Distinctly Montana Magazine

w w w. d i s t i n c t ly m o n ta n a . c o m 71 of friction you are developing in your joints. You must understand that the muscles are telling the bones to stand in this contorted position. If one joint changes, then the whole system is influenced by the change in muscular tension. One change affects one's ability to handle all other types of forces. Let's look at a pelvis. Nature gave us a perfect 90-de- gree angle to measure to see if our pelvis is tuned. If your pelvis has an anterior tilt, then the muscles that attach to the front are typically short and now the mus- cles that attach to the back are typically long. In other words, when we have a change from normal posture, we end up with muscles on one side of the joint that are short and muscles on the other side that are long. So, we have shorts and longs. We have muscles with mechani- cal advantages and now some with disadvantages. What do you think happens when you try and lift up a piece of paper with a muscle that has such a severe disadvantage? You guessed right, if you said it will spasm to protect it and can cause horrific pain. The art to movement and exercise is your ability to detect what is long and what is short. If the quad is short and the hamstring long, then stretching the quads and strengthening the hamstrings will make the body more functional. The interesting thing is most people with an anterior tilt in their pelvis think that they have tight hamstrings or often have trouble pulling them; yet the muscle that needs the flexibility training is on the other side of the joint. So, they continue to stretch the hamstring and the quad continues to get tighter and soon they go to bend over and pick up a piece of paper, and the pelvis is so tight it can't move. Often a muscle will pull just to pick up a piece of paper with this mechanical disad- vantage. Another aspect to looking at these joints is getting a feel for what type of symptoms you may be having. For instance, weak ankles or knees can cause severe neck pain. The ankle needs to be fixed or the neck pain may never go away. Notice how the knee posi- tion drops the pelvis and the upper and lower triangles compensate to put very short neck muscles on the right. It is important to look at the body as a whole when having structurally non-traumatic pain. My suggestion is to stand in front of a mirror and see if you pass the test. • arE My ShouldErS lEvEl? • arE My hIPS lEvEl? • do I Stand wIth My fEEt StraIght? • doES My hEad, ShouldEr, hIP, KnEE and anKlE lInE uP? • what looKS Short? • what looKS long? • do I ExErCISE or walK rEgularly? If your hips or your shoulders are not level, here is a sequence of exercises that may help. (Do not continue any exercise if it causes discomfort or pain.) StandIng wIndMIll Stand against wall. Lean to each side, keeping in contact with the wall. oN approaChINg ExErCISE The problem for some people is that they overtrain the body until they get hurt. Then they quit, losing their gains. I had a long discussion with a coach about training. My point was that kids are overtrained. His point was that they don't rest enough. Both points are valid. He wants to continue to press the limits of the body (high risk, high reward) but allow the tissue to recover/heal before you do it again. A healthier less risky approach for athletic progress is to do less stressful exercises and over time increase the levels with proper recovery. What's the big hurry? CONTINUED

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