Friday, May 18, 2007

Facilitation.

It's very interesting to me how the universe can work.Fer instance, I have been reading and thinking a lot about tonic and phasic musculature and the whole length tension relationship thing and got a fer real lesson in it the last two days.

It's never fun for me when the universe smacks me in the head, or even worse, the back, but it seems I'm getting better reflexes and am able to see the punch and get out of the way in record time. At least for me,lol.

I thought I could do a little bilateal work with the double kb rack holds but I was worried about it and even though I got mostly out of the way, I got tagged abit the last two days.. Too much glute ab tension and my back gets wonkers quick. And NOTHING scares the shit out of me more than my back going out. Just that simple. Give me a knee or shoulder dislocation any ol time.

So when a tonic muscle gets facillitated it basically contracts when it shouldnt; like when your erectors fire when you do a situp or a crunch. You dont want your back locking up as your abs try to flex the spine. SO Cheks approach is to stretch out the facilitated muscle BEFORE trying to activate the antagonist, to get it into balance.

Those rack holds activated my mighty abs and they locked down on my erectors ,quadratus, deep hip rotators and medius.I SO wanted to release the back caused it seemed so tight but I k new I had to go to work on my abs and got on the floor and did upward dogs, back stretch over the stability ball and overhead decompressions from the chin bar but the problem with all of those, is that when the back starts to 'splint' or spasm and lock up even trying to get light stretching activates the stretch reflex and you get MORE contraction, not less.

SO out comes the G5 thumper and just let it hum over the abs and obliques and it just melts the ab tension and with it goes the back tension. Wow, that things just melts spasm and trigger points. This saves SO much work on my thumbs too. Looking back to the earlier methods with the 'thumbs of death' and sticks and early thumpers it seems getting these facillatated muscles to open has come a long way.Now I can actually stretch again. Cool.

BUt that was too freakin close and is a good reminder NOT to get greedy. Shit can happen in a second.

4 comments:

Jim Ryan said...

Good for you Mark,
I've spent my share of time crawling around and bent over from my back. I agree, feeling like you could go parapalegic any second is no fun at all!

It took me years to figure out the major secrets to my back too, and I never even knew about Chek's work. Now that I do (thanks to you and your blog!) it should help me stay better and help others even more! Thanks for sharing your sometimes scary inner journey.

Doc Jim

Christine said...

Back pain scares me too. I'd rather rip my shoulder out or flat out break a bone than have a back issue. I stopped playing football because I slipped a vertebre.

Mark Reifkind said...

thanks jim, it is weird realizing how much you are walking on a tight rope all the time.especially ifyou are always trying to increase your capacity.
Plus work really puts me in flexion a lot and on those high bodywork days I have to really stretch out.
today made me realize just how far I've come in the last few years and how much I love throwing my body around without worrying about it.but also have fragile a peace that is.

Mark Reifkind said...

christine,

yeah its the worst. right to the core of you. you literally lose your center of strength. everything prioritizes very quickly right after that, lol.

215 x1, 220 x 1 (barely) 210 x 1 x 4 ( 2 misses) band pushdowns, laterals, rear delts

 My attempts to create more starting speed failed. Rushed things, did not get or keep my legs stiff. figured it out though 175 x 1 195 x Mis...