A Joint by Joint Approach
As the world of fitness is ever changing as far as studies, new techniques and methods are concerned, we do our best to continually educate ourselves. One part of our continuing education at Elite Fitness Solutions is to have an article of the week that our staff reads.
These articles can range from nutrition to exercise methods to physical therapy to anatomy and physiology.
One article we recently read and discussed was by a great strength coach named Mike Boyle. It’s called a “Joint by Joint approach to training”.
If you’re interested in reading the article in its entirety, you can find it here.
This article addresses the basic movement principles of our body. It’s a unique approach to how the body functions and I feel can really help people to get to the root of the problem where pain and discomfort are concerned.
As an excerpt from the article states: “The inability of joints to function normally places stress on the joints above or below. In the book Ultra Prevention (actually a great nutrition book, too), the authors describe our current method of reaction to injury perfectly. Their analogy is simple; our response to injury is like hearing the smoke detector go off and running to pull out the battery.”
For example, let’s look at lower back issues. How often have you experienced pain in your lower back and went to a professional for that pain and they’ve addressed only the lower back? Rarely will you have someone also address your hip immobility, or thoracic immobility, or lack of core stability.
When there’s a preverbal fire raging due to immobility in other areas of the body, your body is sounding the “smoke alarm” in your lower back, because it is doing the moving when it should be stabilizing.
As stated in the article, “Those with a bad back generally have stronger back extensors than those with a weak back.”
I found that interesting. Most of the time, those with a bad back generally have stronger backs. So, it’s not that the back is weak and needs fixing, it’s that the surrounding areas need the fixing so that the back can relax and get back to doing what it’s supposed to do, which is stabilizing.
Now, let’s look at the body as a whole, as they do in the beginning of the article.
How does each joint operate and in turn affect the surrounding areas due to stability and/or mobility dysfunction?
Joint-Primary Training Needs
Ankle- mobility (particularly sagittal)
Knee- stability
Hip- mobility (multi-planar)
Lumbar Spine- stability
T-Spine- mobility
Gleno-humeral- stability
Now, think about the aforementioned relationships for a minute. If you experience knee pain, can you also think about your hips…or ankles? Do you think that possibly you are doing more work with your knees, essentially causing a joint that requires stability to become mobile in order to compensate for its surrounding joints?
I know this is a different way to look at knee pain, but again, we need to address the fire, and not the smoke alarm.
Or shoulder pain and problems. Do you find that your posture is forward (as is a majority of the population)? Causing your thoracic spine to become immobile and your shoulders to operate in unnatural positions?
Recognize the “smoke alarm” and address it, but don’t stop there and let the “fire” keep going. Find the source and hopefully your symptoms will be a thing of the past!
I hope this has opened your eyes to new possibilities when it comes to addressing recurring aches and pains.
