Kinetic Chain: Remembering a song!

"Well, Your toe bone connected to your foot bone. Your foot bone connected to your heel bone, your heel bone connected to your ankle bone, your ankle bone connected to your leg bone…" and now you get to sing that for the rest of the day!

 

 

 

When we look at the musculoskeletal system there are many ways to approach rehabilitation and exercising because you start to move there is a series of motions through some called the Kinetic (Kinematic Chain).   The concept of the kinetic chain can be thought of as a complex movement and how the parts of the body act as a system of "chain" links to create and generate force to the next segment or link of the system. When looking more into the kinetic chain there are two different concepts used in rehabilitation and exercise progressions: Open and Closed Kinetic Chain.

 

Open Kinetic Chain movements can be described as moving  a segment that of the body in a free or open space (Not having a fixed location). These types of movements and exercises are mostly beneficial in creating isolated muscle activation because there is less involvement from other musculature.  Some examples would be bicep curls, leg curls, chest press, walking, or picking up a glass of water!

 

Closed Kinetic Chain movements can be looked at as fixed or stationary movements. These movements could be looked at as a movement involving the foot or hand to be in a constant position or fixed location So an example could be looked at as standing a pushing against a wall as hard as you can, push ups, performing a squat, or picking up your kids.

 

So, what is the importance of using the Open or Closed Kinetic Chain? The answer is.. It depends on your goal!

 

Benefits of Open Chain Exercises:

  • Allow muscle isolation leading to the ability to strengthen or activate certain musculature

  • Allows for improvement in range of motion in certain joints

  • Challenges the body's stability by challenging spatial awareness (proprioception)

 

Conflicts of Open Chain Exercises:

  • Does not allow multiple muscle groups and joints to function together

  • Can increase stress on joint stability

 

Benefits of Closed Chain Exercises:

  • Work multiple muscles and joint groups at once

  • Helps improve "functional" fitness meaning it can correlate to everyday movements

  • Allows for more joint centration increasing stability

  • Focuses on core control

 

Conflicts of Closed Chain Exercises:

  • Does not allow movements in all planes of motion

  • May limit dynamic stability

 

Key Takeaway:

In order to determine the best route of rehabilitation, exercise or muscle training it is important to determine movement patterns of the entire body. This looks into several different concepts such as does the joint have the ability to get to a range and can the joint maintain the proper stability in different ranges.

 

So, the next time you exercise think about how you want to challenge yourself! Make sure to mix it up to keep the body guessing how you want to challenge it.



Krista Kippenberger