Correct Body Activation for performance part II

If you were diligent with the focus of the last article, I am sure you are already feeling a performance change simply by affecting your postural stability. Now you are ready to completely activate your body, preparing it for the required workload and challenges ahead (your next exercise rep).

Full activation of the body takes the postural stability to an ultra diverse and dynamic level. The traditional static gym regime will be and is already fading out and being replaced by more exciting functional, natural and diverse high-paced movement endurance-based choices, such as Crossfit, MovNat, primal movement, dynamic or aerobatic Yoga, pole-fitness and the like.

As a chiropractor, I can count only 10 athletes that I have met and worked with that have a high-paced dynamic adaptation of their postural stability in place. For the rest of you who do not, in the middle of some bizarre body movement, injuries will most certainly be occurring. In practice, I am not seeing simple injuries from this, but rather injuries that are strange, complex with multiple tissue damage and multiple components involved. This is obviously interesting and exciting for me but not so for the patient experiencing it!

To test your dynamic adaptation of your postural stability linked with movement, read the attachment to this article. Once you understand postural stability, to gain dynamic stability and maximize your movement and body acceleration, you can activate this simply by breathing correctly and counting to 4:

1) breathe in, focus the breath in expanding the abdominal cavity (i.e. the belly button lifting up) and not lifting the chest.

2) breathe out from lower ribs. As you breathe out your lower ribs need to activate inwards towards your spine.

3) continue to breathe out and activate your belly button and lower abdominals, pulling your belly button and lower abdominals inwards towards your spine.

4) finish your breath out by squeezing your buttocks together. Think about tightening your buttocks as tight as you can get, without your lower spine tightening up.

You want to be able to keep upright spinal posture (part I) and engage this full activation (part II) in any movement you participate in. This can be tricky depending on the movement required and will take some planning but finally, you have a way to train effectively and get sensational results!

Test the dynamic adaptability of your postural stability

When improving your performance, it is critical to have an objective measure to work towards. There are a variety of functional tests available to measure the dynamic adaptability of your postural stability and many of these I use in practice and personally.

This test is a very simple and yet effective test of dynamic stability. I like this test because it challenges the ego and reinforces the old fable of the tortoise and the hare. Do you remember – “slow and steady win the race!”

Your dynamic adaptation of postural stability in this test allows you to connect into the correct stability muscles of the spine and body (not just core) to maintain your position against the wall and through this, allowing the antagonist movement muscles (hamstrings) to let go of their fake stability and allow the agonist movement muscles of flexion (hip flexors) in the body to bend you forward.

Step 1:
Can you touch your toes on forwarding flexion of your spine without bending your knees?

Step 2:
If yes, now stand with your back to the wall, heels and buttocks in contact with the wall. Without moving your feet off the wall and without your buttocks coming off the wall trying to touch your toes now. In an attempt of this please do not face-plant into the floor and break your nose.

Step 3:
Take an objective measure of how effectively you did; that is either (1) a picture from the side while in this position, (2) a measurement of how far off the floor your hands are before you fall forward off the wall, or (3) how far forward you have you bring your heels from the wall to be able to touch your toes. If you are unable to touch your toes work on this first!

Happy training…