athletic torque

4/ Part 4 of 12 – Torque #1: Glutes, Hams, Quads, Calves     Okay, so back to the role of the glutes/hams, quads and calves. See Figure 1. Figure 4-1. Glutes/hams, quads and calves  I’ve mentioned several times already, that what everyone typically tells me they think these muscles do, is simply “push the body forward” when we run, and I have this illustrated with a white horizontal arrow as shown in Figure 2. Figure 4-2. Pushing the body, forward  Now, I know some of the more astute people on this subject, like to talk about their also being… read more

Part 10 of 12 – The Two Patterns of Torque Figure 10-1. The Ultimate Running Speed Equation  Okay, let’s clear out some of these graphics on our images and replace our male athlete with the female as seen in Figure 10-2 below and you will notice her right hip is now flexed in front, her left leg is now extended behind her, her right shoulder is now extended behind her and her left shoulder is now flexed in front of her. So, she is in the complete opposite position now as the image we started with on the left. Figure… read more

Part 12 of 12 – Torque Patterns in Action Alright, this is what it’s all about! Let’s get right to it and see if you can identify some torque patterns in action. To get things started I’m going to place my shoulder line, hip line and midline on the athlete, like this. And I’m also going to put up our familiar looking 3-step list below, to help guide us along. See Figure 12-1 below. Figure 12-1  Now, referring back to Figure 12-1 above, you’ll remember that I said the hip flexors always work alone, so, that’s the very first thing… read more