Simply Movement

The Laws of Nature

Why are we hell-bent on looking for the magic pill or the quick fix to our immediate and often first world problems?  Maybe if we asked ourselves two simple questions and truly listened our gut on the answer things may just balance out differently:  

1. What is the 'practical value' of the exercise?

2. Is this in line with the laws of nature yes or no?  

Whilst we seem to make a terrific job of complicating issues, the laws of nature are every bit as applicable to human movement as any and every other aspect of life.  Sorry, there are no quick fixes.  None.  The answer lies in the decisions WE make and it requires taking a balanced approach to our health.  Maybe hydration is your weakest link, maybe it's sleep, nutrition, movement or mindfulness?  Many factors are at play and none more important than another.    

I'd rather listen intently to the laws of nature than the artificially fabricated laws of society when it comes to influencing the health decisions in my life.   And balance is key.  And balance in movement is key.  

Too much in one area will create an imbalance and ultimately this is unsustainable.   You gym people better look intelligently at your programming because it damn-well does matter.  Dr Stuart Magill (one of the world's leading spinal bio-mechanic practitioners) states over half his patients have come from poor personal training programming and instruction. I'm not at all surprised.  And this guy is at the highest of levels!   I just can't see it improving any time soon because it takes intelligence and it takes integrity to ensure people are educated and progression is safe, neither of which there is currently an abundance of.

Ultimately it comes back to us and the questions we ask ourselves.  It's easy to blame someone else and it's the easy option.  But if we're educated to know better,and we know in our gut otherwise, then isn't it our own responsibility?  Have the courage to ask the questions. 

Push against the current as much as you like, eventually mother nature will win.  

Why complicate?

Man we tend to complicate things when it comes to movement, we really do.

It's not that complex.  If you're movement diet is out of balance then your body will adapt accordingly. 

Have the courage to place balance higher in the hierarchy of movement needs than your wants and all will be AOK. 

When the musics on ...

Much is said about the importance of movement and physical activity in general but what about the negative vacuum effect of the society we live in?

The music is still on.  It always has been.  But it seems people are more reluctant to dance these days?  And when we do dance, it seems a little more ... controlled or less expressive. 

This opens a myriad of possibilities and related theories but perhaps it's as simple as being attached to the old 'ego' friend a bit too closely.  Caring too much what other people think.   And it's a debilitating sleeping giant.  Everyone now carries a live-recording video only too willing to press go anytime and it can't help but to have a 'calming' effect on behaviour.  This is great for accountability with regards to poor actions but sad for individual expression.

Perhaps we're also desensitised to actually 'doing' things due to being readily exposed to high-level feats in almost everything at the click of a finger?  This technology can be like a pit bull - the right man's best friend or the wrong man's worst enemy.  It can be a wonderful teaching and learning tool but it can also have such negative consequences when it comes to actually getting off your butt and engaging in fruitful activity.  One thing's for sure - it's here to stay.  And it's clearest most in today's youth.

It sure is a funny old world we're living in.  Anyway, let's keep dancing huh.

Interesting times

Most of us do not live in a way that's sustainable long term by way of physical health.  Not even close.  

So why don't we do something about it?  The conventional gym-based approach to physical health is not designed to deliver this outcome and it's simply not working.

Perhaps the short term pain is not bad enough and long term pain is just too far away?  

 

Balanced Movement Diet

Everyone knowns the relevance of the word 'posture'. 

It's really just a term to reflect positions of integrity that are easily recognised.  Much theory, minimal practical application. A better term to describe the desired outcome really should be 'alignment'.  This applies the forces of nature in real-life situations. 

But even this term - the meaning of alignment and it's direct connotations are somewhat a clinical way of looking at the big picture.  Shouldn't we simplify further, right back to why we're even looking at this subject?  Why does any of this matter?  The answer to me is looking at quality of life from a physical standpoint.  Living pain free and simply functioning the way we're designed to. 

The remedy to much of today's ailments lies in the fact we're a product of what we repeatedly do.  And this is far from living primitively for most of us.  So, fact remains: modern times demand altered movement requirements.  How do we feed our body what it needs to function effectively (not even optimally) and how do we know?  Look at movement patterns and reference to a defined standard is the logical way.  Learn, understand  and feel what minimum ranges of motion in key areas are.  Use these benchmarks to reference from and adjust accordingly.  Constantly adjust.  Ask yourself; how balanced is my movement diet?

I believe we're not looking at movement quality with the priority it needs and deserves.  We tend to prioritise external extrinsic measures when ultimately they carry much lesser importance in the big picture outcome of overall health.  We compromise form to complete the volume.  Bit of nature here - we'll adjust to work a way around the problem rather than deal with it.  For example, if you're short on ankle dorsiflexion you'll turn your feet out to walk more comfortably.  Your still walking but integrity in the pattern is unsustainable. 

So how you achieve that overall balanced movement diet is up to you and there is no right and wrong.  There are certainly better ways than others.  Whatever your preferred method is (eg. work, sport, movement practice, general activity etc) it must encompass a broad range of movement in a randomised way and regularly.  Does your chosen activity provide enough of everything?  If not, it needs to supplemented.

The key word here is balance and the movement areas you don't want to spend time in are probably the ones you need to supplement most.

 

Learning to drive

Learning to drive well is like learning to move well.

When you first start you're on your L-plates.  Concentration is intense and it takes time/experience to loosen up, to be more comfortable with the task at hand and developing sound habits early on will serve you well.  Experience has a significant effect as long as you constantly learn.  Driving with poor habits for 20 years doesn't make you a proficient driver.  We need to drive like we care.

Peripheral vision comes with mastery.  Watch many motorbike riders and professional truck drivers at work here.  They're constantly looking in the mirrors to create a 'big picture' situation - gathering all the information to make accurate decisions at any time.  Why?  Because it matters.  A bike rider must ride proactively in order to preempt avoidable situations (particularly as in the event of a problem it's highly likely that the rider's problem is a big problem)!  Similar for truck drivers.  Most have seen it all and are in the space of pre-emptive proactive driving.  This makes them experts as they navigate the driving profession well beyond just the performance of the machine. 

We move the same way.  

Most of us weren't taught to move well or at least grown up in situations that fostered proactive natural movement.  Today's sedentary lifestyle lends itself to setting less-than effective role-models for our children so it's easy to develop poor habits early on.  And small things are not small things when done repeatedly.  

A professional sportsperson does not mean they're experts in movement.  They're an expert in their given sport only.  An expert in any given field is like a professional driver - they look at, feel and adapt to all the input / information available and adjust their decisions accordingly.  

An expert in movement adapts to the requirements at hand with a purposeful and sustainable outcome.  They move like they care because it does matter.  They think and feel whole body big picture.  An example of this might be doing a hand-stand.  Try simply doing one freestanding or against a wall.  Now try  the same movement but this time someone you love is standing exactly where the wall is instead.  Push too far and you kick them in the face!  Now it matters. 

When you think in the realms of movement matters, things take a different perspective.  It takes time to adapt, sometimes a long time.  Be patient.  Just like meditation, the returns are significant if you apply yourself with an understanding that dividends await. 

 

Instant gratification

Patience is a virtue and it seems a bit underdone these days.

Bouldering requires patience.  You work on a problem through physical energy and chip away at it endeavouring to own the movement.  Like all things preformed well,  those at the highest level make it look easy or at least smooth.  For the rest of us, chipping away in and around your level of physical capacity requires patience. It's a significant part of the sport. 

I can't help but notice the lack of patience in many of today's youth when applied to this space.  Perhaps living in a time of instant gratification has a detrimental effect when it comes to applying to task here and the reason it's interesting is that this is not sports related skills we're talking here but movement skills with rapid adaptation in learning.  You feel massive progression quickly.  So when so the problem isn't solved really quickly the easy option is to walk away. But you're walking away from something so beneficial to you in so many ways.

Be patient.  Work hard.  Smell the roses.  

 

Drop the Bottle

What does it take to maintain our body to live pain free now and for the long term?

Before sedentary lifestyles were such a dominant force, this was hardly a question we needed to ask.  We just moved as a part of life.  It was just something we did and not something we consciously needed to do. We're not even talking primitive times here, just before technology exploded on the scene.  So, in the big picture by way of timescales, only yesterday.

Now it is most certainly an important question because this lifestyle is here to stay and the consequences are very real. 

Our body simply needs a broad range of movement loading regularly to maintain itself and this extends well beyond the gym floor.  It comes down to personal responsibility again, owning the choices we make and being conscious about these decisions.  You can't consume a solid dose of whiskey every day for forty years and expect to have no effects. The same applies to movement quality. 

But, we're all doing the best we can with the information we have available to us right?  Well, we're now living in times that mass information is readily available at our fingertips and ignorance is no excuse. 

Put down the bottle peeps, it's time to take this seriously cause if you don't you'll have a worn-in path to your local clinician sooner than you think!

Priorities

There seems to be a lot of confusion around priorities in physical health and fitness, especially for non-athletes. Components such as flexibility, endurance, hypertrophy, strength are all important but in what framework?

In the words of Pavel Tsatsouline "as long as the person has the required mobility, symmetry and health, the priority is always strength.  Strength is the mother quality of all physical qualities". 

So before strength we must look at mobility and symmetry first.  This is often the quiet elephant in the room because the importance is crucial and completely overlooked.  If your car (body) is out of alignment then putting in a bigger engine or making it go faster will only fast-track problems.  It's called laying fitness over dysfunction. It's also common sense and not that complicated.

Using the analogy of an aeroplane;

Each plane is engineered from the start to perform a certain way.  Some are designed for speed, others to carry cargo, acrobatics, crop-dusting etc.  They're all different.  And they need servicing as they go and this is dictated by the amount of work they do (ie. recorded engine hours).  Servicing is the preventative work that keeps all things aligned so that the machine functions safely in the way it was designed to and each component must be replaced or re-conditioned after a certain amount of work / operating hours. 

Given the importance of safety at play here, these maintenance and servicing requirements are non-negotiable and mandatory for safety compliance world-wide. 

The human body is a way more complex machine but the concept is identical.  Maintain the design parameters (ie. mobility and symmetry) as the safe and stable foundations upon all else to function.  We too have a design-life (closer to 100 years) and maintenance has a lot to do with reaching it by way of physical health.  

Strength alone will not build the foundation but it's certainly the priority once it's laid.

Too good to be exclusive

The benefits of bouldering are not exclusive to climbers.

Climbers often love bouldering yes for sure and this is shown by the sheer global growth of the sport.  However, the collective physiological, neurological and social benefits of the movement practice and sport should not be limited to those at the top of the tree.

It simply delivers everything our body needs to maintain a stable foundation in a sustainable way.

The benefits are too good to ignore and include the following; 

1. Complete whole body movement - the squat, lunge, single leg stance, push, pull, rotation and anti-rotation movements are involved.  Anything we do is one or a combination of these movement patterns.  This sport consistently and regularly involves them all.  All planes of motion are engaged and challenged.
2. The key essential rules of movement are in-built by design- eg. straight back / neutral spine just happens and hip and knee positioning is predominantly externally rotated.  The wall acts to force biomechanical blocking positions.
3. These default-stable movement positions are repeated which significantly contributes to neurological lock-in of these patterns. ie. contributes to lasting change in how you move.
4. The movement loads are scalable - you move to a grade / level that reflects your physical capacity and build.  It's self-limiting by nature as your weakest link won't let you go beyond your ability.
5. It engages the HITT training principles by design (ie. short bursts of full body tension and energy, followed by short recovery.  Repeated sets). But in a social format.
6. Strength is owned at end range - everything here is at end range. 
7. Constant variation and loading - positions are constantly changing and irregular by nature.
8. The focus is on the outcome - you're mind is predominantly focused on the 'how to' component of the route more so than what your body is feeling.  Tuning into your movement comes with experience.
9. There is no right and wrong - there are certainly technical aspects of climbing yes as per any sport but different people adopt different styles depending what works for them.
10. You're always learning and adapting and adaptation is a wonderful transient skill that spills over into all avenues of life.
11. You are training whole body tension - a foghorn for the nervous systems
12. Social benefits are significant and when the culture is of intelligent good people it feeds on itself.

The list can go on and it all starts with a solid culture - one that fosters all things positive in the sport.