More hip and foot clues: connections we all know (or should).

You've heard it  here many times before on TGG, the whole organism must be considered when it comes to movement. Humans will find a way to move, the question is, are we moving right, with compensations that will eventually plague us, or are we moving mostly cleanly ?  We like to say, "the load is going to go somewhere", the body will adapt.  The problem is, we believe the body often looks for the easiest opportunity, not often the best one. And, like a teenager, we believe that the body does not have the foresight to anticipate the consequences of its choices in the future. As long as the adaptation is not immediately painful, the choice often seems reasonable and thus is implemented. 
Today's article suggests something we have said over and over, when things are working wekk,  the hip and foot are a team, they discuss the motor plan to a degree and attack the loading and unloading together.  That is when it works well.
The purpose of the referenced study was to examine the effects of abductor hallucis and gluteus maximus strengthening exercises on pronated feet. Yes, this study has limitations, most do. But we like to take in the information because it forces us to deepen our well of knowledge and facts. As Neil Degrasse Tyson recently laid out the continuum, things move from facts, to knowledge, to wisdom, to insight. It takes decades to get to the wisdom and insight, it is a process. There are many out there teaching without these last two, and that is scary. There is an abundence of "repackaging" of information and turning it into something apparently new and unique. Spend your time deepening your well.  Articles like this make Ivo and sit back and have long discussions that go down tangents and rabbit holes (like on our Podcast), that is where the good stuff is. Anyone who takes this article as, "strengthen the glutes and the feet and perhaps consider orthotics" are in the discovery phase, no doubt, but far from wisdom and insight.  In our silly stupid opinion, for what little it might be worth to some.  

*photo: one thing we would be adding pattern correction to is the inward drift of the right knee during this high knee posturing. This is a real problem in runners and sprinters, it is a speed suck/power leak.

The effects of gluteus maximus and abductor hallucis strengthening exercises for four weeks on navicular drop and lower extremity muscle activity during gait with flatfoot

Young-Mi Goo, MS, PT,1 Tae-Ho Kim, PhD, PT,1,* and Jin-Yong Lim, MS, PT1  J Phys Ther Sci. 2016 Mar; 28(3): 911–915.

Published online 2016 Mar 31. doi:  10.1589/jpts.28.911

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4842464/