Human Biomechanics Institute

If you can’t see it, you’ll have to feel it.

But sensations can quickly become a sea of information that will just create more confusion.

So for sensations to be of any use, you have to pay attention to the right ones, and know how to accurately interpret what they mean.

Strengthening exercises are essential in a well-rounded training regimen, but you have to be clear about what a strengthening exercise is good for and what it’s not.

Otherwise, you’ll be using the wrong tool for the problems you’re facing.

A strengthening exercise is an exercise that aims at producing more force output.

In simple language: it makes muscles contract harder.

And this is true whether you do a “full-body functional” exercise or an “isolated” exercise — the only difference is in the amount of muscles being recruited at the same time.

Now, strengthening muscles is great if your goal is to develop more strength…

But if the problem you’re facing isn’t strength-related, strengthening isn’t the right tool to use.

For example, if you’re trying to change a specific pattern in your motion, strengthening might have less importance than you might think, because changing a pattern comes down to acting on two systems:

▪️The Neurological system (reflexes and behaviours)
▪️The Structural system (the compliance of tissues)

Yes, you can sometimes have an effect on strength at the same time as you have an effect on these two components, but as the saying goes:

Chase one rabbit, you get one. Chase two, you get none.

In many instances, adding resistance actually makes it HARDER to generate the proper neurological connections since the strengthening exercise you’d do is way too different than the actual real-life motion you’re trying to mimic.

Doing “real-life looking” functional exercises but failing at understanding how to carry these changes in real life leaves you good at doing nice tricks…

But bad at applying them in real life.

So you have to know what you’re acting on.

If you don’t, either you’re guessing your way through problem-solving, or you’re stuck on a hyped-up narrative you were sold on.

I cover a step by step framework in my eBook to help you look at the parameters that actually matter to transform patterns.

Comment “APPLE” bellow and I’ll send you 60% off. (valide until next monday‼️)

There's definitely value in doing full body multi plane exercises — especially if you're a beginner and you’ve never even paid attention to your quality of movement before.

But if you’re past this point, you’ll have to be a lot more precise and specific about what you’re trying to achieve and how you go about it.

If you’re trying to act on a neurological component 🧠, you’ll have to focus on:

- Ratios & proportions
- Sequencing

And if you’re trying to act on a structural component 🦴, you’ll have to focus on:

- Myofascial restrictions
- Plastic deformations (soft tissues that have been overlengthened)

Now the question:

How do you know if your problem is predominantly structural or neurological?

There are many ways to confirm this, but here’s how we do it:

Assume it’s neurological, and try to change the pattern directly.

If it’s impossible or *very* hard, then start investigating the structural side of things.

This way, if the problem was mainly neurological, you saved a bunch of time; you don’t have to do any other tricks, and you just have to keep reinforcing the pattern until the structural components follow.

Because if you try to address the problem as if it’s structural while it’s not, all you’ll be doing is reps with very low yield. Because the solution won’t be adapted to the exact parameters of the problem you’re facing.

Not trying to scare you, but if you only solved 85% of your discomfort, it means you only found a way to "patch" it.

You bought yourself more time, but there's still damage being done. because this 15% remaining is like water dripping on a rock:

At first glance, it seems insignificant.

But in 5, 10, 15 years, the water will have transformed the shape of the rock.

It's the same with your joints: A seemingly small problem now might very well become hell later.

So don't settle. Don't take comfort in the idea that you solved most of it.

If it's not fully solved, it's not fully solved. Period.

And the only way to solve what's left is to be more precise with what's going on.

Not by doing one trick after another.

Many people do techniques and exercises without being clear on which of these 3 elements they’re acting on.

Sometimes the techniques they use will have an effect mainly on one element… and other times all three.

That’s taking a guess and crossing your fingers that it works.

To solve problems sustainably, you have to segment each element and its respective parameters.

Then you have to find a sustainable way to act on these individual parameters.

When you segment things that way, you know why the techniques you’re doing work or why they aren’t.

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This video was taken from a snippet in our last Problem-Solving Cohort:

A 4-week intensive process where we teach people how to *actually* dissect and solve their movement problems.

Link’s in the bio for details & how to join the next one.

Myofascial Release (MFR) has its utility, but there comes a point where it stops being useful and acts more as a hindrance.

Here’s why:

MFR is very good for improving range of motion (ROM), likely through changes in tissue extensibility and nervous system response.

But that’s also why it’s problematic:

When you keep improving your ROM with MFR, you're cutting yourself off from the information you need to actually solve the problem.

You're preventing yourself from feeling the compensations — how your body has adapted around that restriction or how it created it.

So by constantly releasing regions of your body, you're bypassing the information you actually need to map the problem.

It's a bit like typing a text and every time you make a mistake, autocorrect fixes it before you even notice.

So here’s the important part to understand:

The solution is IN your problem.

And to gain clarity, you have to spend more time WITH the problem and answer these 5 questions:

1. What should be happening?
2. What is happening instead?
3. What is the mechanism that’s preventing me from doing what should be happening?
4. How can I act on the neurological component of the mechanism?
5. How can I act on the structural component of the mechanism?

Getting clear on this is what will give you answers.

In the process, you can use MFR — but only if it helps you answer these questions.

If it doesn’t, then you’re not problem-solving.

You’re avoiding the solution.

If you do 150 exercises and something works but you don't know why, you likely didn't solve anything.

You were just lucky.