Todays blog was inspired by a Facebook post ….

&nbsp;

<img class="wp-image-3004 alignleft" src="https://www.biomechanicseducation.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Screen-Shot-2017-07-12-at-15.14.53.png" alt="screen-shot-2017-07-12-at-15-14-53" width="247" height="351" /><img class="wp-image-3003 aligncenter" src="https://www.biomechanicseducation.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Screen-Shot-2017-07-12-at-15.15.42-654x1024.png" alt="screen-shot-2017-07-12-at-15-15-42" width="228" height="357" />

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Firstly I would like to explain the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic biomechanics. It can be confusing to analyse your clients movement if you are unaware of the difference, so let’s have a lookere..</span>

&nbsp;
<h2><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Extrinsic Biomechanics</span></i></h2>
<i><span style="font-weight: 400;">This can be a very complex analysis of the performance of movements using high level and</span></i> <i><span style="font-weight: 400;">expensive machinery like isokinetics and kinematics to help us understand forces, loads and levers. In a practical sense this also includes</span></i> <i><span style="font-weight: 400;">what an exercise professional sees when they look at their client move and then correct it with interventions such as verbal and visual cues.</span></i>

&nbsp;
<h2><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Intrinsic Biomechanics</span></i></h2>
<i><span style="font-weight: 400;">This is the analysis of what is happening inside the body which</span></i> <i><span style="font-weight: 400;">creates the extrinsic movements. An understanding of the internal neuro-musculoskeletal system and how this integrated system is the basis for what we see through the extrinsic analysis.</span></i>

&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">It was clear from the Facebook comment that I had not clarified the difference for those reading it and so I realised that this might be something you and other fitness professionals struggle with too. </span>

&nbsp;
<h2><b>Have You Ever Coached A Client &amp; Wondered WHY They Aren’t Symmetrical? </b></h2>
&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">You can tell something isn’t level, because their knees aren't the same height or one shoulder is a tiny further forwards than that other. Postural assessment kinda stuff.</span>

&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Yet they may have pretty good movement ability, they may have no pain or injuries but your thinking ….</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">do I try to correct that? </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">then</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> …if so, how and from where??</span></i>

&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Yeah, me too!</span>

&nbsp;

<img class="aligncenter wp-image-3005" src="https://www.biomechanicseducation.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Screen-Shot-2017-07-12-at-15.37.03.png" alt="screen-shot-2017-07-12-at-15-37-03" width="268" height="362" />

&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Something I have found a challenge, having spent over 25yrs in the industry of ‘coaching movement’, is finding the balance between trying to change the lines of symmetry with visual and verbal cues and simply letting the client MOVE the way their body needs to because of how they are stacked up on the inside. </span>

&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">The overhead squat position above is the most comfortable and stable position for me. I know that whenever I have tried to do to become more extrinsically symmetrical, it has felt really awkward, slightly uncomfortable and not at all stable; so I don't worry too much about trying to force a position that I know just feels wrong, even if it </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">looks</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> better.</span>

&nbsp;
<h2><b>What Is The Point?</b></h2>
&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">It was a friend of mine that challenged me on my statement “</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">If I perfect my lines, I’d likely injure myself”. </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Now I LOVE to be challenged and she had every right to challenge me and as her point was important. As it turns out, we actually were agreeing on MY point BUT I hadn’t made clear what I was trying to highlight. What she was pointing out was; for those out there who read posts like mine, it could have been interpreted wrongly. She was absolutely right.</span>

&nbsp;
<h2><b>Out Of Date Education?</b></h2>
&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">As a professional dancer symmetrical arm lines were literally everything on stage in my dance troupe. Then in my fitness industry qualifications I was taught to correct lines of movement so joints were stacked, knees in line etc.</span>

&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">So if you had similar training then you will recognise it was really about coaching the </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">extrinsic </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">movement you can see. </span>

&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">An example is when you ask your client to squat and their knee drops inwards, you might verbally and/or visually coach them to keep the knee ‘in line’ with the midfoot for example…right?</span>

&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">…and in some cases that would be correct BUT consider this…</span>

&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">What if your client has been sitting at their desk all day and comes to your session with a ‘functional’ twist at their pelvis? Something neither of you are aware of. This can be caused by their ‘intrinsic biomechanics’ adapting to that sedentary static desk posture, with muscles potentially going into subclinical spasm (a constant contraction). This can in turn limit the movement at the joints these muscles cross, thus creating the ‘impression’ of a longer limb as one side of the pelvis is ‘stuck’ rotated forward and down. This can result in a </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">deliberate</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> compensation by the body (a true master of compensation by the way) of requiring the knee to buckle inwards to allow the body to descend into a squat without hurting the lower back; for example.</span>

&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">If this were the case do you think trying to encourage your client to get their knees ‘</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">in line’</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> would be the best course of action?</span>

&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">… Well probably not.</span>

&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">So how on earth are we supposed to KNOW what is simply poor technique and requires verbal or visual coaching and what is in fact a result of the way their intrinsic biomechanics are stacked up??</span>

&nbsp;
<h2><b>Good Question eh!</b></h2>
&nbsp;

<img class="aligncenter wp-image-3006" src="https://www.biomechanicseducation.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Screen-Shot-2017-07-12-at-15.40.22.png" alt="screen-shot-2017-07-12-at-15-40-22" width="326" height="216" />

&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Well ideally we have screening or assessment skills to identify what isn't working properly BEFORE we train their movement/s. This then guides us on which exercises are good for them on that day and which might create a problem.  </span>

&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Note: Doing a movement on dysfunction won’t immediately ‘break’ your client BUT if undetected, overtime if they repeat movements on dysfunctional areas (sometimes with loads too) they could be raising the risk. </span>

&nbsp;
<h2><b>What Can We Do?</b></h2>
&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">What we really should be doing is educating clients on how to move more freely, by improving and </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">preparing</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> their intrinsic biomechanical set up first. Then train or exercise upon a neuro-musculoskeletal system that has its capacity back which reduces risk and optimises performance for their daily task/s or chosen sport or activity.</span>

&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">This could be as simple as performing a range and symmetry test, then introducing an anti spasm or muscle energy technique like 4 sign. Then redo the range and symmetry test and if it has improved you KNOW they need to do that technique BEFORE they train or even warm up.</span>

&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">We all appreciate the body is a complex series of structures and tissues so it can often be quite overwhelming when you are trying to decide where to start and how to proceed.</span>

&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">So let me give you a simple evidence based pyramid system of approach. </span>

&nbsp;

<img class="aligncenter wp-image-2963" src="https://www.biomechanicseducation.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Screen-Shot-2017-06-30-at-08.23.34-1024x764.png" alt="screen-shot-2017-06-30-at-08-23-34" width="380" height="283" />

&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">1) Start with preparation and capacity from the inside, considering all structures and tissues of our integrated system. Anti spasms, MET’S, massage, foam rolling, nerve mobilisations, joint mobilisations etc.</span>

&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">2) Next train stability and control to proprioceptively remind the ‘core’ or trunk what this new position feels like. Remember, core control SHOULD be a reflex NOT something we have to think about. (Note: If someone appears to have a </span><a href="https://www.biomechanicseducation.com/do-you-really-have-a-weak-core/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">weak</span></i></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> core remember it COULD be they are in fact not stacked up well intrinsically rather than actually ‘weak’.)</span>

&nbsp;

<span style="color: #ff0000;"><em><a style="color: #ff0000;" href="https://www.biomechanicseducation.com/do-you-really-have-a-weak-core/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read my post "Do you really have a weak core?" here, if you're interested in finding out more on this.</a></em></span>

&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">3). Finally and only once the previous 2 points have been addressed, we train function and performance of the chosen sport or activity.</span>

&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">(Matthews &amp; Norris, 2008 &amp; Krabak &amp; Kennedy, 2008)</span>

&nbsp;

<a href="https://biomechanicseducation.clickfunnels.com/biomechanics-coach" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-3034" src="https://www.biomechanicseducation.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/BIOMECHANICS-COACH-2-300x157.png" width="500" height="262" /></span></a>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">If YOU would like to learn an evidence base system that enables PT’s like YOU to perform a whole series of 42 assessments on your clients, in advance of deciding which exercises to give them ……...weeeeell…... you are reading the right blog because all you need to do is …..</span>

&nbsp;
<h2 style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://biomechanicseducation.clickfunnels.com/biomechanics-coach" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><b>CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE</b></a></h2>