The Power of Conscious Loading

by Mitch Hauschildt, MA, ATC, CSCS

There are a lot of different ways to improve movement and function through corrective strategies.  It doesn’t take much research to find a plethora of exercises that promise to help improve a squat, lunge, or whatever.  And, the truth is, most of them are rather helpful when used in the right situation with the right patient or client.

In his book Movement, Gray Cook describes 4 different categories of corrective strategies:

1. Reverse Patterning
2. Loaded Movements
3. Reactive Neuromuscular Training
4. Conscious Loading

I use all of them in my everyday practice and oftentimes blend them between each other, which usually gets the best results.  But, I have say that my favorite is probably conscious loading.

Conscious loading is the idea that if we use some sort of an outside force correctly we can turn on the musculature of the core and trunk in the right sequence to create proximal stability.  Because our society is full of lazy, inactive, poorly timed stabilizers, this pretty much always makes all movement better.

There are several key advantages that come from conscious loading, including:

• Improved Timing:  The stabilizers of the trunk are intended to turn on first and off last prior to any movement taking place.  If they don’t stabilize the trunk first, prime movers take over in an effort to stabilize the pelvis (synergistic dominance) which leads to dysfunction in a bunch of different ways.  By utilizing conscious loading, we reset the proper timing of the trunk by telling the deep stabilizers to turn on first and off last prior to any other movement.
• Increased Flexibility:  This doesn’t happen with everyone, but it happens a lot.  Many times people appear to be “tight” even though they are flexible because their prime movers are acting as stabilizers.  When this happens, creating proximal stability improves distal mobility.
• Authentic Patterns:  I have written quite a bit about feed forward training and how I’m not a huge fan of it.  We don’t (or shouldn’t) have to think about and actively activate our trunk stabilizers prior to creating movement.  It isn’t how we are designed to move.  I refer to that as a top down approach to movement.  I want to use a bottoms up approach where my client or patient will utilize things in the right patterns without having to think about it.  This is a much more authentic movement strategy.

Now that we know why I love conscious loading, what are some of my favorite ways to utilize the movement strategy:

• Banded Pullover:  I’m not exactly sure that pullover is the exact right term, but whenever I pull my arms down to my sides, it reminds me of a dumbbell pullover exercise that many body builders have used over the years.  The movement can be performed in just about any postural position.  The key is that whenever our arms are straight and they pull a load down to finish with our arms to our sides, our deep inner unit stabilizers MUST turn on.  It happens on its own without us having to think about it.  It is automatic.  When we perform this movement prior to lifting a leg, bridging the hips or rotating the head, we are consciously loading the trunk which resets timing, improves distal mobility and integrates a bottoms up approach to therapy.
• Placing a load overhead:  This can occur in an upright or lying position.  But, when we place a load over our head, or brain automatically kicks in the deep stabilizers to maximize strength and power to give the body the best chance it can to stay healthy and injury free.  This is especially true of unstable implements such as sandbags.
• Move a load away from the midline:  This is where the law of irradiation comes in.  When
  we have a load on an extremity, the trunk stabilizers will turn on.  The greater the load and/or the further it is away from midline, the greater the activation will be.  Moving a relatively small load further from the center of mass is a great way to change a person’s stabilization strategies very simply and safely.
• Use manual resistance:  If you don’t have any bands or cable machines, have your patient or client place their hands in front of their body and push their palms together and squeeze their lats as hard as they can.  This will improve proximal stability in general and is a simple way to start to integrate conscious loading without any equipment.  

Overall, conscious loading is simple and very effective.  The concept is easy.  Find a way to improve proximal stability and then move another extremity.  If you aren’t already using it, you will be impressed at how easy it is to use and how much it helps correct movement patterns.  As usual, the simplest solutions are the most effective.