physiomitch's Roar Profile

True, positional posturing will alter fascial patterns, ie the body adapts to whatever position or action it gets put into. Repetetive actions result in fascial shortening, as do fixed postures. How many people do you see walking with a posture the shape of a chair, ass out, chin forward, knees bent…adaptability is what fascia is all about. Maintaining some form of movement, moving out of common active positions and keeping flexible will have a better chance of preventing injuries than strengthening will. As you say, all these little quirks such as leaning on the bat on one leg will slowly but surely result in changes of the fascial patterns, and this can lead to stiffness and weakness.

My take on fatigue is somewhat different, having worked with the autonomic nervous system a lot. I believe that muscle fatigue is the body’s indicator that autonomic nerve cell fatigue has begun, thus not being able to control the blood flow rate to the muscles. This I think is an emergence mechanism to prevent possible injury, but if overlooked or ignored can result in permanent nerve cell fatigue, thus poor blood flow to muscles causing weakness, and again this cannot be treated with exercise. But I agree, both overuse and fatigue play a part but could also be part of a process resulting from overuse and insufficient rest (48 hours) after exercise. I firmly believe we do not need to train as much as people think, and without sufficient rest, the body will suffer. I heard a very good comment from a sports science bloke in the UK; ‘You don’t get fir through exercising, you get fit through recovering from exercising’. The break and recuperation is more important than the exercise itself.

I have to admit, I have never been a fan of muscle recruiting, as again I feel it blames the muscles too much as if they are in charge of the recruitment. Find out what is behind their dysfunction, correct that, and the muscles will do the rest automatically. But this is just my opinion. Give muscles what they need and let them go!

View Comment

Hi Stu
The thinking about gluts med is correct, but it is not isolated. However, my major concern is that the CAUSE of the weakness is not being correctly diagnosed. The common treatment for this gluts med weakness is to isolate and ‘strengthen’ the muscle, yet the weakness is often caused by overuse and thus reacting tightness in the fascia surrounding these muscles, which then results in weakness as the muscle does not have the relevant space in which to fully contract. It is commonly found that weakness is in the inner range of the muscle and can be overlooked if not testing in inner range. If weakness is a result of overuse, does it make sense to use exercise as a treatment when exercise caused the weakness in the first place? I fail to see the logic although I can understand the thinking, but unfortunately, weakness is not mostly due to a lack of exercise.

I definately think this is a problem with the cricketers as is the case with many sportspersons. I find it to be a common denominator in many non-traumatic sports injuries, and in the majority it is a release of the fascia around these muscles which allows strength to return IMMEDIATELY, no exercises necessary! The goal is to give the muscles what they require to be able to function as normal, ie good blood flow (sympathetic control), good nerve supply and good space in which to work (fascial flexibility). Once these are restored, muscles amazingly work, within seconds. The muscles are not to blame, it is their environment that alters, not allowing them to function they way they want to. We need to focus on what is stopping them from functioning instead of flogging the muscles trying to force them to work in an environment that is not suitable.