Watching People walk helps me get an idea what is going on in the body. I focus on making walking more efficient in my pain and performance sessions using hands on techniques, motor control drills, balance drills, and eye movements. Each step we take matters as we look at the back force transmission system. The force when our foot hits the ground goes though 9 areas in the body. The image below outlines the process.
- Through the striking heel
- UP the lateral leg
- Up the lateral hamstring
- Into the sacrotuberous ligament
- Across the sacrum to the opposite SI joint
- UP the thoraco-lumbar fascia
- Up the latissimus dorsi
- Force splits and travels both up the trapezius, and down the are via the triceps brachii
- Up and around the cranium to the TMJ
Understanding the back force transmission with Posner Model of Learning only takes 1000 reps to complete the cognitive stage of learning and 100,000 reps to make it autonomous. Think how much the body compensates when we are injured anywhere in the body especially in the feet/ankles. Our bodies are designed to survive in the moment which is good but after we “recover” from said injury the body holds on to those patterns unless we take time to address the compensations.
According to the example below the average human takes 4774 steps/ day. Using this information in just 11 days we are halfway to 100,000 steps and becoming our natural movement. So good news and bad news we can build good patterns quickly, but we can also build bad patterns just as fast. Receiving good input with hands work and reinforcing it with simple motor control drills, eye movements, and balance drills will impower you to stay in a thriving state.
Looking to make gait the most efficient as possible and to start unraveling old injuries compensation patterns to help the body and mind feel more confident with movement? Schedule a pain and performance session with Mychal today.