Biomotor Abilities: The Foundations of Physical Fitness
Connecting General Physical Preparedness to Your Biomotor Abilities
Physical fitness has a significant impact on our quality of life and the ability to conduct our daily tasks. The foundation of physical fitness is fitness across what are called the biomotor abilities. Honing biomotor abilities in sport, for example, is the key that unlocks potential.
This article will help you understand why it’s crucial to build a solid foundation of fitness by developing your biomotor abilities.
What are the biomotor abilities in sports?
Whenever we move or participate in an activity or sport, we put our biomotor abilities to the test. However, movement is a skill that we learn.
For example, a high jumper doesn’t simply jump as high as they can. There is a set of combined movements the body makes as the jump is attempted. You run, flex, spring, spin, and bend. You must consider your speed, feet, legs, arms, and torso position. You’ll need to consider angles of approach and take off, as well as your timing.
While jumping is a skill, you could not perform your best jump without a foundation of biomotor abilities. These are the foundation of your performance and your fitness. The five primary biomotor abilities are:
Strength
Speed
Endurance
Coordination
Flexibility
“With these five, we can break down any physical activity into the components of biomotor abilities,” says Marc Jacobchick, PT here at Reload. “Different tasks have different degrees of each biomotor ability. Running a marathon heavily relies on endurance, and not so much on flexibility or strength, whereas being a powerlifter relies heavily on strength but not so much on endurance.”
Now, it’s important to note that there is always an overlap between biomotor qualities. Think of it like the primary colors ─ when they overlap or combine, they create different, secondary colors. And so, we get a range of secondary biomotor abilities. Examples of these secondary biomotor abilities include:
Explosive power (a combination of strength and speed)
Balance (endurance and coordination)
Agility (coordination and flexibility)
Mobility (strength and flexibility)
The Reload approach to fitness and personal training
Each client that comes to us has different fitness goals. For some people, this might be getting through the day without pain as they go through their daily lives ─ walking to work, climbing a few flights of stairs, getting in and out of chairs, and so on. Other clients may want to run marathons, hike up mountains, or participate in intense sports like football, rugby, or soccer.
Whatever your personal goals, we believe it’s important that you are over-prepared to perform what you want to.
“To prepare someone for these things, we need those biomotor qualities of explosive strength, maximum speed, agility, and so on,” Marc explains, “If we can target those biomotor qualities specifically then we can more accurately prepare clients for the demands of their sports or daily lives.”
All the research, and our personal experience, show that as a society we are incredibly underprepared in our fitness.
Often, the most impactful thing we can give to a client is an understanding of how to get themselves stronger. With improved strength, a lot of problems start to resolve themselves.
So, our first focus is usually on giving clients a baseline of strength through strength training. When the problems have started to resolve themselves as they get stronger, we can get more specific about the other biomotor abilities we give them.
The connection between general physical preparedness and biomotor ability
When considering general physical preparedness (GPP), we consider specific movement patterns: squat, lunge, hinge, push, pull, and carry.
Within each of these movements, we can develop the five basic biomotor abilities of strength, speed, endurance, coordination, and flexibility. All these qualities are required to be proficient in each movement.
Our approach to GPP training targets the biomotor abilities that are lacking in a client, or those that are less developed, in each movement pattern. Marc explains this as follows:
“I might evaluate someone for their squat. When I realize that they can’t produce very much force, I must understand if they lack strength, coordination, flexibility, and so on ─ what is the biomotor quality that is missing and that is causing them difficulty in squatting? Understanding why is what allows me to address what they need to perform that task.”
In short, biomotor qualities give us a menu of options to target when we see something going wrong with a client’s GPP.
When we meet with someone, we evaluate biomotor abilities according to their previous experiences with movement and their fitness goals. This shows us if there is a deficit in biomotor ability that is preventing them from achieving their goals.
We then guide the client in the decision-making process, helping them to understand the ‘why’ of their fitness roadblocks and approaches to take to improve.
We then treat each session as not only an opportunity to work on biomotor deficiencies but also an assessment of progress. This allows us to adjust the fitness program plan and execute accordingly, keeping the client on track and flexing to develop strengths and improve any weaknesses.
Are you seeking to improve your sporting performance? Then sign up for a complimentary fitness evaluation.
If you are in pain, seeking to recover from injury, or wishing to improve your quality of life through better physical health, take advantage of our 90-minute physical therapy evaluation.
