If there’s one thing that’s guaranteed to prevent you from getting results, it’s one of what I like to call the Silent Performance Gremlins (SPGs).
There are three of them in your body and between them, they are responsible for most of the injuries you can think of (with the exception of collision type injuries).
There’s 3 stages to how an SPG creates injury, killing your results, and I’m going to explain with just one of them:
Internal rotation of the femur (thigh bone)
When the femur rotates inwards, it doesn’t have to move far to have a HUGE impact on the rest of the body.
The muscles, tendons and ligaments on the back of the pelvis, hip socket and outside of the hips are pulled into a sustained lengthened position, making them struggle to function properly and making them feel tight.
Meanwhile the muscles, tendons and ligaments on the front of the pelvis, hip socket and inside of the thighs are excessively tight and short, creating the rotation in the first place.
Now this in itself doesn’t cause injury. You could probably train with this issue for many years and not even notice it (which is why it’s called a Silent Performance Gremlin). You many even have had this issue your whole life and never had a problem with it.
But it’s there and it’s waiting.
Stage 1: Repetition
Repeating the same movements multiple times a day (sitting, cycling and driving come to mind) causes muscle tightness.
Your body is hugely capable of adaptation and if certain movements are repeated often enough without checking, the body will adapt to these positions further, which results in worsening the SPG.
This in itself may not still cause you pain. You might just feel a little tight in places, or a little stiff and sore in a morning or after exercise.
This process continues until you hit stage 2:
Stage 2: Fatigue
Eventually, the tightness in the muscles has got so bad, that they simply cannot function properly. The blood flow into and out of the muscles is limited, reducing the amount of oxygen supplied to them for exercise and stifling the removal of waste products like lactic acid. This further increases the feelings of soreness and stiffness in the body.
At this stage, you may feel a little twinge in a muscle or a nagging pain that comes and goes, but nothing that stops you training.
You’ll carry on like this until you hit stage 3:
Stage 3: Change of movement
A change of movement forces the body to adapt, usually pretty quickly to a different stimulus, like a tree root, reaching further than normal, or carrying something heavy while you move. These changes don’t have to be big, it can be something as simple as putting your foot on the ground slightly differently when running.
Again these changes themselves won’t cause injury, but when added to fatigued muscles, tendons and ligaments that are being pulled out of position, you’re going to get injured.
THAT I can guarantee.
Silent Performance Gremlins are certainly sneaky little things. They go unnoticed by the majority of people, but cause major havoc.
This ONE rotation of this ONE bone can cause everything from Low Back Pain, IT Band Syndrome, persistent calf and hamstring tightness, knee ligament and cartilage damage, Plantar Fasciitis, Achilles Tendinitis and Shin Splints to far more serious problems, like stress fractures and osteoarthritis.
Fortunately, there’s lots that can be done to reverse these problems and prevent them from happening in the first place – and the earlier you start, the better.
We are creatures of habit and that means we move in the same ways everyday. We sit on the sofa the same way, we put our seatbelts on the same way etc, so we’re creating repetition without even starting on the exercise.
That’s why it’s important to make sure we add variety of movement everyday too.
To get started unwinding this SPG, grab my FREE 5 Video Playlist to see how this SPG impacts the pelvis and movements that you can do to fix it.