A new twist on an old exercise

Do you know the the “Bird Dog” exercise? It looks like the picture above. The upper and contralateral lower extremities are extended, the the opposite ones are flexed. Seems to make make sense, unless you think about gait and neurology (yes, as you can see, those things seem to always be intertwined).

Think about gait. Your right leg and left arm flex until about midstance, when they start to extend; the left leg and right arm are doing the opposite. At no point are the arm and opposite leg opposing one another. Hmmm.

If you look at it neurologically, it is a crossed extensor reflex (see above); again, flexion of the lower extremity is paired with flexion of the opposite upper extremity. It is very similar to a protective reflex called the “flexor reflex” or “flexor reflex afferent”.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to do a cross crawl pattern? Or maybe like the babies shown above? Seems like if that’s the way the system was programmed, maybe we should try and emulate that. Don’t we want to send the appropriate messages to our nervous system for neurological re patterning? If you are doing the classic “opposite” pattern, what is your reasoning? Can you provide a sound neurological or physiological reason?

Think before you act. Know what you are doing.

The Gait Guys. Bridging the gap between neurology and gait, so you can do a better job.