The science behind the mobility sections in the foundation series?

Hi coach/athletes/moderators

I am studying physiotherapy at university and as such have always tried to come up with the most effective and quickest solution for athletes/patients who are lacking mobility and/or have postutral problems like an asymmetrical dysfunction e.g pelvic shift, one shoulder higher than the other etc.

my question is to anyone who knows the science behind it:

In the foundation series, the mobility sections are very much what i'd define as 'active stretching'. Example 1, on foundation one for the manna, there is an exercise called the stiff leg wind mill.  I assume this is for lengthening and strengthening the QL's in order to have enough movement in the torso without the pelvis posteriorly tilting for positions like the pike!?

Example 2, on foundation one for SLS, there is a movement called Twisting squat, which focuses on lengthening and strengthening the external rotators of the hip.

1) Is there any concrete scientific evidence that these active mobility drills are considerably more effective than techniques like PNF static stretching??

2) in terms of the stiff leg wind mill and twisting squat what is the mechanism at work here? in terms of obtaining length?

3) Would it be possibly even more beneficial by combining the two techniques so that the athlete creates length first and then uses these full range mobility movements to cement the neural control of the motion?

4) Could some of these mobility drills be even more beneficial by incorperating the mulligans technique (using band distraction - see mobilityWOD if unsure of what i'm describing) which places a force vector to either distract or position a joint optimally when mobilizing the soft tissues around it.

Ideally the coach could answer this because it would be nice to get a little history of how gymnasts went from simple static stretching to active mobilization!? OR do they still use both??

cheers all and i await your replies

Mobility and static stretching are different.  Static stretching is what range of motion you are able to get to.  Mobility is the range of motion you are able to control.  I wouldn't define it as "active stretching", instead think of static stretching as your passive range of motion and mobility as your active range of motion.  Basically mobility exercises does is that you build strength in the end range of motion so you are able to use that end in your everyday life.  Both PNF stretching and active mobility drills are necessary.  PNF stretches allows you to go outside your current range of motion while the mobility drills strengthens the range of motion that you do have. 

Windmill is simply a strengthening of the posterior chain in a lengthened position, rather than just generalizing it as only quadratus lumborum.  The main goal of Twisting Squat is for knee external rotation range of motion rather than focusing on the hips.  Most people think of the knee as a simple "hinge" joint, but the knee is also able to rotate medially and externally.  Coach Sommer believes that although most people in the strength and conditioning world would like the knee to only be stable enough to be able to only extend and flex, he believes that the reality is, is that in the real life "sporting" world, the knee will inevitably rotate.  The beginning mobility exercises in SLS are designed to strengthen that end range of motion when your knee is rotated, so in the real world when your knee does rotate, you have the strength to control that range of motion.

It would be beneficial to combine both stretching and mobility.  This is why Coach Sommer is soon releasing a Stretch series.

I assume that Coach S. is not overly concerned with the scientific rationale underlying his approach. If you have to wait until a peer-reviewed study is published every time you want to implement a new technique you will never be at the forefront of your discipline.

I know that the field of physiotherapy is investing a lot of energy in developing 'evidence-based practice' nowadays so I understand where you're coming from. But I would say that Coach S. is more of the school of 'practice-based evidence' which focuses less on protocol and more on tailoring to the individual.

Maybe Coach will chime in. As a student of osteopathy I am interested in hearing his thoughts as well.

The terms "Active stretching/flexibility", "Passive stretching/flexibility", "Static stretching", and "Dynamic stretching" already have fairly universally agreed upon definitions, so you cannot really go making your own up (well, I suppose you can, but don't expect others to understand what you are talking about).

Active stretching/flexibility means that you are using the Agonistic muscle group to stretch the Antagonistic muscle group. For instance, a hanging leg raise where you keep the knees locked straight and bring the toes to the bar would be an active stretch of the Hamstrings group, Glutes, and lumbar extensors. If you held the position, then it would be a Static Active stretch, and if you moved back and forth through the ROM it would be a Dynamic Active stretch.

Passive stretching is where some force other than your Agonist is stretching your Antagonist (for instance gravity, an external weight, a partner, or some other unrelated muscle group). So a standing toe touch would be a passive stretch of the same muscles. If you stayed in that position it would be a Static Passive stretch, and if you moved repeatedly through the ROM it would be a Dynamic Passive stretch.

There are additional sub-classifications like "Loaded stretches" (stretches utilizing an external resistance to force the muscles into a greater ROM), "Isometric stretches" (stretches where one seeks to build strength in an extended ROM by holding that position for extended periods, like Coaches Ring Splits), and "PNF stretches" (stretches which utilize one of the body's built in neuromuscular reflexes to further stretch an Antagonistic muscle group; Active Isolated, Contract/Relax and MATS could all fall under this umbrella).

Most of the mobility elements in Foundation would be classified as dynamic or static passive flexibility elements, or dynamic or static Active Isolated stretches if you make a point to contract the agonists as well as allowing gravity/an external load to pull you into the stretch. None of them (at least in F1) would be full on Active stretches though. Later on yes, and many of the strength elements build Active Flexibility.

Just wanted to clear that up so we are all speaking the same language.

I'd be interested hearing about the natural leg extensions. This is the only mobility drill in the sls progression so far that I've been really struggling with.

Withb the SLS progressions I have found the actual SE to be more of a mobility exercise and the iM lacking in strength for me.

MvdB said:

I assume that Coach S. is not overly concerned with the scientific rationale underlying his approach. If you have to wait until a peer-reviewed study is published every time you want to implement a new technique you will never be at the forefront of your discipline.

 

I know that the field of physiotherapy is investing a lot of energy in developing 'evidence-based practice' nowadays so I understand where you're coming from. But I would say that Coach S. is more of the school of 'practice-based evidence' which focuses less on protocol and more on tailoring to the individual.

 

Maybe Coach will chime in. As a student of osteopathy I am interested in hearing his thoughts as well.

I don't want to second-guess Coach here, but seeing as he is training people at such a high level, I think it's fair to say that there is a mountain of scientific rationale behind what he is doing. Not just practice-based methods. He is just not talking a lot about it to us. But if you listened to the podcast on Robb Wolff, it was very interesting stuff.

I find I like that approach though, just learn a movement by doing and comparing instead of knowing every little tiny detail and rationale behind everything up front. I consider myself a man of science and enjoy knowing things, but today there are so many "keyboard athletes" so I find it refreshing to just do and learn instead of thinking and overanalysing everything in front of the computer. Rather ask questions and go deeper when I run into a problem at the gym. For my own training, that is. From a therapeutic/science perspective it's a different story, of course.

Oh, I am sure there's a lot of science to back up what Coach S. is doing. What I meant to say is that elite coaches will not shy away from using methods that have not yet been subjected to rigorous scientific testing but that have proven their worth in practice (which is what matters, in the end).

This is a good question and definitely is something that can occur when you sell a program for people around the world. 

the first thing that you need to know when you are a personal trainer is "a student with an injury is a lost client". so the most effective way to preserve your clients is the most safe strategy. it's not a chance that the active mobility is the most safe way because you build up mobility using your strength nothing more. if you are not strong enough you stop, always. on the other side PNF is quite effective but often you need a partner for the most beneficial exercises so that you can think only to relax and someone else can provide the same degree of resistance and pressure, and this is not affected by your increasing strength effort.

it's necessary to use something that could be both safe and useful.

what about specific exercises? the F series is a clinic work. consider the twisting squat. if you look over gymnastic movements, is a powerful tool to prevent excessive internal rotation of the knee. this is awesome to prevent the position of the knee just before the ACL tear. same thing about inside squat it strongly develop the strength of the collateral medial tendons of the knees especially if you slow down the negative movement (this is usually means to decreased medial-lateral neuromuscular control of the joint).

it's quite long describe here all the science behind F series. trigonometry, lever, bio mechanic , anatomy and much more. develop you personal mental dictionary to solve all your questions is the best choice.

In the rings forum we were discussing how this program is way ahead of the research.

This was a quote from Coach in the Rings forum that summarizes it perfectly.

"As a group, US National Team Coaches are 100% focused on achieving tangible results; helping our athletes make the US National Team and then moving onward to World and Olympic Teams. Old methods that are no longer adequate for the current training demands must be ruthlessly and swiftly set aside; regardless of how cherished or productive these methodologies may have been in the past.

Our minds prowl; endlessly seeking the answer to an unending quandry - how do we make that which is already nearly perfect - better? Continued progress is only possible by exploring, parsing and then synthesizing from new avenues of information; searching for those rare new nuggets of hard won knowledge. Coaching at a world class level is an unusual blend of determination, wide ranging experience and intuition. There can be no blind adherence to dogma. Only an ever unceasing committment to excellence.

We are patiently impatient. A year or two means nothing to us; we habitually think in 5 and 10 year windows of training. We instinctively respect the human body's inherent physiological time frame for adaptation. We have been slapped down by reality far too many times to fail to respect this aspect of training.

We have the luxury (?) of literally spending thousands upon thousands of hours in our laboratory (I personally have over 16,000+ hours invested in Allan's training over the course of 12 years) working with the finest athletes on the planet, focused on one thing and one thing only; the pursuit of perfection. And expanding the boundaries of what was previously thought of as the limits of human movement.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer"

When you finish studying physio and start working in the clinic you will do the same with your patients. What good Physio's do in the clinic is years ahead of the research.

You can trust that these exercises are what we need and are the most productive. From this template you can then explore other mobility exercises that help. So you may need some joint glides, self mobilisation, dry needling etc to help accelerate your progress. That is where one to one coaching would help. Unfortunately we don't live in the same town as Coach. You have a great advantage in studying Physio where you can learn the body in depth and apply it to GST.