Dr. Michael Hartle Medical Committee Chair

Trunk Stabilization Concepts and Exercises by Michael A. Hartle, D.C., D.A.C.B.N., C.C.N., C.C.S.P., C.S.C.S., E.M.T. Part Two of Six Proprioception Another example of stability and balance and how they relate to the function of the neuromusculoskeletal system involves proprioception. The definition of proprioception is the awareness of posture, movement, and changes in equilibrium and the knowledge of position, weight, and resistance of objects in relation to the body. For example, when you stand up and close your eyes, most people can touch their nose with the tip of their finger without looking. That is proprioception - the ability to know where you are or a part of your body is even without looking. When you injure a joint complex, whether through acute trauma (i.e. slipped on the ice and fell on your shoulder) or cumulative trauma (i.e. overtraining, repetitive overuse from a job or activity), the proprioception of that joint is thrown off. A good example of this involves your ankles. Most of my athletic patients that have sprained an ankle and have never rehabilitated it properly usually end up with some other injury or nagging pain of the lower kinetic chain complex (foot, knee, hip, lower back) along with the ankle. Why is this? This is because of the instability of the joints, muscles, ligaments and tendons and the lack of proper proprioceptive information going to the brain. When this occurs, the brain is unable to determine as accurately when and how to move or support the various structures in the ankle region when it is under stress. What happens next is the patient will develop a chronic ankle sprain syndrome. This is just like those athletes that chronically dislocate their shoulder. Once damaged, if not properly taken care of, it will occur again and again. As you can see, stability and proprioception are very closely related. Balance How does balance affect powerlifting? All you do is move heavy weight. Balance is important for many reasons. A good example of balance is this: are you able to balance on one foot for more than 30 seconds without falling over? If you can, try that with your eyes closed. Harder, isn't it? When you can't do the above, you need to improve your balance. This is where stability comes in again. Watch the muscles around your foot and ankle when you try and stand on one foot. You will see them twitching and contracting and relaxing all at different rates. Why? This happens because your brain and nervous system are receiving constant input and sending constant output to that region to enable the joint complex to remain stable and balanced. If you can't hold that position, you need to be trained properly to do this. Imagine what happens as you walk out of the squat racks to set up for your squat attempt. You are momentarily balancing on one foot as you step back and then step to the side to get to your final position before you start descending. Even though it lasts less than 1 second, when you multiply that time by the maximum weight on your back, it can be just as intense as balancing on one foot with just your bodyweight for 30-60 seconds. If you can't stand on one foot for 30 seconds without falling over, it is hard to imagine that you will get the maximum performance required from your neuromuscloskeletal system when you do a heavy squat attempt. If your stabilizers are underdeveloped or are not strong enough to hold you upright in an unstable environment, (i.e. standing on one foot), then they most likely will not be able to properly stabilize your ankle, knee, hip, lower back joints and the other joints of your spine when you want to run fast, hit hard, jump high or squat the big one. Next Issue... Research Michael A. Hartle, USA Powerlifting Executive Committee Board Member Chairman, USA Powerlifting Sports Medicine Committee Chairman, USA Powerlifting Drug Testing Committee

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