Okay. All right.

Yeah. No, I'm with you. I understand. My sister's a string instrument player, so I've been exposed to that. When they fillet you open, as we would say, you have to have a union of the sternum. As it forms, it's two bones that sort of zipper together in the middle. So it behaves as two bones. You have a left sternum and a right sternum. When we talk about compression and expansion through the rib cage, you have two sides that turn together. You also have the synovial joints of the ribs attached. So we have a lot of movement around the sternum that we need for normal expansion and shape change, which is what we need for shoulder movement. When you have a sternotomy and they wire you back together, there are a couple of things that can happen. Obviously, did they talk to you about non-unions?

Yeah. Let me hear them.

Well again, depending on what the goal is. So again, it's like if I'm a powerlifter, how important is my deep squat? It's just not that important to me. I need enough to access that. Now the yielding action does help me, because especially with the turnaround, but think about this. If I yield too much, I dissipate some of that force that I use to actually lift the weight. And again, this is why some people are better powerlifters than others. One of the reasons why you have superhuman strength for a guy that weighs 200 pounds is because you yield really well in your skeleton, but most likely the connective tissues that are directly attached to your musculature is very stiff. And this is what you'll see with people that are very powerful, very explosive and very strong. The stiff of the tissue, if I can get it to yield, it releases more energy. Just go into the gym and check your rubber bands. If you take the skinniest rubber band that you have and the fattest rubber band that you have, and it's easier to stretch the skinnier rubber band, but if I can stretch the fat rubber band the same distance, which one releases more energy?

Basically, if we want early propulsion, you would go with a split squat because, in the top position, because of the rotational aspect of the pelvis, you get the early propulsion.

I just want to know how much I mean

So what we're going to do here, where we use the reverse band to slow the descent of the guts in the narrow ISA situation, what we want to do now is we want to accelerate them. So we need to create a gradient internally that allows the guts to travel downward at a faster rate. So when it does hit the pelvic outlet, we have enough force to produce the yielding action in the connective tissues internally. And so again, so we're going to use the banded squad under these circumstances. So what you want to understand here is that we're actually increasing the time of the load. So the duration that the load initiates to the end of the loading actually increases internally. And so what we get is this expansion of the connector tissue. So this is the yielding action that I talk about. Whereas if we did something that was really, really heavy and we have this instantaneous load internally where we maintain maximum pressure throughout the lift, now we don't have this pressure gradient. We don't have any duration of loading, and that's instantaneous, and that's what makes the tissues stiffer. This is why maximal strength training can actually become interference when we're trying to create an increase in vertical jump, which requires this yielding action.

And that's a really good dead guy representation as to what it might do. But what it actually does is it creates a posterior force through the elbow. And that actually decreases the posterior compressive strategy that actually occurs under this same situation. So we get this posterior lateral compression. that drives some of this orientation at the elbow as well, and so the neutral grip can actually resolve some of that just by this cool effect from brachioradialis. So let's talk solutions here real quick. So number one, we got to rebuild posterior expansion. We've got to have a true ER field that we can superimpose internal rotation upon. So the activities that we're going to start to select here are going to be posterior expansion. We're going to play with arm position a little bit. So we want to do activities that are below shoulder level. That's going to help us start to build this posterior lower thorax expansion. And then we want to be able to move through the excursion of traditional shoulder elevation. where we're going to start to move upward and improve our dorsal, rostral expansion so we can eventually get the arm above shoulder level. Do this progressively. Don't try to do it all at once because chances are you're not going to have enough expansion initially. You might want to also try to superimpose a little bit of supination into the inverted activities that you might be using that are eventually going to get you a little bit of pump handle and dorsal rostral expansion at the same time. If you know somebody that has manual skills and is allowed to touch people, you can manually reorient the forearm. So we block the proximal elbow. a little bit of distraction there to reduce the posterior compression. And then we can actually mobilize that distal form to actually reduce the amount of pronation in the distal form relative to the proximal form. So that's a fun one. And it's rather remarkable in regards to how quickly you can see changes there. Then we got to restore anterior expansion. So we got to get true internal rotation available to us. Because of the elbow being a little uncomfortable, under many situations. We start in a high oblique set. This is a great place to start. We can keep the elbow extended. I do have a video on YouTube showing a high oblique activity where we start to play with inhalation and exhalation. So we're actually creating expansion posteriorly expansion anteriorly and we're manipulating the pressure through the hand so we're getting pronation supination erir through the shoulder at the same time. Then I would also suggest that we move from activities where both hands are on a fixed bar to activities where we have a free moving hand and we're doing one side at a time in regards to your pulling activities because what this is going to allow is going to allow the normal rotations to occur so we're not getting symmetrical force production at the same time, which creates this anterior post-deer compression, which got you here in the first place.

So as we do that, what we're going to get is an orientation of the pelvis and the thorax towards me, which is a flat turn. So yes, you'll make a turn in this direction, but we've created a very long loop, if you will. So when we're talking about a baseball pitcher, we want to get as tight a turn as possible. So what we're going to do is we're going to modify the exercise a little bit. We put it on the same diagonal as his axial skeleton's navel. Now, when he turns, there you go. And you can see this deeper diagonal. So what we've got here is actually creating the delay strategy on the back left. Okay, so again, we want to keep it on that level. Okay, so that's step one. We use the water bag. I'm going to talk about some velocity. So we're going to take the medicine ball there. This is apparently a medicine ball. So what I'm going to do here, same kind of orientation, same angle. What I want you to do is I want you to hit that spot right in front of the left foot. So it's going to be pretty tight. So go ahead and reach up and then slam it down as close as you can. There you go. And then what I want you to do is go ahead and turn around.

This is not about the archetypes per se. What this is going to be is a structural relationship in physical diameter of thorax to pelvis because we have certain advantages and disadvantages based on our structure, which is why I led in with this whole comment about blame your parents for everything because they're the ones that gave you give you your structure. So if we look at the differential between a thorax and the pelvis, what we have is fluid pressure and velocity mechanics in play here. And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to break this up into three. I'll give you three representations. There's more than three. But again, I'm going to use these as something to sort of get us started on this level of discussion. So let's just say that I have a thorax that is narrower in circumference than the pelvis so we're going to call this a narrow to wide configuration. What happens internally with the internal mechanics is I have a gradient bias that is downward which means that it's easier for me to push my guts downward so there's a higher velocity that's driving me into the ground right away. And what this is going to do as an athlete is that it's going to increase the duration of my ground contact times. And so that means that I'm also going to have a lesser upward velocity. So I'm going to be a little bit more challenged in that regard. It doesn't mean it can't be fast. It doesn't mean I can't perform at very, very high levels. We're talking about biases here. But what it's going to do is it's going to give me better side to side agility. It's easy for me to move the internal forces from side to side. But it's going to steal my top speed because again, for top speed you've got to be able to throw the guts up into the air as you're bouncing across the ground. It's just harder to do in this configuration. But because my ground contact times are a little bit longer, I might have good acceleration. It steals my vertical jump a little bit. Which, again, I don't know how important that is when I'm a field athlete because, again, it just depends on what type of a position player that I'm going to be. Now if we looked at this kind of in the gym, it's like, let's just take a box squat. We're going to apply this box squat to everybody. How would I bias this box squat to enhance my ability to perform on the field? I'm going to use a reverse band box. What the reverse band is going to do is it's actually going to help me accelerate those guts upwards. It's going to train me to do that. And so there's a way that you can bias the training.

There's a lot of back and forth, which has been really good. I've enjoyed these calls tremendously. We go long on these calls because they are so much fun. So please join us for that. Today, I want to talk about dorsal rostral expansion because I've received a couple questions through Q&A, have had a couple clients dealing with issues, and it seems that people have difficulty sensing whether they are accomplishing this task or not. Let's talk about measures that will support whether we are reacquiring dorsal rostral expansion. This will be your traditional measures of external rotation at 90 degrees of shoulder abduction. When you lose that measure, it is clear that you have dorsal rostral compression issues preventing you from capturing the shoulder position to allow external rotation to occur. You are also likely to lose horizontal abduction under these circumstances, so monitor those first and foremost. Number two, you must eliminate interference. So, eliminate anything that gets in the way of your goals. The interference includes bilateral symmetrical rowing, chin-ups, and pull-downs with an extreme arch; supine pressing, like bench pressing, with scapulae approximated; and bilateral face pulls. None of these exercises are inherently bad, but when trying to reacquire dorsal rostral expansion, they are interference. Lateral activities can create reciprocal turning, which can be a benefit under certain circumstances, but in many cases, these exercises are great for powerlifting and bodybuilding because they increase the compressive strategy that allows you to increase force production in your bench press, which is great. They flatten you out, making you wider, which bodybuilders love, but you will sacrifice something in the process in most cases. Other activities that cause interference include the traditional I's, Y's, and T's that everybody thinks they need for shoulder health. Some people benefit from these, but many don't. All you have to do is remember the Terry project from a long time ago. Terry was a client who had been doing a program that included I's, Y's, and T's as a foundation, trying to improve his posture, and ended up getting a double whammy: working really hard with no return on investment and actually going in the wrong direction. Please keep that in mind.

What we're talking about is a combination of load, muscle position, and then some element of time or volume. We have to have sufficient volume as well. What we want to be able to do then is we want to progress the amount of weight lifted over time to promote adaptation. When we talk about muscle position, we're actually talking about the ability to concentrically orient the muscle per unit of effort. Every time you go into the gym, you want to be able to recruit more muscle fibers and these muscle fibers have to be biased towards concentric orientation to produce tension because eccentrically oriented muscle fibers do not produce tension. So we have to keep that in mind. So increased force production is one of those things that we're going to need as a representation of this increased tension. And so what this does then is it increases the intramuscular, so the pressure inside the muscle, the intramuscular pressure, and it increases the intrathoracic pressure, so that's the pressure inside of your rib cage. And so the best way to do this is to squeeze the thorax as tight as we can from both sides. We only have two sides in regards to our ability to squeeze the thorax and that's the front and the back. There's no muscles on the sides that can actually do it. If we look at the representation here, you can see that I kind of drew what we would represent as some sort of average position of a thorax. We're looking at the thorax in cross-section here. If we sliced your right through here, then we're looking down on it. If we were going to try to increase and maximize pressure, what we would need to do is we would have to have a mechanism on the backside that squeezes from the back and mechanism on the front side. So thankfully the bench press does this quite well because we actually have a fixed bench that presses into our back. And so the more load that we use, the more pressure we're gonna get from the backside. The more weight we use, the more tension I can create through the front side, so through the pec. So I get this great high pressure, high tension, high force squeeze. And so what I need then are the fixed scapula on the backside. So what that does is I take two bones, I compress it into the back of the thorax, it's very rigid, it doesn't allow an expansion and it helps me to increase the ability to compress the backside. By fixing the scapula then, as I produce force with the pecs, what the pecs are going to do is they're going to squeeze as well. And so they're going to compress the front side back into the bench. So I get smushed front to back. I spread out side to side.

Let's rule out anything that may be important under these circumstances because whenever we're dealing with pain we've got to clear those structural issues. Number two, take a break from bench press. You basically got two options here. Either take the bench press away because it is problematic or you keep training the heck out of it as hard as you possibly can until it breaks and then you have to take a break from the bench press. Either way you're going to have to take a break. I suggest you do the first option there, much safer and much more caring for that client. In fact, what I would do then is I would remove all barbell exercises from his program at this point. You're basically fixing the extremities under any circumstance, whether we're talking about a squat, a deadlift, a row, or any kind of pressing, you're fixing the extremities in a position that are going to promote more internal rotation. From a rehab standpoint, again, if you don't do manual therapies yourself, you're probably going to want to find somebody that does. If this person has any level of hypertrophy or is actually a very, very strong human being, you're probably going to need some help getting this rib cage to move. So you got to get a dynamic, infrasternal angle. So that might require some manual therapy. We need sternal movement because if you're missing internal rotation, you don't have pump handle movement in the anterior thorax, so we need to recapture that. Clavicles are going to be limited in the ability to rotate. When you've got to get the ribs to move more effectively, you're going to have to decompress the scapula from the dorsal rostral space. So that's a manual technique, by the way. I have a video of that on YouTube. I also have one for the scapular elevation. So look at those two. And again, if you don't do manual therapies, get somebody that can apply those techniques. You may have to assist that that's good with their hands to help reduce some of the concentric orientation as well. Basically, you've got a guy that's really, really compressed and you're going to get a whole bunch of expansion here to restore his ability to move freely through space.

Principle supplementary training is not done in isolation from all other demands whether perceived or not. So this is one of those things that people start to throw things in; they go, 'Oh, it doesn't make that much impact,' but you might actually be creating interference for yourself. So those of you that are fond of the concept of a finisher in a workout where you're trying to kick somebody's butt so that they feel like they worked out before they walk out the door—you're doing this extra work, and you actually might be creating interference for something else if it is in conflict with the desired outcome. So keep that in mind. Principle: be comfortable with uncertainty and unknown. So again, we're dealing with complex systems; we don't know what those outcomes are going to be. And so we have to sort of pay attention to what's going on, and that's going to help us determine the next course of action. All models are principles. All models must be adaptive because behavior is an emergent property of a complex system. We don't know what's going to happen. And so we have to have a model that can adapt to the idiosyncratic elements as each individual is going to behave a little bit differently. We have concepts that we can follow. Obviously, we have constraints that we can be aware of. But again, each person is going to have those little idiosyncratic elements that the model must be able to adapt to. Principle: once movement repertoire is dependent on the ability of the body to access full excursion of breathing. So what you refer me to talk about two strategies, one plane. So universal principle is that movement takes place through expansion and compression. We do the same thing. Breathing is one of those ultimate representations of our ability to expand as we breathe in, ability to compress as we breathe out. And especially with breathing, the fluid that we're using is air, and air is compressible and expandable. So again, if we don't have that full repertoire of breathing, then the chances of us being able to move with full adaptability are slim to none because chances are we're going to be using some form of compensatory strategy. We're going to be using some form of superficial musculature that's going to prohibit our ability to fully access our movement options. Principle: there is no one best way to move. So once again, if you read the work of Nikolai Bernstein, you've read about repetition without repetition. And so under these circumstances, we're not going to be able to reproduce the same movement over and over again. So even though it might look the same, let's take a baseball pitcher for example. So they throw a baseball in a very specific manner, and each pitch might look exactly the same. What we know full well and we can actually track these things is that motions are never the same, although they are similar. So we're playing with signal and noise here where we want to minimize the amount of noise when we're talking about high levels of performance. So we can have a reproducible outcome even though it might not be exact, but there's not one best way. What we want to have is as many ways as necessary so the brain and the body can come up with a solution for any movement that would be within a specific context. Principle: neutral spine is immeasurable and unnecessary as a concept. So the neutral word is on the list of dirty words that we try not to use because we can't even tell if anybody is there nor do we know if anything is optimal. So what we're looking for is not one ideal; what we want is an adaptable axial skeleton that allows us to effectively distribute and transmit the forces that we're exposed to within a specific context. That's what's going to give us the best shot at a favorable outcome but also health at the same time. So let's get rid of the whole neutral word and let's move on to something that is more associated with making sure that we have that adaptability. Principle: any model of movement must be coherent with physics. This kind of seems a little obvious, but we have to appreciate the fact that we are part of this universe and so we must behave as such. So we have to follow the guidelines of physics. So again, when I talk about things like expansion and compression, that's a universal principle. It's like we can't deny that. What we have to do is then recognize: well, how do we respect that principle? Then we can actually have a deeper understanding of how we move. Principle: remember where they came from. So this is sort of a two-fold principle. It represents an embryological remember where they came from and then a learning-based remember where they came from. So if we can understand how we evolved in our own development, a lot of the reasoning behind how we achieve certain movement outcomes is much easier to understand. So that's why we want to learn the embryological foundations. They are underappreciated and they answer many, many of those questions. Secondly, when we're working with an individual, we want to remember where they came from. So they've already learned certain behaviors and certain strategies, and those are ingrained, if you will. And so when we're trying to make changes in someone's ability to move differently, we have to respect the fact that even though we might be able to demonstrate a change, they may default back to what they are more comfortable with, or what has been ingrained through time and experience. So we have to give them time to learn something new. And so again, when we see a regression, it's not that we did the wrong thing; it just may be that they didn't have enough time or exposure to the new information to process that and then establish a new behavioral output. Principle: movement arises morphologically due to hydrostatics and hydrodynamics in helical patterns. This goes towards what you're made of and what your structure is. So you're 99% water and 1% stuff. And so you're basically a big bag of water. You have to follow those principles. And so those are based on hydrostatics and hydrodynamics. And so that's where we want to start to push our understanding so we can get a better grasp on how we actually move through space. Principle: the strategy utilized to manage internal forces is limited and predictable within limits based on the common constraints of the system. So we have internal forces and we have external forces and we have to manage both of those. And so one of the things we have to recognize is how we control the insides matters. So we are designed such that our internal forces can behave separately from what we see in this symmetrical movement system on the outside. And so a lot of the behaviors that we'll see that produce limitations in movement or interference are actually just associated with us controlling those internal forces. Thankfully, we do have an understanding of some of the constraints of the system, and so we can narrow probabilities to where we might have some predictability as to what your strategies may be. That becomes helpful, but it's typically acquired through repetition and experience. And again, we always have to consider the idiosyncratic elements of that individual system as to how they're going to behave.

With a wide ISA, we tend to use a little bit more forceful exhalation because what we have to do is we have to close the wide ISA and the way we do that is using superficial musculature like external oblique, which would then narrow that angle. So that actually does require a little bit more of an effortful exhalation. But here's the problem that people are running into, especially with the wide ISA archetypes, is that they're using high levels of muscle activity during the breathing activities, and they're using a more forceful exhalation. The problem that you're running into with that is I've already got somebody that's utilizing a very, very strong exhalation, concentric orientation type of strategy, and then all you're doing is reinforcing that during the activities that you're attempting to use to restore movement capabilities. So what you end up doing is you just reinforce the strategy because by driving the exhalation too aggressively, they recruit their superficial strategy just like they're doing under most circumstances and then you don't get the changes that you want. And so we have to take the superficial strategies into consideration whenever we're trying to coach somebody through some form of breathing activity, especially when we're trying to restore movement. So, under those circumstances, we actually use a very relaxed, casual type of breathing with very slow, methodical movements. Very, very low tension, very, very low effort. Because again, if we have this really, really strong, wide ISA, superficial, concentric orientation, you're never gonna get your way out of that by trying to use more effort. Because again, you just reinforce the strategy.

Cause ultimately that's what you're going to end up doing. That's the goal. The goal is to not have to lay people on a table to figure stuff out, right? The goal is to look at something and say, I know that under these circumstances, I have to be able to access a certain range of motion and you're not doing it.

Are you going to make me go back and watch one of them?

It's like the same question over and over again.

So all of their connective tissues are providing a yielding strategy to even get into position, which is why we tend to see connective tissue issues with a lot of power lifters. We see a lot of bony changes with a lot of power lifters over time because of the dramatic compressive strategies that they're utilizing. That affects blood flow to the joints, affects blood flow to the connective tissues. We got a whole world of hurt in our futures if we don't take care of ourselves. So I hope that clarifies a little bit of the yielding and overcoming strategy. If we're looking at the powerlifting style squat at the bottom, you're going to be as nutated as you can, but also compressed underneath. So I can't even create the position with my pelvis model because you're going to probably bend the sacrum underneath you to a significant degree. So from a health standpoint, from a power living standpoint, it would behoove you to work on both styles of squat, one squat obviously for your maximum effort, for competition purposes, and the other one to help you maintain some health and mobility. So again, I hope that helps you, Sandy. Biggest, small A, small hand, big D. I will see you guys tomorrow, have a great Wednesday, and then coach is called tomorrow, and then it's chips and salsa day too, so I'll see you.

So now let's take this up to the pelvis for a second. So let's just say that I have some form of compressive-compensatory strategy that is going to take away some of my internal rotation via orientation, compression, etc. What I might see is somebody anteriorly orienting their pelvis forward. This is another attempt to get force into the ground. So this is internal rotation. That again might limit my ability to distribute. So now maybe somebody walks in with back pain. So the solutions for us as practitioners and coaches when we have limitations in movement, when we have situations where people might be becoming to us with pain experiences is we have to determine what strategies that they are using. And then as we alleviate that and we teach them how to redistribute these forces throughout the system, this is the solution in many, many cases. Not every case. Sometimes we have constraints that have changed. Sometimes we have neurologic influences that will supersede the biomechanical aspect of this. But in many, many cases, we've just failed to distribute these forces. And so I would encourage you, number one, as a solution is learn how to measure reliably. You have to create a representation of what this person is bringing to you in three dimensions, preferably four dimensions, because we do have a time constraint here under many cases. Secondly, you need to recapture external rotation. So, external rotation is a very, very broad field. Internal rotation is superimposed upon it. If I have limitations in the expansive capability, which means I've limited ER, I've immediately limited my IR capabilities, and now I have a limited capacity to distribute force and load throughout the system. Once I recapture the extra rotation, that's the time to start this superimposed internal rotation upon it in a distributed manner if my goal is to increase adaptability. When we're talking about performance, when we're talking about taking somebody into the weight room, or we're training them to produce speed and force and power, we may intentionally restrict the adaptability to create these high levels of performance because higher force output speed demands that we have limitations in movement. So we might have to do that intentionally, but we monitor them over time, keep performance indicators to make sure that we don't end up with vocal pressures, potential destructions, et cetera, et cetera. We just do the best we can. Injuries are gonna happen no matter what. So, David, thank you, thank you, thank you. I love talking about the two strategies, one playing concept. It's so simple, but it needs to be understood so it can be applied effectively so we can provide solutions to our patients and our clients. Everybody have a fabulous Wednesday. Coffee and Coaches Conference calls 6 a.m. tomorrow. I will see you guys there. Have a great day. Happy Thursday. I have neuro coffee in hand and It is perfect.

This might not be the first exercise of choice, but it might be something we can go to because there's a turn associated with this. So once we drive something with a reach below shoulder level or a supported activity below shoulder level, we may be able to access a higher level of flexion without any symptoms whatsoever. And especially in this deep squat where we're going to get some of that posterior lower expansion in that position and then we can superimpose a turn. So we're actually going to use the compensatory strategy that Mihail was talking about to our advantage, and we create that turn and we create a reciprocal expansion as we move one arm through the pull down at a time, and that's going to give us the expansion that we want.

They don't change no matter what our presentation is. So Carl, I hope that is helpful for you. Everybody have a terrific Wednesday. I'll see you guys tomorrow morning on the Coffee and Coaches Conference call. Have a great day. Oh, if you have any questions, ask Bill Hartman at gmail.com. Happy Thursday.

What I want you to think about here, Tom, is that if I keep pushing this back, pushing this back, pushing this back, the pelvic outlet musculature is getting more and more lengthened. And it might lengthen to the point where it can no longer produce its optimal level of force. So at that point in time, as that sacrum goes farther and farther forward, I'm going to now lose my control of urine flow at that point, okay? So this is more of what I would look at as a passive insufficiency kind of a representation. So I'm moving the two ends of the muscle farther and farther apart and I lose my ability to produce optimum force. That's scenario one. Scenario two is if I get this posterior lower compressive strategy, and again, this is a center of gravity control issue. So if this keeps going forward, forward, forward, I'm going to eventually have to compress this down. And so I'm going to compress down here. And so I'm actually going to see a bend in the sacrum. And I got an MRI right here, hopefully it's right here, somewhere there, that shows how this sacrum will bend under. So under normal circumstances, I'm going to see this nice, normal-shaped sacrum with my eccentric orientation. But if I get the concert orientation pushed to your lower, it's going to bend the sacrum underneath. Now, if I bend the sacrum farther and farther and farther, and this space in the outlet gets narrower and narrower and narrower, I'm going to have the opposing strategy. So this is going to be more like an active insufficiency where I bring the two ends of the muscle closer and closer together. And once again, I can't produce optimum force, and this is where I'm going to have the urine control problems, okay?

So as you recover left shoulder flexion, it's also gonna be indicative of the fact that you're reducing the right rotation that you've created through the lumbar spine and the pelvis because you're gonna bring it back in the upper thorax and the lower cervical spine at the same time. Okay. Now, plan of attack. We've got to reduce the anti-orientation. We've got to expand. We've got to expand the outlet of the pelvis. We've got to create a yielding strategy. So we want to create a yielding strategy on the left and a propulsive strategy on the right. So a couple things that we can do right off the bat. If you want to go manual, you can do a scapular decompression. You get dorsal rostral expansion on the left side. There is an allele decompression manual technique that you can use. It's a little personal, and so we want to only use that if we really, really need to. From an exercise standpoint, what we're going to do if we need to, we'll start them in a supine hook line position. One, we got to keep them below the level of their restriction in hip flexion, so we don't go into a compensatory strategy, but they're going to be somebody that puts, you put something between their knees to squeeze to create the internal rotation. So you offset that posterior lower compressive strategy, which is going to drive them into an early compensatory hip external rotation. So now if you throw on a left yielding strategy and a right propulsive strategy on top of that, you got a really big bang that might clean up a ton of stuff all at once. This can then become a supine cross-connect activity. So this is a little counterintuitive. because you think about, well, Bill, if I take that opposite knee into too much hip flexion, I'm going to create a compensatory strategy. Yes. And we're actually going to take advantage of this. So when I put somebody in supine, I bring the right knee towards the chest and they hit where that compensation It would start if I can keep the knee biased towards midline, what's going to happen is they're actually going to roll towards the left side and actually help us create the yielding strategy on the left posterior aspect of the pelvis and the thorac. So this is actually really, really cool that we can use something like this. The thing you have to do is make sure that you maintain the left hip in an internally rotated position as they do so. So again, you might want to go hook line and then supine cross connect. The cool thing about the supine cross connect is this becomes a left supine arm bar in the gym. if that's where we're going to move this person.

People think they make decisions based on logic, but we tend to make decisions based on emotion and then superimpose logic on top of that to reinforce our emotionally driven decisions, which is a neat process but if you're aware of that then it helps a lot. We're also irrational; we can't see reality and so we have to rely on modeling. So everything that we do, everything that we visualize or think we understand, it tends to be a model because the complexity of reality is probably too overwhelming for us to even recognize or understand. So, as you said, all models are wrong. And so I understand that. And I would refer you to a mental model that is very useful called the map is not the territory. So when we're talking about human movement, some of the models that we've used in the past are mere representations of what we think that we understand. So I make fun of dead guy anatomy a lot because it's very easy, but it's also a somewhat useful representation because there is some of that stuff that does influence how we can perceive movement to be created. But we also have to understand that the cadaver is not the human; cadavers don't breathe, they don't move. They tend to be dry and not fluid-based. Again, we have to recognize the limitations of that model. When the map is not the territory, what it means is that we're using something to help us create a smaller, more manageable representation of what the reality is. So let's just use a silly representation. So if I had a map of the United States that was actual size, so one mile equals one mile, not only would it be incredibly difficult to fold, but we can't even create this representation. It would be ridiculous. So we have to use a smaller version that is not the reality, but that is representative so we can manage the complexity. So that's what we're talking about here.

I've been trying to understand what happens in terms of expansion in the body with nutation and counter-nutation. I've been having trouble conceptualizing where there's free space and where the contents are going. What I don't understand is if I'm dipping into nutation, wouldn't that then just push everything forward and down? Or no, because it's compressing down. So I'm not sure if the axis of the change, the expansion would go in the opposite way.

between internal and external rotation and give you some of the yielding strategy posteriorly in that dorsal rostral space. Again, you're going to need that. So dumbbell curl variations. There's a bunch of videos on my YouTube channel for that that you can also use to help keep that dorsal rostral space expanded. The key element with any of the resistive activities that I've just mentioned is that you can breathe through it. The minute you have a breath-holding strategy under any circumstance during these activities, you are promoting the limitation that you are trying to alleviate. So keep that in mind. So in a nutshell, what you got is you got something that's very, very compressed. They're using compensatory strategies during the activities in question. So in the bench press, maybe they're carrying them around. I don't know, but either way, when they're bench pressing, this is what they're using. So you have to reduce the compressive strategies and eliminate the interference through all of the activities that you're doing. So you might have to restructure some programming. Unilateral activities are going to be much more effective than bilateral symmetrical activities and take the barbell out of their hands. So Ben, I hope that gives you something to work with. If it doesn't, if you need more, go to askbillhardman.gmail.com and we will provide you another solution if you have another question. Everybody have a great Wednesday and I will see you. Oh, coaches, come to the Coffee and Coaches Conference Call tomorrow morning, 6am. It's going to be Thursday. It's Chips and Salsa Day tomorrow. Have a great day. Happy Thursday. I have neuro coffee in hand and it is perfect.

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

I had a friend text me just the other day, kind of asking a question about something she's seen with one of her clients. And I was kind of intrigued by it as well. She's talking about an individual that she has that is extremely wide ISA and appears to be stuck in posterior tilt. It's like this is her, this is her. What she's seeing so far. She's unsure if she's actually seeing posterior tilt or just so compressed on the backside that the hips are being pushed forward and still stuck in neutral or even anterior tilt, but getting motion other places. So she's trying to figure out how to assess to get back to figure out where he really is, I guess.

We want to restore, especially in return to play issues or late off-season, where we're really trying to drive up force production to prepare them for the season, we have to implement these activities. So one of the things that I like to do, especially when we're starting to restore these bilateral symmetrical activities to the programming, is to start with activities that reduce the influence of that posterior compressive strategy, especially. So when you think about a back squat and the scapular retraction that's required there, you're going to close off that dorsal rostrum, we're going to lose some rotation in the shoulder, we're going to potentially compress that posterior pelvis. And again, so we're going to lose some of those movement capabilities. But if we implement something like say a front squat, well, we can maintain the yielding strategy. Now we've actually reduced the influence that would restrict our ability to turn, especially for a change of direction type of things that a lot of our field and court athletes have to do. I like snatch grip RDLs to re-initiate hinging activities because moving the arms away from the sides actually moves us from a more internal rotation position to a little bit more external rotation, so again I get some of that posterior expansion. And so there are activities that we can utilize that will help maintain our ability to yield posteriorly, especially when we need that for turning. Another strategy in this regard is when we know that we're going to have to utilize an activity that is very high compression. So think about power cleans and back squats, pulls from the floor. Anything along those lines is going to be a very compressive type activity. What we might do is we might make that primary exercise for that day number one. And then everything after that is structured so that we start to restore some of these movement capabilities. So think about the highest possible intensity, highest force output, highest speed activity coming first because we have to use these compensatory compressive strategies for that type of force production. And then, like I said, we construct the rest of the program to help them maintain many of their movement capabilities.