Agility Band Shoulder Harness. In Place Running Skip. Video synopsis: The 2m green Agility Band Shoulder Harness is one of the most effective ways to train Global Body Locomotion. We have the Horizontal and Vertical Frames of Reference present through ground forces and the fact that the Harness gives you vertical from the level of the shoulders. This in place skip is highly effective for training Coordination, Foot contact, cadence and vertical posture. Really enjoy this movement! Agility Bands shoulder harness. Backward running Forward loaded walking lunge. Video synopsis: Backwards loaded training is incredibly valuable because of its neurological reverse origin benefits. We have ...

Framework for Understanding Deep System. The rules of the deep system follow definite rules. Spine lengthens to crown of the head. Chest position travels down and stays down to horizontalise diaphragm. Increase Intra-abdominal Pressure and maintain even during exhalation. The feet are a practical inclusion in DSS from an Intrinsic Stability Perspective.

Breathing is a fundamental movement through which the whole human being-in-situation is expressed. Godard The diaphragm is invisible to us, and yet we feel its effects more than any other muscle/organ as it influences breathing efficiency, cardio-vascular efficiency, postural stability and organ health.  It is the dividing structure of the trunk and its capacity to change its shape is the role that we need to understand, in order to understand true core stability. Stabilisation and Respiration are one unit, they can’t be separated. Therefore the Diaphragm has a two-fold function; respiration and stability. The Diaphragm’s contributes to spinal stability by increasing intra-abdominal and ...

From a bodily intelligence perspective, what do I attend to when riding a bike? [caption id="attachment_4337" align="alignnone" width="375"] Ideal Model for Breath-Stability showing how the low-back is stabilised from inside[/caption] Focus on the principles of being long through the sides of the trunk and spine, so that your legs are free to spin, with attention at the feet being 1st and 5th metatarsal heads. Send the knees forward to infinity with the knees tracking over second toe.  Pay attention to the circular push of the pedal action. When I speak about attention in the body, many people wrongly interpret this as thinking. Thinking ...

Standing Postures are unique to the system of Yoga, where the emphasis is on the integration of inputs to the bodymind as a Global System. Coached well, they have the capacity to transform, breathing, posture, intrinsic stability and embodied attention. This is a combination of your basic attention as an organism, combined with a capacity to tune attention to sensation and feeling. Triangle Pose is a particularly important posture to perform regularly because it lengthens frontal plane structures of the trunk, with the inside and outside lines of the leg. This frees the back and trunk and helps to keep the ...

Biomechanical Models of Spinal Control Control of upright orientation. Uprightness and stability are an accurate description of the challenge for humans.  How we maintain the optimal curves of the spine over a life-time needs to be understood. Control of the spine in the regulation of translational and rotational forces at the intervertebral level both in static positions and during movement. This includes standing, sitting, turning, control of weight-shifts and moving. Intersegmental coordination could be defined as the ability to keep all segments of the spine aware and free to respond.  This is not possible without deep system function, as muli-segmental muscles will ‘lock’ many ...

The late Professor Janda is acknowledged as the Father of Rehabilitation and Motor Control. His pioneering work showed us the importance and inherent difficulty of achieving muscle balance. His work also showed that contraction speed is more important than muscle strength, because the system needs to be fast acting in order to protect the joints. Janda deviated from the main-stream path in that he addressed tightness as the primary muscle problem rather than weakness. This was the first change that I began making with clients in the late 90′s with immediate results over strengthening approach. Janda had incredible observational skills and ...

Movement has 2 aspects; Solving a movement problem like taking a step, changing direction, getting up from the floor etc. Liberating degrees of freedom. In our exploration of the task, our highest expression is to perform the movement with the greatest ease. This can be done by becoming clear on the task via improved coordination, or loading the task by increasing the demand. Moving is a series of chain responses that are highly integrated. The functional view of training asks that we load movement, rather than being concerned with strengthening muscles. The muscles involved in the chain of movement will increase their firing ...

The ability to be able to see ourselves as living and whole is key to understanding the role of the moving, breathing body, with our connection to the earth coming through the feet. The feet are our basis for uprightness, yet we constantly cover them over without much consideration to their informational role in telling us about the ground, in standing and moving.  Another important link is the role that the feet play informationally with the low back via the sensory connections between the feet and lumbo-sacral area. The most common areas of the low back that people have trouble with in ...

When one understands that our so called mechanical or structural orientation is a product of neurological activity, one is invited to ask the question; how is our way of training and educational systems honouring this neurological reality? Lets look at the facts: Spinal function is a neurological behaviour. Spinal function is a behavioural response to gravity. Neurological lack is causing mechanical failure. Brain stem is where orientation is constructed and reflexes are generated to globally position, stabilise and move the spine as a dynamic whole Extensive connections between the cerebellum, vestibular apparatus and mid-line columns of neurons in the brainstem. The ...

[caption id="attachment_3639" align="alignleft" width="200"] Bottom Position with Overall Lengthening of the Body[/caption] Stand with the feet hip-width apart with the hands over the level of the kidneys with the thumbs facing forward and down with the fingers pressing into the deepest aspect of your lumbar spine. Pay attention to the length and width of your feet, then lift and spread your toes away from the floor.  Hold the toes up, but just enough so that you can press the first and fifth metatarsal heads into the support surface. Fill up the abdominal container by widening into your thumbs and pressing ...

I have been experimenting with Power Band Training over the past few months courtesy of an experimental research agreement with Iron Edge. I first experimented with these bands over a decade ago, along with many other Physical Preparation Specialists who were doing the same type of research at the time. I am pleasantly surprised at how far the technology has come in terms of safety, as this way of training is unparalleled for functional adaptation. Let me outline how. The 3 characteristics of functional movement adaptation using power bands are; the body is working against gravity ground reaction forces are present ...

I've been talking about ‘movement forces’ for 15 years, and I still get blank looks from people when I mention that slowing down from changing direction in an agility drill involves multiple times body-weight. I remember doing a boxing session with Peter Bridges, he was getting me to throw an efficient left jab, and he asked me to hit him with my body-weight.  In other words my left jab should have had 84kg of force behind it.  When I teach someone to hit a volley, I want them to volley with their body-weight.  The ground gives me the ability to organise ...

Feedback Exercises and Automatic Movement The purpose of exercises that have a rehabilitative or control basis is to ramp up the feedback processes, so that we can be responsible for better stability in moving. We know this is working when we have changed the way our body feels as a result of the feedback exercise. This means that the exercise is changing the perception of the body (at least in this feedback mode). The feedback exercises I use come from Developmental Kinesiology, or the milestones that a baby passes through during the first year of life. These exercises begin by lying on ...

Big Picture View / Breathing and Stability The topic of Core Stability divides all systems of exercise training; why is this so? What are the key aspects of our integrated systems functioning that I need to be aware of, and how do I learn to attend to the information arising from this functioning? Understanding the 3 Containers of Experience: Body (sensation and feeling) Mind (thoughts and images) World/Task (sense perceptions) Our most basic perception is up/down and the bidirectionality of the spine is the key organising principle for movement and stability, integrated with breathing. There are four information-rich areas of the body that allow us ...