Efficient Movement = Effective Movement

Post date: Mar 30, 2016 8:46:35 PM

As many of us embark on our journey towards living a more healthy lifestyle and incorporating increased levels of activity into our daily routines it may be helpful to recognize a few important items when we exercise:

• 1. Focus on movement quality first -- don't just blindly follow the sets/reps scheme of the program. Seek to move with grace. Be consciously aware of the body as a whole, not just the moving parts.

     1. Seek to improve our relationship with gravity (posture and alignment) If we set ourselves up properly, the muscles fire automatically.

     2. Train just below threshold.

        1. If form falters, stop. Try to always leave a couple of repetitions in the tank.

        2. If a movement causes pain, don't do it.

     3. Remember that adding fitness to dysfunction is the leading cause of overuse injury

• • • 1. Listen to your body. If you are in pain, get out of pain first. Then improve your movement patterns. Finally, seek to add fitness.

      2. most people give up on an exercise program prior to seeing any results because they begin to have orthopedic issues

• 2. Train movements, not muscles. Seek balance in the training program. Seek out our biggest weakness and incorporate drills to shore that up. Then work on the next biggest movement weakness. The two main predictors of injury are:

• • 1. Asymmetry - Strength imbalances lead to compensation and joint instability.

    2. Prior injury - The body may be healed but may still be guarded in movement patterns. Also, injury may alter motor control (muscle firing patterns and/or timing.)

• 3. Change one habit at a time - When we change one habit at a time we have an 85% success rate. When we try to tackle more than one habit, success rates plummet (-33%).

• • 1. If we have not worked out in years and are completely deconditioned, start by walking for 30 minutes a day.

       1. If we get winded walking for just 6 minutes, then break it down into five 6 minute walks spread throughout the day

       2. Slowly build up to walking 30 minutes straight

       3. Then, add another 30 minutes until you are able to walk for 60 minutes straight

       4. After that you will be ready to work on building strength, movement capacity and add more variety to your program

    2. As far as diet, try to add more quality foods instead of thinking in terms of restrictions. For example:

• • • 1. Can I drink one gallon of ice water every day?

      2. Can I include a salad with every meal?

      3. Can I start taking a fish oil supplement every day?

• 4. Look to incorporate nutritious movements throughout day.

• • 1. Exercising for one hour does not make us healthy, the other 23 hours matter. Movement should not be limited to a certain time frame but should be weaved into the day--a true movement practice.

    2. Just three minutes of activity (think going for a short walk, doing a yoga sun salutation, hanging from the monkey bars, some tai chi or doing a few push ups and some deep squats, etc) every 30 minutes is enough to counteract the negative effects of our modern sedentary lifestyle

As we age, it is important to remember that our quality of life is dependent on the way we feel and move. Self care is health care and quality high nutritious movement is medicine.