Podcast 167: Is symmetry important for biomechanics and energy utilization?

Podcast 167: Is symmetry important for biomechanics and energy utilization? Plus, things that mimic plantar fasciitis. Including trigger points you never thought might be implicated.

This podcast is way more interesting than the title !

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doctorallen.co
summitchiroandrehab.com
shawnallen.net

Our website is all you need to remember. Everything you want, need and wish for is right there on the site.
Interested in our stuff ? Want to buy some of our lectures or our National Shoe Fit program? Click here (thegaitguys.com or thegaitguys.tumblr.com) and you will come to our websites. In the tabs, you will find tabs for STORE, SEMINARS, BOOK etc. We also lecture every 3rd Wednesday of the month on onlineCE.com. We have an extensive catalogued library of our courses there, you can take them any time for a nominal fee (~$20).

Our podcast is on iTunes and just about every other podcast harbor site, just google "the gait guys podcast", you will find us.

Where to find us, the podcast Links:
Apple podcasts:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-gait-guys-podcast/id559864138?mt=2

Google Play:

https://play.google.com/music/m/Icdfyphojzy3drj2tsxaxuadiue?t=The_Gait_Guys_Podcast

Links for today's show:

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/thegaitguys/167_Dec_4_2020_.mp3

https://thegaitguys.libsyn.com/is-symmetry-important-for-biomechanics-and-energy-utilization

https://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/id/17322929

Association between trigger points in hamstring, posterior leg, foot muscles and plantar fasciopathy: A cross- sectional study
J Bodyw Mov Ther. 2020 Oct;24(4):373-378. doi: 10.1016/j.jbmt.2020.07.018. Epub 2020 Aug 7. Ravindra C Thummar 1 , Sannasi Rajaseker 2 , Ranjith Anumasa 3


https://physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1113/JP280509
Journal of Physiology.
The human preference for symmetric walking often disappears when one leg is constrained
Michael G. Browne, Cameron S. Smock, Ryan T. Roemmich, Nov 24, 2020

Pod 136: Part 2: Head over Foot? Where should we put our COM (center of mass)?

This podcast (135) and its soon to launch follow up podcast (136), as the intro explains, comes at the tail end of a series of thought debates between Shawn and Ivo with some folks who have a different view point.  While the debate is unsettled because there is not sufficient research to support one side, we feel the research leans towards our side of things.  However, as the debates went on, it became clear to us that both parties were approaching the debate from a different metric to gauge each party's beliefs.  We outline this in the introduction and then more forward into our dialogue.  We hope you find this a productive thought experiment.

Key words: cross over gait, head over foot, HOF, gait, gait analysis, COM, COP, center of mass, center of pressure, step width, sprinting, symmetry, running injuries

Links to find the podcast:

iTunes page: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-gait-guys-podcast/id559864138?mt=2

Direct Download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/thegaitguys/pod_136final.mp3

Permalink URL: http://thegaitguys.libsyn.com/pod-136-part-2-head-over-foot-where-should-we-put-our-com-center-of-mass

Libsyn URL:http://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/id/6586622

Our Websites:
www.thegaitguys.com

summitchiroandrehab.com doctorallen.co shawnallen.net

Our website is all you need to remember. Everything you want, need and wish for is right there on the site.
Interested in our stuff ? Want to buy some of our lectures or our National Shoe Fit program? Click here (thegaitguys.com or thegaitguys.tumblr.com) and you will come to our websites. In the tabs, you will find tabs for STORE, SEMINARS, BOOK etc. We also lecture every 3rd Wednesday of the month on onlineCE.com. We have an extensive catalogued library of our courses there, you can take them any time for a nominal fee (~$20).

Our podcast is on iTunes and just about every other podcast harbor site, just google "the gait guys podcast", you will find us.

Pod 135: Part 1: Head over Foot? Where should we put our COM (center of mass)?

Key words: cross over gait, head over foot, HOF, gait, gait analysis, COM, COP, center of mass, center of pressure, step width, sprinting, symmetry, running injuries

This podcast (135) and its soon to launch follow up podcast (136), as the intro explains, comes at the tail end of a series of thought debates between Shawn and Ivo with some folks who have a different view point.  While the debate is unsettled because there is not sufficient research to support one side, we feel the research leans towards our side of things.  However, as the debates went on, it became clear to us that both parties were approaching the debate from a different metric to gauge each party's beliefs.  We outline this in the introduction and then more forward into our dialogue.  We hope you find this a productive thought experiment.
 

Links to find the podcast:

iTunes page: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-gait-guys-podcast/id559864138?mt=2

Direct Download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/thegaitguys/pod_135final.mp3

Permalink URL: http://thegaitguys.libsyn.com/pod-135-part-1-head-over-foot-where-should-we-put-our-com-center-of-mass

Libsyn URL: http://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/id/6309104

Our Websites:
www.thegaitguys.com

summitchiroandrehab.com doctorallen.co shawnallen.net

Our website is all you need to remember. Everything you want, need and wish for is right there on the site.
Interested in our stuff ? Want to buy some of our lectures or our National Shoe Fit program? Click here (thegaitguys.com or thegaitguys.tumblr.com) and you will come to our websites. In the tabs, you will find tabs for STORE, SEMINARS, BOOK etc. We also lecture every 3rd Wednesday of the month on onlineCE.com. We have an extensive catalogued library of our courses there, you can take them any time for a nominal fee (~$20).

Our podcast is on iTunes and just about every other podcast harbor site, just google "the gait guys podcast", you will find us.

Podcast 128: Usain Bolt, Plantaris Tears, Arm Swing

Podcast links:

http://traffic.libsyn.com/thegaitguys/pod_128final.mp3

http://thegaitguys.libsyn.com/podcast-128-usain-bolt-plantaris-tears-arm-swing

https://www.thegaitguys.com/podcasts/

Key Tagwords:

usain bolt, plantaris tear, plantaris, sole lifts, heel lift, leg length, short leg, heel drop, shoeque, symmetry, asymmetry, sprinters, scoliosis, tendinopathy, achilles, runners, marathons, running injuries, arm swing

Our Websites:
www.thegaitguys.com
summitchiroandrehab.com   doctorallen.co     shawnallen.net

Our website is all you need to remember. Everything you want, need and wish for is right there on the site.
Interested in our stuff ? Want to buy some of our lectures or our National Shoe Fit program? Click here (thegaitguys.com or thegaitguys.tumblr.com) and you will come to our websites. In the tabs, you will find tabs for STORE, SEMINARS, BOOK etc. We also lecture every 3rd Wednesday of the month on onlineCE.com. We have an extensive catalogued library of our courses there, you can take them any time for a nominal fee (~$20).
 
Our podcast is on iTunes, Soundcloud, and just about every other podcast harbor site, just google "the gait guys podcast", you will find us.
 
Show Notes:

Superficial plantar cutaneous sensation does not trigger barefoot running adaptations.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28728130

Arm swing
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/173680.php

Usain bolt
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/07/20/sports/olympics/usain-bolt-stride-speed.html?referer=

Plantaris tears
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1978447/

Does asymmetry matter ?

Does asymmetry matter ?

There has been some brilliant talk in the socialverse as of late that asymmetry doesn't matter. We believe these dialogues may be contextual for dialogue purposes (perhaps?) and we have no problem with that. I am sure we may approach our patients differently, though restoring pain free function is the goal. We have a problem layering more endurance, strength and power on asymmetry. Sure the client may feel better, but that is just because the threshold of the system is better, maybe. They have better armor, they are more durable, and thus further from the pain line, but the problem is undeniably still there, it is just protected. 
So, why not try to move closer to symmetry, if that gives pain relief, and then build strength, power, and endurance on those cleaner patterns ? Doesn't that make more sense ? One question we have, that science cannot prove (or disprove) is whether greater strength on asymmetry increases risk for injury ? Well, we think so, and we think that if for a given client, that strength and endurance built on a more symmetrical frame is likely to have less risk for injury. But, the verdict will always be out on that until we can clone folks.

We believe that driving toward symmetry much of the time does in fact matter. Is it going to happen 100%?, no, asymmetry is the rule in the human frame. We are talking about not driving deeper strength, power, endurance into an asymmetrical pattern that further puts strain into tissues not designed or apt to be favorable to the organism/joint/limb etc. We are putting together a written piece expressing some of our points of view further. We have found that when we drive our clients towards symmetry we often, not always, have to drive less strength and load into our clients to dampen the pain beast.

Stay tuned . . . .

https://youtu.be/0Jn2CESZ6jw

Human gait is cyclical. For the most part, when one limb is engaged on the ground (stance phase), the other is in swing phase. Before we continue, you should recall that there is a brief double limb support phase in walking gait, that which is absent in running gait. Also, we wish to remind you of our time hammered principle that when the foot is on the ground the glutes are heavily in charge, and when the foot is in the air, the abdominals are heavily in charge.  

For us to move cleanly and efficiently one would assume that the best way to do that would be to ensure that the lower 2 limbs are capable of doing the exact same things, with the same timing, same skill, same endurance and same strength. This goes for the upper 2 limbs as well, and then of course the synchronizing of the 4 in a cohesive effort. For this clean seamless motor function to occur, one must assume that there would be no injuries that had left a remnant mark on one limb thus encouraging a necessary compensation pattern in that limb (and one that would then have to be negotiated with the opposite limb as well as the contralateral upper or lower limb).  For example, when right ankle rocker (dorsiflexion) is impaired, early heel departure will occur and hip extension will be limited. An alteration in right glute function will most likely follow.  One could theorize that the left step length (the length of measure from right heel strike through to left heel strike) would thus be shortened. This would cause a premature load onto the left limb, and could very well force the left frontal plane to be more engaged than is desirable. This could lead to left core and hip frontal plane weakness and compensation patterns to be generated (ie. right arm abduction. One can see all of these components in the photo above, and in this case here). It could also lead to a pelvic distortion pattern which would further throw off the anti-phasic nature of symmetrical and efficient gait.  To complicate the cyclical scenario, the time usually used to move sagittally will be partially used to move into, and back out of, the left frontal plane. This will necessitate some abbreviations in the left stance phase timely mechanical events. Some biomechanical events will have to be abbreviated or sped through and then the right limb will have to adapt to those changes. These are simple gait problems we have talked about over and over again here on the gait guys blog. (Search “arm swing” on our blog and you will find 45 articles around this topic.) These compensation patterns will include expressed weaknesses in various parts of the human frame as part of the pattern, and merely fixing those weaknesses does not address the right ankle rocker problem. Fixing said weaknesses merely encourages the brain to possibly continue to perpetuate necessary tightnesses in other muscles and engrain the compensations (challenges to mobility and stability) further or more complexly.  It is easy to find something weak, it takes a sharp brain to find the sometimes silent sparking event. Are you able to find the problem in this never ending loop of compensations and find a way to unwrinkle the system one logical piece at a time, or will you just chose to strengthen the wrinkled system and hope that the new strength on top of the compensations is adequate for you our your client ? One should not be forever sentenced to daily or weekly rehabilitative sessions/ homework to negate and alleviate symptoms, this is a far more durable machine than that. Fix the problem.

Now, lets add another wrinkle to the system.  What if there were problems before any injuries ?  Meaning, what if there were problems during the timely maturation and suppression of the primitive reflexes ? Or problems in the timely appearance or maturation of postural reflexes? A problem in these areas may very well result in a central or peripheral nervous system malfunction and a representation of such in one’s movement and gait.  That is a larger discussion for another time.

There is a reason that in our practices we often assess and treat contralateral upper and lower limbs as well as to address remnants from old injuries whether they are symptomatic or not. This is a really tough puzzle and game you are playing. For example, when there is insufficient hip internal rotation unilaterally you can regain some of the loss through increased foot pronation unilaterally, but at a consequence to both the local and global pictures.  Remember, most of the time you are trying to walk in a straight line from A to B and if the parts are not symmetrical you have many options to compensate. It is not as simple as telling your athlete to swing one arm more, or to stop pulling it across their body; they need to do those things, it is called a “compensation”. It is often not as simple as finding an impaired Rolling Pattern and driving it back to symmetry, in doing so, you may have just added strength and skill to a compensation.  Merely addressing things locally can be a crime.  If you are seeing an arm swing change, you would be foolish not to look at the opposite lower limb and foot at the very least, and of course assess spinal rotation, lateral flexion and hinging as well as core mobility and stability.  For your neuro nerds, remember the receptors from the central spine and core fire into the midline vermis of the cerebellum (one of the oldest parts of our brain, called the paleo cerebellum); and these pathways, along with other cerebellar efferents, fire our axial extensor muscles that keep us upright in the gravitational plane and provide balance or homeostasis.  So, those need assessed and addressed as well.  

Or, if this is too much thinking for you, … you can just train harder and get stronger . .  . in all your compensation patterns, after all, it is easier than figuring out why and how that right ankle started the whole mess, if in fact that is even the first piece of the puzzle.

Welcome to the matrix.

shawn and ivo, the gait guys

The unbalanced athlete, motor pattern, team, joint etc…… is not efficient.

Like him or not, believing he should have lost his last fight (or not), Georges St-Pierre was/is one of the best MMA fighters of all time. He was once quoted as saying, 

“In fighting, in evolution, in life, efficiency is the key,” says St-Pierre. 

 "It’s not the most powerful animal that survives. It’s the most efficient.“

This certainly describes most of Georges fights. There were always bigger, faster, meaner, stronger opponents. However, most of his fights went the distance. Eight of his last nine fights went to a five round decision. Now, there are those who will say that he didn’t have the finishing power or submission skills to close fights in the earlier rounds, and that is debatable for sure.  However, there is no doubt that anyone’s best fighting attributes will diminish as the rounds progress and fatigue sets in.  But, perhaps this is an equalizer when someone doesn’t have one single "golden right hand”, or what have you.  Efficiency can be the great equalizer.

St-Pierre isn’t your typical fighter. He’s arguably the best mixed martial artist in the world, a 5-foot 11-inch, 190-pound destroyer. Up until his most recent fight with Johnny Hendricks, he had not lost a round in more than 3 years, that is pure efficiency ! Arguably, he is faster than other fighters, he is more fit, has a greater range of skills, has better endurance …  in a Darwinian sense, perhaps more efficient ?

Here at the Gait Guys we are always considering efficiency.  As you can see from the slide above, there are many factors that can diminish efficiency.  We strive for as much symmetry as we can because with neuromuscular symmetry efficiency can be maximized.  Keep in mind however, that total symmetry is not always possible. Most people have two different feet, often one is more varus because it sat against the mothers rounded belly in utero.  And, one tibia is often more bowed or torsioned than the other for the same reason.  So, perfect symmetry is not always possible or guaranteed. But, one can do alot to gain as much physical symmetry as possible through detailed study of your client. (Remember, just because things look symmetrical does not mean that they function symmetrically ! This game is not that easy ! But, for some of the uneducated, it may seem to be !)  When physical symmetry is regained often the sensory-motor nervous system becomes functionally more symmetrical.  And, this is a flippable phenomenon, when neuro symmetry is driven often physical symmetry will be driven in time.  

Think about the afferent input to the cortex from the peripheral receptors in the skin (Paccinian corpuscles, Merkels discs, etc); the joint mechanorecpetors (types I-IV) and muscle receptors (spindles and Golgi tendon organs). Generally speaking, they travel up the dorsal columns on the back of the spinal cord to the thalamus and then the cortex; up the dorsal spinocerebelllar tract, to the cerebellar hemispheres; the spino- reticular tract to the reticular formation, or in the case of the upper cervical spine, directly into or flocculonodular lobe of the cerebellum. This information needs to be equal and opposite from each side of the extremity (flexors and extensors) as well as the right and left sides of the body. This “Balance” or “Homeostasis” or what the Chinese called Yin and Yang is key to efficiency.

In your workouts and rehab, strive for symmetry. We like to say “Tailor your exercises to the weaker side”. This helps to create more equality rather than a larger disparity.

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