Anatomy of a Meathook

In our last blog we released only TWO weeks ago, we covered the anatomy of a Janeiro. I hear you ask ‘two anatomy blogs in one month? Surely this must be a dream!’ But no! You’re not dreaming at all! It’s like it’s Christmas in July! P.s. You’re welcome 😘

I enjoyed breaking down the Janiero so much because of its unique shape and demands that I thought it would be fun to do a breakdown of something else similar… so here we have it. The Meathook. It has so many similarities to our Janeiro, but at the same time it is the opposite to our Janeiro in many ways. So let’s not dilly dally any longer. It’s time to learn what makes our Meathook so… meaty? Mmm delish!

Firstly, the Meathook is named after the shape the body creates that makes it look like, well, a Meathook. But I like to think of it looking more like a boomerang or one of the sails of the Sydney Opera House. Can you tell where I might be from? Hehe!

Screening of a Meathook

Before we start work on a new move, we want to ensure we’re strong and safe to do so. Our Meathook is an intermediate move, so we need to be strong enough and have the pole smarts to safely enter and exit this move before we even attempt it.

A reminder – whilst screening doesn’t directly replicate the demands of the movement, it is a helpful way to determine whether our bodies are up for the challenge. Screening our body for tricks ensures we aren’t putting our body in positions it isn’t ready for yet! And in turn reduces our risk of injury! But also screening shows us areas that we can work towards improving. So, before we get into our Meathook, let’s ensure we’re strong and safe to do so.

To perform a Meathook, the key requirements we can screen for are:

• Straddle

• Outside leg hang to symphony (overhead V)

• Inside leg hang

• Hip flexion/anti-extension abdominal strength

• Anti-lateral flexion and anti-rotation strength

• Pulling strength

When working towards your Meathook (or any move for that matter!), consider the demands of the position you’re working towards! I.e, a Meathook requires a great deal of skin grip and ab/hip flexion strength to nail this move. Work on nailing this movement away from the pole first to help you build your strength and flexibility to allow you to safely progress in your pole journey.

Time to break down the Meathook and nerd out!

Reach and pull

In our Meathook hold, our bottom arm is reaching across the body holding onto the pole and pulling! The fancy physio/medical term for this shoulder movement is adduction, but we also sometimes say horizontal flexion. This position of adduction lengthens out the muscles of the back of the shoulder and compresses the structures at the front of the shoulder, making it hard for our shoulder to stabilise correctly. So some polers may experience a sense of discomfort or a pinching sensation in this movement. If this is you, it’s helpful to know the right guidance will get you everywhere! See a member of our online team and we will help sort out that pain in no time.

Now the two key muscles at play here keeping us in our Meathook hold are our pectoralis major and latissimus dorsi. These are our key pulling muscles in adduction and are assisted by teres major too.

In our Meathook hold, our shoulder is positioned in some degree of protraction and upward rotation and is able to do so with the assistance of our upper trapezius and serratus anterior. And whilst we are doing our best to stay up on the pole, gravity is working overtime to pull our body down, so to avoid passively hanging out of our shoulders, our retractors are hard at work stabilising the shoulder and upper back. The key muscles at work preventing excessive protraction are our rhomboid and trapezius muscles. In short, we need some really good pulling strength to sustain this position, but our big pulling muscles need to be supported by our small pulling muscles too.

Let’s put the hook in Meathook!

Now when it comes to this move, we achieve its unique shape by ensuring our hips remain above our head (with good pulling strength), and by performing a small amount of spinal rotation and lateral flexion (aka side bending). Our lateral flexors (aka obliques, quadratus lumborum, paraspinals) are working overtime to keep our body up in this position. These muscles are having to work eccentrically (whilst they are being lengthened), so you best believe they have to be strong!

Compress, compress, compress!

Now unlike our Janeiro where our legs must be behind us in extension, we need to compress or pike in our Meathook. This movement is a flexion of our hips, controlled by our hip flexors (quads, iliopsoas) and our abdominal muscles (rectus abdominus, obliques). To create this gorgeous pike shape we require decent spinal and hamstring flexibility to > 90 degrees. Additionally in our Meathook, our abductors and adductors are also playing a secondary role in stabilising the hips helping to keep us floating!

So there you have it! The anatomy of a Meathook broken down in its full glory!

Are you working on this move and struggling to find your way? Check out our socials for conditioning ideas or work with a member of our online team! Not only do we rehab injuries, but our team also create tailored strengthening programs to help polers unlock their dream moves!

Online telehealth appointments can be booked with the Pole Physio via our ‘Book Online’ page that can be found here. Assessment and tailored rehabilitation are provided in accordance with best practice and evidence-based treatment to help you unleash your 'poletential'.

Until next time, train safe.

The Pole Physio

xx

Please Note:

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• A meathook is an intermediate move and should ONLY be undertaken if your instructor has deemed you ready to work on this trick. This information is general advice only and we are not liable for any injuries that may occur during training.

• This page has been created to provide wonderful knowledge with the pole community and sharing of this page to pole friends and pole related Facebook groups is actively encouraged.