Lots of animal flesh and tight hips...?

I've been working with youth academy base athletes for the past few years now. It hasn't been until my greater appreciation of human psycho-physiology that I began looking away from the primary school of thought that an athletes issue "must be" musculature-ligament-tendon related. 

Anatomical appreciation of the
 kidneys in relation to the
Psoas/hips flexors 

Consider this:  
"If mechanical movement of the Kidney externally rotates on inspiration (breathing in) and internally rotates on expiration (breathing out)...and its axis of motion is the psoas (hip flexor), we can make some conclusions that an anterior rotated pelvis (Donald duck), tight psoas, etc, is most likely not always the GO TO issue at hand" - Josh Rubin 

i.e. The issue may not be muscular, but more organ related...Take a look at the kidneys as to why you may have 'tight hips'? 

Yes there are many reasons for 'tight hips' (sitting, postural dysfunction, biomechanics issues, poor exercise choices, not giving a damn etc..) but i'm just going to touch on one that i've come to see a POTENTIAL relationship between, whilst working and observing athletes/trainers. 

So could a dysfunction or over compensation of the kidneys, through excessive animal protein especially muscle meats high in cysteine, tryptophan and methionine, combined with inverted breathing patterns and degrees of dehydration  etc.. be the missing link to your lack of hip mobility, ability to squat, lack of mobile freedom >lower back pain<? etc.. 

In todays society the over consumption at any one time of hard to digest, over cooked, taxing substances are often on the menu.

A humans root of digestion should begin prior to putting anything in their mouth, simply by choosing what to eat the body prepares for digestion. By stimulating gastric juices, saliva and increased stomach acid the next phase starts by chewing, this covers the food in saliva which aids in transportation into the stomach carrying essential enzymatic properties. Once into the stomach the individual should be producing sufficient stomach acid (pH; 2-3) in order to effectively breakdown for assimilation into the Intestines. 

An optimal, physical resting position!

Today most are falling short at these first 3 phases! With poor "food", "drink" and lifestyle choices even before we put anything IN our already over stimulated systems, the chewing phase tends to not exist and a lot of the time its due to eating on the run, eating whilst stressed and the inability to even breakdown such foods (overcooked meat??). Coupled with a lack of body awareness and the constant supply of partially or undigested food stuffs, the unrecognisable food particles that should have been broken down into their respected usable compounds (glucose, amino acids, fatty acids etc.) for assimilation from the small intestines into the cells... never seem to get this far without promoting a constant barricade of stress on the respected organs. In most cases when one organ or system is asked to work 'overtime', all organs/glands/tissues not only chip in by producing more of the necessary hormones/enzymes, but they too become overtaxed and over worked (now thats something most can relate to)

Muscle meat (when consumed by humans) from sources of conventional animals, fed substances that don't fit their chemistry, when overcooked, under chewed, eaten without love and attention and consumed to excess...More often than not results in the over production of ammonia from the break down of purines and circulating free fatty acids (FFA) from these foods. The kidneys job is not only to filter waste from the liver but to metabolise and filter ammonia from the blood to be excreted in the with the help of urea + CO2. Its when the the small over worked kidneys become inefficient at dealing with the amount of waste material from this by product, that symptoms of muscular tightness around the hips, lumber and SIJ and to a greater degree.. hypertension (excess serotonin and estrogen) and gout (hyperuricemia) begin to pronounce themselves! 

When an organ (in this case the kidney) becomes inflamed/toxic the resulting action is to shut down and/or inhibit optimal working capacity. This has the ability to inhibit function of the connecting nerves and ligaments leading to the relating musculature (the psoas/hip flexors), resulting in dysfunction and the inability to protect and support movement.  

Assess don't
Guess! 

Nickolas et al: found a high relationship between chronic kidney dysfunction and hip fractures. Though not muscular, its important to understand that whenever an internal organ is over burdened, it will at best show symptoms of dysfunction through the musculoskeletal or neuropsychological systems (In an athletes case; fatigue, poor recovery, uncontrolled aggression). Unless you assess through internal readings/scans, there is very little chance of recognising an issue, if the understanding of bone-muscle-organ (OSTEO-VISERAL-SOMATIC) relation is not there. 

So if you remind yourself of the mechanical positioning, function and importance of the kidneys, you not only begin to appreciate the roll they play in overall bodilyFUNCTION, but also the complexity of our system at maintaining balance is far greater than just a muscular understanding when it comes to everyday life, and in this case athletic performance.  


So rather than JUST stretching those hips, rolling on that foam, becoming a yogi or taking a polar plunge (all of which are good)... why not consider what your putting in your mouth may actually be causing more discomfort than wished for and now expressing itself and impacting your day to day freedom!

Be wise, keep chewing.

Beatle.