Power Requires Movement Options

By Jim Fanara, CSCS

In sports and life, joints need movement options to produce force and avoid injury. Without options, the neuromuscular system can’t effectively produce force.

 That’s because limits in range of motion often require joints and soft tissue:

• to work at end ranges to perform specific movements
• defer to compensating movement patterns to make up for the limited mobility.

 Either way, force production is limited and injury risk rises.

 That’s because at end ranges there may not be enough joint control to tolerate force production. And compensations place joints and soft tissue in vulnerable positions when force is applied.

 Let’s look at a squat to illustrate what I mean.

 A strong squat position has knees tracking over the middle to the outside edge of the foot.

 Someone without adequate hip external rotation capacity may tend to buckle knees inward as the hips move toward the ground. This causes the knees to track over the inside of the foot.

 That knee position can’t produce as much force in a squat as a knee position that tracks over the middle of the foot. Place enough weight on that squat position and knee injury risk rises.

 Now let’s look at the golf swing.

 In the golf swing, developing the force to produce a long drive requires a long backswing.

 But a long backswing requires that the hips, t-spine, and shoulders have enough movement options to avoid compensations that make up for the limited rotation capacity.

 Golfers with hip and t-spine stiffness may force the lower back and shoulders into end range positions that can’t tolerate the force of a golf swing. That raises injury risk and limits power.

 It’s hard to produce the easy power that drives the ball far down the fairway when joints are in positions that can’t tolerate force.

 Most importantly, when joints and soft tissue are repeatedly placed in poor positions under forceful loads, injury risk rises. That’s why accumulating swing volume becomes a risk factor for recreational golfers who have range of motion limitations.

 Force production requires that all the joints in the chain have sufficient movement options to put them in the best position to safely create power.