April 26, 2016
Notice I didn’t say weak. I hate the word weak. The word itself carries many negative emotions and connotations of what weakness means. Words matter in the pain and performance game. Choose wisely how you speak to people.
Tell a person in pain they are weak and they feel weak. News flash! People in pain already feel weak and vulnerable. Tell an athlete they are weak and they immediately get defensive and want to go harder, faster, stronger and longer. That’s the complete opposite direction from where they probably need to be going. Regress to progress. Going harder on inhibited muscles just makes them even more inhibited! #beastmode has the opposite effect of its intended use.
The body doesn’t grant what you ask, but how you ask it. It’s not about going harder, but going smarter.
Potential strength is always there, but the brain won’t give it to you if it feels vulnerable. The brain is always asking itself, ‘Is giving you more strength right now a good a idea?’ If the answer is no you ain’t getting it no matter how much you want it. So it inhibits muscular power and activation to protect itself.
What does inhibited mean? Think of it as down regulation. The neural input to a muscle is lowered (backed off). The muscle still works but it’s not as efficient. Therefore it appears weak!! The body craves balance so it finds another muscle in the movement pattern to do more. The other muscle now becomes up regulated or facilitated (jacked up).
The body throws some warning signs at you when it’s not happy. Especially when it’s not happy your ass is inhibited. Nobody likes a sleeping ass. GLUTE AMNESIA. It forgets what to do and when to do it. The problem is we don’t always see the signs or listen to the warnings. Or we don’t even know there are warnings related to inhibited glutes. That’s about to change. I jokingly say, ‘if you’re standing in front of me asking help, you have a glute problem. We just have to see how bad.’
What’s the role of the glutes: Hell, just about everything! They are the powerhouse of the body. Force production central.
The glutes…
Now onto the signs in no particular order:
Bonus: Tension Headaches
Say what doc?! Now you lost me. Now I know you’re crazy. Well that’s true regardless. But I love the crazy shit path. Especially when the same old shit path doesn’t work anymore, if it ever did. Let me tell ya why. When the glutes become inhibited you can lose fascial tensioning around the hip driving force needed for forward propulsion.
Superficial Back Line
The loss of elastic energy recoil in the fascia along the superficial back line leads to compensation overuse in the neck extensors. That overuse increases muscular tension in the back of the head. You get a tension headache. So get your head out of your ass (sorry I had to) and activate your glutes after releasing your neck.
What’s the one big takeaway from this article? Inhibited glutei cause chaos in the body.
Activate them and watch everything get better. Because after all, ‘Strong glutes make everything better.’
You can even get that saying on my shirt