Movement B Mechanical Advantage

The main idea of this information is that movements are more important than individual muscles when it comes to effective training. The concept of mechanical advantage and aligning tension is discussed. The idea of cardinal planes as a way to conceptualize movement patterns is questioned, suggesting that a focus on vectors may be more appropriate. The difficulty in explaining and targeting specific muscles during rotational movements is acknowledged. Compound movements that utilize multiple joints and constant force magnification are emphasized. The importance of controlling vectors and mechanical advantage to generate vertical force is highlighted. Training techniques and exercises that target specific muscle groups and control movement patterns are mentioned. The goal of training is to maximize vertical force displacement. The importance of proper technique and execution in training is stressed. The relevance of these principles to sprinting and controlling movement patterns is menti building upon what we talked about in our principles module was this idea that movements not muscles but muscles need to be trained effectively and the premise of that is understanding mechanical advantage and understanding how do we align tension so that's the whole goal of this module is to talk about lining that tension and there's a couple things I want to preload with this let's review planes right we have sagittal frontal transverse all right which are these cardinal directions that are simply like directions of movement can go right and some would argue that these are not very clear and not very I guess applicable to a three-dimensional world and there is an element of I get it but there is also this dynamic of it just helps to conceptualize movement patterns in a way that is easy to understand easy to explain or and therefore understand right but reality everything is kind of going in this rotational vector at all times much like as energy systems are always kind of working concurrently there's always a yeah concurrently this idea of like oxidative glycolytic and oxygen systems are always working just in some degree more so than others same thing with the planes like a sagittal plane movements probably more transverse plane movement than the sagittal just happens to be appear and look like it's going straight ahead and what I mean by that is when we look at someone running straight ahead this opposite arm opposite leg is pulling on the spiral back line and essentially we're resisting this internal rotation of the feet of the of the humerus and this internal rotation of the humerus or the femur as we're running and building into this direction that I'm just controlling the transverse plane even a lot of times the frontal plane while I'm trying to run straight ahead that's kind of the premise of why cardinal planes might actually might be a little bit misleading but then the other end it goes into maybe a little bit more uniform thing which it goes into vectors so if we have vertical horizontal and rotational and I find vectors are just probably a little bit more at least like routed in physics and more foundational sciences so probably better to talk in those terms that we're either going up up down forward backwards or some sort of rotation which when we're thinking about movement patterns you know a lot of it is has this pretense of this either horizontal or vertical rotation in which one of the ones that I think is a great thought experiment might be a good opportunity to pause this this on this on this audio soundtrack audio track and think about when you get to a movement that's rotational say that you're doing a rotational chop or rotational lift let's say that you're doing something across the midline that goes from one quadrant the right quadrant to the opposite left quadrant either vertically or in a vertical horizontal direction how do you explain that how do you explain what muscle this works how do you explain what this is doing not an easy thing right right and if I kind of just genuinely joke about we have to work the rotational vector we're working this thing that we it's really really hard to explain but very important to do because it's not working a traditional muscle group right we could argue it's probably maybe working a little bit of the of the internal external oblique system that the lateral subsystem of the premise of movements going in this certain direction but they're really not and I could tell you what muscle group a squat should be targeting or I could tell you what muscle group a leg curl should be targeting I really can't tell you with very definitiveness what a what a rotational chops working and that's okay and that doesn't value the exercise it kind of brings the point of a lot of these compound movements are utilizing multiple joints are just using constant force magnification from other joints that we are going through this strength curve throughout to be the top of the bottom of the movement that's leading into different tensions at different times and it might be that wrong tension it might be the wrong mechanical advantage and one of the things that I want to kind of get across in this is if I'm working something that's supposed to be able to produce more force vertically I I want to be able to jump higher and I'm working movement patterns that don't correspond with that from a controlling of the the vectors are trying to make can't create mechanical advantage and pull perpendicularly by getting in this horizontal position is it really leading into that and I would be I'm not saying on the other end that we're going to do this machine like a Smith machine squat that leads into more of a vertical position regardless in fact that actually might be contrary to what we want but the reality is is if I'm looking from the top down and let's say I look at this like a machine that's just trying to create vertical force right it's a piston Wow what a novel thought and the piston works with a turbine and that kind of creates this torque that generates this vertical up-and-down motion to create air air pressure to create power in effect we're doing that with exercises that we're trying to create more of the mechanical machinery that creates more vertical force that creates more vertical displacement so what do I need from that okay well if I look from the bottom up can I unlock my ankle knee and ankle knee and hip in a sequence in a manner from a biomechanical perspective that keeps me more vertical yes I think we can we can load that up we can train movement patterns we can do certain things to get to the output on the other note can I strengthen the connected tissues that control that eccentric loading to lead to better amortization better stretch shortening better better this muscle spindle stretch and Golgi tendon organ tension response yes we can absolutely do that through piles and strength training and then we look at the exercises that facilitate increasing the contractile strength how what muscle groups need to be stronger in order to do that if I'm looking at the architecture in the direction of muscle groups a lot of them run in this oblique or transverse plane so what I'm doing is controlling those muscle groups to limit rotation or wrong vector horizontally in this frontal like direct frontal plane direction whether it's the knees or maybe one shoulders dropping more so than the other to get more as much vertical force as possible and then I'm also trying to do is train potentially quadriceps to get as much contractile force going concentrically away from the ground as I possibly can so I loaded up eccentrically the ankle knee and hip by descending down and then I'm trying to now in conjunction with that use a stretch recent reflex as well as contractile forces from the quadriceps and maybe a little bit from the hip and glute to drive vertically which is the point of training if I'm breaking down training and I look through I have this goal of trying to make someone jump higher whether that's the right or wrong thing doesn't really matter but I have a goal right this person wants to go higher I'm training him for a combine right and I teach him all the tricks I teach him how to retract their shoulder blade on the putting their hand down they bend their knee we're baggy sweat pants teach them all the hacks they know how to cheat that test so everyone knows how to cheat so that's a even playing field what is it going to be the difference is how much one person could cheat to the next everyone's cheating relatively the same the difference is going to be can I maximize the time I have with the right exercises done in the right way with the right loads at the right speeds and the right durations to accommodate as much vertical force displacement as possible that is training and that is targeting the right tissues at the right time same thing we said about speed and running straight ahead right then I'm controlling this right so this person has a lot of wonky side-to-side movement their start is basically looking like they're starting with ice skates and they're just projectiling side to side as opposed to straight ahead as opposed to the other level of like okay I'm really good in terms of controlling the transverse frontal plane or this horizontal lateral direction I'm really good at projecting my body because now I'm in this inverted three-point stance and I have to create this extended position of the ankle knee and hip so I'm going from a concentric so I'm as much of this eccentric load maybe I need to still train the quad because I'm more horizontal maybe I need to train the glute as well and maybe I need to look at what's going to target that glute specifically and not creating this transverse or frontal plane movement that I don't want right okay well I can do single leg RDLs I can do RDLs I can do deadlifts I can do snatch grip deadlifts I can do 45 degree back extensions I can do glute hands I can do all sorts of stuff but how I do it is more important than what I do and if I do a 45 degree back extension with my toes pointed you know right and left because I just simply can't create enough tensile force because my my glute max is so much stronger than my glute med and glute med so I don't have this this more vertical or this more horizontal sagittal direction type of training influence but the only way I'm going to get any adequate load like a one to two times my body weight 45 degree back extension with a 40XO tempo is by externally rotating my femurs can putting my glute max in a shortened position and hoping that my erectors can pull what's that gonna look like when they run look like a duck it's gonna look like someone's gonna point their toes out and what I'm saying is this and this is something that I would say from movement prep all the way through to when you get to the actual skill training of sprinting is how you do one thing is how you'll do everything that if I'm doing a movement drill like a a skip or a B skip or a power skip and as no control what's going to happen when we add in speed what's going to happen we add in forces that are greater what's going to happen when we add in a competitive element to it or a timed element to it it's not going to get better that's my point that in a controlled constraint environment like lifting we can't control where my joints and my actions are or my my body's going then we are sure as hell not going to be able to control it at high speeds or high durations or or high forces it just doesn't work that way it's not that directional it goes it goes in the direction of simple leave controlling simple before we can control complex it's fractal it's this nature of the way we do the smallest seemingly inconsequential things will have a really big precedent and there are some people who are incredibly fast and doesn't really matter but that's the way they run and they run like a crazy person but they're just still really fast so if you ask the person who's really fast who has no control of their extremities who's running that way and ask them to do an ace kit and they have control maybe it doesn't work that way but it I'd be argued that if we can fix anything it's probably be the simple things you know for instance let's say that we have a kneeling start today and we're doing half kneeling ankle mobs you know I doesn't work doesn't matter doesn't really have an impact but that if you watch it and you go that person can't push their knee past their toe without without lifting their heel or without going into this valgus position how is it gonna look like when they're gonna run do you think it's gonna automatically clean itself up oh yeah like it's that 135 squat like I can't squat the parallel unless I got 135 on there and then you can't squat the parallel but the load doesn't really make the movement better the load is just maybe accommodating some sort of tissue restriction or some sort of potentiating strategy we start to recruit synergies to control a bit better the reality is it's all gonna be in this continuum as soon as we start getting past a certain threshold that load will start to revert back to whatever programmed or hardwired pattern is in there and you're not gonna be able to do it and that to me is I start to look at exercises and execution and looking through controlling the mechanical advantage and understanding this dynamic of well if I can't control it on a simple very control to constrain environment I'm not gonna control in a complex very very nuanced a lot of detail environment fix the things that are fixable right one of the lessons I always talk with anybody when I'm teaching moving always have three things control your hands your feet and your eyes if I could do anything with a barbell I'm gonna say okay well where your feet are where your hands are and where your eyes and if I can control those three things then from there chances of controlling where my knees go where my elbows go where my where my hips and shoulders go all will have a lot better precedent that in a sense is controlling mechanical advantage when you're doing any movement pattern and that is how we're going to have some transference to jumping higher running faster that's training right this idea of okay why are you so harping on range of motion and why do you have this variability component of can we get full accessibility of our joints and then can we utilize that within a movement pattern so if you look through all these modules and totality you look at it before is hey we're going to create passive range in joints in an isolated manner and then it looks at active and what can we get to these functional positions by utilizing contractile strength and its limitation more of the passive tissues and then can we integrate that in a movement pattern can we utilize these these engineering concepts of leverage and architectural design of a muscle and then mechanical advantage to create movements that matter movements that make a difference move it does actually make our athletes more robust and more resilient and if it does and we've mastered what program design really is all about it goes in this idea of hey I can write a really good prescription but I can coach to hell out of it that our athletes can execute this in a level because I know what the point of the exercise is and I know how it transcends into other things that is training that is coaching that is movement so let's stop here we got our case study last thing in this module and then we'll go on to that test and I think when we start looking back at all these modules and the entire spectrum it's this dynamic we need to set up and create this framework that movement is this really important concept as a coach to really master and understand okay stop here and let's dig into this and go into this case study