Motion Forword - Words of a Therapist: Pulling out the stops, Popping joints and Press-ups

Welcome to Motion Forword - Words of a Therapist! Number 25! 

Motion Forword is about discussing the combined benefits of movement with a positive mental attitude. Using my personal/professional experiences, evidence-based research and some of your own experiences. 

Bringing some hope, positivity, happiness and maybe usefulness to those, perhaps like yourself, that needs a pick me up. 

Something about me… Dance

I was flattered to be asked by my one of my wonderful dance teachers to represent Tracie’s Latin Club (TLC) at the Austentatious ball organised by Zoielogic early this month.

As part of the nationwide Austen 250 celebrations bringing dance to the Guidehall Square in Southampton to mark the 250th year since Jane Austen was born in Hampshire

I was part of a team of TLC students and teachers that got to show off what we do: Waltz, followed by Tango and finishing with Salsa. (I only did the Salsa!)

Having been officially dancing for over 2 years now and it truly has become a stable of happiness and fun in my life. I’ve met a bunch of brilliant people and some of which I am lucky to call friends.

I cannot recommend dance enough to keep people active, social and uplifted.

Please do have a look through the links if you ever thought about taking up dancing. It could change your life!

And if you are interested in more photos and videos of the day… click here to take you to the TLC Facebook group post about it!

The TLC Team

Something for you… You’re joints don’t pop out of place…

‘I’ve never heard that before!’

It’s still amazing to me when I tell people that there joints don’t ‘pop out of place’ and I don’t ‘pop them back in’.

‘Now you mention it, there are lots of muscles around them’ was a recent reply to such a statement.

YES! And a huge amount of very very VERY strong ligaments, capsular tissue, tendons and fascia too.

In fact, the amount of force needed to distort these tissues is a hell of a lot more than what I can produce with my mortal hands.

This was demonstrated by the mathematical model in this research paper that showed: to create 1% distortion in the plantar fascia (the area under your foot that can cause plantar fascititis) required 869 N/cm² of force. In other words, it required at least 88.6kg of force in the space of your finger tip to make a 1% difference (I used this converter). Probably like an adult male standing on a lego brick.

They showed this in the fascia lata too (the wrapping around your thigh muscles, the thick part is your IT band). It took a minimum of 1275N/cm² (or 130kg/cm²) of force to make a 1% distortion! A man and his (large) dog worth of weight on the side your thigh… via a lego brick.

I don’t know about you, but that just makes me wince in anticipatory pain. No pain, no gain? If that gain is a temporary 1% (it doesn’t even last)… I say no thanks.

Chaudhry et al. 2008. Three-Dimensional Mathematical Model for Deformation of Human Fasciae in Manual Therapy. JAOA

So now apply this understanding to how your body might work in real life. We’ve mentioned above the fascia that surrounds your body. It is like the plastic wrapping around suitcases at the airport (why do people do that anyway, doesn’t it make it look more suspicious?!). It envelops everything. Then we’ve got ligaments, muscles, tendons etc etc etc…

There is not much chance of me (as strong as you may think I am) to ‘put your spine back in’. Not only would I have to be able to create over 80kg/cm² of force with my poor hands to overcome the fascia, but also the additional strength and power of these very strong and powerful muscles and ligaments.

Who do you think is going to win?

This is actually working in your favour to keep your body where it needs to be and functioning well. Your joints don’t pop out. It has been long debunked and disproven but sadly is still a strongly held belief by the general population and even therapists.

I am sure this poses lots of questions that may conflict with your current understanding or what you may have been told before. If you have questions, please feel free to email me and hopefully I can shed some light…

A story… +1 Press-up Challenge

This month I have finally got back on Instagram.

It’s been quite a while but I’m making a comeback. I don’t like social media any more than I used to, but hopefully it will be a useful to some people.

My Instagram Feed

My current feed is full of me doing… press-ups!

Yep, I used to be able to do >40 press ups in one go, but now… my max was 32.

The classic: if you don’t use it, you lose it.

So what’s the opposite? Well that is a well established SAID principle that has been used by strength and conditioning coaches for ages.

SAID = Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand.

In English, that means, the more you do a specific task, the better you get at it.

So to test this theory, I am doing +1 press-up (almost) every day to see if by doing a very specific task consistently and gradually doing more, I’ll be able to beat 32 press-ups.

What do you think? Will it work? Will I eat my own words? Will my understanding of life as we know it be shattered by my failed attempt?

Only one way to find out…

Thanks for reading.


Until next month…

Motion Forword ⏩⏩

Nathan