Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Mental Faculties makes a difference!

If we had a keen intuitive awareness of or sensitivity to the presence or importance of something like the correct bike fit, along with the correct firing of muscles, we would not need to learn how to ride and pedal.  

That is not the case and that is why hype or basic ideas  find their way to the customer who is in need.

The higher order reflexes are key, provided you have the sense given by your folks, to get the correct fit, and that takes presence to what is being provided!  

When I was young, I found out that the big toe always ends up making a hole in a sock.  So I stopped wearing socks. - Einstein

Control of the neuromuscular system is quite complex and involves 3 major divisions-cortex, brainstem, and spinal cord.  The cortex is the location where all "NEW LEARNING" takes place. The premotor (or supplemental) and motor areas are the most important for muscle control. The premotor area is just anterior to the motor area.  It is here that the gross motor plan for movement is formed.  Provide you have not been told something else and you are willing to new learning?  If you knew it, why do you have to learn? The information is then passed onto the motor area, where fine motor coordination is set formed.

Here is how to make "horse sense" of it!  The nervous system's control of the neuromuscular system can be roughly broken into three levels, which are organized both hierarchically and in parallel.
  1. The lowest level is the spinal reflex, with its segmental & suprasegmental organization & intelligence.  Associated with survival & mechanical work humans do against gravity!
  2. The middle level is represented by the lower brain. This level includes some of the prewired reflexes, some of the acquired reflexes, postural reflexes aided by the semicircular canals, the fine-tuning of movements by the cerebellum, & the limbic system that controls the emotional aspect of muscle.  
  3. At the highest level is the cortex, where three quarter of all the nerve cells reside.  It is here that intentionality of movement occurs, along with learning, associations, and thought!  What is it you want to do? 
Given all the basic fits, led, video and ideas we still have hope for mankind. The good news is, we still think we can teach the cortex what is needed.  They just have to get our solution and we are off to the races! We have been teaching customers after the fit the whole time, even when their brain has been told something else, by someone who think's they know what you sense?

We are not basic, nor do we work at the basic level of the nervous system.  There is even a force-velocity relationship to learn.  The contraction velocity of a muscle also affects the amount of tension or force that a muscle produces. This is clearly seen using sEMG.  The speed at which a muscle can contract is primarily limited by the rate at which the cross-bridging can be manifested at the sarcomere level.  Therefore, the amount of time it takes to reach a given tension level is determined solely by the amount of tension to be developed.

In situations where different velocities of contractions are conducted using the same amount of resistance, contractions that require higher speeds build fewer cross-bridges than those conducted at slower speeds!  In the case of eccentric contraction, however, the amount of force or tension created by the muscle actually increases a the velocity of the eccentric contraction increases.  That is why our fit works best!  It allows you to achieve a better velocity.  Merry Christmas!

Electromyography is the study of muscle function through the inquiry of the electrical signal the muscle emanates.

To understand how muscles work, its helpful to examine the muscle from a macroscopic (video) to a microscopic level. On the macroscopic (basic/traditionally) view with a video is no difference than from the eye!  Muscles fibers are grouped together and identified by their line of action, their direction of pull, and their origins and insertions.

But a closer examination of this arrangement reveals  that muscle is really comprised of compartments.  Rather than being one side of the leg or one massive muscle, some muscles are really a series of smaller compartments that run in the same direction or slightly different directions. Each compartment provides a subtly different pull on the lever arm.

Understanding compartmentalization of muscles better is and will replace the more macroscopic view of origins and insertions (led, video) that is presently taught for a mass marketing or what is view as primary level understanding!  It is better than nothing, but not the best!  As for performance, it will be found out there is more than what meets the eye or video alone.  

The composition of muscle cells, muscle fascicles, muscle fiber, myofibril, myofilaments, sarcomere, thick & thin filaments

When I was young, I found out that the big toe always ends up making a hole in a sock. So I stopped wearing socks.  - Einstein

If you don't understand the anatomy and physiology of the narrow subcompartments separated by thin septa of connective tissue that holds the muscle cells together in their parallel arrangements, you are only getting a basic understanding!

Then you have the relationships of alpha & gamma motor neurons to muscle spindles & Golgi tendon organs. The alpha & gamma motor systems must coordinate to maintain the correct tension of the muscle spindle.  

In other words, the alpha & gamma activation from the brain maintains the correct tension on the muscle spindles!  And it is our Wobble-naught CAD & teaching you using the  Myo-facts sEMG/Dartfish that will make a difference!  We have been doing this for 10 years now!  


Happy Holidays!




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