Episode 361/365: Pathomechanics and IT Band Hell

Hey Mwodies,

Today’s mission is to tie together the last few episodes of the MWod.  We want to bridge the idea of pathognomonics and movement errors.  As often as we can, we want to put the bulk of our energy into improving and maximizing motor control before we default to mobility.  Of course if every athlete had NORMAL motion ranges (not crazy gymnast/martial artist) then we’d always be dealing with aspects of motor control.  In fact, a useful way of thinking about restricted ROM is that it ultimately limits the athlete’s tolerances for poor movement and poor positioning. Healthy tissues and normal ranges equal breathing room and possibility.  If sport/mission/fighting has taught anything, it’s that we can count on less than ideal circumstances and impossibly difficult positions (running a 40m dash does not look like tackling, scrambling to cover, or modern dance for example.)  As often as possible, we need to improve the number of motor options an athlete has.  (Think brutally steep scrambling up the side of a mountain vs. a run on a track.)  The gym is the lab.  It’s where we can compress movement faults and faulty motor patterns into the course of a training session.  Got a good position? Great, now challenge that position with load, metabolic demand, cardio-respiratory demand, stress, and speed.  Good strength and conditioning is both a stimulus for adaptation and a diagnostic tool.  We measure the effectiveness of any program by measuring wattage, poundage, and reps, as well as how well the athlete performs in the sport/mission/emergency situation.  Improving position improves efficiency, maximizes output, and safeguards against tissue failure.  We don’t need movement analogs and correlates. We don’t need to learn an entirely new movement language to understand the set of movements with which we are already training.   It’s more simple than that.

We just have to “see” with better eyes.

Part 1

part 2

part 3

Kstar

Ps. I know I got the wrong hamstring!  I was thinking of the Pes Anserine.  Say grace before tea.  It’s not my fault! Jesse Burdick had me carb depleted!