What is functional
movement?
Functional
movements are movements based on real life situational biomechanics. For
example, squatting and lunging. Your body is an integrated system. This means
your muscles do not work in isolation. They work together with other muscles to
produce movement. For example, the biceps muscle flexes the elbow, but there
will be other muscles acting as synergists (pecs and deltoid muscles) to help
control the movement. Other structures in the joint such as ligaments also play
a role in helping to create movement by providing stability through certain
movement patterns. A dysfunction in these movement patterns can cause a decline
in athletic performance and therefore injury and pain.
4 important sling
systems of the pelvic region
1. Anterior oblique system – external and internal obliques and opposing groins, along
with the intervening abdominal fascia. This is involved in stabilisation of the
lumbar spine, thoracic spine, rib cage, pubic symphysis, and hips. It also
helps with whole body pushing movements and helps transfer forces between the
upper and lower body (Lee, 1999).
2. Posterior oblique system – the lats, thoracolumbar fascia and opposing glute maximus
and medius. This involves stabilisation of the lumbar spine and sacro-iliac
joints. It helps to turn out the kinetic chain, helps with whole body pulling
movements and helps transfer forces between the upper and lower body. This
system is most commonly seen in gait because of its fight to control rotation
of the pelvis which occurs in the gait cycle (Lee, 1999).
3. Lateral system –
gluteus medius and minimus, groins and opposing QL (lower back muscle). This
helps to provide lateral stability in the pelvis, for example, walking and
climbing stairs etc. It deals with single leg movement patterns and whole body
frontal plane (sideways) movement. It also helps transfer forces between the
upper and lower body. A weakness in this system can lead to hip pain, knee
pain, ACL injuries and ankle sprains (Lee, 1999).
4. Deep longitudinal system – spinal erectors (lower back), thoracolumbar fascia via
sacrotuberous ligament, biceps femoris (hamstring), head of fibula, peroneals
and tibialis anterior (shin muscles). This system helps to create stability of
the lumbosacral complex and the foot and arch complex. It helps to control
supination and pronation of the foot from heel strike through to mid-stance of
the gait cycle. During high intensity activity, it provides a communication for
proprioceptive information about ground reaction forces (Lee, 1999).
As a
population, the focus is more pointed towards “posterior chain” work because of
tight hip flexors and quads. Sometimes, this isn’t the case with athletes and
the development of exercise programs should be dealt with more profoundly. Understanding
the mechanics of the body is an important part of creating better exercises for
better pain free movement.
The
components of fitness are extremely important for optimum health. Many people
workout to become stronger for their sport, run quicker, lose weight, improve mobility,
increase stamina and for the general feel-good factor. These are all great
reasons to train, but there is so much more to training then this. We need to
think about training our neuromuscular system! What about balance,
co-ordination, agility, power and reaction time? These components are just as
important as strength training or endurance training. If you do strength
training in the gym or you do long runs and keep getting aches and pains, maybe
you need to think about adding in some of these to help improve your overall
health and fitness.
References:
Lee, Diane, “The Pelvic Girdle: An approach to the
examination and treatment of the lumbo-pelvic-hip region”: Churchill
Livingstone, 1999, Toronto, Canada
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