IN THE GYM,
you practice movements that your body will default to when you have to use similar movements in your daily life.
However – you should not categorize ‘exercise’ as something to only to be done in the gym.
Here is why – Evolution: In order to eat, ancient humans had to move. There were certain things they had to do every single day in order to survive: walk, climb, sprint, hide, hunt …. using a whole in the ground as a toilet… All of these activities require mobility & motility.
The Modern World has turned this evolutionary structure on its head, and serious health issues have arisen because of it.
We need a ‘return to nature’ of sorts, to bring us back into balance.
… Return to natural movement … to functional movement !?!
(great segue, I know )
SO, what should I be focusing on when it comes to exercise and functional movement?This first point is also a highly overlooked aspect of coaching:
- How are you BREATHING, are you maintaining POSTURE / technique and what are your EYES doing. If you involve all 3 of these things into your movement practice then you will be in BALANCE.
Second point:
- you need to balance out your pushing and your pulling. Train the Lower body and the Upper Body with these pushing and pulling movements
- The lower body should be trained more than the Upper body
- Pulling movements should be trained more than Pushing movements
Getting Strong and Mobile is actually quite straight forward once you figure out certain rules and start to follow them. (more on this in a later post)
However it gets tricky when you start to talk about “Asymmetries and Corrective” – because of individual differences. More on this in the next post…