Here’s 5 signs that you are having a hard time managing gravity and therefore not moving very freely:

  • Clenching your toes or fingers/fists.

This is a sign that your centre of mass has gone too far forward and the fingers and toes are clawing to stop you falling over. If you are completing an exercise in the gym and you notice your toes go yellow or they claw/squeeze the ground, you are shoving your centre of mass so far forward and therefore diminishing movement/mobility. You will perhaps need some constraints to shift your weight back into the heels when performing that exercise.

  • Rounded shoulders.

Compression posteriorly at the back and compression anteriorly at the chest wall – causes a rounded shoulder. We need ribcage expansion front to back to restore movement and mobility at the shoulder. Squeezing the shoulder blades hard together will make things a lot worse. Crunching exercises (excessive rounding) will compress the chest wall and are therefore – not a great choice of exercise.

  • Flat feet or super high arches.

Both presentations mean we are struggling to produce force into the ground (internal rotation/pronation). When you train, think about keeping the inside heel and the ball of big toe in contact with the ground. This will help drive pronation.

  • Arch in lower back.

A lot have this, yet everyone goes into the gym and arches it even more for their entire workout. Lower back arch is a lower posterior ribcage that is compressed. You will be arching through the lower back because of an inability to produce force into the ground. The back arches as a compensation for internal rotation. If I cannot internally rotate at the hips – I will arch my lower back instead. I would promote staying more ‘stacked’ during the bulk of your workouts (ribcage on top of the pelvis).

  • Hyperextended knees.

A hyperextended knee is a knee that is compressed front to back. You will often see this pattern pair with a big arch in the lower back. As people’s centre of gravity goes too far forward, they will hyperextend the knees to pull them back. They are knees that cannot bend very well (internal rotation of the shin-bone). Exercises that pull your centre of mass back and drive internal rotation at the joints will feel amazing.