Nerves don’t just go to one specific area of the body. Rather, the nervous system is an interconnected web in which something that happens in one end of the web affects other parts of the web. In fact, every movement that we do has an effect on the entire body!
What does this mean for training? A few things. First of all, if any part of the body is out of position, it can fire incorrect signals to other parts of the body and sabotage our efforts. It also completely undermines the idea of core training or separating body parts — the human body is a unit and must be trained like one.
On a more positive note, if the body is in proper position and does any movement correctly, that feedback can cause positive adaptations throughout the entire body. As we will continue to mention, training done in proper position at max velocity will create greater amounts of correct feedback than training at low velocity and/or out of position.
This last principle has many ramifications, particularly in rehab. For example, say you have one broken leg that is immobilized in a cast. Moving the other leg or the arms per the above guidelines (proper position, high velocity) can prevent some of the atrophy in the injured leg and keep that injured leg ahead of where it otherwise would be once the cast comes off.
When it comes to ARP treatments, this knowledge of the nervous system takes on a new light. The ARPwave system works by finding the “short circuit” in the nervous system that is preventing the muscles from absorbing force. Because of the interconnectedness of the nervous system, the relevant short circuit can be anywhere in the body. We have seen a torn hamstring healed by working on a spot on the scapula, and a shoulder injury healed by working on the opposite ankle. The beauty of our system is that we listen to your body to find where the problem really is, and it could be anywhere.
Reprinted with permission: Garrett Salpeter.