Adaptive & Maladaptive movement

What is an adaptive versus maladaptive movement pattern.

Think of an adaptive movement as a painful or acutely injured knee.

The brain and CNS recognise the need to proect this new sensitivity to allow healing. Protection is to reduce movement and load at the joint.

The nervous system then causes a co-contraction around the knee – turning the agonist and antagonists on (hamstring and quads).

Essentially this causes ‘stiffness’ and reduces degrees of freedom at the knee joint – put simply – we limp by reducing knee range of motion – an adaptive process to allow healing of an injury.

Let’s say time has passed so any acute injuries have healed and pain and tissue damage is no longer present.

If this individual continued to walk with this initial protective strategy – we could call it ‘maladaptive’.

Maladaptive movements may provide temporary relief from stress, but they are unhealthy, unproductive and detrimental in the long term. Ie. There’s no need to ‘protect’ that knee joint anymore.

Let’s say someone acutely injures their lower back.

The brain and nervous system instantly go into protective mdoe – limit lumbar flexion, limit lumbar extension, limit lumbar rotation; whatever movement is most sensitive at loading the acutely injured tissue will be avoided.

This then causes a co-contraction around the spine & pelvis – turning the agonist and anatagonists on (erector spinae, abdominals, glutes).

Essentially this causes a ‘stiffness’ in the spine and reduces the degrees of freedom at the pelvis/trunk – put simply – we are metaphorically ‘limping’ by reducing range of motion – an adaptive process to allow healing of an injury.

Let’s say time has passed so any acute injuries have healed and pain and tissue damage is no longer present.

If this individual continued to move with this initial protective strategy – we would call it ‘maladaptive’.

In this state the body demonstrates a reduction in degrees of freedom – in that that normal, independent relationship between the trunk and pelvis is lost, and the two segments start moving together as ‘one’ unit – creating unnecessary stiffness and uncoordinated, protective movement.

In a ‘normal’ painfree population with well coordinated movement, the brains’ motor cortex recognises the torso and the pelvis as separate and independent segments.

These separate segments should be able to move independently of each other. For example; during running and walking we have a ‘counter-rotation’, where the pelvis and torso rotate in opposite directions. During rotation sports, we have a lag in rotational movement of the pelvis and torso to help generate rotational momentum utilsiing the summation of speed principle.

If this independence is lost, then movement and tissue loads, as well as performance suffers.

In chronic low back pain, this recognition of the torso and pelvis as independent segments is lost. There is a ‘smudging’, not just in the sensory cortex (causing hyperalgesia etc), but also in the motor cortex.

The two segments become in-sync, reducing any independent movement between the two separate areas.