Remediating Imbalances

Editor's Note: This article is republished from February 2009

When a building is constructed, what’s the most important part? The foundation. Learning math is like a building, if you have no sense of place value then you will have trouble adding. If you can’t add, you can’t subtract, multiply or divide. Your body is no different, you must build a strong foundation. How? Remediate the imbalances.

If your muscles aren’t balanced you are flirting with an injury, whether you’re an athlete, child, weekend warrior or an average person who does little or no exercise. Why, you ask? Let’s examine the problem on three fronts.

Athletes & Weekend Warriors: If you’re a runner and you have tightness in your shoulder, you’re going to be slow. You read correctly. When you don’t have proper flexibility in the shoulders, you can’t even get the arm to the proper angle to maximize your speed and the propulsion of your arms. You have to remediate that. You have to get the flexibility back. Once you regain proper flexibility, then you can achieve your most explosive levels.

Children: If children have imbalances in their hamstrings, groins or backs you must fix them or they are going to suffer an injury. You must build their foundation before they can do any type of ballistic movement. Think of it like a doctor. Do you take a first day medical student and have them perform open heart surgery? The answer is an obvious, ‘No’, because they are not ready for that type of operation. The same principal holds true for our children, you can’t have them perform the same ballistic movements seen on television.

Think of how many girls who haven’t turned 15 and have had to have surgery to repair a torn ACL. Why? They did not have the proper foundation.

The Solution: The Footwork and Ballistic Ballwork program will help remediate the imbalances from your feet up. Static stretching will not make you limber and it will not strengthen your muscles.