I tried it myself and saw a little bit of change. But, I wasn’t doing the shoulder circles as slowly, and I already have decent ROM in the hip flexors.

Something else I saw that was interesting was where he was looking during the stretch, basically maintaining neutral spine and letting the line of sight deviate naturally. I wonder if that in and of itself helped me as well…

I’d be interested to see something to help with tight neck and/or trap muscles…I seem to be chronically tight there.

I have a few athletes coming over this week, so I will get it filmed and up by this coming Friday for all of you.

Much appreciate the comments!

Rock on
Mike T Nelson

I agree that he does lean more forward, but I decided to leave the cues as simple as possible to not influence the outcome. He did report that it felt a ton better and it seems to work for most (again not all, but hey, this is just a video without any explanation on how to do it with 100% precision).

Rock on
Mike T Nelson

I have you down for RF.

Did the drill do anything for you?

Rock on
Mike T Nelson

Great thoughts. Personally, I would LOVE to see someone do a study on the talocalaneal joint and hamstring function or cuboid and glute med, navicular and psoas and/or middle cunneform and rectus femoris as I can’t find any direct literature on them. You can infer them from the gait cycle and they are rumored to be taught in AK, but I have not seen them in print anywhere.

The other hacks you can get at by inter limb coupling and just doing the opposite, although it is still cool!

As to the marketing of Z-Health, I don’t work for them in any capacity; so I can’t comment on it as I don’t control it at all.

Scientifically proven can mean tons of things. While it is true that many of the neuro connections taught in Z-Health are not proven in a RCT in a peer reviewed journal, the concepts are all based on science and there is literature to support them.

Even the arthrokinetic reflex was published by Cohen in AJP in 1955 (in cats)! That concept is not new, it is just not used by anyone else.

Athletic performance training at the highest level is both a science and an art.

rock on
Mike T Nelson

Reference

Arthrokinetic Reflex of the Knee
Leonard A. Cohen 1 and Manfred L. Cohen 1

1 From the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The knee joint of decerebrate cats was rotated through a full range of flexion-extension movements. The tensions of quadriceps femoris muscle and semitendinosus muscle were recorded and the responses of these muscles to joint movement were studied. The medial and posterior articular nerves were later sectioned and control records were taken. Flexion of the knee decreased the tension of quadriceps femoris but increased that of semitendinosus. Re-extension of the knee restored both tensions to their resting values. Data were obtained which showed that these responses were reflex in nature. Since the knee joint reflex is basically a slow adapting movement reflex, the name ‘arthrokinetic reflex’ seems appropriate. The activity of the arthrokinetic reflex indicates that its general function is to coordinate knee movement with other nervous activity in thigh muscles. In addition to this, the arthrokinetic reflex of the knee appears to have specific orientation toward dealing with the powerful stretch reflex of the quadriceps femoris muscle.
Submitted on June 23, 1955

i have to kind of agree with your first poster.
You and i both know it works, but it doesn’t LOOK right, does it? it does look like he’s just leaning over.

I’ve used this video with folks, when talking about your great z work as an example of the effectiveness of z and have gotten the same kinds of comments back: yes it worked for me and gee that doesn’t look right.

So i don’t think chris is saying it doesn’t work; just that the video isn’t the best demonstration – it’s too bad your model leaned forward rather than staying upright?

best
mc

I’d like to see drills for a tight rectus femoris