A lot has happened since I last posted on Manning. I was more interested in seeing him play in the NFC in order to play Tom Brady in the Super Bowl rather than be worried about him knocking off his brother. With only one Super Bowl I would be thinking that he would want to get another to at least tie his brother, but now he is with the Broncos. With many blogs talking about postural changes, it reminds me of the old Mike Clark days when he and Paul Chek really were doing some nice things with body alignment in the late 90s. The PRI is hot again, and posture has been part of the medical and performance side since the ancient greeks and egyptians. So how do we evaluate results?
I do like a series of photos and some of the iPhone tools, but the Zebris system is going to pick up in popularity with teams. Many have speculated that the posture of Manning was a variable that was making the surgeries less effective but who knows. Now that he is another horse (Denver Broncos), all eyes are on the medical staff to see if he can increase the buffer zone of his neck with structural changes. If it’s not measured it’s not managed is often shouted, but when one asks for reports we here crickets. Sometimes a photo of before and after can show gross changes, but something like a 100 million dollar athlete can’t be limited to a camera phone.
Some discussion in the Bleed Runs thread on fiber architecture and biochemistry changes from postural positions is intriguing for sprinters. Top speed is not just velocity specific, it’s biochemical and muscle recruitment specific as well. With excessive lordosis one has to look at the lumbar architecture and myofascial differences to see what is is modifiable with length and joint flow. Then after length is restored, bracing statically and recruitment speed and coordination for sprinting is simply prepared with plyos and sprinting. This isn’t easy but I have seen athletes go from national class to medalist with intense bodywork. Many olympic athletes that get bodywork (not just massage) have new bodies after a season. One way to illustrate this is to see combination of measured change with structure and performance such as times, distances, or velocities.
Discuss entry