Olympic Osteopathy Steve Hadlum-Emburey

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The information within these pages are for educational purposes only and in no way supersede any prior advice given by a medical practitioner, registered dietician or nutritionist. No information in this ebook is designed to diagnose or treat any symptom or condition.Should you take action on any information in this ebook, you are choosing to do so of your own free will, without coercion and in the full knowledge that the information have not been personally designed for you and that should you suffer from a medical condition of any kind or suspect that any action taken on your behalf may cause you a medical problem of any kind whatsoever that you should speak to a qualified medical practitioner for advice.Further, if you choose to take action on the information provided and feel that you are experiencing any adverse effects, then you should cease the action immediately and consult your medical practitioner or doctor.

All efforts have been made to assure the accuracy of the information contained in this ebook at the time of its publication. The author disclaims any liability for any medical outcomes that may occur as a result of applying the methods suggested in this ebook.

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Olympic Osteopathy Steve Hadlum-Emburey

Movement and Exercise:

It is important to understand that the biomechanics is not everything when it comes to movement, as many people that suffer with significant pain, can have normal biomechanics and those that have no pain can have poor performing biomechanics. Each person is unique therefore the posture and mechanics that efficiently works for one person may not work for another person.

To increase performance and reduce injury, it is generally true that the mechanical stress of movement should be shared by many joints, as opposed to highly concentrated in one joint. This principal remains true whether we are talking about the ankle or the shoulder, when walking or running, breathing or jumping, an elite athlete or an old man. Osteo-arthritis is predisposed by abnormal weight bearing/ loading, therefore if you're limping on to one leg then you are increasing the chances of osteoarthritis in that extra-weight bearing hip or knee.

What is important is your co-ordination, It is necessary for good movement within the body. The muscles, joints, ligaments must cooperate as a team in order to create a particular outcome.

Great movement is not dependant on how big your range of movement is but, it is what you can do with the range of movement that counts. For example we have the same body as a world class athlete, so both you and them can create similar body positions. The only difference is how you control and coordinate the muscles and joints, that separate us from olympic athletes. Therefore our ranges of movement are roughly the same and it is the difference in control, coordination, strength, power and stability that limits our skill to matching that of theirs and not our flexibility.

In order to create safe energetic movements, it is vital to have stabilising factors in place rather than flexible ones. Stability also create that ability to have accuracy. By stabilising a joint, the brain has less variables to deal with in predicting the consequences of muscular contractions. Next time you are on a Jet-ski, try writing a text message whilst hitting the waves and see what message you can write. Stability therefore requires the cooperation and coordination of muscular chains called ‘slings’ or ‘trains’.

Olympic Osteopathy Steve Hadlum-Emburey

Simple movements require highly complex and regionally interdependent stability, which means any loss of stability within the chain has the potential to affect the quality of movement anywhere else.The simple movement of lifting the arm requires the compensatory movements throughout the body, and as discussed before, stability needs to precede, this comes from the core structures (vertebrae) and musculature under the strictest control.

Whilst having stability we need it to be neutral. A neutral position is when the joint can safely perform a particular function optimally. It is centrated, meaning there is maximum body contact allowing for effective transfer of force with maximum safety. This places muscles at their optimal length for powerful coordinated movement.When a joint is in a neutral position, this allows for more movement options as the joints absorb load and transfer force more easily.

Olympic Osteopathy Steve Hadlum-Emburey

The perfect erect posture will allow for gravitational forces to “pass through” the body with minimal effort from the bodies musculature.

The body is designed to move segmentally together. Meaning each bone and joint should go through a specific amount of motion in order to get the desired gross movement. When working together the body bends in smooth arches instead of harsher angles. When looking at ancient buildings with acute angles, they have become damaged and collapsed over the years but an archway or arched bridge still remain strong. The same is apparent within the body and any restriction or hypo mobility in a joint will cause compensatory hypermobilty in a corresponding joint, either the other end of the bone or adjacent bone.

Olympic Osteopathy Steve Hadlum-Emburey

We see arches in other places too

Functional means its designed to be practical and useful. The body is one of the most advanced piece of bio-mechanical engineering. It is highly adaptable to the fact we can bend into the most unusual shapes like you would see a contortionist do, or it can be as big and strong as a bodybuilder. This creates scope for ultimate functionality. Being flexible yet strong, mobile yet stable, delicate yet tough, allowing global movement yet have sharp accuracy.

Functional movement is therefore allowing us to do things we need to do in order to live and survive, such as running, squatting down and climbing. If you think of a baby toddler, they demonstrate the perfect examples of how the body is designed to move for practicality. So when thinking about movement, you should appeal to what your body is designed to do, together as one unit and not by going to the gym and purely working on those biceps in isolation. Not saying that working in isolation is wrong, as it is needed where respect is due but purely thinking and working in isolation is just going to set you up to fail because having big and strong biceps is one thing but if those biceps don’t work together with the pectorals, opposite abdominal obliques, opposite hip and into the leg then you will have weakness and be prone to injury more than you thought you would be.This is why yoga, pilates or a tailor made programme are generally great forms of exercises because it encourages flexibility and stability in all ranges of motion making the body connect and move together as one.

Olympic Osteopathy Steve Hadlum-Emburey

What is also important is progression. Understanding that your pain-free movement goals do not happen over night. Just like weight training, to get stronger you need to lift a weight with a specific amount of repetitions for a specific amount of sets. Once this becomes possible, you then challenge yourself my increasing the weight and lift for a specific amount of repetitions and sets yet again. This is called progressive overload. This has to be consistent.

If you therefore, wanted to bend forward and touch your toes, you would do exercises and stretches designed specifically for that goal. Then you would go through your progressions. Lets say if you stand and bend forward you can only reach your hands down to your knees, yet after some exercising and stretching, you re-test your flexibility and you are able to reach past the knee an extra inch or two. You then have to do this consistently. After a period of time you might plateau, unable to reach further, if thats because you are inconsistent with the exercises then this is where some people can get disheartened. BUT if this plateau happens and you have been doing the exercises consistently then it simply means you need to up your game now and challenge yourself a little further on the exercises and stretches by incorporating newer or more advanced versions.

This may all seem logical and straightforward and I hope it does but the key thing to take away here is, consistent progression! If you reduce your efforts or stop then you cease to reach your end goal of pain-free movement.

Exercise:

There are 2 commonalities when it comes to exercise and training, number 1: People don't train at all, and number 2: People over-train.

To meet the best of both worlds, it is possible to train smart and effectively without having to do too much and at the same time reap the best benefits of doing exercise.

When it comes to exercise there are a few things that you should concentrate on.1) Movement with a purpose2) HIIT High Intensity Interval Training3) Resistance / weight training

Olympic Osteopathy Steve Hadlum-Emburey

1) Movement with a purpose is exactly that, meaningful, this form of exercise can be done everyday but don't feel overwhelmed with it, these are normally low intensity exercises such as walking, yoga, dance, hiking, cycling, swimming or Tai chi. You want to do this at a moderate intensity, something that will get you moving but not so much that you can’t hold a conversation. Aim to do this 3 to 5 times a week for 20-40 minutes. Benefits would include decreased stress, increased blood flow to the brain, improves brains performance and coordination. Doing this outside in natural lit conditions is also a big bonus.

2) HIIT or High Intensity Interval Training is also exactly that, doing intervals of intense work with rest in between. Here you want to go full out! Sprint as fast as you can for 400 meters and then rest 90 seconds and then repeat once more. Only 2 rounds is enough and it is more beneficial to sit or lay down when resting as this aids for better mitochondria recovery than walking because this still stresses the body. A stationary bike is a good alternative. Aim to do this once a week. Note: going as fast as you can is one thing, but please stick within your limits if you haven't exercised for a while. Start with fast walks and gradually build up to jogs, runs then sprints.

3) Resistance training - using weights will stress the mitochondria more to help weed out the weak and strengthen the strong ones. A very simple method is used in the form of compound exercises, using larger muscle groups you can get a lot done in less time.

The 5 main exercises as nature intended us to do are simple pushing and pulling exercises:

Olympic Osteopathy Steve Hadlum-Emburey

• Squat or leg press• Shoulder press or overhead press• Lat pull down• Chest / bench press• Seated row

Do only 1 set of each of these movements with the aim of complete muscular failure. To achieve this, aim to do the movement slowly by exerting the force for 6-10 seconds with another 6-10 seconds controlled lowering of the weight. Eg using a leg press, you will push with the legs slowly so it takes 6-10 seconds to reach straight legs, then lower the weight by bending the knees (reversing the movement) for another 6-10 seconds. Do not pause or rest, keep going until you cant do another repetition. If done correctly it should take between 1 and 2 minutes to complete the work for each movement.

If it takes 1 minute or less then the weight is too heavy and you should lower the weight or if it takes 2 minute or more the weight is too light and you should add weight. Note: Again don’t just go to the gym and lift as heavy as you can if you haven’t trained for a while. Always start of lower than you think and gradually build up and allow muscle tissue and tendons to develop.

These exercises are designed to increase BDNF (Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor) and mitochondria function. The BDNF helps with neuronal growth and development in times of good hypoxia. Hypoxia is when there is little to no oxygen getting to the muscles. Here we want to create a reduced oxygen supply to which it stresses the brain and body to develop and get stronger.

Olympic Osteopathy Steve Hadlum-Emburey