Hi Martins.
Good to hear from you again. As you have figured out the most improtant part is to stop viewing the body as separate parts (muscles, joints etc.) but rather as as a whole part and ultiamtely focus on improving a movement pattern and not an individual muscle. Tom Myers (author of Anatomy Trains which is another book I can recommend) mentions that we are born from a seed and not assembled from separate elements.

I would avoid siting ont eh Swiss ball in the same posture for extended periods of time. Move around. This is the most important part behind standink desks/active workstations (
As far as abductors keep in mind that abduction happens both towards and away form the body centerline so there are in a way opposing muscle groups.

In your case of abdominal tighness/soreness when sitting on a Swiss Ball *might* point towards tight hamstrings and possibly tight iliopsoas which forces your back to overextend and as such you have to rely on external muscles around the trunk to stabilise.

Kelly Starrett’s book is defintely a good recommendation that I would look for if I were you, since he uses what he calls archetypes (squat, overhead, pistol, etc) which are based on correct and hence functional movements and each archetype has its ‘pattern’ of faults. Each fault has corrections and as I mentioned to you a number of exercises that you can do to improve on it. In your case I would look towards the Squat and Lunge archetypes (he probably has videos on those on YouTube).

Best,

-Nikola

Noticed one interesting thing concerning adductos, anterior thigh muscles and abdominals). I bought swiss/ exercise ball, and started to sit on it for half hour or hour daily. At least 80% of time those muscles get realy tight, especially groin area and rectus abdominis and probablly lower part of obliques. I have had tightnes in different parts of body due to bad posture, but tight abdominals are something new and very uncomfortable. Maybe thats your mentioned problem with reqruitment of Ta muscle.

Anyway – thanks for book tips. Just starting to realize all the kinetic chains that work in my body.

Hi and thank you for the nice words,

You make an important point. Flexion is a movement that decreases the angle between bones that converge on the joint. Since the hip is a very mobile joint (allows movement in multiple planes) there is a defintie distinction between flexors such as the iliopsoas (on the right of the picture you refer to) and the abductors which basically bring the knees together/apart. Some sources use the generic term hip flexors. Indeed what I have labeled in the picture as superficial hip flexors are the abductors.

About your specific case, without more information I really can’t advise you further though there are three sources that for sure would help *you* know what is going on/or not going on with your body. Usually abductor problems (groin strains, etc) are a direct cause of Gluteus maximus dysfunction (if you sit down most of the day, there is a high chance you have problems there) and in general anything around the hip, lower back and the trunk to a degree is usually related to dysfunctions with the Gmax/Gmed muscles being inactive and weak. Again thi sis a very general recommendation, you can find more info in the following.

Joanne Elphinston – Stability, Sport and Performance Movement
Blandine Calais-Germain – Anatomy of Movement (this is THE source that discusses anatomy, bones,joints, ligaments, individual muscles and how we all move)
Kelly Starrett – Becoming a Supple Leopard (a good number of exercises and very good theory on how we function and produce movement and he has a YouTube channel with LOTS of exercsies in order to asses if we function correctly and if not how to improve and correct that.

Let me know if you have more questions.

Best,

-Nikola

Thanks for interesting article series! I’m trying to fix a lot of my imbalances, and this explain a lot.

I want to ask – you write that (..)can make you use a different stabilizing pattern most notably the external obliques, rectus abdominus, erector spinae and superficial hip flexors.(..), but in picture i don’t see hip flexors, instead there are adductors. I wonder, whether hip flexors or adductors are the ones involved?

At given moment sometimes I have tightnes/spams of abdominals, especialy rectus abdominis. I feel that it corelates with adductor problems.