. So I'm going to use a very, very heavy resistance. So a very, very strong eccentric load. And I'm going to have them try to resist that because I want to magnify the exhalation strategy. I'm going to magnify the concentric orientation. I do not want descent of that diaphragm under any circumstances because in the situation of a power lifter squatting a very, very heavy load, the minute that they become too eccentrically oriented, they accelerate towards the earth, which is what they don't want to do. And so they want to continue to try to produce as much force output throughout. And so once again, so this will train them to magnify the current strategy, which actually may enhance performance. However, If my goal is to make someone more explosive, have them move quickly, then these circumstances may not be a benefit. Because again, to move quickly, I have to move into an eccentric orientation to a concentric orientation very quickly. If the strategy does not allow them to capture the eccentric orientation to begin with, Then while they can still produce high levels of force, they can't do so within a time constraint. So again, they can't be quick. They can't be explosive. And so under those circumstances, this eccentric overload strategy really isn't a benefit. Let's say that I have, I'll pick on female volleyball players. Let's just say I have a female volleyball player. She presents with a narrow and frontal plane angle and she's eccentrically oriented pelvic diaphragm. And we're trying to teach her to elevate. We're trying to teach her to get off the ground. And so what she has difficulty with is actually capturing this concentric orientation of the pelvic diaphragm to allow her to produce upward force. And so in this case, then we can again apply this flywheel strategy where we're going to increase the eccentric overload because what it's going to do, it's going to force her to capture this concentric orientation sooner in her descent. And so under these circumstances, maybe we can actually teach her to capture this position more effectively. And then our next strategy would be is if she can capture this concentric strategy, then we can teach her to do it quickly. So what we'll end up doing is we'll put her on high resistance eccentric overload to capture this capability. And then we'll put her on a more reduced eccentric overload to teach her how to do this quickly. And so she can actually get off the ground. And so then we do teach explosiveness. But so in one circumstance, we don't want to release the strategy. In the other circumstance, we're trying to capture that strategy. And so again, it just depends on what type of an athlete that we're presenting with as to when we would use this. If I am trying to take someone that is trying to be more explosive, they are very concentrically oriented, they use a very strong exhalation strategy, I do not want to emphasize this high force eccentric overload strategy. And so if I wanted to use the flywheel, I probably still could, but I'm going to have to use it on very, very light resistance. And I'm going to have to emphasize velocity in their performance. So again, it's just a matter of knowing when to use a certain tool, how to implement it into programming based on the individual in question and based on the context at which we're trying to apply it. So again, there's certain times where it's going to be better, more beneficial. There are certain times where it's going to be detrimental to performance. So again, if I'm trying to make somebody fast and explosive and I'm using a very strong eccentric overload, probably a bad strategy because all I'm doing is amplifying the current strategy and I won't see the changes that I'm looking for. So Josh, I hope that that gives you a little bit of direction as to what we were talking about with the flywheel strategies or just plain old eccentric emphasis overload training. If you have any other questions, please let me know. I hope you guys have an outstanding Friday.

If I am moving in that direction, so yielding contractions allow movement to occur. That means it's giving way and allowing motion to occur. That would be a yielding action. And so now we have this, this broad scope understanding of terminology that we have to describe the overall strategy. How does that strategy occur through breathing? How does the position affect the orientation of a muscle? And then what action am I trying to produce? And so now you can see that I have an expansion compression strategy. I have an inhalation exhalation strategy. I have concentric and eccentric orientation. and then I have overcoming and yielding actions. So hopefully that helps you in sort of bringing this to a level of understanding that it becomes useful to you. If you have any questions specifically about any of these terms, please throw them out there. We're going to use these in context as we progress through videos. And obviously, if you look back through some of the older videos, you're going to see these terms used. So now maybe those are a little bit more meaningful to you. But hopefully that's helpful. And then we will keep up with the Q&As. And I'll see you later.

Mihail has a pelvic diaphragm question, and I'm assuming it's a heat. So Miel says, does the ability to abduct the femur equal the pelvic diaphragm eccentrically oriented and the pelvic outlet closing? And the ability to add duct to the femur, the pelvic diaphragm concentrically oriented and pelvic diaphragm widening? Are these useful tests to figure out where someone is, is limited in propulsion? So yeah, they are useful. And I think your understanding is generally correct. But keep in mind that you're only using one representation. So whenever we look at anything that is externally rotation oriented or internally rotated oriented, we have to use a series of tests because as we move through any joint range of motion, so we're talking about hip range of motion here, There are different positions through the hip motion that are representative of extra rotation and internal rotation. If we only use one representation, then it would be accurate for that position only. So, for instance, If I take you into full hip flexion as another element of external rotation, that's the early propulsive phase. And so if I have a limitation there, then I know you'd be limited in early propulsion. Whereas with the hip extended, we're moving towards a later propulsive strategy. So again, you need to look at these measures across the extended range of motion of that joint. So we can't just use a single representation especially when we're talking about dynamic movements. So if we were looking at a squat, we would have to look at the performance through the entire excursion of the squat and identify what that hip is capable of doing to determine whether it may be a limitation in the propulsive strategy. So, Mihail, I think that you're on track, but keep in mind, again, you've got to look at a number of measures to determine whether you've got any limitation throughout the propulsive strategies.

There would be so much greater stress load on the compression and tensioning elements of the human body. And it would be very, very destructive. And so again, the helices make it very very efficient for us to move well. The physical structure of how a helix is actually formed is very energy efficient so that follows the rules of the universe without getting too mystical if you will. So again we're just following the simplest of rules when we're talking about structure and the helix provides us the greatest element of efficiency and so that's why we're constructed that way but there's a lot of hints in the the biology, the physiology, and the physical structure. So please check those out.

Drew is my keen guy. He's my guy that uses the word keen, so thanks again Drew for throwing that one in there. Here is Drew's question. So for wide ISA, so wide infraternal angle individual trying to regain his or her squat pattern, what progressions do you use after say a goblet, kettlebell, zircher squat? In light of Mike Robertson's complete coaching course, I think the safety squat bar will be a good squat progression, allowing you to load the squat pattern and keep the posterior thorax open for expansion. Do you use the safety squat bar much in load progression of the squat pattern? Thanks again, Mr. Keen. Mr. Keen Drew Brooks, thank you so much for the question. First and foremost, let me just say that you should probably get out there and purchase Mike's coaching course. I will not speak for Mike in that regard, and so I would just suggest you take the course. It is stellar and top the line. But Drew, you bring up a really, really good question in regard to the progression of the squat pattern. We do use the goblet, kettlebell, and zircher squats all as an element to create the expansive strategy that is typically challenged by those with the compensatory wide infraternal angles. Because again, that's representative of an axial skeleton that is exhaled and compressed. And so they use the wide ISA as a compensatory strategy to inhale. Moving towards the safety squat bar is a very useful strategy. In fact, I use it in combination often with box squats. I'll use it with the static squats, so we'll use it for overcoming situations, we'll use it for yielding situations. And I do love that I am more skewed towards favoring the spider bar in regards to the safety squat bar because the spider bar allows us to reach forward and it keeps the upper extremity and the scapula in that inhaled representation when we talk about range of motion arcs and things like that. So I do like the use of the safety squat bar. The thing you just have to be careful with is because we're dealing with somebody that may be using a compressive strategy, you do still have to attend to scapular position. You still have to attend to addressing the breathing element to make sure that I start in that inhaled bias when we're trying to overcome the axial compressive strategies. But definitely love the progression of going from heels elevated goblets and kettlebell squats, zircher squats, and like I said, use of the safety squat bar with box squats because again, very, very useful exercises, many, many variations on a theme. So Drew, thank you for that question and I appreciate ya sticking with the keen concept.

And so over time, if I compress the anterior thorax, so if I pull the pump handle down, I pull the manubrium down, and I compress the dorsal rostral space, I'm going to create a compensatory strategy in my neck that keeps my airway open. But because I've compressed the dorsal rostral space, I'm also going to have to create some form of compensatory inhalation strategy in the thorax and what people typically do is they pull their sternum downward with rectus abdominis and they will flex forward at approximately the T7-T8 area because the T7 area is actually where the inferior angle of the scapula rests and so that's where the lower barrier of that compression is so below that there is space that can be accessed by flexing the spine forward. So from about T10 to T12, we do have some space in the lower posterior rib cage that we can use for inhalation. So that's typically what they do. But in doing so, and flexing forward, they have to bring their head back up into what appears to be a traditional forward head posture. So the fix, if you will, if there is such a thing, is to create dorsal rostral expansion, restore normal pump handle motion, and then what happens is we get a normal expansion anterior-posterior of the thorax, and the person actually gets taller and then the head moves backward over the shoulders into its normal resting posture. So that's why dorsal rostral expansion becomes so important. I would also offer that when you're making decisions about how you're trying to influence positions, let the internal mechanical drive your decision making in regard to how you're perceiving what is compressed and what is expanded rather than using a visual representation, especially in these types of cases, because if you try to drive it through a visual representation, you end up making a lot of incorrect assumptions, and then your exercise selection and intervention comes into question as to whether you're going to be successful or not. And that's basically what happened with this client, where he was following a pre-programmed set of exercises that weren't designed for him, and he ended up driving himself harder into his compensatory strategies, resulting in the forward head in the first place.

I'm trying to help a certain sect of people get better as I try to get better myself. And so if there's information that I can provide that they can utilize to help them improve whatever processes that they're utilizing, whatever profession they may be in, then hopefully that sect will benefit. And so that's who I'm talking to. It's just a very specific group of people, hopefully you're in that group. You're finding benefit to the information and you're able to utilize that to the best of your ability. So hopefully that answers that question again.

As I anteriorly orient the hip, the acetabulum is reoriented so it's going to start to face down and that's going to allow me to pick up a lot of internal rotation because there's no longer the acetabular constraint that's going to block me from an internal rotation scenario. So I'm going to tip this up and over the femur and that frees up a lot of internal rotation. Now we have to understand though, as to where you're actually measuring your hip internal and external rotation measures. As we move through hip flexion, as I start here, especially with narrow ISAs, the gradient for external rotation is very, very steep, which means that I capture a lot of external rotation very, very quickly, but I lose it very, very quickly in the early stages of hip flexion. So as I'm here, I can show a lot of external rotation when the femur is at zero degrees, but you're not at zero degrees anymore because remember the pelvis is still forward. So I'm already biased into hip flexion before I even started. So this early phase, I can get ER here, but I'll start to lose it very, very quickly. As I move through hip flexion, the gradient for internal rotation is very, very long. So it's not as steep as it is in external rotation. But I'm already in internal rotation. And as I measure, if you're measuring it at the theoretical 90 degrees of hip flexion, you're actually probably biased deeper into internal rotation than you think. So the orientation and the compressive strategies that I used to get into this orientation of the pelvis overall is already biased towards IR. I measure through the IR arc probably close to its middle range where the internal rotation is that it's greatest, and so now you're going to pick up a lot of internal rotation and so you're going to show a lot of loss of ER, because I've got an orientation of the pelvis that's going to steal it, so I've got muscles that would typically be considered external rotators in this position because of the hip flexion, so I have a bias of glute max that becomes an IR, a piriformis becomes an IR, and the natural arc of moving through internal rotation of the pelvic diaphragm is through this middle range. So I pick up a lot of internal rotation and so I would lose external rotation as a result of this entire orientation. Now I realize that's really, really confusing. So let's go through it one more time. My ISA is narrow. That's the exhalation strategy. To breathe in, I'm going to drive the diaphragm down farther. That's actually going to hold that ISA in and not let it expand, but it's also going to descend the pelvic diaphragm even farther. That's my inhale strategy. I'm going to exhale again. I compress the front. I'm going to inhale and move it back, but I gotta exhale again. Now I start to compress the back. I'm doing the same thing above in the thorax, which is going to orient my pelvis forward. That biases me into the internal rotation element of hip flexion as I move through flexion. And so I'm already reorienting musculature into internal rotation. I measure in the internal rotation position of the hip. So as I flex the hip, it internally rotates here. And so that's how you're going to pick up a whole lot of internal rotation and lose external rotation.

I was interested in the above post, never seen the exercise before. Do you think you could break down and explain in more detail what the exercise is doing to improve the shape of the thorax and the pelvis? And would you perform this on both sides? So what we were doing with the long strap, and again, just go to what's that strap, those guys apparently are doing really, really well. I hope we've contributed to their success. By wrapping the strap as it's demonstrated in the video, what we're doing is we're encouraging a certain type of thoracic activity in regards to the muscle activity and to the expansion capabilities of the thorax as you breathe. So we're actually providing a leading resistance. So this is a very PNF-ish kind of a strategy in regards to the way the strap is organized. And so what this will do, it will create a lateral compression against the rib cage, which closes the wide ISA and creates an anterior posterior expansion as we breathe in. So we're driving upper extremity motion. We're using a compressive strategy, a manual compressive strategy on the thorax with the strap. We're driving breathing strategy that will also enhance the reshaping of the thorax. And then we're driving those mechanics down into the pelvis. Then we superimpose the stepping strategy on top of that, and we're actually reshaping the pelvis in that regard as well. And so we're getting a really, really big bang with this type of an activity. But that is in a nutshell why that setup was as it was.

An effort to kind of continue to stay active. She connected with one of my friends who's a personal trainer, a kettlebell focused personal trainer, to kind of stay active and be more guided and exercise so she could try to exercise without pain. The trainer then said, well, why don't you try my guy? He thinks a little bit differently. I've had great outcomes with him and then we can coordinate the care, right? As Lauren, her personal trainer is going to be a huge part of her process as Lauren came into the session and now we're able to coordinate and through the process. And maybe this patient feel pretty good at the end. So basically came in with a diagnosed herniation and hasn't had any relief with much of anything. Two out of 10 pain at its best, so it's always there and 10 out of 10 at its worst. And again, it was really, she can't sit for extended periods, driving's a pain, can't bend over, touch her toes, pick up her kids or lift objects, right? So looking at her, she was definitely had some soft tissue restriction through like her right low back and into her right glute. That was where she was tender on palpation, which you can kind of see why some of the manual interventions with the acupuncture might have helped provide a little bit of relief. But in my opinion, it wasn't lasting because you're not making a change in the system to promote better position, better stability with that lumbopelvic complex.

We met in 2005. Was it 2005? We released Magnificent Mobility in 2006. And that's when you were like, oh, I think we need more upper body stuff in there.

Okay, so I made a little call to my personal pitching coach Christian Wonder on this one to make sure that I get the pitching terminology correct. After a little bit of an explanation, what we're seeing here with the throwing strategy that Nick is talking about is we're seeing someone that would come in with an element of bilateral external rotation, which would basically be an extended posture as they're coming through the throw. So in this case, because they're using this bilateral strategy, what we want to look at is we want to look at their ability to orient one side into an internal rotation strategy and the other side into an external rotation strategy. So we can identify whether this person has the capacity to turn. Now, having said that, I think that, and I think Christian's in agreement with me here, is that there's going to be a difference between pitchers with a wide infrasternal angle and a narrow infrasternal angle. So your narrows are going to be more of a rotational type of an athlete; their capacity to turn is genetically predetermined to be a little bit better than a wide ISA. And so you're probably going to see this throwing strategy a little bit more on your wide ISA pitchers. And I don't know that you would necessarily be able to eliminate on a consistent basis because part of their strategy is to eliminate some of the rotation.

So there are properties within the muscle itself in regards to how I sense that position and then how I am able to recruit that muscle that I think makes the eccentric and concentric orientation better descriptors. I also don't particularly like the fact that concentric and eccentric contractions are kind of vague. And so I tend to use an overcoming contraction versus a yielding contraction rather than calling them concentric or eccentric contractions. Because again, I just think it's a better descriptor. So for instance, I could have a muscle that is eccentrically oriented, so it's longer than its midline, and it could be using an overcoming contraction, what someone might recognize as they might actually call that an eccentric contraction, even though the force is going in the opposite direction of the lengthening of the muscle. And so again, I think there's some vagueness to the way we've used those terms in the past. So what I'm trying to do is clarify what's really going on in regards to position, concentric or eccentric orientation, and to contraction with an overcoming contraction or yielding contraction, just because I think they're better descriptors. And maybe I'm wrong. I'm willing to be wrong on that because I'm not a big fan of useless jargon. But again, as we've had discussions at IFAST and through the intensive, these terms have evolved into something that has become a lot more useful.