Recently I have been amongst young fit people who have sustained both mild and more serious injuries (in the past) requiring surgery from problems that are the type of problems that occur from nerve tension.

Calf and hamstring injuries are both commonly caused by a tight sciatic nerve for example.  The muscles provide a protective spasm to the nerve during movement and if stretched or loaded sufficiently the muscles can spasm enough to cause themselves to tear, or cramp up - which can FEEL like a tear.  By mobilising the nerve it releases the tension in the muscles and reduces the likelihood of this happening.

The same principle applies to ALL nerves.  In the golf swing, if the median nerve is tight it will reduce the amount the player can complete his back swing and adopt the best position at the top of his swing.  This would be due to the muscle spasm that builds up to try and protect the inflexible nerve.  The greater the muscle spasm (which is unbeknown to the player as its SUB clinical at this point) the more he'll try and force his shoulder turn, which in turn increases the tension etc etc.  The key to a sound and reproducible swing is to reduce any tension in the swing, so as to help with timing and rhythm.  So by mobilising the median nerve, we are helping with ALL of the above.

Tight calves can cause over pronation.  The dorsi-flexion (moving the ankle upwards) is not available from the ankle joint due to the tightness in the calves, so it has to come from the sub talar joint.  It comes as part of the pronation mechanism though and so increases the amount of pronation as well.  This causes shin related injuries as well as knee and Achilles problems.  Remember that tight calves is often from a tight sciatic nerve, so by mobilising the nerve, we can help with all these injuries as well.

A rotated pelvis can also go unnoticed for many years until the compensations start to cause problems.  Typically a leg length discrepancy (LLD) can result from a rotated pelvis and the leg must compensate for this.  It'll either flatten the foot (pronate it), bend the knee more, or drop the hip more.  Pronation will increase the load on the leg (see 'Tight Calves' paragraph), bending the knee will increase pronation (see 'Tight Calves' paragraph), and dropping the hip will increase the spasm in the glutes/piriformis.  A vicious circle if ever their was one!  So by reducing the spasm in the piriformis, in other words preventatively, (and also if necessary), then we are helping to reduce all of the above.

<strong>Interesting fact;</strong>

We tested quad strength output on a pro rugby player before and after mobilising his sciatic nerve. After 2 x 15 reps his quad strength output increased by 14%. After 10 days of nerve mobilisations it increased by 50%!!

Do YOU have clients that might have any of the above mentioned dysfunctions?

Would YOU like to learn how to screen and mobilise the nerves?

Would you like to understand special techniques to release piriformis muscle spasm?

Would YOU like to learn how to reduce injury risk while increase performance levels in your clients/athletes?

Email now <a href="mailto:Rachel@biomechanicseducation.com">Rachel@biomechanicseducation.com</a>