What The Foot?
Hello Followers! Earlier this month, we celebrated World Book Day, so today’s post is inspired by a book I read recently, “What the Foot?” by Gary Ward. My training as a Pilates Instructor certainly did not end with certifying. As I work with more students and come across more injuries and body types, I relish researching my lesson plans to tailor my teaching. PilatesAnytime is an invaluable resource and it was there that I came across Tom McCook. He is an accomplished teacher and refreshingly honest in sharing what he continues to learn despite his years in the industry. His most recent tutorials focus on the foot and functional movement patterns. I was hooked and soon after bought the book that inspired him. In this post, I’ll share some of the highlights of what I’ve learned and, most importantly, how i’m applying that to my Pilates practice. So, here we go... WTF? Bare with me, it’s more technical than my usual posts, but hopefully the video applications will prove helpful!
Achieve a subconscious state of balance
Gary refers to 7 logical levels of training. Here’s an infographic I made to illustrate this. It is inspired by Neuro-Linguistic Programming which provides a structure for understanding what makes a person tick. In the same way, applying this to health training, Gary provides a pyramid structure to show how to effect lasting change.
As you can see, muscles sit at the bottom of the pyramid. Given that the fitness industry emphasises working muscles (think six-packs achieved through very conscious ab crunches), this seems a little odd, doesn’t it? In fact, this pyramid implies that to effect lasting change, we should seek to train at higher logical levels. So, not just working our muscles, but thinking about how each joint works, training the fascial system, and all the way up to activating the nervous system and reprogramming neural pathways to the brain.
Exercise One: Core Mobility
Standing with your feet directly under your sit bones, close your eyes and try to notice how your body weight is distributed. Is it evenly spread between your left and right foot? Is it evenly spread between your toes and heels? I’d hazard a guess that it isn’t.
Now, shift your body weight to your left foot, as far as you comfortably can and still maintain your balance and then shift back through centre to shift to your right foot. Repeat this a few times. Do you notice that it’s easier to shift to/from one side? Now, shift your body weight to your toes, against as far as you can just maintain your balance and then shift back through centre to your heels. Repeat this a few times. Once again, notice if one of the movement patterns felt easier than the other.
Finally, standing in what you think is an even position, close your eyes and reassess your sense of centre. You should feel that your weight is more evenly distributed. Congratulations, you have just completed a movement exercise to establish neurological connections to your brain about where your centre of gravity is.
Tip: challenge yourself by doing the same exercise on a balance cushion or BOSU (maybe starting up by a wall for support or with a spotter!).
Marry eccentric and concentric actions
Gary has five big rules of motion. The first is that “muscles lengthen before they contract”. To understand this, think about a catapult. If we start with the elastic “neutral” or in it’s natural state, the object we are trying to catapult will likely just fall to the floor. However, if we pull the elastic back, lengthening it, then we load it with energy with which we can catapult an object some distance. Applying this to muscles, instead of working to contraction from neutral, we can/should lengthen and load them with energy, such that a contraction will be more effective. Or put more simply, “flex your extensors and extend your flexors”.
Exercise Two: Spine Stretch Forward / Breaststroke Combo in Kneeling
Start in a kneeling position with your toes tucked under and spine flexed over your thighs. This is your “spine stretch forward” with spinal extensors lengthened in flexion and abdominals contracted. Now, engage the glutes to come through high kneeling to spinal extension. This is your “breaststroke” with the back muscles contracted and your abdominals lengthened in extension. Repeat 10 times. Within about 5 reps, you should feel your spinal extensors and abdominal wall warming as the muscles activate and work.
Note, I turn my palms out in the start position, to feel additional width across my back as my shoulders protract/rhomboids lengthen and turn my palms in for the extension position to retract my shoulders/contracting the rhomboids.
Three-dimensional training and movement
Gary rants about various aspects of the fitness/health industry status quo which he believes are limiting the long-term effectiveness of so called solutions. The fourth of these is that many exercises only teach one-dimensional movement patterns, when most joints are capable of moving through more than one plane of motion. More importantly, those joints DO move through more than one plane of motion in daily activity. Lost me already? Let’s briefly review the planes of motion by thinking about how the head can move. Imagine that you are a shadow of yourself, so that only an outline of your body can be seen.
1. Nod your head yes. From the front, the shadow appears to be still, from above, the shadow also appears to be still. However, from the side, the shadow can be seen to move. This is the sagittal or side-on plane. It can also be thought of the movement that would occur in the confines of a narrow corridor.
2. Stretch your neck to one side, so that your ear reaches towards your shoulder. From the side and above, your shadow will appear to be still, but from the front, the movement is apparent. This is the frontal or front-on plane. It can also be though of the movement that would occur in a shop window.
3. Shake your head no. From the front and side, your shadow will appear to be still. If I looked at you from above, I would see the rotation of the head. This is the transverse or top-down plane.
Here’s a little cartoon that pull those ideas together.
Exercise Three: Single Thigh Stretch (but not as you know it)
Stand at the reformer with one heel against the shoulder rest and the other on the floor towards the front platform. Rest the carriage knee down. For the first set, tuck the pelvis under and raise the carriage-side arm towards the ceiling. You should feel your hip flexor lengthening in the sagittal (side-on) plane. For an additional stretch, push the carriage back. As you draw the carriage in to return, lift your hips up towards the foot bar to maintain the stretch. For the second set, add a side stretch away from the carriage once you’ve pushed it out. You should feel your hip flexor lengthening in the frontal (front-on) plane. For the third set, add a rotation of the torso away from the carriage. You should feel your hip flexor lengthening in the transverse (top-down) plane. Repeat each set 3 to 5 times.
Tip: Try adding lateral flexion and rotation to your hamstring and glute stretches too.
Closing thought. The F word... FUNCTION. The next time you perform an exercise, have a think about how it relates to functional movement and the range of motions each joint is capable of performing. Then challenge those to encourage the surrounding muscles to react and engage more effectively. If as Gary says, “perfection is hard-wired and pre-installed”, then by teaching/re-teaching functional movement patterning which incorporates exercising not just a muscle group, but all the joints involved in a holistic way, we should be able to climb the logical level pyramid to return to perfection. Trust that your body can do this. Taking the body through these patterns will retrain the brain such that it will determine which ones are less effort-full, slowly creating a new effortless/subconscious state of balance.
