"Accidents Don't Happen, They Are Caused"

This is part of a chapter form my upcoming book: "The Book on Movement"

Accidents Don't Happen, and They Are Caused!

I dedicate this chapter and its title to my late father. I heard the phrase: "accidents don't happen, they are caused" a million times as a kid growing up.

My dad worked as a foreman in a chemical plant responsible for safety. I'm sure the people that worked for him also had nightmares about the same phrase.

Let's look at the phrase. It's true. Whether the accident was conscious or unconscious, some action or non-action caused another action to occur that caused the accident to occur. That's the simplicity of it.

So, taking a cue from my dad, I will say this:

"All injuries to a greater or lesser extent are CAUSED by poor movements of the body" - Dr. Kevin J McGovern, PT.

Now, I'm certainly not talking about the injuries you get if you're hit by a car, fall out of a tree, or get dropped on your head, wrestling with your big brother as a kid. These types of injuries are direct traumas. However, suppose your body is moving correctly. In that case, the extent or amplitude of that injury, in my opinion, will be far less. There will be more on this subject in a later chapter.

So how are all injuries caused? What bad movements are causing these injuries?

You already know. The are two answers.

The first is the inability to perform a proper squat.

The second is the inability to depress the shoulder blades during shoulder movement.

In other words…The Squat and Scapular Depression. My patients have nightmares about squatting and scapular depression.

These are 2 of my 3 Principles of movement. Keep reading for the 3rd!

Why are these movements so important? Let s go back to the fuse box theory and my proximal to distal law. The muscles that start these movements are immediately outside and closest to the fuse box.

Go back to the lat pull-down example that I talked about. The first move was to pull the shoulder blades down or depress them. That's the moving from proximal to distal. That's why shrugging and bending your knees first violates my proximal to distal law.

Look at the simplicity of it.

If you had a car with a manual transmission and wanted to go straight, you would put the car in drive. How far straight can you go in reverse? The answer is simple, and you can't. Remember, the body is always going to do what you tell it to do. So if your body knows the movement is wrong but still powers through it, and what do you think will happen?

Or, the body is put it is an un-athletic position, and there goes a knee.

What is this Athletic Position, you ask?

Athletic position:a position that an athlete gets into that allows the body to make a second movement in the complete opposite direction without any wasted movement.

For example, if a basketball player is on the foul line, he can turn on a dime and run the other way. He doesn't have to change to another position to run the other way.

So, whether the injury is bad movement over time or bad movement in an instant, I can conclude that all injuries, to a greater or lesser extent, are caused by poor basic movement.

If you think I'm crazy, just look around your circle of friends and family; how many people over the age of 50 have had shoulder surgery but never have had a trauma to the shoulder?

Go on YouTube and freeze-frame the point of injury of the following athletes: Julian Edelman, Jimmy Garafalo, and Kristnaps Porzingas. All of these players were not in an athletic position when they injured their knees. The video doesn't lie; check it out.

So, to sum up, movement is math. Your movements must be in correct neurological order moving outward from the spinal column, aka the fuse box. The movement equation cannot be disrupted.

If your movements are out of neurological sequence, it is just a matter of time before you are injured.

If you want to stay healthy throughout a lifetime, you must master the squat and scapular depression…..