Performance Enhancement

Bigger. Faster. Stronger. Characteristics of Performance Enhancement in its simplest understanding. Whether speaking of the human form, an art form, or even an object constructed, ‘enhancement’ to its greatest potential is a core desire.

The floors may be of exotic granite stone. The walls made of elaborate intricate clever designs. The interior, a wonder of amazement. However, the structure will always be limited to that of its foundation and strength in support structure. A classic case of misleading appearances. The skyscraper may be dull, simple and minimalistic, however it’s potential of what it can hold within, because of its strong foundation, structure and support beams, literally pushes through the clouds - making “the sky the limit” for your potential.

The purpose of Performance Enhancement is to achieve higher levels of performance output. Whether we have personal reasons or professional athletic reasons, we desire MORE - To do and be more.

The foundation of Performance Enhancement for the human body is in the ‘stabilizers’ and ‘movement support groups’ of each specific movement required. The body contains movement systems that operates in coordination with other movement groups. To simplify, a predominant set group of muscles coordinate together for the body to move sideways. Another predominant group of muscles work together to execute rotation (as in swinging a baseball bat). For every movement of the body, whether simple or complex, it operates through Movement Systems and Subsystems. It is not important to know each major system and subsystem of movement; it is most important to understand that it does exist - this is the way to true performance enhancement with injury prevention.

During the prohibition era in the United States, spanning from 1919-1933, the origins of a future sport was born. Stock car racing that will later become NASCAR racing has its origins during the illegal operations of enhanced cars running alcohol contraband throughout the streets of the U.S.. The stock car starts out as a common car bought from a car dealership. The exterior remains the same, inconspicuous to the unassuming eye. The interior, in particular the motor and related components are drastically enhanced for a performance of the car to exceed that of its regular counterparts - with the main purpose of out-performing the police cars that it may have to evade when pursued, avoiding capture.

The oversimplification of Performance Enhancement training is understanding the ‘Principle of Opposites’ (this is to be taking as figurative, not literal).

Questions to start with:

• What are the main movements of the sport or activity? (e.g. directions and types of movements)

• What are the main movement parts for that sport/activity? (e.g. muscles and joints)

• What are the modes of movements? (e.g. endurance based, aerobic, anaerobic, etc)

• What are the intensity and demands? (e.g. low to high zones of intensity, degree of repetition, etc).

These are the questions to begin with, then broken down to identify ‘Opposites’.

For example:

• A baseball player has explosive rotational movements, with high power demands.

• A runner has front direction endurance movement of high repetitive singular movement for a prolonged period of time.

• The predominant movement focus of the player are the hips and spine.

• The predominant movement focus of the runner are the knees and ankles.

And so forth… answering each question on the demands of your particular sport/activity.

Answers to start with:

• The opposite of rotation is ‘anti-rotation’

• The opposite of linear is multi-linear - (one direction to multiple angle directions: side to side, rotation, etc)

• The opposite of explosive acceleration is static deceleration.

• The opposite of aerobic/endurance is anaerobic/strength.

The important part to understand for effective, long-term, healthy Performance Enhancement is synergy, balance, and harmony of maintaining all movement systems - even though the sport or activity may be of a singular predominant movement system. These “opposites” are in other words the foundation and the support beams of the body for the performance of your sport and activities.

Like the skyscraper, a factory car bought from the car dealership has it limitations - limited to the foundation of degree of strength of support of the car. This desire of reaching the limits of the sky, led to the conception of the skyscraper of stock car racing in 1947 - the first meeting of the National Association for Stock Car Racing, NASCAR. In 1987, racer Bill Elliott made Daytona 500 history - setting the fastest lap time on record at a blurring speed of 210 mph.

There is a gap from where we desire to be and where we currently are - that gap is full of ‘deficiencies’ that need to be overcome. Addressing and overcoming deficiencies is the fastest, shortest distance to achieving higher levels of Performance Enhancement.

WHERE TO START. Set the foundation of performance enhancement by first conditioning stability and deceleration, then conditioning ‘opposites’ of the predominant movement - anti-rotation, lateral flexion, multi-direction angles, anaerobic to aerobic, aerobic to anaerobic.

Too often the focus is on ‘bigger, faster, stronger’ of the predominant movement groups - even though this approach does increase performance, over time it will create imbalances - the gaps of deficiencies increase, increasing the risk of injury.

PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT

Stability - Isometric holding of movement in a stability challenging environment.

Deceleration - Landing into a an isometric hold of movement in a stability challenging environment.

Anti-Rotation - Isometric holding of movement that fights the resistance force that attempts to force the body into rotation.

Lateral Movement - Isometric holding and dynamic movement of side to side movements.

Multi-Directional Movement - Dynamic to isometric holding movements from one point of direction to another.

Like the skyscraper and the race car, the foundation and support structures are static yet pliable enough to withstand minimal movement - thereby allowing the moving parts the base of support to move with optimal potential of performance. So too does the core, and stabilizing joints of the body hold firm, with minimal movement, allowing the predominant movement groups to reach fullest potential of performance.

Reach your fullest potential of Performance Enhancement by prioritizing Injury Prevention - condition the foundation and support structures first.

Written by Ro Suarez

Swift Recovery, LLC

President & Chief Recovery Specialist

Professional career since 2006

3x National Winning Coach (Body Transformations)

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