A great movie can teach you a lot about how your body moves.
A Weekend in Lake George
I was in Lake George with my mom and my dog this past weekend. We went for a quick weekend trip. One of my guilty pleasures on vacation is scrolling through the TV stations to find movies that aren’t on my radar or that I haven’t seen in a while. I try to do this at home as well, but I usually just fall asleep.
Rediscovering Ocean’s Eleven
During my scrolling on Friday evening, I caught the last bit of Ocean’s Eleven on TBS. My eyes lit up, and I was glued to it until the end. Ocean’s Eleven has been one of my favorite movies since it came out in 2001.
After the final credits, as usual, I thought, “What a great movie.” I asked myself why I still love it so much after all these years and after seeing it over 30 times.
Why the Movie Still Works
There are a couple of reasons. I love the star power of the film with George, Brad, Matt, Julia, Andy, and the rest of the cast. I also love how the movie never takes itself too seriously. What I really love about Ocean’s Eleven is how 11 people came together to achieve a common goal.
Forget the robbing of a casino for a moment. If you look deeper, all 11 people were so valuable in accomplishing the outcome.
If one of these 11 failed at their job, the outcome would not have happened. Now apply these same principles to the muscles in your body. To accomplish anything physically demanding, multiple muscle groups have to work in sync and do their skillful job that none of the other muscles can do, just like the guys in Ocean’s Eleven. Just like the movie, it is a beautiful thing when it does work effectively.
When One Muscle Fails
If one fails, it can bring the entire group down with it. This is usually how injuries happen. The weakest link in your body is unable to do its job, so another body part has to compensate, creating a muscle imbalance.
An example is a runner who has weak glutes. Usually, a runner with weak glutes has their ITB and outside quad muscle compensating for that weakness. This can create runner’s knee, or patellofemoral syndrome, thus preventing them from reaching the outcome of running a marathon or race.
Your Body’s Ocean Eleven
I came up with a list of your body’s Ocean Eleven:
- Toe and feet muscles: big toe extension, 2nd–5th toe extension
- Ankle muscles: inversion and dorsiflexion muscles
- Knee muscles: quads and hamstrings
- Hip muscles: piriformis, glute medius, external rotators
- Low back muscles: core, quadratus lumborum, multifidus
- Thoracic spine muscles: rhomboids, serratus anterior, lower traps
- Neck muscles: deep neck flexors, neck extensors, scalenes
- Shoulder muscles: teres, supraspinatus, lats
- Elbow muscles: triceps, pronator teres
- Wrist muscles: wrist extensors, radial deviators
- Hand muscles: thumb and grabbing muscles
Keep Visualizing the Team
These are your body’s “Ocean Eleven.” Keep learning them and keep visualizing how they work together. You can accomplish amazing feats!
