#matthiasstjohn

this is matthias ;)

Just completed presenting our 2015 Yoga Therapy course. One highlight was meeting Matthias St. John, an amazingly talented young man who came to see Bianca Machliss to get help with his torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). We have developed 17 co-activation exercises that are progressively more challenging for the knee and to be able to practice. An ACL deficient knee is usually very unstable unless can simultaneously tense (co-activate) all of the muscles around the knee joint complex. Matthias St. John is the only person who I have ever met who is able to perform all these knee exercises while keeping stable and continuous co-activation of the opposing muscles around the knee joint complex. The most extreme of these movements is to rotate his weight bearing and flexed knee forwards backwards and sideways around his heel while balances on one leg. This is a testament to his skill as a roller blading expert. In this video of Mathias you will see that although the things his knee has to do are very extreme and although many of these extreme knee movements would potentially dislocate most peoples knees, he has sufficient flexibility, strength and control to co-activate his knee muscles in ways that most people can not. It is a lesson to all therapists that although we sometimes think of certain exercises as being dangerous it is as the old adage says “if it doesn’t kill you it will make you stronger” (but normal people should note that if it does kill you will kind of miss the point! So most people are definitely not qualified to do most of the knee movements (or other extreme movements) that Matthias demonstrates in his video.) #yogaanatomy #physiotherapy #yogasynergy #matthiasstjohn #blading #yogatherapy