Jammed Joints Create Weak Muscles

"Jammed joints create weak muscles and open joints create strength"~ Dr. Eric Cobb of Z-Health Performance.  This is the greatest thing I've heard in awhile.   Otherwise known as the "Arthrokinetic Response",  it's magical when you see the instant results in balance, strength and stability after "creating space" in a jammed joint.

What body parts have a high probability of getting jammed?  Yep, you guessed it:  Ankles and wrists. Toes and fingers.  Lots of joints => increase risk of jammed.

Your feet spend most of a lifetime jammed into shoes; shoes that probably don't fit correctly but hey, at least they look good!  How many women painfully jammed their feet into high heels to wear to the office?  Years and years of this unnatural demand takes a toll.    Your ankles have to bear the tremendous forces of walking and running plus any additional body weight you might be carrying.

The foot has over 26 bones and 33 articulations, each with six degrees of freedom.   Lots of tiny bones with billions of sensory receptors and neurons necessary for stable walking gait.  Moving the feet stimulates nerve endings and releases feel good juices.

Strategically moving the feet improves the brain's map of the area.  Because there are billions of nerve endings, the foot and ankle take up a lot brain real-estate.  In other words, a lot of space in the brain is dedicated to feeling and moving those parts.   One rule of neurology is the better the map, the better the movement.  Or balance.  Or strength.

It's so encouraging to hear more and more professionals talking about the benefits of barefoot training and practicing with the feet in contact with the bare surface.  Being barefoot activates sensory receptors and strengthens intrinsic foot muscles which immediately improves reflexive stability and reaction times.

Here's a great article about the benefits of going barefoot:  Barefoot Training 

You want strong legs in order to remain balanced.  Strong legs start with strong feet and ankles.  Neurons need to fire quickly between sensory receptors of the foot to the brain to the cerebellum and back.  Quickly.

Open  joints with lots of movement create strong muscle connections.  Stability.  It's called the arthrokinetic response.

Start with these lateral ankle tilts to open up the joints of the ankle and foot.