The Internal Power Training Blog

Check out the latest info and research from Coach Chris' explorations in the Subject of Internal
Power.

Tension, effort magnification and Energy expenditure

on November 25, 2015 in Alignment, Body Training, Health by Chris

Low energy levels is a common issue we see in individuals inquiring into internal training.
People may be systemically tired or feeling weak regardless of apparent physical exertion.
Perhaps the most common (but least recognized in the individual) impact on a persons energy
level can be tensions and misalignment causing inefficient body usage and excessive physical
expenditure.

If we examine the actual load forces and mechanical effort that a given action takes for a
relaxed and aligned person vs a tense and misaligned person we may see a multiple time
increase in the forces required for the given action. This shouldn’t be too surprising to any
mechanical engineers out there considering the ‘lever’ natural of many of our articulations.
For instance, for the healthy relaxed and aligned individual picking up something from a low
bench is a relatively easy and simple task. They may squat down slightly, incline forward a little
as the arms hang naturally, scapular well seated. Then as they grasp the object the legs,
posterior chain, and forearms will tension and work in unison as the object is lifted. Everything
is optimally aligned, muscle groups work in harmony and no one part of the body is carrying
excessive load.

In contrast, someone with tension issues may have a very different expenditure, often without
even realizing.

They may well squat slightly just as the healthy person, incline a little, but then the shoulder will
front rotate, the thoracic spine will bow, the cervical spine kink, the scapula flair out, the
Lumbar may tighten along with the buttocks and a series of isolated tensions may build. This
postural skew will mean that the weight of the head is coming into play on the overall
structure, the bodies core muscles start to fire to stabilize the posture as the load is grasped,
individual muscle groups are now firing at high states of tension to counter the loss of whole
body connection.

So the load is lifted i both instances but in the first the body works as a mechanically unified
whole, and the second, well, it is often the case that the individual doesn’t realize the war that
their body just went through in order to perform a simple task! And that war costs energy!
When you extrapolate that across many actions throughout each day it is not hard to see why
poorly aligned or tense individuals suffer from 'low energy'. They are expending much more
energy throughout the days normal tasks than the aligned and unified individual.

One of the aims of alignment training in the internal arts is to address this inefficient body
usage in everyday tasks and correct over expenditure. Individuals often report an increase in
daily energy after some time training and much of this increase can simply be laid at the feet of
a higher level of unconscious body unification."