Muscle tone
Human movement is built on the basis of muscle tone, establishing the basis of posture and movement. It includes an active force due to muscle contractions, and a passive one linked to muscle stretching. Our muscle tone is the partial muscle tension regulated by the nervous system. Our movements’ flow depends on our muscle tone, providing sensations that contribute to organizing our body schema.
To obtain an optimal muscle tone, we have to learn first how to use less muscular effort in all actions, seeking the necessary minimum while eliminating the excesses. This is accomplished by optimizing our motor behavior not only by actively executing postures, movements, and actions but also allowing them to happen.
This is achieving an appropriate balance between activity and passivity, between action and inaction. While skiing, our muscle tone should be sufficient to resist gravity and low enough to allow movements since allowing is a form of relaxation. The lack of an appropriate muscle tone is expressed in motor clumsiness, i.e., difficulty in keeping a certain posture to perform coordinated movements while maneuvering our skis.
Types of muscle tone
Henri Wallon had differentiated the following types of muscle tone:
- Resting or base muscle tone is thestate of slight tension (minimum muscle contraction, or passive tension) for joint support, which it is not effective to produce movements.
- Postural muscle tone allows maintaining an action prone posture but does not cause movements.
- Action muscle tone accompanies muscle activity during our actions by active neuromotor control. The resting tone has a support function while postural and action tones have a movement function.
Muscle tone disorders
Basically, we find two types of disorders: hypotonia (decreased muscle tone) which its characteristics are muscle weakness, decreased or lack of movement, and chaotic joint mobility; and hypertonia (increased tone) with special features such as increased muscle stiffness, uncontrolled movements, tense neck, and extremities. As muscle tension level varies by increasing or decreasing according to our aptitude and attitude, these variations disturb our skiing stance. This also depends on the attention we pay to snow contact and the surrounding space.
Cervical tension
Our neck muscles have great importance in balance organization. In skiing, it is very common to tense these muscles because of our perceived insecurity about sliding. Neck tension control allows us to move with greater or lesser ease. Cervical tension is very often accompanied by tension in knees and ankles joints.
Muscle tone and gravity
In relation to gravity, muscles can be divided into antigravity muscles, which are mostly at the back, and gravity muscles located in the abdomen.
Beginners activate mainly the back muscles (extensors) because they perceive that is the way to balance while sliding, when what it actually does is to go against gravity. In contrast, expert skiers activate the gravity muscles of the abdomen (flexors), which favors motion in the direction of gravity. It is commonly observed skiers that are constantly fighting gravity. So doing, they change the proper body posture, altering muscle tone and contracting different muscle groups.
Keys to muscle tone reeducation
To adjust our muscle tension, re-education is necessary. It is frequent hearing instructors saying to relax but not revealing specifically how to do it.
If we have an appropriate grounding posture, then following these suggestions can help:
- Promote muscle extension (muscle shortening is a tension signal).
- Become aware of body weight and contact points with the snow.
- Pay attention to oral muscles distension by jaw releasing.
- Make a specific body part to feel ‘heavy’.
- Reach the necessary degree of muscle tension for movements’ performance.
- Loosen those muscles that are not involved in one particular action.
- Become conscious of muscle relaxation associated to exhaling.
- Apply contrasts mechanisms exchanging tensing-relaxing, pressing-releasing, strong-weak, etc.
