TBT excerpt

Stabilization

A famous poem reads:

For want of a nail the shoe is lost,
For want of a shoe the horse is lost,
For want of a horse the rider is lost,
For want of the rider the battle is lost,
For want of the battle, the kingdom is lost. - George Herbert

We rephrase that poem:

For want of a stable foot the knee is lost,
For want of a stable knee the hip is lost,
For want of a stable hip the back is lost,
For want of a stable back the shoulder is lost,
For want of a stable shoulder girdle the arm is lost,
For want of a stable head and neck all is lost!

Or, to put it all in a form understood by all who sit in a football stadium on a September Saturday, watching the gladiators below:

For want of a stable foot, the ankle was sprained,
Because of the sprained ankle, the tackle was missed,
Because of the missed tackle, the touchdown was scored,
Because of the touchdown, the game was lost:
For want of the game, the season was lost,
All for want of a stable foot!

These poems illustrate a principle called serial distortion. This means that if a part is not in a structurally stable position, it will be abnormal pressure and distorting forces on the structure above and below it, causing them to be distorted in turn.

For example, at every All Star baseball game, someone mentions Dizzy Dean. One of the sport's greatest pitchers, Dizzy was struck on the foot by a line drive during an All-Star game. He compensated, and the end result was that he damaged his arm. His arm was never the same again, and he was forced to retire much earlier than his original skills would have dictated.

Another example is the knock-kneed person. He or she has abnormal forces and stress on both the ankles and muscles near the ankles and feet. These stresses are transmitted in turn to the pelvis and spine. In addition, abnormal stress is put upon the knee joint itself, which, in a knock-kneed person, is not properly aligned. We also know that joints that are not perfectly aligned don't wear normally, wearing out faster and becoming arthritic.

To avoid serial distortion, the chain of damage that one unaligned part begins, we emphasize structurally stable positions. Fostering these mechanically stable positions is what we call maintaining the structural integrity of the body. We wish to avoid the distorting forces that bring on serial distortion (of which poor posture is an example). To encourage your structural integrity, we must get you into stabilization training, which is a new, systematically progressive method of developing the body's interrelated segments to act as a stable system during both static and dynamic activities.

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