Cheating the range of motion

[Nick1974]

Can anyone could share their thoughts, experiences or advice relating to striking the balance bewteen recruiting multiple joints and 'cheating' the range of motion on the joint being worked.

For example, shoulder recruitment allows for greater motion in the neck movements, but are we cheating the true range of motion of the neck? And twisting and turning the torso and bending at the knees allows for greater range of movement in the back plane shoulder circles (as we 'sling' the arm around the circle by recruitng other joints and movement), but again, are we cheating and just giving the illusion of greater range of motion in the shoulder joint?

[Scott Sonnon]

Nick,

The body wants to be efficient at accomplishing a task, so when our brains send a command, the body will move around a local deficiency in order to accomplish the task as efficiently as possible.

That is why the focus of Intu-Flow is to move from global to local back to global and so on...

[Nick1974]

thanks Coach, but I'm not sure I understand your answer.

Are you saying that if we perform the drills in a manner that 'feels' most efficient we may actually just be just moving around, or avoiding, local problem areas that need resolved? And that true global efficiency can only be attained when all the local problem areas are eliminated (through the more 'joint isolating' movements)?

I appreciate this is not a black & white issue and that the answers will most likely come from my own dpp.

[Scott Sonnon]

We localize joint mobility in order to shave off the tension and remove an impediment. We recheck the global efficiency. Back and forth.

[Nick1974]

Thanks Coach, thanks makes sense. I was a bit confused because one of the goals of CST is greater body efficiency so it seemed ambiguous to me that performing the drills 'efficiently' could actually be counter-productive to that goal! But now I realise that what feels efficient for a body that still has a lot of local recovery to achieve may not actually be very efficient at all.

[Scott Sonnon]

Sensory motor amnesia is one example. What the body 'currently' feels as efficient, is not efficiency, but substitution (of recruitment around a localized deficiency.)