I love to study the body in motion. My dad would make me apprentice for him in his chiropractic office. He’s say, “Now put your hands on this slipped disc, feel how it’s changed the whole alignment of her spine?” and I’d say – “Like I care, I’m 12!” My dad had his own scare tactics to protect me from the basic teenage dangers. He’d adjust his plastic skeleton to show me how the spine, head and pelvis would have compression and torque in certain areas due to skiing, ballet and riding horses. All the things that I wanted to do. And of course I was the only one in flats at my senior prom. It was devastating to have to explain that I couldn’t wear heals because it would throw my posture forward, thereby shock loading my lower back, creating an S Curve in my spine and making my shoulder blades pull back which would then pinch nerves in my neck.

I think it clicked for me at 17 years old, sitting in front of Carvel and people watching. I noticed how even the fittest of people would lumber from side to side, rather than lift their legs from their core, how yoga teachers would carry so much tension in their shoulders from misaligned inversions and how people with shallow breathing had a short, labored gate.

When I train people on the hoop, I talk about my Flex and Flow Method as being what can free their hips and low back in order to strengthen their core. There are so many workouts which boast strengthening their core. I have watched many and none provide anything new. Most seem to work on linear, weight bearing resistance moves on the core. My theory is this. We can’t develop real inner strength, flexibility and coordination from the center of our bodies until we unhinge the ribs from the lower back. Only then can the upper body and lower body rotate freely around it’s axis/core.

Translating that into the hoop, we isolate each muscle set in the body to train it to move independently from the rest. Then we integrate these muscles to work together, firing efficiently as well as increasing one’s internal timing.

The following is a list of the most common mechanical mistakes in specific trades/sports. Hoop Performers admit that they can feel how they over rotate in their ribcage to initiate tricks like bringing the hoop from the waist up to the neck. This is due to too large or light of a hoop as well as poor isolation and strength from the core. Personal trainers can have short, strong muscles which pull on the weaker, underdeveloped muscles. Their muscle tone might look balanced but to watch them take a step or even stand in place, they tend to have an S Curve in the spine from using their lower back to initiate most resistance moves. Athletes practicing cycling, skiing, snowboarding and hiking tend to have over developed quads. This pulls on the hip flexors, creating so much tension in the hips that the upper and lower body look fused together when they walk. Golf and tennis players find they over rotate their knees due to too much tension in the hips. This creates more torque and pinched nerves in the lower back because they have limited range of motion in the hips and ribs (core area)

I will be posting brief, easy to use tips for retraining the body to move with less pain, range of motion and more fluidity on my home page. The next 2 workout dvds will show the Flex and Flow Method along with many other fun techniques.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 29th, 2010 at 12:59 am and is filed under Hoop News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.