Taking a Closer Look at Strength
By Maureen McHugh
The desire to be fit is a good thing, and it is something that runs strong in many of us. In this pursuit, many choose activities that promise to develop strength. But after a certain amount of training and progress, there can disappointment if one learns that the training journey includes the unwanted companions of pain, tension and injury. This is common, but is it inevitable? Or is there a way to cultivate strength without getting hurt?
Good athletic trainers, of course, know many techniques for warming up the body, only increasing demand gradually, cooling down, and other things like that. But, in my observation, there is one fact of movement science that is not well known, and that if better known, would prevent a great many injuries.
The unappreciated fact is that the experience of strength is as dependent on the ability to release muscle groups as to contract them.
We usually think of
strength as following from contraction. See the body builder. He looks good, and
he looks strong! See his bulging muscles. His muscles are bulging because he is
tensing them, on purpose. See how he holds his arms and places his left foot. He
is posing and showing his ability to make his muscles pop out by contracting
them.
But is this type of strength important for most athletes, whether casual or serious, who are not so much interested in posing as in moving? Is "strength" the same in both activities. I maintain that they are related, but not exactly the same.
To move with strength requires suppleness. We know the experience behind the word "supple" from materials, such as tanned leather or from an archer’s bow. But suppleness in the body does not come exactly from the materials of the body. It comes from the way different components cooperate as a system.
Cultivate Suppleness
To Gain Strength Without Strain
The key to using the body powerfully, and yet not straining yourself, is to cultivate suppleness. By learning a little bit more about the anatomy of movement, you may help yourself to find suppleness more easily.
Depending on how much anatomy you have studied, the following may be review or new information. The bones are in the body because they give rigidity. Joints intercept the rigidity of the bones and thus give the possibility of mobility. The muscles are attached to bones in such a way that each muscle crosses one or more joints. While a joint gives the possibility of movement, only muscles give the actuality of movement, by providing the motor. Deployed around joints, the muscles, and really usually groups of muscles, act in opposed pairs. When one muscle group contracts (shortens), the other group lengthens; and then they change roles. This action is called reciprocity of muscle groups. When the muscles coordinate to close a joint, flexion is taking place, and when they open a joint, extension.
A simple example of reciprocity can be felt in flexion and extension of the wrist. Stand your elbow on a table and let the hand take a small movement, waving gently back and forth. This movement is made possible by the wrist and powered by the muscles of the forearms. Flexion occurs when the pads of the finger come toward the inside of the forearm and extension when the nails of the fingers come toward the outside of the forearm. With a few repetitions, you can probably identify how the muscles on the outside of the forearm and the inside of the forearm work in alternating roles.
When all the muscles of the body work reciprocally like this, the person has no problem moving. The trouble comes when one of the sets of muscle groups has forgotten that it was ever supposed to change roles.
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Flexion of the Spine |
Extension of the Spine |
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For adults, this amnesia commonly occurs in the big muscles of the center of the body. When you take a tuck position—whether in exercise, diving, soccer, or any other endeavor—the abdominal muscles must contract. Everybody knows about crunches, so this is well known. But, what is less well known, is that the back muscles should let go. Although they are supposed to lengthen, they often hold on.
Conversely, when you want to extend the spine, the abdominal muscles should let go. They, too, often hold on unproductively. This way of acting is called "co-contraction," and it is a dysfunction.
When the muscle groups oppose each other instead of cooperate, it takes a tremendous amount of force to flex or extend the spine, or move in any other joint. Often pain and injury result, and the person experiences the dissatisfaction of feeling weak.
Where there is true muscular weakness, strength training has to be brought in. But if the weakness is due to the failure of muscle group reciprocity, then what is needed is training to sense the alternation of contraction and release.
You can get this type of training by taking classes, either group or individual, in the Feldenkrais Method. With this training, you can leave injury behind as you progress along the path of fitness and power.