So let's get a general idea of what we're talking about. The average human being can probably get airborne for about half a second. Those athletes that we see on TV that do amazing things can do that for a lot longer. So for instance, I believe it was Michael Jordan that was like 0.92 seconds. So it's almost twice as long as the average human being, which again makes them kind of stellar at what they do. So not only do we have to be able to get these guts airborne, but we've got a timing issue to execute this because if we don't observe the time constraint, we number one we can't take advantage of the energy storage and release element of this and therefore we're not going to get off the ground. So if we go too fast in our descent, we don't give ourselves enough time to yield. So the connective tissues will behave too stiff. We get less energy in the yielding action. We have less energy storage, and therefore less energy release, and the jump is lower. If we go too slow or we take too long of a duration, the yielding action is actually going to get dampened. We release the energy at the bottom of the jump. And then once again, we can't jump very high. And so there is an element of skill here. But we can actually train this in the training hall to a certain degree now.

An exhalation strategy can interfere with range of motion or enhance performance. So how are we queuing this? I was going back and forth on the Q&A email, askphilharmonageemail.com with Bryce, and Bryce had actually a really good question in regards to exhalation strategies and such, and when would we actually queue something that would be a much more of an aggressive exhalation strategy, so much like a Vesalva maneuver. And so it allows us to talk about several different things. We can talk about exhalation interfering. We can talk about exhalation as a performance enhancer and we get to talk about sticking point stuff. So let's kind of break this down into those segments. When I started talking about archetypes and started influencing the different breathing strategies in regards to while a wide ISA is going to use a more forceful exhalation to close the ISA, the denero is going to use a sort of lighter exhalation strategy because we don't want to over recruit the external musculature. it started to seem like everybody that jumped on the bandwagon thought that there was only one way to do this kind of a thing and so then that starts to create some some interference because you're going to have situations that come up where people come in with these superficial compressive strategies. These are exhalation based strategies to begin with and if you use the the inappropriate exhalation strategy even if it falls into that then archetypal recommendation, you can still create some interference. So for instance, if I have a wide ISA that has a really strong superficial compressive strategy and I drive the hard exhale to try to close the ISA, you just reinforced everything that's interfering. And so we want to start to look at these things as the needs of the individual. So it's always n equals one as I'm fond of talking about And so for instance in this wide ISA with a strong compressive strategy, you may have to just use simple quiet nasal breathing and you tend to get a really really good response because what we're trying to do is we're trying to take the strategies into consideration and then superimpose what is the best case scenario in regards to the breathing. When we look at the extreme other end, so when we get into this performance relationship, we have to use these really, really strong exhalation strategies because we need high forces and then we need the benefit of that force to actually demonstrate velocity. So we're going to move people towards these vasalva maneuvers. And so there's an element of timing and duration that will either enhance our ability to access these high forces or are we going to create interference for speed?

So last week we talked about plantar fasciitis. Well, let's talk about its kissing cousin, Achilles tendon pain. Good morning. Happy Monday. I have neural coffee in hand and it is perfect. All right, solid weekend, great sleep, feeling good. Let's dig into Monday's Q&A. This is going to be about some Achilles tendon pain, which is a close cousin to our friend plantar fasciitis that we talked about last week. So again, a nice little lead in for the week from John. And John says, thanks again for all the great content. You're welcome, John. I've been seeing a lot of individuals with Achilles pain as of late in different foot presentations that are close to or farther away from max propulsion. Calf raising is often used with individuals to influence tendon properties, however, it seems that this could create interference with someone who is biased towards late propulsion. This is actually a really good thought, John, and I think I'm going to have an answer for you. How does your strategy change depending on the individual's foot type, and are there any other considerations for Achilles tendon pain? And I think that if we look at this from a little bit of a wide perspective first and foremost, we're going to get a really good representation of why this thing perpetuates in the first place. And then if we can understand that, I think we come up with a really good solution and we can rely on some of the useful research that is available to us. So let's think about what would have to happen under these circumstances. So to get any change in a connective tissue property, we have to say, well, where does this nutrition come from? And so we're going to say, well, under most circumstances, it's going to come from that bony side. And so if we look at the emphasis where the tendon attaches to the bone under most of these circumstances, we get a pretty significant bony change there. And so what this leads us to believe then is that we do have a situation where there's a high tension, it's prolonged tension and therefore we're going to get a reduction in blood flow. And so this is going to cause us to create some measure of a breakdown in the connective tissues. So the way that I look at this, John, is I'm going to break out my silly putty here for a sec. And so we think about, if I just put this prolonged tension on my silly putty, and I end up with something that looks kinda like that, and I'll show you the cross section here. If I snap this sucker, you're gonna see this middle part of the silly putty getting compressed, and the tendon behaves kinda the same way. So whether we're talking about patellar tendon or Achilles tendon, it doesn't really matter under those circumstances.

So what if rolling is just walking and Finkel is Einhorn? Good morning. Happy Monday. I have neuro coffee in hand and it is perfect. All right. Very solid weekend. Hope you guys had a great one too. Time's a waste in and so we're going to dig right into today's Q&A. This comes from Mihail. Mihail has a rolling question and then it's a coincidence. Had a mentorship call this morning that was also deep into the rolling patterns as well. And so this will be kind of fun. Mehal says, I've been trying to figure out the difference between the three types of rolling patterns. Lower body initiates with the upper body follows, the upper body initiates with the lower body follows and where the trunk is kept stable and the whole body moves as a unit. And so what Mehal's trying to do, he's trying to differentiate this in regards to the type of activities that they might be related to. So he says, well, you know, if we want to improve rotational movements with the lower body initiates, he might relate that to punching or golf. The second type might be kicking, and then where we're braced, it's where we're trying to manipulate the pressures in the ribcage. And I think that we can actually make this even simpler than that. But I love the fact that you're identifying the difference in the rolling patterns themselves because there is a difference. Now, let's just talk about this grossly first as to why we want to use these rolling activities in the first place. First and foremost is we get favorable shape changes that we can't necessarily get when we're working against gravity. And so let's say, for instance, that I have a wide infrastructural angle individual, they don't turn well, they have a lot of superficial compressive strategies, and I'm trying to get the anterior posterior expansion back to allow some element of turning. And so what this does do, Because I've reduced gravity, I've reduced the active compressive strategy, and I can promote some of that expansion and turning. Now, one of the things you want to try to consider here is that when we do sideline activities in these pseudo-static positions, that all we're doing is sort of a partial rolling activity to begin with. So we're taking advantage of gravity to promote this shape change. And while it appears that these things are static, what we're actually doing is we're actually producing the ability to roll. And what you're going to see here in just a minute as a rolling is actually walking. So we're actually promoting the ability to make these turns and produce a normal movement capability against gravity.

This is actually a really good question because I think pushups are one of those exercises that are poorly executed by a number of people, and so if we understand a little bit more about how we're actually moving through space and how we're actually producing force, I think we're gonna get a lot better at number one, coaching them, and then number two, making decisions as to whether it's even an appropriate exercise for someone to perform. Let's start with the dirty little secret about the push-up. Most folks would say that the top position of the push-up is the start position and the bottom position is the end position. And I would respectfully disagree. We have to reverse this process. We have to think a little bit differently. And I would compare this to how we would say that the first squat is performed by a young child. So for those of you that have small children that went through this evolution from the ground up where they learned how to how to stand, they didn't stand and then squat and then stand back up, they actually moved into a squat and then stood up. So we want to look at the pushup from the same perspective: that the bottom position is actually going to be the start. And so if we look at the upper extremity relative to the hand, what we're going to see is that we're going to be in an early phase of propulsion, which is going to be towards an external rotation bias. If we move towards the top, we're going to move towards middle propulsion, but we're never going to quite get there. And so we're always carrying a little bit of this ER bias with it. Even as the force production increases, we need to hang on to external rotation. So Malty, your intention of maintaining this ER queuing throughout the pushup is actually quite accurate. We need to be able to hang on to that, which means we're going to need some posterior expansion throughout, because we're never really going to make it through towards that middle to max propulsive position through the upper extremity. If we look at the shoulder girdle itself, the shoulder girdle is going to maintain that external rotation bias throughout. And so the thing that we always want to remember is that this internal rotation is superimposed upon the field of external rotation. But let's be clear here that this is not an arc. It is not an arc. It is a four-dimensional space that actually changes shape depending on what position you're in and the compression and expansion strategies that you're going to utilize.

Okay. So a couple things, Johnny, when you write the word full and then you have numbers, you're sort of confounding your outcome. So just a little word of advice, just try to throw up numbers so you have a comparator there that's equivalent. It makes a little bit easier. But I think we've got enough to work with here that we can actually come up with something. First thing that we want to talk about is what is the coffee cup? So we talk about chessboards and coffee cups, and the coffee cups are the things that stand out the most. And so in looking at the information you gave me, you gave me one big giant 20 ounce coffee cup. And that's going to be the foot position. So let's talk about that first. So when you talk about having an athlete with a lower arch, so we're going to look at the early, an early propulsive foot, which is actually going to have a pretty decent arch there. It's a supinated ER foot. And as we move through this middle propulsive range where we have the ankle rocker. This is where that arch is going to come down low. And so this is going to be us moving through middle propulsion to get to max propulsion. So what you may have here is an athlete that is trying to stay as close to max propulsion as possible. Now he's a very big human being. He's 315 pounds. He's a defensive end. And so chances are, to move that quickly, that size quickly, he's going to have to be really, really close to max propulsion almost at all times. Now, if that's the case, this is a position of internal rotation. He's putting a lot of force into the ground already. But based on your measures, we don't have a lot of hip IR. So where is he getting the IR coming from? So now we got to start looking at pubic orientation. All right. So based on one of your other comments here where you actually said that when you measured his shoulder extra rotation as being full. You put it in quotes because the thorax was posteriorly tilted on the table. So that's very, very useful. That means we had a thorax that was anteriorly tilted prior to laying him down, which is a pretty good indicator that we've got an anterior orientation of the pelvis. Now, we've got a confounding factor here that makes us question whether we've got an anterior orientation of the pelvis because you've got 80 degrees of hip external rotation. Well, how the heck do we get 80 degrees? Because what I should see with an anterior orientation of the pelvis is a loss of this hip ER. So let me give you a little hint as to what's probably happening here, especially with somebody of his size. As you're moving the hip into traditional measures of hip flexion to measure your ERs, you're getting a left lumbar rotation on the table. So as you bring him up into hip flexion, the spine flexes on the left side. That's external rotation of the spine towards that side. And that magnifies the external rotation measure. Now, how can we say this? Well, your right hip flexion doesn't have a pinching sensation like it does on the left side. So we had that pinch on the left, which tells us that hip flexion stops there. We don't have that on the right side. And you said that shoulder flexion was about full compared to a very limited shoulder flexion on the left side. So what we have is we have a spine that is facing the right rather aggressively. And again, that's what magnifies our ER measures on that side. So the spine is oriented to the right. It's facing the right, so everything on the right side is going to have this really good look in ER. We're not going to get the compressive strategy in the front of the hip, and it's going to like all loosey-goosey. So what we have here, based on body mass, pelvic orientation, and such, is you probably got a wide ISA. You probably got a guy that has left post-ear compression like nobody's business that is cranking him around, and he is in the right-hand turn. So here's what we got to do. We got to undo this right hand turn.

I have two questions on the theoretical end of the spectrum, but I think we can get this to where we can talk about why strength training might be useful or interference. Good morning. Happy Munte. I have neuro coffee in hand and it is perfect. All right. Lots of things to do today. We're going to dig into a Q&A. It's going to be a combination of two questions. Try to make it useful. Some of this is going to be theoretical. So it might be interesting to some of you. And then the rest of you, you just turn it off. It's OK. I'm only expecting about five or six views on this one. So we're going to dig into some theoretical first. And this comes from Ryan. Ryan says, You said that the ability to expand and compress and expand again is a universal principle. Can you give a handful of examples in the human body outside of gait or shoulder and hip range motion? And also, can you name some examples in the natural world and the universe? I warned you. This is actually a fun question for me because I'd like to talk about some of this stuff. But Ryan, one of the things you have to recognize is that everything about you is a compression and expansion. So let's just look at your heart. And I think everybody has a representation in their head when they're looking at a heart beating. They understand that blood flows into the heart, it expands, it compresses, and then the blood flows out. And by the way, the heart doesn't pump it out. That's a different story. But everything inside of you is going to be based on compression expansion. So the peristalsis that moves the lunch through your gut is compression expansion. If we look at something local, like muscular contraction so if I concentrically oriented muscle there's actually a higher pressure within that muscle so the intramuscular pressure is higher as we reduce the concentric orientation we have a reduction in in pressure there as well so again we always have compression expansion taking place somewhere at some time. It all depends on where we're looking. We're also going to see this as global strategies. So every movement that you have is going to have some peak moment of force output, which will be representative of the compressive strategy to what degree is then dependent on what you're doing. You know, if you're drinking a glass of water, it's not going to be your maximum peak force that you could produce, but there is going to be a peak in that moment in time. If I'm doing a vertical job, it's a little bit easier to see that representation of that peak moment. So again, so every sporting movement is going to have this expansion to compression, to expansion representation.

So how do we adapt the model to the individual that we're working with? Good morning. Happy Monday. I have no coffee in hand and it is perfect. That's good. Okay. kind of another wacky schedule for the week because of the upcoming New Year's and all that good stuff. So we're going to dive right into today's Q&A. This comes from D Wayne, Capital D Wayne. So I'm not sure if it's one word or two. So we're going to call you D Wayne. I hope that's okay. Dwayne says, after watching quite a few of your videos, your model seems to be quite extensive. Do you find that there's a difference in how you work with higher level athletes like the pros compared to the less accomplished of developing athletes? In other words, do you adapt the model to the athlete in question? Let's talk about why we even have a model in the first place. The first reason that we have one is because things are just way too complex for us to understand. So we have to create a model that allows us to simplify the complexity. And so what we have is we have how and why questions that need to be answered in regards to certain capabilities or structural influences. And then how the athlete in question then then produces their their performance and so that's what the model allows us to do so rather than adapting a model to the individual what we want to have is we want to have this this coherent and comprehensive model that allows us to work with with literally anyone and so. When we think about the contents of this model, and we're talking about attributes that may have influences. So this is our wide versus narrow archetypes. This is pelvis shape or foot type. Thorax to pelvis configuration is an influence. Internal force management, breathing strategies, external movement strategies. So when we talk about compressive strategies or compensatory activities, some of these are actually very, very useful for performance. And so we have to take those into consideration. And then we can throw tissue behavior in regards to our stiffness and yielding capabilities. And so what we want to make sure is that we can apply all of these to every situation. So if we're just talking about the high end performer, one of the things that we want to consider first and foremost with those guys is that they are not average. They are at the one end of the normal curve. So they are special human beings that were born with certain structures and certain capabilities that allowed them to develop and demonstrate superpowers. And so we never want to treat them like the average. But what's unique about them is that they have their idiosyncratic structures and behaviors that allow them to produce more speed, higher jumps, and higher force output than your average Joe. What they actually do for us is they provide us an understanding of what the rules actually are. For instance, a while back we talked about the higher performance foot and what we should expect to see from that. Let me cut away to that for a short explanation. So we can get a representation of what I'm talking about when we're talking about their idiosyncratic structures and behaviors and how they influence performance. As I move through middle, this is where the arch is going to move down towards the ground. So this is your traditional pronation. This is tibial interrotation. So this is a lower arch. Here's the key element of this that I want you to understand is that the maximum force into the ground is that maximum pronation. And where that is, max propulsion is just as that medial calcaneus re-brakes from the ground. And so this is actually a low position of the arch because right after that I'm going to get a bunch of concentric orientation on the planar aspect of the foot. This is what they traditionally call that windlass effect. I'm going to crank that sucker back into an externally rotated position. That is traditionally considered this high propulsive foot with the force application came just prior to that. And so this is the demonstration of what happens after that force production. And so when we talk about a performance related foot, this is why we're going to see lower arches on a lot of these really, really high performance. And so people look at these feet, And they go, oh, these are really crappy feet because pronation has always been described as this accommodative foot position, which is not untrue, but the highest force production also happens in maximum pronation. So that's where our max propulsion is. So now if we're talking about training the developing athlete, we still need to consider the same attributes. The model is the same. that we would use for the high performer. However, what we might have in comparison to the high performer are a deficit due to structure that the high performer has naturally or a potential lack of development and this allows us to now target our interventions for the developing athlete So let's just say that we had an athlete that was jumping down from a box and we see the knees moving close together. And so this actually may represent is knee-centric orientation of the pelvic outlet, which is a low power landing. So where a high performer may actually have a narrower pelvic outlet, by structure or the ability to create concentric orientation, this individual whose needs are coming together can't do that. So now what do we do? Well, this allows us to target our interventions. So what we might do is we might create a compensatory strategy in regards to how we love this individual based on their physical structure. And so in this case, we might use sort of a reverse band box squat initially to teach them how to manage their internal forces more effectively to actually develop the ability to create the concentric orientation in the pelvic diaphragm by reducing the internal loads and as we progress this individual through some form of progressive loading from a regular box squat or eventually some progressive overload on a barbell will eventually move them towards say a seated box jump which allows them to position the pelvis correctly to produce force to orient the pelvic diaphragm in such a way to produce greater force to teach them a more effective exhalation strategy and so now that's how we raise the performance. So again, the model that we're using to teach this person to create a higher force or higher power output is actually the same model that we would use for our high performers. So again, Dwayne, there's really no difference in how we would apply this. Again, the goal is to create an extensive and coherent model so we don't have to change the model. In fact, if you have to create too many rules, changes are, you have an inferior model that you're using. So I hope that answers your question, Dwayne. If not, please send me another question at askbillhartman at gmail.com, askbillhartman at gmail.com, and then we'll see you guys tomorrow. So let's revisit Lee Taft's Playa Step, shall we? Good morning. Happy Tuesday. I have normal coffee in hand and it is perfect. All right. It's only Tuesday, but I'm having a pretty good week. Big call on IFSU yesterday. Went long, but it only seemed like a few minutes. Really enjoying how people are catching on to things and doing great work out there, so I appreciate you guys on there. Quick reminder, Coffee and Coaches Conference call Thursday morning, New Year's Eve Day. We're gonna do it anyway, 6 a.m., grab some coffee, and then join us for that. Those calls are getting really good. So don't miss out. Let's go ahead and dig in today's Q&A and this comes from Austin. And Austin says, the fall step when going from parallel stance to sprint seems to be a point of contention amongst coaches. It's a common strategy used by athletes and some say it improves performance while others insist it slows the athlete down. How do you view this strategy in regards to your model and do you coach it or advise against it and why? Thanks. So, Austin, we've talked about this actually a little bit, and I've got a couple videos up on the YouTubes. One called Cutting from the Inside Out, I believe, and the other one is actually examining this concept that you're asking about. There tends to be two camps. There tends to be the camp that says, yes, it's representative of a normal aspect of performance that actually enhances our ability to move quickly and change direction. And then there's the other camp that just doesn't understand it. and so then they say whether it's a negative and and it creates interference and and I would be in the camp that says that it's a normal aspect of performance um and for various reasons and we're going to talk about those calling it a false step immediately creates this negative connotation and so again um it's either representative of a human's inability to name things poorly or or they or tendency to name things poorly Or again, they're just trying to convince you that it's a negative. My buddy, Lee Taft has done a great job in reframing this exceptionally well by referring to it as a plow step and then showing how it's beneficial. He's done it repeatedly over and over again. you'll see the athletes will use this naturally you're never going to coach somebody out of it it's actually necessary to redirect forces and so we're talking about internal forces and the external forces to move quickly in the direction that is desired and so you can do all the drills you want to try to get rid of it But once the athlete is performing in context, it comes right back because it is essential. It's a combination of Newton's third law, connected tissue behaviors, muscle orientation, skeletal orientation, and then optimizing internal forces. So let's talk about these internal forces a little bit. Because I had a question on IFAS University about this too, and we kind of touched on it. But basically when we're talking about internal forces, we're talking about gut movement and gut orientation and things like that. And so one of the kickers here is that if you can't get your guts moving in the right direction and if you can't get them moving quickly, you are not going to move in the right direction and you are not going to move quickly. And so it doesn't matter what we're talking about. If we're talking about a squat, And we're coming up through the sticking point of the squat. You have to be able to elevate your guts against the downward pressures that are associated with the internal pressure and then the external load. And if you can't push the guts up, I got news for you. You're not going to finish your squat. And so we're talking about changes of direction. We're talking about acceleration. We're talking about accelerating from a static position. If you can't redirect your guts and if you cannot accelerate them, you cannot accelerate yourself. Okay? Now I have a video that talks specifically about this and I actually lay it out through the concentric and eccentric orientations, the yielding and overcoming strategies. So literally I take it step by step.

Here's a question. Can you move without a gradient? Good morning. Happy Monday. I have neuro coffee in hand and it is perfect. All right. Just a little bit of a compressed week this week as we all know. But we'll figure something out. We will be doing the Coffee and Coaches Conference call on Thursday morning, 6am Eastern time for all of you playing the home game. So don't miss out on that. But let's go ahead and dig into Monday's Q&A and this is from Brian. Brian says, Bill, we're reviewing some of your videos this week. So thank you, Brian, for reviewing those videos. So they came across your video titled When Stretching Works and When It Fails. Would it be fair to say that the concentric on concentric orientation you discussed is what causes bones to eventually approximate due to arthritic changes? I understand that under normal ideal circumstances, bones never touch. You are a corrector that is accurate. It seems that all range of motion is solely dependent on the ability to create a fluid gradient in one's joints, which is influenced by concentric and eccentric muscle orientations around the joints. Is that a fair statement to make, or is there more to the big picture? Brian, I love the way you're thinking. You are absolutely correct that we must have a gradient to exist to allow movement to occur. In fact, this is an absolute universal principle under every circumstance. So in the physical world, nothing moves without a gradient. So gradient is merely, in its simplest terms, a difference. And so gravity is representative of an energy gradient. Electrical charge moves on a gradient. The solutes that move in and out of a cell move on graded. So everything requires a gradient to move. But it would probably behoove us to do a quicky review of the whole concept of bones don't touch for those folks that haven't watched that video yet right there. Maybe we want to go watch that after we get done here. So we want to talk about the mechanisms that keeps bones apart. So first and foremost, we want to talk about the water behavior. So the synovial fluid in the joint is mostly water. It's got some protein stuff that floats around in it. But water behaves very specifically when it's approximated to different surfaces. So the hyaline cartilage that aligns the joints is very hydrophilic. So it likes water. And when water's up against it, the water separates into positively and negatively charged water. And that positively charged water stays right through the middle of the joint because the negative would approximate to the highland cartilage. And so now what we have is an electromagnetic force that actually keeps the joint apart. So these positive charges repel one another and it's just like trying to bring two north poles of magnets together you get that repulsive force so it pushes the joint apart. It also makes this anovial fluid in that middle very very slippery which is kind of good so it keeps the joints from squeaking just like the motor oil in your in your car engine. So again, very, very useful on multiple levels. We also have connective tissue behaviors that surround the joint. So if we were talking about, say, a knee joint, if you look at the connective tissue, we've got connective tissue that go in all sort of witchaways. But there's a strong horizontal element to that. And so when we compress the knee joint, so we put weight on the knee joint, that connective tissue becomes very, very So it's loaded very, very quickly. So this is actually the overcoming action that we talk about in the connective tissues when we're talking about any kind of movement. And so that makes the knee joint very, very stiff. And so it compresses the fluid inside the joint. And so now we have an external compression that actually pushes those bones apart. And so we need all of these mechanisms to be intact. So we have this nice, nice healthy knee joint. But we also need to be able to shift this fluid around to have normal movement. So as you stated in the concentric on concentric orientation, so let's just say that we only have two sides of a knee joint here. If we have concentric on one side, concentric on the other side, we have a resultant pressure that is straight through the joint. So we have this compressive strategy throughout the joint. The problem here is this high-linked cartilage that creates our electromagnetic element of our protection, if you will, against the bone's touching is going to be affected by this. So the nutrition that supplies this high-linked cartilage comes from the subcontral bone. And so if I put enough pressure on the subcontral bone over a long enough period of time, I'm going to reduce the ability of the nutrients to diffuse with a gradient rather, to diffuse from the bloodstream to the hyaline cartilage. And then so what we eventually get is a breakdown of this hyaline cartilage from the bony side. And so if this cartilage breaks down, I lose my electromagnetic capabilities, I can no longer keep the joints separated and so now I have this high potential that I'm going to develop some form of our threat condition as this Highland Carriage starts to break down. That's concentric on concentric. So I think you're correct, Brian, that this is a mechanism. But now I want you to think about a specific circumstance. So let's talk about, let's just say somebody with a narrow ISA. So here's what we know about those folks with narrow ISA that have limited breathing excursion is that I have an inhalation biased axial skeleton with a compensatory exhalation strategy. And what that does, Brian, is it's gonna bias towards extra rotation throughout the peripheral joints. And so under this circumstance, what I have is a concentric bias on one side, eccentric bias on the other, which is a gradient that's going to move our joint in a direction. But if I cannot concentrically orient the eccentric musculature or eccentrically orient that concentric musculature, I no longer have the fluid chip that is required for me to move this joint effectively. Now I have the same concept that I had with the concentric on concentric. I just have it more localized to one aspect of the joint. So this might be why you see in a knee you see the medial compartment tend to break down a little bit quicker than everything else or you'll see the posterior shoulder break down a little bit quicker than the rest. I also want you to understand the circumstance that this is going to affect all of your connective tissues. So anytime I put a prolonged pressure or tension on these connective tissues, I'm going to see the same progressive degeneration because I'm reducing blood flow and reducing the nutrients that are getting to those tissues. So this might be why we see the degenerative changes in tendons over time in addition to the arthritic changes. So I want you to keep that in mind as well, Brian. Brian, this is a great question for those of you that are interested. Go watch the Bone Stone Touch and Joints Aren't Leverage video. And then also when stretching works and when it fails, video will also talk about these concepts as well. So I would refer you to those. If you have any further questions or comments, please send them to askbilthartman at gmail.com, askbilthartman at gmail.com. And I will see you tomorrow.

When you're trying to learn something new, it has to be effortful. Today's Q&A segment is from a call we had last Thursday at the Coffee and Coaches Conference. We went on for about an hour and 45 minutes, and the questions were great. People are stellar, especially when it comes to embracing the struggle when trying to learn something complex. This is a couple of segments that are really good in that respect, covering how to intervene when you're not really sure what to do and how you know what to learn. I appreciate the people in this call, especially Manuel and Borbada. Thank you for offering up your questions and participating. If you have any questions yourself, go to askbihartman.gmail.com.

We talk about pec minor, a big one. The costoclavicular space is a big one. And then the scalene triangle are all big ones. If you look for references in regards to behavior of the nervous system, you want to look at Butler, Shacklock, and Louis. And so those are the guys that are gonna talk about the movement of the nervous system. And in each case, what you'll find is that the nerves like three things. They like space, they like movement, they like blood flow. And thoracic outlet or pec minor syndrome or whatever they're gonna call this thing immediately takes away all three. So we lose our space, we lose movement, and we lose blood flow because you get that neurovascular sleeve that tracks out of the neck underneath the clavicle, in front of the rib, and under the pec minor down into the arm. And so if we have any form of compressive strategy under those circumstances, we're probably going to get some variation on the theme of any of those symptoms. But if we look at this from a progressive nature, so if we talk about symptoms at pec minor under those circumstances, typically what we're going to have is a down-pump handle under those circumstances.

So this question is all in the rest. Well, sort of. Good morning. Happy Monday. I have narrow coffee in hand and it is perfect. Man, had a really good weekend. Looking forward to a solid week. Let's go ahead and just dive straight into the Q and A. This one comes from the Brain Physio, kind of an odd name, but we'll go with it. So the Brain Physio says, hi Bill, hi Brain Physio. Any chance you could speak about why some people get an on the styloid process sticking out when the form is in pronation? It seems like the carpals are supinated in relation to the radius. How would you relate this to your model best regards? on the sideline, okay, prominence there and brain physio, I think you are absolutely on point. I think what you are looking at is you're looking at, if we could just say a hand that is supinated relative to the distal form, so primarily the radius where we've got that relationship. And so what we want to recognize is how do we know what we're really looking at? Because this is going to be an issue. If we can't identify the orientation, we're not going to know what we need to do to restore best movement options. And so what we want to recognize is that when we're talking about the internal rotation of the system, so we've got forum pronation. The hand actually pronates as well. And traditionally speaking, if we look at the ranges of motion of the wrist, wrist extension and ulnar deviation would be associated with that internal rotation. And so if we are looking at a hand that is supinated relatively to the distal forearm, then what we're going to have is a reduction in that internal rotation. So this is kind of like having an early propulsive foot in the in the hand because what what we would lack in the foot we would lack dorsiflection and and some of that eversion that we would typically see during during that maximum uh pronation moment during middle propulsion and so we've got somebody that can't get to middle propulsion basically through the upper extremity. Now, how can we confirm this? Well, so I came up with a little test called the Apple test and it has nothing to do with the fruit. It has everything to do with abductor policies longest. So APL, Apple test. And so the Apple test is basically executed as such. So pay attention. So we do the Boy Scout sign. So we oppose the thumb and the pinky. We're going to extend the rest and then we're going to maximally on our deviate. Now, As I break opposition, if I can pick up more extension and only deviation, then I know I've got a concentrically oriented APL. And so that would be indicative of a hand that is actually supinated relative to the rest. Now, if it was a negative test, what would happen is I would have already maxed out my extension and my own deviation. There would be no change when I break the opposition. So then you know you've got a hand that is actually capable of pronation. And so there is the difference. So that Apple test is going to be very, very useful for you to confirm your suspicions that you've got a hand that's supinated relative to the form. Now, if we can understand this, then we understand that the solutions are gonna be really, really fun because this is where we actually get to use arm training exercises, traditional arm training exercises that people do for whatever biceps and triceps and the brachialis and brachioradialis, et cetera. So go back to 1985, pick up Reflex Magazine and look at the latest arm training article. And what you'll see is a lot of solutions for your shoulder, elbow, and wrist problems. So what we want to understand though is when we're looking for these solutions is that the shoulder is pretty easy to identify. Our traditional shoulder ER and iron measures are very, very useful in this circumstance to know where our starting position is in regards to the thorax and the shoulder girdle. Elbow position can get a little hairy because the long bones can actually twist and that creates some ER and IR differences proximal and distal. The thing I want you to keep in mind here, brain physio, is that when we're talking about end range elbow flexion, so that is an ER in position, so that's your inhaled position, so I need dorsal rostrum expansion, I need ER at the shoulder, and I need supination at the forearm at the wrist to get that full end range elbow flexion. For elbow extension, it's the opposing strategies. Obviously, it's going to be an up pump handle. It's going to be internal rotation. It's going to be maximum pronation through the forearm and through the hand. Again, you get to pick your arm exercises. You just have to be able to identify where you are in space. Using your confirming test at the wrist is going to help you identify the wrist. If you know where the shoulder is, the elbow can be the resolution of those two. Now if you see something that looks like elbow hyperextension, don't make the assumption that you've got an appropriate orientation and this is just an exaggeration. What you actually do have here is a twist. So you actually have supination at the proximal elbow that is creating this scenario. So under these circumstances, you're going to have to use some form of elbow extension activity in pronation to resolve it so it's going to look like that. So keep that in mind when you're looking at the elbow orientation relative to the wrist. You can still use your confirming apple test to identify whether you've got a hand that can pronate or whether it's supinated. And then you make your solutions from there. So Brayden Fiscio, I hope that answers your question. If it doesn't, please go to askbillharmonetgmail.com, askbillharmonetgmail.com, and I will see you guys tomorrow.

There are seven components of force that influence the behavior of connective tissues. Let's just talk about a few of them. Good morning. Happy Monday. I have no coffee in hand and it is perfect. Very exciting. New hats arrived over the weekend. So I'm off to a great start on a Monday. We've had a bunch of discussions on IFESU. Actually, it's an ongoing discussion on IFESU University in regards to yielding and overcoming behaviors of the connective tissue. So I thought I would lean into that one a little bit and flesh out some issues. There's a lot of stuff that's capable of influencing the behavior of the connective tissues. One of the things that we want to start to recognize is that this is something that the nervous system is not involved with, and it's actually important that it's not. The nervous system is a little too slow in many of our movement behaviors, and so we have to relent the behavior of connective tissues, and so the connective tissues are viscoelastic, so they alter their stiffness and behaviors based on these seven components of force. We've got magnitude, location, direction, duration, frequency, variability, and rate, all influencing this connective tissue behavior. And so because the viscoelastic tissues behave as they do, they smooth out movement. They deform based on their inherent stiffness and how much energy is stored and release will also amplify and dampen movement. And so if you remember anything that's associated with like stretch shortening cycle, you'll get an idea of how some of the tissues behave, but we want to start thinking about all of these tissues behaving the same way. And like I said, it's going to be based on degrees of their inherent stiffness. So I got a couple of examples here. I think these are from Elite if you guys needed to get some bands. They're Elite FTS. But you can see the difference in stiffness in the two bands. And so both of them are deformable. The thicker band is going to take a lot more force to deform, but it's also going to release a lot more energy than this band. But this one actually can move quicker. So we have to look at how all of these tissues behave and we can influence them differently based on the context in which we are applying forces. Let's talk about the combined influence, if we will, about magnitude, location, and duration. So we don't talk about duration a lot. I talk about rate a lot because I think it's very easy to see. And then I've got this really cool little representation with my silly buddy that I've done a bunch of times on some videos. So when I pull on this gradually, and I get this nice little elongation, but if I pull on it very, very quickly, then of course I get it to snap.

I think we'll call this one kettlebell swing diagnosis. Good morning. Happy Monday. I have neural coffee in hand and it is perfect. Wow, okay. Looking forward to a great week. We got a pretty good Q&A for this morning. If those of you who like to swing the kettlebell and never have any questions or concerns about some technical issues, we've got one that's a little bit more specific to address and this question comes from Annie. And Annie says, I've noticed many of my clients, even the very mobile and symmetrical folks, tend to lose right side midfoot contact during kettlebell swings in the midway point of the hinge on the descent of the kettlebell swing. I'm wondering if this is a problem with the right hip missing some internal rotation. I'm thinking if the right hip is missing the kind of IR it needs for a deep squat or something further down the knee in the ankle complex and perhaps a bit of in range right hip extension too. However, extension looks, and Annie puts looks in quotation marks, looks normal left and right. What are the common causes and systems to properly address it? Is it even a problem? And thanks for all you do. I never stopped learning from your content. Thanks, Annie. I appreciate it. Hey, this is a really good question because I think it's really, really common. And so what Annie did is she actually sent me a video representation of what she's asking about. And she didn't know the rights to it. So she did send it to me though. And so what I did is I actually duplicated it. And so it looks something like that. And so I'm just going to let this run for a second so you can kind of see it. Put it in slow-mo to make it a little bit easier to see. And so there's some interesting findings here that are not all that uncommon. But first, let's consider what we really need to execute this kettlebell swing effectively. So there's two points in a kettlebell swing where motion has to actually stop and change direction. So what that means is that we have two propulsive efforts in every kettlebell swing. Now propulsion is an internal rotation bias and so what internal rotation means is that we actually have to produce force into the ground at those two points otherwise we don't really get a turnaround in this kettlebell swing. So we have to consider the key elements of our propulsive phase which means that we want to start from the ground up. So we have to have a middle propulsive foot and so let's go back through our foot contact here.

We have a patient case study for Monday. Let's check it out. Good morning. Happy Monday. I have neuro coffee in hand and it is perfect. Busy Monday. I fast you folk we have a live Q&A at 2 p.m. Eastern the link is on the website if you're not signed up for I fast you you better do it quickly and we will see you early this afternoon. Last couple Q&As have been pretty killer so so we've had a good time. I want to dig right into Monday's Q&A because I got a dentist appointment today braces so this comes from Carmine. And Carmine has a case study for it, so this is going to be kind of fun. He says, I appreciate you sharing your model and the content you consistently put out where you are most welcome, Carmine. I have a client who often experiences right SI joint pain. He is biased towards an aero ISA with a straight leg raise. So pay attention to these numbers, folks. Straight leg raise of 85 on the left, 75 on the right. Hip flexion on the right is 130, 110 on the left. He has about 30 degrees of IR on the left, 20 on the right. ER on the left is 60, 50 on the right. What would be the orientation of the pelvis and what do you believe is producing the pain experience on the right side? Would these measures, would this be a pelvis tipped on an oblique axis to the right with an answer or post to your compression on the right. What activities would you recommend for this individual? What activities would I recommend? Well, Carmine, you can just send your consultation check to me in care of IFAST, and we'll take care of that. Kidding. Let's go through this. Okay. So first and foremost, let's figure out why we would see this representation in the first place of Carmine. And so let me tell you what's going on here. You got somebody that's looking for right internal rotation. And so they're orienting their body in a position as a substitute for the inability to internally rotate. So you're gonna have to find internal rotation somewhere. We're gonna go after the hip here, because I think that's gonna be the first place that if you recapture this, it'll be money. But let's break down what the pelvis looks like. So when in doubt, You always want to go back to your archetypes to start. So we got somebody that's going to be biased towards the narrow ISA. Okay. So we know we don't have normal extremity motion. So we don't have full breathing excursion. So we're going to have somebody that's going to be in our, our plastic model representation of that. Okay. So right away on the backside. We've got an outlet that is in a position that's biased towards inhalation.

How do you know which exercise to use when you have multiple exercises that appear to accomplish the same thing? This comes from Joseph. He's wondering what drives exercise selection, particularly when there are multiple means to a solution. How do you decide which exercise to program when tackling a goal based on table test selection? For instance, when creating a posterior concentric yielding strategy to the pelvis, can't a deadlift, front foot elevated split squat, or backward sled drag all provide the desired outcome? How do you decide which exercise you'll program? This is actually a really good question, and it's not as simple as it seems sometimes. I think that a lot of people are expecting some sort of cookbook kind of an answer. People are really uncomfortable in the gray, and what we have to recognize is that we have to have this overarching strategy of some sort. And then we have to have the tactics that we apply. And the way we're going to do that is we're going to divide this into three things that are going to help us narrow the probabilities because we're always playing with probabilities as to what will be successful and what may not. And so the three things that we're going to rely on are our model, our process, and then experience.

Good morning. Happy Monday. I have neuro coffee in hand and it is perfect. I had a great weekend. I have a really solid week coming up, so lots to look forward to. Today is a little different for our Q&A. Eric from iVest and I are working on off-season programming for some of our pro athletes who just started their off-seasons. We were obviously discussing some issues, and Eric raised a really good question that I think is common for many people regarding how we produce force in sports and how this influences velocity demonstration. This applies to sprinting, but is often seen in throwing, swinging a golf club, or tennis—rotational sports where we see very high velocities. We'll explore how this is created and how it relates to the actual model. So, we're cutting away from the home office to the purple room for a whiteboard session we haven't done in a while. Enjoy.

First things first, let's talk about how we got here in the first place. We're going to break out the skeleton here a little bit. My skeleton just happens to have this beautiful wide ISA, right? And if we turn him sideways, you can see that he's actually kind of compressed too, which is kind of cool when you think about it, that I didn't even ask for this and this is what I got. So, when we're talking about the wide ISA and they lost internal and external rotation, what we've had is a series of compressive strategies that allow us to manage our center of gravity on two legs, but what ultimately results in this is as we compress, We're going to lose our ability to move the scapula. We're going to increase the concentric orientation of superficial musculature. And then ultimately what we're going to do is we're going to lose our internal and external rotations. The same thing is happening in the pelvis as it is in the thorax. And so we're gonna lose hip range of motion and shoulder range of motion. Under certain circumstances, this is totally expected. It's associated with training, high force production. So very, very strong individuals may demonstrate this and be perfectly fine and perfectly happy. Under other circumstances, this might cause discomfort, pain and progressive degeneration of structure. And so again, in some cases we like it, in some cases we don't, we just have to turn this into a management process. Now, the thing we want to keep in mind is as we move through this, as we compress and we start to lose rotations, our wide ISA biases towards internal rotation. And so as we compress, we're going to be biased more and more towards that. And then so our external rotation strategy then becomes an orientation. So what happens every time is we can press, move towards IR, we lose ER, and then we turn our extra rotation strategy into orientation. We turn the sockets into extra rotation. So we change the shape of the ilium, we change the shape of the thorax, and we start turning our sockets outwards. So eventually they point straight out to the sides. And then what ultimately happens is we lose our gradient within the joint. So we have a fluid gradient that allows us to move through space, and we will eventually lose that so if there's no gradient there's no movement so again very very useful if my goal is high levels of force production like say a powerlifter or something like that where I'm willing to give up range of motion for higher force production and for lack of a better term greater stability but ultimately it becomes so stable that it just doesn't move well so our first goal here Josh is to restore a gradient first and foremost whether we're talking about internal or external rotation now let me throw a few perspectives at you that that may be helpful so if we think about the evolutionary order of things Back when we were swimmers and before we evolved on to land creatures, we were very biased towards external rotation. So if you watch a frog swim in the water, they're very very biased towards external rotation. Their propulsion is towards IR, but they're still very very biased towards ER. So as we walk out of the water and we become land-based creatures, we have to internally rotate to be able to propel against gravity and maintain our position against gravity. So from an evolutionary perspective, what we want to do is we want to chase external rotation first. It came first. It's easier for us to recapture. There is a predominance of external rotation in movement versus internal rotation when we think about the grand scale of things as well. Now, from an embryological standpoint, you personally evolved in your mother's womb in external rotation, and then you gained internal rotation later on. And so if we think about evolution, we think about embryology, right away we gotta say, okay, ER bias is what we're gonna chase first. Now, from a logical standpoint, what we're going to have is we're going to have limitations in internal and external rotation under these circumstances because of the loss of gradient, but we're probably going to have some range of external rotation that's going to be available to us, assuming that we're still capable of moving through space to some degree. And so these are going to be our lower ranges. of what we would consider traditional flexion so as you stated that zero to 60 kind of a range is is where we're going to have to start to work and so it stands to reason if that's the range that we have available to us this is what we're going to try to access and then we're going to try to regain some expansion under those circumstances so that's going to be an ER bias as well. So step one as we go through this process, eliminate interference. So anything that reinforces the compressive strategy is going to become interference for us. And when we're trying to recapture the segmental movement that you're speaking of. So things like, Oh, they would classify this as horizontal pressing or probably going to be interference. Anything that's high force output that requires that I use a breath hold is going to be interference because it's reinforcing our compressive strategy. And again, if we're trying to restore gradients, we just can't have that. So again we're going to move towards that lower end of extra rotation. Now to capture more of that extra rotation or to move us towards the internal rotation capabilities which is which is further up the chain so to speak in regards to the range of motion we may have to get you off your feet because what we have to do is we have to gain eccentric orientation of a musculature that's interfering with our ability to move. To do that we have to reduce the forces so sometimes we actually have to reduce the force of gravity to do that and so we take you off your feet that reduces the internal forces that we produce ourselves and it reduces the external forces that are associated with gravity. So under those circumstances, sideline activities, gentle rolling activities are great ways to start to reshape the thorax and the pelvis, as well as just taking advantage of the change of the direction of gravity to promote that anterior posterior expansion that we need to gain eccentric orientation and start to recapture some of these ranges of motion and allow us to reorient the scapula and the enombment. I would point you towards certain videos that would promote the Sanctuary Postier Expansion, especially Dorsal Rostral and Postier Expansion. So the Dorsal Rostral Expansion videos on YouTube, there's a better band pull apart. And I actually think I have one on end game wide ISA strategy, so I would check those out. As far as training goes, you're going to want to use short staggered stances because again we can't go into the deeper elements of flexion because we're just going to dive right into some form of compensatory strategy that we probably don't want to reinforce. So again, staggered stance. There's some arm training videos that I have posted that will show. Useful stances and useful positions of the upper extremities. So then as you gain hip and shoulder range of motion and so we can approach this 90 degree of traditional shoulder flexion, now we can start to reinforce with reaching activities. pushing and pulling activities, half kneeling strategies and such. I posted a half kneeling breakdown last week. You might want to check that one out because it's going to reinforce some of the concepts that we're talking about here when we're talking about what you see in certain orientations in half kneeling. The one thing that I would stress to you, Josh, if your goal is to recapture ranges of motion, then you're going to make sure that you got to breathe through these activities because the minute you start associating a breath hold or using any form of forced exhalation strategy during these activities, you're just reinforcing the compressive strategy. You're not going to recapture your gradients and you're not going to recapture your internal and external rotations. So I hope that leads you in a certain direction that is useful. Again, check that out. The video is on YouTube. I fast you guys. I will see you later this afternoon. Everybody have a great Monday and I'll see you tomorrow.

Good morning. Happy Tuesday. It is a great day. I had to come into the purple room for a little bit today, so I thought I would just shoot the video from here. So I brought the travel edition of neuro coffee and it is perfect. So I've been going back and forth on email with Eddie from Germany; Eddie's an osteopath in Germany. And we've been discussing how we would utilize half kneeling positions or split stance positions and how it would affect the orientation and behavior of the pelvis. So I thought I would shoot a video and sort of break down the half kneeling position a little bit more in detail than what we've been used to. And hopefully it will answer some questions that you may have as to how you're going to implement this in half kneeling or split stance activities to achieve the outcomes that you've been seeking. So I have my pelvis set up here on the stool in sort of a split stance orientation or half kneeling orientation. So we can manipulate it a little bit easier and show you some of the positions that are very common in regards to execution of certain activities in half kneeling or split stance or some of the things that you're going to see in your athletes or clients. And one of the most common things you're probably going to see is you're going to see people assume this half kneeling or split stance orientation with one hip higher than the other. And what I want you to recognize is that what you're typically seeing under these circumstances is that the pelvis is actually going to be oriented towards the downside leg, but it's also going to be positioned in a position of inhalation. So you're going to get extra rotation of both ilia and you're going to get counter-nutation of the sacrum. Now what this does is it creates a dissension of the pelvic diaphragm. So this is a very low pressure situation inside the pelvic diaphragm which pushes some of the effort towards the extremity musculature which is one of the reasons why you'll see people complain of quad tightness in a split stance or half kneeling position or they'll complain about tightness in the front of the hip or they'll complain about anterior knee pain because they're placing more demand on the extremity musculature. This increases pressure and tension at the joints. And so that might be what they're actually sensing. If we want to create a more stable structure through the pelvis, we have to create a concentrically oriented pelvic diaphragm. So we need an overcoming contraction and concentric orientation of that pelvic diaphragm. And the way we do that is by leveling the pelvis actively. So for those people that are presenting with that one hip higher than the other—so they're in extra rotation—what we need to do is actually push the front side hip downward.

So let's go through a couple of examples. as a representation. So somebody comes in, they have narrow ISA, they're going to be biased towards an eccentrically oriented pelvic diaphragm. Now if this person lacks force production, so again they don't propel well, they lack tissue stiffness, so instead of being able to store and release energy, from their connective tissues their dampeners so again they just don't produce force very well then this inertial trainer actually may be part of the solution because if we can increase the propulsive force and we can teach them to to manage tissue stiffness more effectively now we actually have an increased vertical jump potential or whatever the the parameter that we're we're training for may be somebody comes in with a wide ISA they're biased towards force production all day every day they have very high tissue stiffness so let's just say they've already done a bunch of heavy strength training and so so tissue's already stiff and now we apply the same the same modality um what's going to happen is we may not get any effect whatsoever it may not be demonstrated or if we magnify what they're already good at We may see an increase in, like say, further strength output, but what if we increase their tissue stiffness even further? We've taken away their yielding strategy, so now they can't storm lease energy either, and so now we've actually reduced their explosiveness or done absolutely nothing for them. where I can see the the eccentric or inertial trainers really coming in handy though Mark is is at one end of the rehab or if we want to use the term prehab we can we can call it that The extended duration of loading in the prolonged overcoming action that's produced in the tissues is actually beneficial from a tendon adaptation standpoint. Very similar to what we would see with the static protocols that have actually shown to have some benefit in cases of different types of tendinopathy. And so, again, it's just a matter of identifying what this tool is useful for. So I hope you can see how number one, you need to evolve a principle-based model and then everything just kind of falls into place once you're better able to identify what the needs of the individual are. It's not about what I like or what I think is superior under the circumstances is what this person can execute based on what their needs are.

Good morning. Happy Monday. I have neuro-coffee in hand and it is perfect. All right, happy National Batman Day. So I think DC Comics celebrated on the 19th over the weekend. But, excuse me, but I think I also have some information that today is the official National Batman Day. So we're gonna celebrate that today if it's okay with you. And then again, it's an everyday Batman day. So in celebration, let's do a Q&A. It appears to be a very simple question, but we're gonna dig into it a little bit and maybe get a little bit more depth of understanding about a couple of concepts. So this comes from Mihail, and Mihail says, could you please explain how to improve hip abduction, so ABduction for wide ISA with very tight adductors? Okay, so right away, you kinda hit on one of my pet peeves there, Mihail. and this concept of tight. So tight is a sensation. We need to recognize it as such. So it's not a representative property of muscle. So when somebody says that something is tight, we don't know if it's eccentrically oriented and producing tension or concentrically oriented and producing tension. Unless we want to fall into the traps of the stretching and strengthening crowd, we have to be very, very careful when we use a representation or a concept like tight. What we want to do is we want to look at it from the concentric to eccentric orientation. That represents the position. and is much more useful. So based on your description, if we have limited hip ABduction, we're gonna have constant augmentation of the musculature that is limiting that abduction. So let's start using these concepts a little bit more effectively. Now, you also mentioned wide ISA. So when I put together the concepts of the wide and narrow archetypes, people looked at ISAs forever, they looked at structure. But what I did is I followed one very simple rule and that is that the structure is going to determine the strategy. So when we have a wide ISA with limited extremity ranges of motion, then I know in the midst of a compensatory strategy and because of the wide ISA, I know that the bias is going to be an exhalation bias. Now, assuming my client or patient is still alive, then they're still breathing, which means that they have to use a compensatory strategy. So under these circumstances, if I need to restore range of motion and I have a bias towards exhalation, which is the bias of the wide ISA, then the simplest answer that could possibly give you to restore hip abduction is that I need to restore a non-compensatory inhalation, but we might have to construct that. So there's a couple of things that we want to recognize about or wide ISAs, okay?

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

Regarding a heel raising strategy during squatting, in this case not using a heel lift, but seeing someone's heels lift when they descend into a squat or a jump. I've seen this commonly in children and adolescents and more recently in some adults. Is this an example of individuals who cannot delay the max propulsive moment and need to better control the early to mid stance phase? Alex, you are on point on this one. Yes, every time we see these heels elevate, like when you're watching a squat or even when you're watching someone walk, you'll see the early heel lift. What you have is somebody that cannot create this yielding strategy posteriorly that is the requirement of lowering the center of gravity or delaying the propulsive phase so we can get the tibia over the foot as we're walking. Now, here's what I would also offer you, Alex, is that under most circumstances, squatting requires a much more significant yielding strategy than gait does. So they are probably achieving some form of max propulsion during gait, but they're going to acquire it somewhere else. It's not going to be in the foot, as you have so well identified. Chances are they're going to do it somewhere else. When we talk about max propulsion, we need relative motions to capture the position for max propulsion. So some people are going to try to do that in different places if they can't move through their typical external rotation to internal rotation to external rotation strategies. And so some people will try to do it through their big toe and so we call that a hallux valgus. Some people will try to do it through their knee and so we call that a knee valgus. Some people will try to reorient the pelvis. So when I see somebody with an anterior orientation of the pelvis, what that is is the pelvis moving up over the femur. I want the acetabulum such that it's a substitution for the lack of internal rotation that I need to achieve this max-propulsive strategy. So like I said, so they are achieving it somewhere. Now, let's suppose I do have these compressive strategies posteriorly, where they're going to shove my center of gravity forward.

I have an opinion about this. At some point in time, the anatomists that named these structures were staring at an anatomical chart on the wall. They threw a dart at the hip and it landed on the piriformis. They decided that the piriformis is the muscle they're going to pick on. It gets a lot of attention. It's a cool muscle, of course, but it gets way too much attention. So let's not pick on a particular structure. Let's just say that we have some posterior hip pain under these circumstances because there's a lot of stuff back there. It's a very busy area. To pick on one thing, I think, is unnecessary and distracting. It makes us think about things like we start calling these things by a name and it distracts us from what the real problem is under these circumstances. In most cases, when we have this type of a presentation, what we're dealing with is somebody that cannot capture sufficient internal rotation during maximum propulsion. And so what they're doing is they're trying to create an orientation that allows them to do that, which is why we see some of these cool measures. Now, Javi, you didn't give me much to work with. Good thing we got Batman on today because we got to play detective. And so we're going to put some pieces together.

The first thing we want to do is let's deconstruct what we're actually looking at and then we can actually come up with a viable and useful strategy. So, Dory, you give me some really good cues here in regards to a couple things. So the left shift in the squat gives us a little bit of a clue that we've got a sacrum that is going to be oriented into a right-facing position. Now the question mark is why is that? And so the limitation in hip flexion gives us a little bit of a clue along with the straight leg raises. So the straight leg raise is a little bit more than normal, so chances are we don't have this posterior or lower compressive strategy. So the concentric orientation here in this lower part of the pelvis below the level of the trochanter is probably not there. So we're probably still eccentrically oriented there. But we do have a posterior compression at the sacral base. And so the giveaway there is the limited end range hip flexion. And so to have normal hip flexion, that full end range hip flexion, the lumbar spine has to be able to turn towards the hip flexing side and that sacral base needs to be able to come back on that side. So chances are you've got a compression here. And so we've got something that kind of looks like that. So we're pushing the sacrum. So it's pushing and facing the right, which is why she squats and shifts backwards and to the left. And so what we're going to have to do is we're going to have to alleviate this compression. So the lack of ER on this left side also reinforces the fact that you've got this compressive strategy and that's bringing the orientation of the pelvis forward more so on the left than it is on the right. So we have kind of a unilateral issue here. Both sides are affected obviously as they always are, but we're going to focus in on this left side.

Good morning. Happy Monday. I have neural coffee in hand and oh, it is perfect as usual. We have a very busy week this week, so I'm going to dig right into today's Q&A that comes from Alan. Alan's asking a pretty common question of late. A lot of folks are moving into this virtual online realm of training and coaching, and so there are a lot of questions as to how this should be done. And so Alan asks, what advice can you give me on what online assessments I should use? And so right away, Alan, your question infers a couple of things. Number one, that you're seeing the online situation as significantly different. I realize that the constraints are a little bit different than the in-person interaction, so I understand that part. But from an assessment standpoint, what we're not looking at is a cookbook situation of oh if this then that, and I think that goes for any assessment whether you're doing it in person or whether we're doing it virtually. And so what we may actually have then is a gap in understanding or a gap in knowledge that is presenting a limitation as to where you feel most successful or most safe. And so what we need to then fall back on is a process that is based on what you know or what you think you know and the experience that you bring into that situation. So step one under these circumstances is being aware of your own capabilities. This is somewhat painful at times in regards to actually sitting down and spending time in your own head and understanding what your capabilities truly are and in regard to what type of a client where you feel the greatest level of success and confidence. And this is where your energy should be focused. So if I was to give a wild example, a general surgeon does not perform brain surgery because that is a very specific set of skills. And so he does not take on those patients that would have a brain related issue that would require surgery. And so again, so do you have an experience that lends itself towards a specific type of client, and right away your confidence will improve and then the questions that you ask become much more easily answered or the riddles solved. And so again, this is also the first step of marketing. If you have a specific clientele where you feel this great level of confidence, this allows you to refine your message. Regardless of the type of marketing that you do, whether it be through social media, messaging, or email, or traditional methods, the goal is to always attract one specific type of client that you feel the greatest level of confidence in working with. Again, this is a really, really big deal.

The question comes from Josh and Josh says, are there variations of the Camper Deadlift? I feel like I've seen where the front toes are elevated, the back heel is elevated, the hip's lateral is loaded, or the contralateral arm is loaded. Can you explain when you would use these variations? And yes, Josh, yes I can. But let's talk about why we would want to select this exercise in the first place. What we don't want to do is blindly prescribe exercises. We want to have a good reasoning behind our thought process. What we're talking about here is an asymmetrical variation of a deadlift that is somewhat similar to a single leg deadlift, but we've got a double foot contact. And what this allows us to do is it allows us to reorient the sacrum like the rudder on a boat. And if we have a situation where we're missing this middle part of middle propulsion. So we can actually divide middle propulsion into segments as well. And so if I break out the foot here, this middle range of propulsion is when the foot is gonna come down to flat, and it's where we have this tibial translation over the foot. And so we can buy, so we can say that this is the earliest phase of middle propulsion, and this is the end phase of middle propulsion. And through that phase is where we're gonna see a lot of nutation of the sacrum. We're gonna see a lot of internal rotation of the hip and some folks are missing some of that because of the inability, I should say, to orient the sacrum appropriately because of some strategies that they're using in the pelvis and then the bias of the foot. But this is going to affect everything from all of your activities where you need some form of nutation, like your deadlifts, your kettlebell swings, power lifting style squats, half kneeling, or even split stance activities. So this is kind of a big deal for a lot of people. But this is a really, really useful exercise, thanks to our good friend Mike Camperini for experimenting in the gym and working on this but so what we want to do is we want to alleviate the bias that's that's putting us at one end of this middle propulsive phase and so we can describe this with our pelvis a little bit And so essentially what we're talking about is this bias of the sacrum being biased in one direction or the other by this orientation of the pelvis. And so if somebody is biased towards the early phase of this mid propulsion, typically what you're gonna see is somebody that can probably squat to parallel, but when they do a hinging exercise, you'll see a little bit of a shift off to one side or the other. They can typically flex their head past 90 degrees, and you're typically gonna have a reasonably good straight leg raise, so it'll probably be 70 degrees or more. If we look at somebody that's biased towards this later stage of the middle propulsion, so this is right before max propulsion, these are typically going to be people that don't squat well to parallel. You're going to see hip flexion that's less than 90 degrees. You're going to see a very limited straight leg raise. In some cases, 45 degrees or less. And that's because they've got this additional compressive strategy in this lower aspect on the posterior side of the pelvis. So these people are really pushed forward in one direction. Again, because of this concentric orientation of the musculature below the trochanter there. So again, that's how we're going to divide this up. We're going to see somebody that's a little bit more compressed at the base, and then we're going to see somebody that has a lot more compressive strategy that's getting pushed way over in that in that late propulsive strategy. And so when we're talking about how we want to modify this, we have two influences. We can go from the ground up and we can go from the top down. And so when we talk about the ground up. This is where our foot bias comes in, Josh. And so we can talk about biasing the foot towards this early phase of propulsion. So if I have some of this bias way towards late, so this is the person with the limited straight leg raise hip flexion can't squat very deep. I'm going to bias that foot towards its early, early strategy. And so this is where I'm going to elevate the heel. And so what that does is it moves that tibia backwards and that puts me in this early phase early phase of this middle propulsion. So now what I want to start to think about, not just elevating the heel, but I also want to consider where I'm putting the load. So I'm going to put the load on the contralateral side.

Assuming mid propulsion falls in this propulsion phase, would mid-propulsion be in an exhalation bias, and I would say absolutely it is. So as we move through the phase of propulsion, we're going to be landing in an ER inhalation strategy, we have to move through this middle phase of propulsion where we're going to increase that IR gradient, exhalation bias gradient, and then as we leave and we go into this late propulsive phase, we're going to re-externally rotate, and we're going to move towards that inhalation bias again. Now, Slasher continues, he said, I would think that late propulsion would be a max propulsion stage of gait, and then that would be biased towards an exhalation moment, but based on the way that the propulsion is presented, it's an ER orientation. Is this correct? Or is it externally rotating from a state of internally rotating that gives me my late propulsion?

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

So, Adam, I like your thinking, but let me give you an alternative explanation for this, because I think that the way you described it hints at something that is really, really common and a very, very common misunderstanding as to what's actually happening during the squat. So let's talk about what would normally occur as we descend into the squat. So we talk about the way that the hip is oriented and the pelvis is oriented as we move through space. And so this early phase of hip flexion, so as you're descending in the squat, this early phase would be external rotation. We pass through internal rotation, where we get a reorientation of the acetabulum, and then we finish into this deep position. And chances are, and I'm not picking on you, brother, but chances are, if you're wide ISA and you're squatting the way you say, you're not hitting that range flexion, so we're not going to be worried about that part. But what I do want to talk about is what's potentially going on with the orientation of the pelvis and then what you're actually seeing at the hip. What you're seeing is extra rotation is actually internal rotation. So let's talk about that for a second.