ATHLETIC ADAPTABILITY: PART 1

What do toddlers, salamanders, and Charles Darwin all understand better than most? Adaptability. When defined it is seen as the ability of an organism to alter itself and/or its responses to environmental changes. Darwin's most credited concept of adaptability was the basis for all of his recognized work in evolutionary biology. He stated, " It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change." Despite Darwin not actually saying this is neither here nor there. What does matter is that this thought process has relevance to how we are able to move and perform at an OPTIMAL level.

Athletes need to be able to adapt to their performance environment. An athlete may be asked to perform on a sloppy field, at an increased altitude, or even be asked to play a different position to help their team. Regardless of what is being asked our athletes need to be able to adapt to these demands and yield a high output.

To understand how to achieve this level of performance we must first truly grasp what adaptability means in terms of athletics and movement. Let's expand upon the above definition by saying adaptability is the combination of flexibility and versatility. In my last post I mentioned flexibility as the ability of an athlete to have increased opportunity for effective purposeful movement. Taking this one step further I believe flexibility to be not only objective, but subjective because it sheds light on an athlete's willingness to explore these opportunities. When combined with versatility or rather an athlete's ability to succeed within these opportunities, we find an athlete's adaptability capacity.

Observation is one of the easiest ways to determine if adaptability is present. If we want to observe true adaptability we should consider salamanders and toddlers. Salamanders being an amphibious specimen have to be able to live in water to raise their young, but also traverse land as a scavenger of food. Toddlers, on the other hand, are purely explorers of their environment. They are still malleable learners of the world. They understand and appreciate the value of free-form play. Playing is true movement adaptability. It is our stagnation in movement exploration that tends to reduce our movement adaptability. If this occurs we experience a poor movement capacity and often a decline in our performance will follow. To have a movement capacity with adaptability we have to operate in all 3 planes of motion: sagittal, frontal, and transverse. However this tends to be a HUGE challenge for most of us in today's society. Before we get into how these planes of motion affect us at global level we have to first look locally. Below is a chart outlining the planes, their axes, and associated movements.

When we look locally we are only obtaining half of the picture. As a Physical Therapist I find often we only give value to isolated movements without consideration of how one may alter another. This is despite the notion of our planes of motion developing systematically: sagittal, frontal, and then transverse. We don't recognize how ownership of the sagittal plane is a prerequisite for safe and efficient movement in the frontal and transverse planes.

To better understand we must move back to before the stage of our toddlers. The developmental sequence within the first year of life is critical in determining our margin for adaptability. Our bodies systematically organize themselves in a predictable pattern with the first plane to develop being the sagittal. If you examine a new born baby you see that they are in what is called physiological flexion. This is because the womb is an anti-gravity environment that doesn't require extension. However once they are born, they must adapt to the forces of gravity if they are to effectively function. The sagittal plane is what allows us to do so.

Typically, stabilization within the sagittal plane is completed around 4.5 months. It is our stability in

the sagittal plane that increases opportunity for our little ones to start exploring the other 2 planes of motion through extremity movements. The result is movement proficiency in rolling and crawling, which in turn leads to creeping walking, squatting, and hinging. As a result of these adaptive behaviors we are able to further develop through exploration as mentioned earlier.

In a clinic setting I see a lot of clinicians operate with local blinders on. For example if we consider the hip, we may look at flexion, adduction, and internal rotation individually and we may even look at a FLEXION-ADDUCTION-INTERNAL ROTATION (FADIR) special test. But what does that mean? Is it just a positive impingement test? I don't believe so. I believe it is a portion of an algorithm that necessitates further examination of movements requiring these motions. What about a functional squat, which requires all three motions for achievement. Or maybe a modified Ober's test (adduction drop for all those PRI lovers) to examine the relationship of adduction and internal rotation, or rather our capacity for efficient gait. What I'm getting at is that we need to understand how deficits in integrative movements or even planar development may be leading to a performance decline. Reality is that all movement is planar-dependent and needs to be consider as such.

Whereas in a performance setting I see people grove more and more transverse plane exercises before

their athlete may be ready. Despite the majority of sports being rotational there is a fundamental need to have sagittal plane ownership to allow non-compensatory rotation and power. I feel what is not often considered in this setting is that not all physical stress yields positive adaptations.

So what does this mean?

If we lose our ownership of the sagittal plane we lose our flexibility in frontal and transverse planes? As a result we become rigid bipedal machines locked in an extended pattern for survival purposes only. Our movement becomes inefficient and compensatory behavior ensues. If this becomes a chronic state we will be living near our operating threshold and more readily compensate for conservation of energy and survival. Extension correlates to an anteriorly tilted pelvis, accentuated lumbar lordosis, a thorax demonstrating rib flares, as well as hyperextension of the knees and pronation of the feet. These are all stability seeking behaviors. This is significant as it can lead to both upper and lower extremity movement dysfunction and potentially even injury.

The thorax raised anteriorly places the anterior ribs in external rotation and the posterior ribs in

internal rotation. This allows the scapulothoracic junction to become suboptimal. Oftentimes what ensues is an anteriorly tilted scapula with internal rotation due to pectoral and latissimus dorsi compensation. This poor position can lead to the underwhelming performance of our serratus anterior, rhomboids, and middle/lower trapezius. Now if we try to function in this position a shoulder impingement is likely eminent with repeated overhead movement.

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It is our stagnation in movement exploration that tends to reduce our movement adaptability.

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Similar dysfunction can occur in the the lower extremity too. Consider the avid runner who has the aforementioned pelvis-thorax position. It is likely that they have gluteal amnesia in at least the transverse plane which is necessary for sound running mechanics. If our gluteus maximus does not effectively push in the transverse plane during stance phase we cannot "get off our leg" and begin compensating during swing phase with knee valgus moments, increased lordosis, and/or an excessive heel whip. These compensations can drive a femoral acetabular impingement, patellofemoral pain syndrome, or a series of muscular strain patterns. There needs to be an integrative understanding or approach to achieve movement adaptability so these kinds of compensatory injuries can be avoided.

Regardless of where we may compensate or hurt we need to begin to own the sagittal plane to increase our flexibility of pain-free movement. In part 2 of this series on adaptability we will discuss how we gain control of the sagittal plane as well as how we can practically develop the frontal and transverse planes to build a powerful and efficient athlete.