Most people grow up thinking that muscles simply contract and relax, and joints like knees and elbows just bend and straighten. It’s an easy way to picture movement, but it leaves out a lot. The truth is, our bodies are built to twist. Movement isn’t just happening in straight lines. Underneath it all, muscles and joints are spiraling, rotating, and interacting in complex ways that help us move more efficiently.
At the most basic level, everything in the body starts with straight lines. Two lines form an angle. Stack those angles and you get triangles. Stack triangles and you get pyramids. When pyramids are layered and rotated together, they form a spiral or helix. This kind of structure shows up everywhere in biology. DNA is a double helix. Muscle fibers are arranged in similar spirals. So instead of muscles just pulling in a straight line, think of them as twisting and compressing. They contract in a helical way, expanding and rotating as they produce force.
Joints follow the same pattern. Even when a movement looks like a simple hinge, like bending your elbow, there’s actually a subtle spiral happening as the bones move. This means all movement has a twisting component to it. That’s where the idea of relative motion comes in. Relative motion is when parts of a joint move in relation to each other, like when your ribcage moves relative to your spine or your femur rotates in the hip socket. Joint orientation, on the other hand, is the overall position of a limb or segment. In a lot of traditional training, people focus only on orientation. They brace hard, stay in rigid positions, and avoid letting joints move the way they naturally want to.
Now, both are important. If you are lifting something heavy or playing a contact sport, it makes sense to control your joint orientation. But for everyday movement and feeling good in your body, relative motion is more important. It’s what lets you move smoothly, breathe better, and avoid that locked-up feeling. And when our joints lose the ability to rotate in relation to each other, that’s when structures start to take on more load than they should. Other areas begin to overcompensate, and that can lead to discomfort or injury over time.
At AIM Athletic, we make sure our training reflects how the body actually works. In our personal training sessions, small group workouts, and active rehabilitation programs, we pay close attention to joint mechanics and how your body is moving as a whole. We build exercises that restore relative motion so you can move and feel better, whether you are recovering from an injury or just trying to get stronger. When your training respects how your body is built to move, progress feels natural and results last longer.
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