Saturday, November 24, 2007

Unilateral Overhead Diesel Kitty


Dumbells are a ruthlessly effective way to correct postural and functional imbalances.
Many sports require the athlete to load one side of the body more often than the other. Seeing strength, mobility, and coordination differences between different sides of the athlete is more intuitively clear in sports like soccer and rowing, but still show up in nearly everyone. Using unilateral loading like dumbells, forces the body to generate an independent, unilateral motor program and movement solution and thus prevents one side of the body from piggy-backing on the other. Making these unilateral movements overhead and under metabolic load compounds their value.

In the photo above, Kitty is demonstrating excellent overhead positioning and good lower extremity mechanics, even in the middle of a hard workout. Thus, she is "diesel". Or she is said to be "dieseling" the workout. (Thanks Coach Kevin for the language lesson.)

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