Flexing Your Legs
Noted anatomical physiologist, therapist and sports trainer Peter Egoscue points out that many people today suffer from "a serious deficiency of design motion." He then goes on the explain what is meant by proper movement:
"By proper movement, I mean design motion that is in keeping with the vertical, horizontal and parallel alignment of the eight load-bearing muscoloskeletal joints. In addition, the head rides atop the S-curve of the spine, on the same axis as the shoulders, hips, knees and ankles."
Your Starting Position Influences All That Follows
Efficiency of movement and a balanced skeletal alignment are completely interrelated. If you are aligned well, you can move with a minimum of effort and energy. Grey Cook, world-class athletic trainer, writes:
"Postural habits and activity influence the way the body moves... The way the body is held has a lot to do with the way it moves; the starting position influences the movement that is to follow. When the body begins in a suboptimal position, the brain tries to make up for the problem by unnecessarily altering body mechanics in an attempt to catch up or correct the movement."
Learning to Flex Those Legs
In watching both skiers and boarders, one of the major movement problems areas is the way people flex their legs in order to get into the various positons and do the variety of movements necesary for each sport.
Too many people ski or board with straight legs, inflexible hips and/or rigid backs.
On the rest of this page, we will talk about ways to improve the motion of flexing and straightening your legs in conjunction with hip, body and spine movements.
We use it when we stand up and sit down, or stoop or squat to pick up things. We even use half of it at a time when we walk up a flight of stairs!
Here, men in China are squatting, a common rest & relaxation position in their culture. It is also a natural continuation of the athletic position.
Compare their posture to that of the baby at the bottom of the page and notice the similarity.
Eve Anderson
c2004
The basic position for skiing and snowboarding is similar, but obviously, not quite the same.
Both positions, though, are based on the classic "athletic position" with the legs apart and bent, the body slightly inclined forward, and the hands slightly up, with the arms away from the sides of the body.
We see variations of this position in other athletic actvities, as the squat in weight lifting, the ready position in tennis, addressing the ball in golf, the defense posture in basketball or baseball, or the plie' in dance.
Pomona College
Although the thighs come up in front of the body, the actual intent is to bend your legs, not bring your knees up in front.
The torso does not collapse forward, but does incline forward enough to counter-balance the movement of the legs.
The hip joints serve as the "axis of rotation" for the entire movement sequence.
Pure Boarding
Then, move your leg back by hinging at the hip, with your body, back and pelvis still and quiet.
In this exercises, your pelvis should remain stable. It shouldn't tip under or rotate backwards. Nor should it raise on one side or drop on the other.
The movement should come from the hip joint of the leg you are moving, not your back.
You can even put a water bottle or small stick in the small of your back to help maintain stillness.
Your pelvis should remain stable. It shouldn't tip under or rotate backwards. Nor should it raise on one side or drop on the other.
The movement should come from the hip joint, with the leg straightening behind. Your back should be long and relaxed.
Rueckentraining, Sanft und Effektive
Simultaneously move one arm to one side while lifting and moving you leg to the other.
Your pelvis should remain stable. It shouldn't tip under or rotate backwards. It shouldn't raise on one side or drop on the other. Nor should it open to the side of your moving leg.
The movements should come from the shoulder and the hip.
Again, your pelvis should remain stable, with the flat of yor lower back still, remaining perpendicular to the floor.
Movement should come from your hip socket.
Functional Exercise for Sport
This sequence of exercises should help you to better bend your legs with your hips serving as the axis of rotation. These movements should help you keep you torso, pelvis and legs in line, without slouching forward when you bend you legs or without holding your torso rigidly erect.
1) Sitting results in tight hamstrings, inflexible hip flexors and imbalanced back muscles. These imbalances affect how you stand, flex your ankles, bend your knees, use your hips, and hold your torso, neck and head.
2) As we mature from childhood to adulthood, we learn artificial means to achieve what we mistakenly think is "correct" posture to correct the problems we develop from sitting: sucking in our stomachs, holding our chests up, tightening our glutes, stretching our necks and holding our heads high, etc.
All this can cause hypertonic muscles, muscles that never relax. Hypertonic muscles are tight and short. They pull on joints from one side, causing postural misalignment. They are also one cause of joint pain.
In natural posture, aligned feet, ankles, legs, pelvis provide a base of support for the spine to be upright and relaxed. The spine should steadily and fluidly function, not the major muscles around it.
