Why Does It Really Hurt?

If we are discussing posture and human movement, then we must discuss the Active System and the Passive System. The Active System is comprised of contractile tissue of the body, the muscles and tendons. It can absorb, reduce, store and produce forces. It’s counter part is the Passive System and is comprised of the non contractile tissue of the human body, the bones, cartilage and ligaments. These tissues absorb and store forces, but can not produce them. When aligned well, the Passive System can absorb force, such as the external force of gravity and distribute it quite well. If the skeleton is misaligned, then external forces such as gravity and ground reaction forces, and internal forces such as shear and torsion can wreak havoc on these tissues. Continued exposure to these forces can weaken cartilage and ligaments especially and lead to a myriad of injuries.

So when someone has a repetitive stress injury or a breakdown of cartilage or ligaments, there is a good chance the the movements system is out of balance and the injury is a symptom of underlying dysfunction.

It kills me to watch people trashing themselves with over training and poor technique. They do not have the basic lynch-pin of posture to hod their exercise program or athletic training endeavors.

More on what to actually do to improve posture, function and performance another day.

Eric Beard
theericbeard@blogspot.com
www.ericbeard.com