Dear Performance Health Center Community,
I am honored to write a guest blog post for my chiropractor and friend Dr. Bradley Weiss! As you know, aside from being a great Chiropractor and ART Practitioner, he is helpful, open, and friendly. When I mentioned that as a Movement Specialist and Fellow of Applied Functional Science®, I would probably address his rehab from ACL surgery differently than a traditional personal trainer, he wanted to understand by training with me.
I use the principles of Applied Functional Science® to approach every training. Basically, that means I create exercises designed to train specific movements and patterns rather than isolated muscle actions. For example, when you bend to pick something up off the floor, your brain doesn’t think: “Flex at the hips, knees, ankles and shoulders, with less flexion at the shoulders, and extend the elbows, hands, and fingers to the floor.” You bend and reach as a movement.
Using Dr. Weiss as an example, I considered his ultimate goal, which is to be able to play tennis without a brace. Therefore, I needed to be able to analyze the movements of tennis and break the movements down into different parts to make sure all parts are working fully. Then, working together, Dr. Weiss and I have to put the parts back together in the form of movements that get closer and closer to those of tennis. Think of an airplane: If I took apart an airplane and put all the pieces on the runway, the separate pieces cannot fly – but all the potential to fly is there if the pieces are put together correctly and in fine working order. The more optimal the working order, the smoother the flight.
Therefore, all Dr. Weiss’ “systems”, from his nervous system to his joints and muscles, must understand the task and must be able to act in a coordinated fashion. All the systems must work together to hit the tennis ball. Strong glutes alone won’t do it, nor will a strong core alone, and so on.
I also needed to take into consideration how gravity, mass, and momentum play into tennis movements. That doesn’t mean that every exercise uses those properties just as tennis does, because by manipulating those variables, we can work on strength, speed, agility and endurance.
Dr. Weiss and I are constantly working on parts and putting it back together again. We can see how Dr. Weiss is getting stronger by the week, because he does his exercises consistently. Just as the brain needs repetition to learn, so does the body. Then a stronger mind/body connection can be established so the body can react at the right time in the right way.
I am confident that Dr. Weiss will reach his goal, and I will be so happy for him when he does!
Anita Luck is a Movement Specialist and Fellow of Applied Functional Science. She works with groups and one-one one to safely and effectively improve their movements – or performance, as Brad puts it – whether in sports of activities of daily living.
Look for workshops by Anita later this year at Performance Health Center.
Anita can be contacted at [email protected]. You can also visit her website www.AllMovementMatters.com . Thank you!