“Five Hidden Signs of Instability” by Perry Nickelson
http://www.bsmpg.com/Blog/bid/87375/Five-Hidden-Signs-of-Instability-by-Perry-Nickelston-DC-SFMA
Dysfunctional movement patterns are a lot of times overlooked with athletes. Some red flags of underlying dysfunction are; foot stability, breathing patters, jaw clenching, grip, and rolling patterns.
FOOT STABILITY: the foot should look stable when the athlete is in a single leg stance position without shoes on, excessive pronation or supination, clawing the ground or extensor tendons popping out = stability dysfunction
BREATHING: increased effort to breathe = dysfunction, other dysfunctional patterns = shoulders and chest move up and abdominal walls hollows when breathing in deeply, breath holding…have the athlete get into a seated position with arms crossed and rotate to the left, do the same thing and rotate right, if it’s harder to do on one side or breathing is irregular it may indicate dysfunctional thoracic rotation
JAW CLENCHING: athletes most often clench their jaw doing challenging core work to compensate for instability, if they are doing so, tell them to open and relax the jaw
GRIP: clenching the bar too tight in power movements indicates dysfunction of the psoas, the psoas can’t provide stability so the hands must grasp the bar tighter to compensate, making fists during isometric movements, elbow tendonitis or shoulder injuries may indicate poor upper body muscle sequencing
ROLLING PATTERNS: athlete should lie supine on the floor with arms and legs extended and roll over to a prone position using one side of the upper body, movement should be smooth
This article made me think of one of the concepts that was hammered in my head when I interned at a physical therapy clinic a few summers ago, which is you must move correctly first before trying to gain strength. If you have poor movement patterns and you are following a strength training program, you are just strengthening faulty movement and reinforcing the pattern of poor movement. Optimally, it is best to fix all of your poor movement patterns and dysfunctions first before beginning a strength and conditioning program, but this doesn’t seem realistic. There simply isn’t enough time for a college athlete to fix all of their movement patterns first before beginning a strength program. With college athletics we must pay attention to compensation, poor movement patterns, and dysfunction, and do our best to make sure these issues get addressed while the athlete is following a strength training program, as well as adjust the program to each individual athlete’s needs.