Donald Lee
02-09-2009, 12:20 AM
In a discussion about functional fitness and training muscles vs. movements, this post came up. It may not be that useful for us, but it's interesting nevertheless.
--- In Supertraining@yahoogroups.com, "John Casler"
<bioforce.inc@...> wrote:
>
> John Casler wrote:
>
> I am not sure of the origin of this phrase but Mel Siff used to write it
> often and I think he gave credit to the "Muscles Alive" text.
****
Beevor's axiom "the brain knows nothing of individual muscle action, but knows only of movement." The axiom is named after Charles Edward Beevor (1854-1908), an English anatomist (Wikipedia).
Mel Siff:
Several decades ago, possibly in a text written by Guyton or Bernstein, I learned of this well-known physiological aphorism: "The body knows of movement, not muscles" and I periodically have reincanted this in various articles or seminars, but I have always entertained some reservations about its validity in general. Why should I have doubted its correctness?
After all, it was emphasized by world authorities such as the late great Russian scientist, Bernstein! Now I no longer am willing to accept anything at face value, possibly because I have become increasingly skeptical about many of the "facts" that are taught in sports science and therapy. There are a few reasons why we need to re-examine this saying:
1. Bodybuilders in their posing routines are able to "flex" various muscle groups without moving any joint or limbs. They can "bounce" their pecs, tense their quads and calves, select parts of the abs and tense them alternately without any trunk action. In short, by focusing specifically on certain muscles they eventually gain a large measure of control over certain muscle groups without the need for any limb motion.
2. EMGs that have been taken of certain muscles have shown that the muscles can tense in anticipation of any movement that is about to take place (as in jumps from a height). In other words, the "virtual reality", feedforwarding", "imagineering" or anticipation of movements or muscle
activation can stimulate muscle action before any movement takes place.
3. Biofeedback training, especially using EMG as an intervention, can teach a person how to control specific muscle action without any movement taking place.
That is why in more recent times I have preferred to state that "the body
usually knows more about movement than muscles, but there are exceptions to
this general rule that may be important in motor control." So, before we
reflexively repeat that old saying, let us think very carefully about the
exact situation and context in which we believe it to apply, for we may be
neglecting some important exceptions to the "general rule."
=====================
Daniel wrote:
<<I believe the phrase to which you are referring is known as Beevor's axiom,
and I think it was from his Croonian lecture before the Royal Society in 1903
entitled "Muscular Movements and Their Representation in the Central
Nervous System," although he also wrote a book about the brain's control of
movement that might have contained this quote. Since N.A. Bernstein was born
in 1896, I think the quote predates him, although he may have used it in a
text.
I agree that the veracity of Beevor's axiom is not absolute since, through extensive training, a given individual can gain very precise control of
individual motor units. However, in untrained subjects and patients, I believe Beevor's axiom holds as a general principle. Most untrained persons are not able to contract a single muscle or activate a particular motor unit, but can quickly learn to perform movement tasks within given task constraints.
In other words, if the subject is given a movement goal, their neuromotor
system explores and solves a way to achieve it. The role of the clinician or
instructor is to constrain the task such that the method by which the subject
achieves the movement is productive. Instructing an otherwise untrained
person to contract a particular muscle is inefficient (with respect to intensity of instruction vs. productive motor output) and probably has very little general application. There are always exceptions (athletes, performance artists, etc.), for whom the suspension of Beevor's "axiom" is necessary (at least temporarily). >>
***Yes, that aphorism indeed is "Beevor's Axiom", but it is not necessarily true that muscle activation does not or cannot precede motor output in untrained people or that Beevor's Axiom should continue to be regarded as a general principle without modification. In fact, this pre-activity neural activation situation arises every time that we undertake many very normal daily activities such as walking, running, jumping or catching, as I pointed out in item 2 of my original reasoning, namely:
<2. EMGs that have been taken of certain muscles have shown that the
muscles can tense in anticipation of any movement that is about to take place
(as in jumps from a height). In other words, the "virtual reality", feedforwarding", "imagineering" or anticipation of movements or muscle
activation can stimulate muscle action before any movement takes place. >
Thus, it would appear that muscle activation before movement is a vital and
fundamental process or reflex in all normal movement, whether it is skilled or not, so Beevor's axiom may well need some serious revision. Of course, it is possible, if not likely, that the infant who has not yet learned how to walk, run or jump has to develop those pre-activity neural patterns of activation by the repetitive process of classical trial-and-error conditioning.
========================
Beevor’s axiom “the brain knows nothing of individual muscle action, but knows only of movement.” Movement involves numerous muscle groups and if biomechanical efficiency of one muscles group is decreased the other groups will attempt to augment the process and take over some of the load. The brain is concerned with the production of a particular movement not which muscles or what level of efficiency is involved. If biomechanical advantage is altered then automatic compensatory processes will come into play.
======================
Jamie Carruthers
Wakefield, UK
--- In Supertraining@yahoogroups.com, "John Casler"
<bioforce.inc@...> wrote:
>
> John Casler wrote:
>
> I am not sure of the origin of this phrase but Mel Siff used to write it
> often and I think he gave credit to the "Muscles Alive" text.
****
Beevor's axiom "the brain knows nothing of individual muscle action, but knows only of movement." The axiom is named after Charles Edward Beevor (1854-1908), an English anatomist (Wikipedia).
Mel Siff:
Several decades ago, possibly in a text written by Guyton or Bernstein, I learned of this well-known physiological aphorism: "The body knows of movement, not muscles" and I periodically have reincanted this in various articles or seminars, but I have always entertained some reservations about its validity in general. Why should I have doubted its correctness?
After all, it was emphasized by world authorities such as the late great Russian scientist, Bernstein! Now I no longer am willing to accept anything at face value, possibly because I have become increasingly skeptical about many of the "facts" that are taught in sports science and therapy. There are a few reasons why we need to re-examine this saying:
1. Bodybuilders in their posing routines are able to "flex" various muscle groups without moving any joint or limbs. They can "bounce" their pecs, tense their quads and calves, select parts of the abs and tense them alternately without any trunk action. In short, by focusing specifically on certain muscles they eventually gain a large measure of control over certain muscle groups without the need for any limb motion.
2. EMGs that have been taken of certain muscles have shown that the muscles can tense in anticipation of any movement that is about to take place (as in jumps from a height). In other words, the "virtual reality", feedforwarding", "imagineering" or anticipation of movements or muscle
activation can stimulate muscle action before any movement takes place.
3. Biofeedback training, especially using EMG as an intervention, can teach a person how to control specific muscle action without any movement taking place.
That is why in more recent times I have preferred to state that "the body
usually knows more about movement than muscles, but there are exceptions to
this general rule that may be important in motor control." So, before we
reflexively repeat that old saying, let us think very carefully about the
exact situation and context in which we believe it to apply, for we may be
neglecting some important exceptions to the "general rule."
=====================
Daniel wrote:
<<I believe the phrase to which you are referring is known as Beevor's axiom,
and I think it was from his Croonian lecture before the Royal Society in 1903
entitled "Muscular Movements and Their Representation in the Central
Nervous System," although he also wrote a book about the brain's control of
movement that might have contained this quote. Since N.A. Bernstein was born
in 1896, I think the quote predates him, although he may have used it in a
text.
I agree that the veracity of Beevor's axiom is not absolute since, through extensive training, a given individual can gain very precise control of
individual motor units. However, in untrained subjects and patients, I believe Beevor's axiom holds as a general principle. Most untrained persons are not able to contract a single muscle or activate a particular motor unit, but can quickly learn to perform movement tasks within given task constraints.
In other words, if the subject is given a movement goal, their neuromotor
system explores and solves a way to achieve it. The role of the clinician or
instructor is to constrain the task such that the method by which the subject
achieves the movement is productive. Instructing an otherwise untrained
person to contract a particular muscle is inefficient (with respect to intensity of instruction vs. productive motor output) and probably has very little general application. There are always exceptions (athletes, performance artists, etc.), for whom the suspension of Beevor's "axiom" is necessary (at least temporarily). >>
***Yes, that aphorism indeed is "Beevor's Axiom", but it is not necessarily true that muscle activation does not or cannot precede motor output in untrained people or that Beevor's Axiom should continue to be regarded as a general principle without modification. In fact, this pre-activity neural activation situation arises every time that we undertake many very normal daily activities such as walking, running, jumping or catching, as I pointed out in item 2 of my original reasoning, namely:
<2. EMGs that have been taken of certain muscles have shown that the
muscles can tense in anticipation of any movement that is about to take place
(as in jumps from a height). In other words, the "virtual reality", feedforwarding", "imagineering" or anticipation of movements or muscle
activation can stimulate muscle action before any movement takes place. >
Thus, it would appear that muscle activation before movement is a vital and
fundamental process or reflex in all normal movement, whether it is skilled or not, so Beevor's axiom may well need some serious revision. Of course, it is possible, if not likely, that the infant who has not yet learned how to walk, run or jump has to develop those pre-activity neural patterns of activation by the repetitive process of classical trial-and-error conditioning.
========================
Beevor’s axiom “the brain knows nothing of individual muscle action, but knows only of movement.” Movement involves numerous muscle groups and if biomechanical efficiency of one muscles group is decreased the other groups will attempt to augment the process and take over some of the load. The brain is concerned with the production of a particular movement not which muscles or what level of efficiency is involved. If biomechanical advantage is altered then automatic compensatory processes will come into play.
======================
Jamie Carruthers
Wakefield, UK