Introduction to 3-D PelTrunkUlaRus

It's interesting that where you can find a muse. As a self-appointed "writer", I look for everyday situations that will inspire me to write. The most interesting thing is that the muses reveal themselves exactly when they need to propel me to the blog to write. Big THANKS to Matt M. who was my muse for today and a big THANKS to Gary Gray and David Tiberio from the Gray Institute for their explation of the  PELTRUNKULARUS!!!!

What is PELTRUNKULARUS????

Well, it is a word created by Gray and Tiberio that is a combination of Pelvis, Trunk, Scapula and Humerus but the wisdom of this word is that it's not only a combination of anatomical structures but takes into the consideration of a very important chain reaction in the body. For instance, in a baseball pitch, basketball jump shot, football pass or lacrosse shot, require these structures to be connected in a perfect synchronization for optimal speed and power.

Referring back to our Principles of Function, we know that Peltrunkularus is 3-D in that it moves in 3 planes of motion as well as that it is DRIVEN. This is especially important to remember because it can either driven from the Top to Bottom or Bottom to Top.

Why is it important to understand PELTRUNKULARUS???

As we look at clients/athletes/ourselves, we see that when we are performing a task such as reaching for a box on the floor, picking up our child, throwing a baseball, etc that a reach with the hand causes a reaction down to pelvis (and lower). However, when we do not use our whole 3-D body, we can start to overuse a particular segement and not get all we can out of the movement. It's important to remember that the body will always choose the path of least resistance so if it can get away with just rotating at the lumbar spine as we pick up our Christmas tree, instead of having the pelvis rotate to turn on the big muscles of the butt, it will. Overtime, this may get us into trouble.

Regardless if we are rehabbing, training and conditioning or programming for injury prevention, it would benefit us and our clients/patients to keep this mind.

An example of using the strategy of PELTRUNKULARUS

My athlete, Matt, who is a lacrosse player is looking to develop his explosive speed. As a midfielder, he may be jogging and have to break into a sprint at any moment while trying to shake another player. Fortunately, Matt and I had the chance to work together all summer and he made great gains in power and speed and was still looking for more. As I watched him move, I noticed that a lot of his changes of direction were being primarily driven from the bottom up, meaning that he would drop his hip then rotate them in the direction he wanted to go. This is a great strategy as it has allowed him to move better and stay injury free during fall ball; however, we needed to get a little more explosiveness out of him. Because we know that function is DRIVEN, we decided to use a more Top-down driver. As a lacrosse player, Matt is using his stick for a variety of reasons, so he felt pretty confident that we could use his arms to drive him into the direction we wanted to go. This will not be a huge move but it will definitely allow him to get into and explode out of the TRANSFORMATIONAL ZONE better. My strategy was to be able to take him into that place a bit faster using the arms(humers) that would send a chain reaction down through the scapula, trunk and pelvis to load those important back and front butt muscles. 

The first thing I had Matt do was to do the lunge matrix with 15lb dumbbells in both hands reaching to ankle height everytime; however, I really wanted him to reach or drive his hands down toward the ground so he could take advantage of the extra mass and momentum to get an appropriate ground reaction force that would eventually load the muscles of the body to allow him to return back to neutral or his next lunge. From there, we took it a little more dynamic from a walk, to a jog, to a sprint with Matt using his arms in either direction that I cued him to get into the TRANSFORMATION ZONE quicker to load and explode. For more information about the PELTRUNKULARUS strategy, go to the Gray Institute or check out the Scapula video from the Functional Video Digest Series

This is just one example of PELTRUNKULARUS. As I work with people, I am aware of it whether I'm assessing, post-rehabbing, or training and conditioning. Next time you see someone reach for something, see if there is a reaction throughout their body. Check out your favorite pitcher, quarterback, basketball player as they throw. If their fundamentals are sound, you will see a beautiful coordination of their body that will result in a poweful full 3-D body movement.

Happy Monday to all!!!!

Will