What is Be Activated?
Be Activated is a performance enhancing system, a healing system and a way to manage everyday stress.
It looks at how well the prime movers of the body are functioning and what the body is using to compensate when the prime movers are not working as well as they should be. When the body is using other muscles to compensate for the prime movers, the body has less ability to work as effectively and is more at risk of injury. This is because the compensating muscles are now being asked to do two jobs instead of one, causing them to become overworked. This can lead to these muscles neglecting their own roles, which increases the potential for pain to begin.
For example, if the quadriceps muscles in the thigh are over working to help drive hip flexion, they then have less ability to look after the knee. When the knee is neglected it is more prone to injury.
Why are prime movers so important?
Our body has two main priorities: to breathe and to move. We know if we do not breathe we die. Hip flexion is also very important in order for us to survive. Without hip flexion, we cannot move. Because the ability to move is so important to survive, our body has to find a way for us to perform hip flexion, and it will sacrifice anything to do this.
The psoas muscle is our main hip flexor and works with our glutes to allow us to move. The psoas muscle runs from our lower back, through the pelvis and onto the thigh bone (the psoas muscle can be seen in the image above).
No other muscle spans this distance. This means that no single muscle can do its job, so the body needs to use two muscles to allow hip flexion. The body will use the abdominal muscles and the quadriceps. Whatever happens in the front, also happens in the back. If our psoas is not working, the glutes are also not working. The body will then use the back muscles and the hamstrings to make up for the glutes. These compensating muscles have to shorten, tighten and work in towards the hip. This impacts strength, power, flexibility, endurance, speed and agility.
Further challenges arise when the body is using these muscles to compensate for the prime movers. Because these other muscles are doing a different job and can no longer do the job they should be doing, muscles further away from the hips will also begin to shorten, tighten and work in a different direction.
What can we do about it?
Be Activated allows us to test how well the psoas muscles are working. If they are not working, we can then test what compensation the body is using to make up for the psoas.
Finding this compensation pattern can help to identify why you are experiencing pain or injury. Be Activated allows us to develop a pathway to release these patterns by using activations to get these muscles doing their own job again.
At Physio Plus NI, 4 of our therapists are trained in the Be Activated approach. The approach incorporated breathing and deep tissue release to get the body working as it should be again.
Sessions will be aimed towards shifting your body out of these compensation patterns in order to:
1) Optimize function
2) Reduce pain
3) Increase flexibility
4) Reduce re-injury risk
Alongside this, we will also provide you with the tools to better understand your body and how to prevent these compensation patterns from returning.
The Be Activated approach has immediate and measurable results while also being simple enough for you to continue at home.
Want to find out more on the Be Activated approach?
Please give us a call on 028 9187 1701 or visit our Contact Page
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