Today’s episode features biomechanist Gary Ward, author of “What the Foot” and founder of “Anatomy in Motion”.
Starting his interest in the foot as a ski-boot fitter, Gary is now known for solving unsolvable pain in minutes, not months. His passion for the foot hugely influenced his interpretation of human movement. He is increasingly sought after by all types of practitioners in the fitness and therapy industry, teaching an evolution that starts with the foot and results in whole-body integrated movement solutions.
One of the things that has drawn me to Gary’s work is his holistic assessment of human biomechanics. When it comes to becoming the best athlete one can be, it is important to have core rules of human movement by which we can define our programs and practices. I haven’t read a work where those rules are as clearly defined as “What the Foot”, and after learning from other great resources in the field such as the Postural Restoration Institute, and then the dynamic fieldwork on Adarian Barr, Gary’s work makes good sense. Examples of such rules are things like “Joints act and muscles react”, and “Everything orbits around the center”.
On today’s episode, Gary will go into his background, and how he began interest in the foot. He’ll talk about the big rules of movement, particularly how human position dictates muscle firing, and not the other way around. We’ll also talk about finding an athletes center and what that means for training, as well as the importance of pronation in explosive human movement.
Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.
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Key Points:
- Gary’s background in the industry and how he gained an interest in the foot
- How working with the foot has such a profound impact on the rest of the body
- How and why to be in positions to give muscles more options in which to fire
- Eccentric vs. concentric muscle contractions in light of joint actions and biomechanics
- How to find an athletes joint center and what that means for them
- Methods to allow an athlete to bring themselves back to centre
- The importance of pronation in human movement
- How to determine and teach a good pronation
- How to add exploration work to any isometric foot training
“The second big rule of motion: joints act and muscles react”
“My brain doesn’t go to muscles anymore, muscles will do anything the joint asks of it”
“Hip flexors, when they are problematic tend to be long and tight”
“There are no bi-axial muscles that will lengthen and shorten at both ends”
“You can shorten a muscle in one plane, lengthen it in another plane, and do nothing in a third plane…. each muscle has six possibilities, and muscles eventually make you mad, look at the joint”
“In an eccentric movement, the fibers are contracting the same way as a concentric movement”
“When we are moving away from centre, the muscles will wake up and move us back to centre, and that is a more pure way of looking at things”
“Everyone’s joint centre is unique to them, if we want to find centre we need to invite the person to find it themselves”
“We never get the opportunity to (enter the learning space) if we are constantly abducting knees with a band while squatting”
“The foot is made of three structures, the rearfoot, the forefoot and the toes. Each piece is super important for flowing movement all the way up the chain”
“Shapes of the foot are really important”
“Pronation is a foot lengthening and foot widening”
“We gotta be good at pronating in order to generate a supination response”
“The key to good pronation is the tripod”
“What’s really important is that the rearfoot is always working in a closed chain in opposition to the forefoot”
“Human movement and strength training are two different realms”
About Gary Ward
Gary Ward is the author of “What the Foot” and founder of “Anatomy in Motion”. He is known for bringing individuals out of pain when all other options had failed. A former ski-boot fitter, Gary is known for solving unsolvable pain in minutes, not months. His passion for the foot hugely influenced his interpretation of human movement. Increasingly sought after by all types of practitioners in the fitness and therapy industry, he teaches an evolution that starts with the foot and results in whole-body integrated movement solutions.
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