Doug Kelsey's Blog

Ways to Improve Your Balance

I've bumped into a few people recently who mentioned that they know their balance isn't very good and they seem to have a hard time finding time to work on it.

How do you know if your balance is sub-par? Read this article. It has all the detail you need.

But, if you want to improve your balance, here's a really simple way to do it.

• Buy an electronic tooth brush that has a built in timer. Most of these tools now come with a 2 minute timer (that's how long you're supposed to brush your teeth).
• Stand on one leg while you brush your teeth in the morning; the other leg while you brush your teeth in the evening.

That's it.

Two minutes is a long time but just do your best. Your brain will figure it out.

If you're really after better balance and you find the brushing-your-teeth-drill too easy or dull, try this:

• When you get dressed, put on your sock and shoe while standing on one leg. This means that once you've got your sock on, you have to squat down on one leg to get your shoe and put it on.

Then, once you've mastered these things, try them with your eyes closed. Warning: you could fall over so start slowly and work your way up to getting dressed with your eyes closed (and I take no responsibility for how you look).

Remember, good balance keeps your brain younger.

DK

Hamstrings - Diving In

I heard Florence Kendall speak at a conference many years ago and she said that she chose one muscle of the body each day and studied that muscle; testing it on every patient she saw whether the patient had a problem with that muscle or not. She felt that by doing this she could remember the details and identify problems more quickly.

I like that idea of diving into one thing, exploring it, looking at it from different perspectives. You learn a lot. So, from time to time, I'll write about a muscle or group of muscles, a joint, a drill, a physiologic principle, a biologic tissue, among other things, to review some of the basics and then dive in to explore it from a functional perspective.

Today, hamstrings.

The hamstring muscle group is composed of three individual muscles - Semimembranosus,  Semitendinosus, and the Biceps femoris. The semimembranosus and semitendinosis arise off the ischial tuberoisty and insert on the proximal medial aspect of the tibia. The Biceps Femoris has two heads (reason for the "bi" in biceps). The Long Head of the Biceps arises off the ischial tuberosity and inserts on the head of the fibula and lateral tibial condyle . The Short Head arises from the Linea Aspera of the femur and inserts on the head of the fibula and the lateral condyle of the tibia.

These muscles cross two joints: the hip and the knee. Anatomy textbooks teach that the hamstrings bend the knee and extend the hip as their primary function in a non-weightbearing position. Of course, there's little in life that focuses on non-weightbearing activity. And, muscles know nothing about origin and insertion. We developed that nomenclature to better understand muscles. So, let's look at what the hamstrings do for you when your foot is on the ground.

When you walk (and running is an exaggerated form of walking), as your foot is swinging through the air approaching the ground, the hamstrings decelerate the lower leg and foot. As your foot hits the ground, gravity wants to pull your leg down, in, and around: flex, adduct, internally rotate. The hamstrings help reduce the amount your hip flexes and adducts while also controlling how fast and how much your tibia internally rotates. Once your foot is flat on the ground, the hamstrings now have to shift to propulsion and extend your hip and externally rotate the tibia. All of this happens faster than you can think about it.

So, a muscle that functions to reduce flexion, adduction, and internal rotation is a muscle that functions in one more than one plane and at the same time. Why then do we stretch this muscle and exercise it primarily in one plane (sagittal) such as hamstring curls or a runner's stretch?

Stretching the hamstring should include rotation of either the leg or the pelvis and should also include some amount of abduction (If you go back and look at the origin off of the ischial tuberosity, you'll find the the origin is medial to the femur. So the muscle angles from medial to lateral.).

One option for stretching is:

• Place your foot on a chair that raises and lowers so you adjust the degree of stretch.
• Stand tall keeping a slight arch in your lower back.
• Pull your foot up toward you.
• Push down into the chair with your heel and maintain the pressure through out the stretch.
• Lean forward keeping the arch in the back and actively turn your leg (or your foot) in and out.
• Maintain the stretch for up to 30 seconds.
• Then, hold your leg in place and turn your upper body and pelvis right and left for up to 30 seconds.
• Lean forward a little more and repeat. Keep going until you can no longer bend forward while maintaining the arch in your lower back.

One the best options to strengthen the hamstrings is to perform squats or lunges. The key is to follow the definition of a repetition. The movement faults would be the things the hamstring is trying to control so look for too much adduction and internal rotaiton of the leg and too much trunk flexion instead of hip flexion. When you perform a lunge properly, you'll feel the hamstrings working.

DK