Perform as your body wants to!
It's easier, more efficient and safer!
What are the benefits for athletes?
The profiling of motor preferences make it possible to emphasize the physical capacities and natural qualities of an athlete (called motor profile) and to limit training that is far from the athlete's spontaneous qualities (called opposite motor profile or shadow zone) in order to limit the risks of regressing by inhibiting the athlete's natural qualities, which would result in a loss of self-confidence and an increased risk of injury.
How motor preferences work ?
The human brain is lateralized and has dominant areas that are used extensively to the detriment of other less used areas that are opposite to them. The use of the dominant brain areas will be natural while its opposite will require more effort.
For example, for a right-handed person, writing with the right hand will be natural, easy and fluid, whereas writing with the left hand will be much more difficult, anarchic and will require concentration.
Exercise to better understand: quickly cross your arms several times. You will notice that it is always the same arm that is positioned in front.
Now cross your arms again quickly, but this time try to reverse the arm that is in front.
Have you noticed that this change requires effort and is not
natural. This is exactly what happens when you use your motor profile
with completely natural movements or when you use your opposite profile
which generates more difficulty and therefore more energy expenditure.
Motor preferences allow us to individualize the therapeutic and sports management according to the natural movement of each individual.
Which exercises are recommended for your profile?
Any
conditioning drill or technical gesture are feasible for all profiles,
but the prevalences are specific to the profiles. It would be
counterproductive and even dangerous to ask for repeated vertical
plyometrics to a TERRESTRIAL profile. It would also be unnatural to try
to repeat slow squat exercises in an AERIAL. In both cases, the
efficiency would be less and it would increase the risk of injuries. For
TERRESTRIAL, we will therefore insist on concentric exercises, while
for AERIALS we will favor plyometric exercises.
The terms Aerial and Terrestrial identify the two options that the human body can choose for its self-propulsion. However, it is important to understand that these terms are simply used to simplify the complexity of reality. All motor preferences exist on a spectrum that ranges from one extreme to the other, from the least to the most...
Working with preferences involves precisely determining the position of the cursor corresponding to the player's profile on each of these spectrums.
In addition to using either their antero-medial or postero-medial muscle chains, we observe that athletes may also prioritize the antero-posterior or postero-anterior chain. These two chains are linked to breathing preferences. Some will prefer to keep air in their lungs during brief exertion, while others will naturally exhale during this effort. The impact of the mix of these chains is crutial because it allow to identify if a player is naturally ASSOCIATED (prefers a hip-shoulder lines separation with a max approximative angle of 30°) or if he is DISSOCIATED (Hip-shoulder lines separation superior to 30°).
By taking these four preferences into account, we then obtain four main groups that illustrate the continuum of from the most TERRESTRIAL to the most AERIAL profiles. The importance of ASSOCIATED-DISSOCIATED MP impact the mechanical gesture but also the conditioning. Using MP, the goal is to fit body needs into the sports needs. In rotational sports, looking for a X-factor increase to gain performance, is a very reductive vision of the human body. It is much more complex.
As proof, if we add other preferences :
- LATERALITY (EXTENSION & FLEXION LEG): How the body is managing is own balance related to feet?
- LARGE - AXIAL: Does the body prefer to keep masses close or away from its axis?
- MOTOR SHOULDER: Which shoulder the body prefers to engage first into an acceleration?
Knowing the MOTOR PREFERENCES profile of player allows to individualize his conditioning, his mechanics, his mental approach to optimize his performance.
Human body is the result of 300 000 years of evolution, guided by the ''optimal survival chance'' logic. It has only the weaknesses we imagine because they don't fit a bio-mechanical vision, a narrative or a cognitive bias.
Let's chance our mind set and accept each individual reality with his own strength that can be optimized to perform better and reduce the risk of injury.
SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS
As a world leader in scientific research on natural motor preferences, Volodalen offers you a list of scientific and general public publications.
Aerial and Terrestrial patterns: A novel approach to analyzing human running.
Do subjective assessments of running patterns reflect objective parameters?
The implications of time on the ground on running economy: less is not always better.
Duty factor reflects lower limb kinematics of running.
The Nike Vaporfly 4%: a game changer to improve performance without biomechanical explanation yet.
Examination of running pattern consistency across speeds.
Feel your stride and find your preferred running speed.
Similar running economy with different running patterns along the Aerial-Terrestrial continuum.
Motor preferences in running and quiet standing.
Recognition of foot strike pattern in Asian recreational runners.
Duty factor is a viable measure to classify spontaneous running forms.
Footstrike pattern at the 10 km and 39 km points of the Singapore marathon in recreational runners.
Estimating effective contact and flight times using a sacral-mounted inertial measurement unit.
There is no global running pattern more economic than another at endurance running speeds.
PIMP your stride: preferred running form to guide individualized injury rehabilitation.