The Importance of Posture: Kyphosis

/by

I find these times interesting when it comes to addressing the human body and improving its function. On one hand, you find the pain experts, which speak of posture as the least of their concern. On the other, you can speak to any posturologist and they will insist that the body performs better when aligned. I truly wonder what an engineer would say, actually. Read more

Of Posture and Power

/by

Some will argue that power holds an important place in our lives, as we are somehow all involved in a social game where hierarchy is present.

Read more

Can abdominal training make you healthy?

/by

It’s ok… I’ll admit it… I want abs! I want abs pretty badly. I want abs bad enough to train 4 times a week, eat low-carb and fast for 16 hours, 3 times a week. I mean… truly… I want abs!

So maybe you’ve figured this out by now but part of my training program is doing crunches and planks. You would figure those would help in achieving my goal, right? Now, what if doing crunches and planks could make me healthier? Do you think that’s possible? How would that be? What’s the link between rock hard abs and… health?

Anatomy 101

Muscles connect to your brain so that your brain can contract them. It’s a two-way street. It happens to be that abdominal muscles send their input to the brain via a relay station in the cerebellum by the name of fastigial nucleus (FN).

Classically, it has been accepted that the FN’s job is to relay sensory information to the brain so that it can control axial, proximal and ocular muscles.

More recently, there are reasons to believe that your abdominal muscles, via the FN, turn on parts of your brain that manage more than how you move!

Of abdominals, cerebellum and health

Abdominal training will turn on the FN and then, the FN will activate areas of your body that promote health. Here they are:

  • The FN connects to specific cranial nerves (CN) that manage the muscles of your eyes (CN IV and VI) and your face (CN VII). The particularity of CN VII is that it is a cranial nerve that allows for facial expression. So, could it be that training your abs allows you to express yourself more efficiently?

 

  • On monkeys, beagles and cats, it was found that the FN connects with the hypothalamus, a critical center for regulation of visceral and emotional activities. This was actually seen in mammals, including primates. So what if training your abs could allow you to digest better?

 

  • In monkeys and rats, the FN connects to the hippocampus, amygdalae and nucleus accumbens, all involved in modulation of emotional activities. Could it be then that training your abs makes you more stable… in your head?

 

  • The FN sends projections to components of the medulla, which mediate the baroreceptor reflex (cardio-vascular function). Could training your abs be good for your heart?

 

  • It has been reported that electrical or chemical stimulation of the FN in anesthetized animals elicits significant respiratory responses. Could training your abs make you breathe better?

Conclusion 

When looking at anatomy and physiology in an integrated manner, one can make links based on research and these links could explain why looking good for the beach actually does a body good!

For more information on how we can help you improve motor control and potentially make you healthier, feel free to contact me!

Of eyes and stability

/by

It is a known fact: vision, proprioception and plantar sensitivity contribute to postural control. We recognize that there is a veritable axis between the eyes and the feet (Roll, 1987). Read more

Balance and bone health?

/by

If one is looking to make links between the various physiological systems, we can remain surprised! We recognize some basic roles of the vestibular system:

  • Equilibrium and orientation in space.
  • Control of blood pressure as it relates to the postural context.

Read more

Balance, cognition and memory

/by

If we have forever considered that the vestibular system was the one that created balance in an unbalanced state, when looking at recent literature, one can consider that this primitive balance system is a component of much refined human functions. Read more

Locomotion, coordination and performance

/by

When looking at the human body holistically, we tend to respect the fact that the different systems work together to allow what is possible. This is what makes this study quite interesting (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24103912).

Read more

Motor competencies for life?

/by

Some consider that motor control leads to the development of intelligence, in a broad way. Piaget was one of these individuals. Read more

Crawling… for performance?

/by

If we consider that the development of motricity gives access to mobility, this takes place on 3 levels successively:

  • Stability;
  • Locomotion;
  • Manipulation.

The first mechanism for locomotion is crawling. While it may not be absolutely necessary for standing upright and walking, there is some research that stipulates that is relevant if one wants optimal performance. This study (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2038537) highlights the importance of crawling for motor, cognitive and emotional mastery.

Kids that have crawled and kids that did not were assessed using the Miller Assessment for Preschoolers. This specific assessment actually focuses on motor and cognitive performance as well as emotional management (https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-1-4419-1698-3_625).

Crawling seems to be beneficial for you as a whole. If you somehow did not crawl and you are walking, isn’t time to hit the floor?

 

 

Creeping… for walking?

/by

There persists a debate as to if walking on all 4 (creeping) has any impact on how we walk and how we run. Some state that since walking on all 4 is a part of our phylogenetic heritage, it is necessarily an important component of how we learn to do anything that comes thereafter. Read more