Supertraining

--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], "chris eastham" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:We've surely moved a long way forward from Florence kendalls
day, but even> then they understood that posture is about a state of
balance.  And we all know from attempting to balance a backetball on
the tip of our finger, that it involves constant adjustment.

****
 Chris your illustration of balancing a basketball relative to say
the spine producing force to stand upright is not mechanically
appropriate.

 It would be more truly stated this way.  We all know from
attempting to balance the person opposite us on a teeter totter how
it involves constant adjustment.

 AS your Dr Alan Walmsley stated: " On the topic of neutral posture
that even if the spine appears to be maintaining a stable neutral
posture, the individual vertebrae will be moving around and
constantly adjusting independently of one another. This constant
adjustment will be vary widely from person to person

 When you stand upright, moving into neutral posture each vertebra
must be extended or moved on the one below to achieve the upright
posture.  Each on these vertebra must reach not a balance but an
equilibrium that from the outside as Dr. Walmsley said appears to be
a stable posture but is not.

 What important about neutral spine position relative to the posture
it can achieve is that the properly adapted S-shape posture will
assume a neutral spine position that will possess for the human a
better mechanical advantage to achieve and maintain upright posture
then the poorer adapted postures.

 Both good and poor postures will have to adapt changes.  The
importance of proper posture is that when standing it will take less
muscle effort and less strain on the discs to do it.

 Lets look at the Teeter totter again examining the difference
between good and poor posture.

 You have a individual with a 100 lb trunk with properly adapted
posture.  When achieving upright posture their center of mass
(relative to a vertebra being extended)is a distance of 1x from the
fulcrum point of the teeter totter.

 Next you have a person with poor posture.  When they achieve
upright posture their center of mass (relative to a vertebra being
extended) is a distance of 3x from the fulcrum point of the
vertebral tetter totter.

 Both tetter totters take constant adjustments to keep in
equilbirium.  Now which tetter totter system would you want?  The
one with the weight 1x from the fulcrum or the one that has weight
that is a 3x distance from the fulcrum?

It should be obvious or a no brainer that you want the one that can
move the weight a distance of 1x from the fulcrum.  It will take
less weight or your force on your part to control the weight when it
is a distance of 1x from the fulcrum then 3x.

 Their will be half the force being created at the fulcrum point in
the good posture versus the poor posture and so your parts like the
disc will last longer.

 John Scherger
Ridgefield Washington

[**Mod: Any particular reason why you have signed your message as John Scherger 
using Aaron Forbes' email?**]

> Following on from the discussion that the simple lever model that
JS
> Schrager has put forward is too simplistic a model to explain a
> multifunctional, multi-dimensional system.  It has already been
mooted that
> the body is made up of a complex hierarchy of interacting systems
working
> together and having to buffer each other and adjust or 'compromise'
> occasionally for the constantly changing (dynamic) needs of the
athlete.  As
> many experts have repeated (including  Dr Siff) the human body
often
> functions quite inefficiently relative to the ideal so this
constant
> adjustment is commonly needed.
>
> I would like to also highlight how the body must also adapt to
constantly
> changing external factors like
>
> -variations in ground surface,
>
> - variations in temperature (changes in temperature affect
posture - try
> standing in a tall neutral whilst in -5deg wind chill),
>
> and to other internal issues including,
>
> -a persons structural asymmetry and
>
> -psychological variations (Posture is affected by different states
of mind
> and the mind is a very dynamic thing).
>
> Years ago Florence Kendall wrote : Good posture is that state of
muscular
> and skeletal balance which protects the supporting structures of
the body
> against injury or progressive deformity irrespective of the
attitude (erect,
> lying, squatting, stooping) in which these structures are working
or
> resting.  Under such conditions the muscles will function most
efficiently
> and the optimum positions are afforded for the thoracic and
abdominal
> organs.  Poor posture is a faulty relationship of the various
parts of the
> body which produces increased strain on the supporting structures
and in
> which there is less efficient balance of the body over its base of
support.
>
> We've surely moved a long way forward from Florence kendalls day,
but even
> then they understood that posture is about a state of balance.
And we all
> know from attempting to balance a backetball on the tip of our
finger, that
> it involves constant adjustment, even if the adjustments are too
small to
> notice with our own senses.
>
> I had a recent discussion with Dr Alan Walmsley, an academic who
specializes
> in posture, from dept of Sport and Life Sciences, Institute of Food
> Nutrition and Human Health Massey University Wellington.  On the
topic of
> neutral posture he made a very interesting point that even if the
spine
> appears to be maintaining a stable neutral posture, the individual
vertebrae
> will be moving around and constantly adjusting independently of
one another.
> This constant adjustment will be vary widely from person to
person
>
> Chris Eastham
> Melbourne, Australia
> Christopher B Eastham BPhEd
> Hot Movement Melbourne
> St Kilda
> ph 0420 532 522
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> www.hotmovement.com <http://www.hotmovement.com/>
>