Let's unpack the fancy quote:
Functional Movement usually
involves large groups of muscles working together across the body, with the focus on both stability and mobility.
Functional Movement mimics our usual, normal-life, everyday movements - such as getting up from a chair or couch, reaching into a cupboard, or carrying bags of groceries.
The beauty of Functional Movement is that unlike many other movement disciplines it doesn't just train individual muscles in isolation. Functional Movement challenges all of our muscles to work together as team - kinda like they should in real life.
What's more, Functional Movement moves our entire nervous system (yes, nerves need to move!) in a variety of ways and in a multitude of planes - forward, back, up, down, and from one side to another. This improves the sliding and gliding of the nerves through the connective tissue and that is hugely important: there's nothing like a stuck, angry nerve to ruin your night's sleep, I tell ya!
Put simply, functional movements teach us how to move our bodies with proper muscle and joint mechanics for effortless, pain-free movement.
I know this not just from reading about it in a book.
Take knees, for example.
Earlier this year I taught the Knee-Hub - a knee rehab program largely based on the Functional Movement model - to help students reduce or even eliminate their knee pain with a tested-and-true system of movement tools.
As we dove into the anatomy and alignment bits, quite a
few Knee-Hub students discovered that their knee issues were directly related to what was happening up-stream of their knees - in the pelvis and low back, and also downstream of the knees - in the feet and ankles.
The unanimous vote was that we needed to examine the connection between all of our knees' moving parts, and explore movement patterns of our up-stream and down-stream parts in a much fine detail to
improve the functionality of our knees.
That's how the Knee-Hub Extended was born!
October installment of the Knee-Hub focuses on everything below the knees.
Knee-Hub Downstream is built for folk with achy
arches, heels and toes; people with cracking, unstable ankles; those with sore shins ( got shin splints?) and tight calves; and also anyone who wants to improve their foot and knee health, not to mention find more spring in their step and stability in their stance.
Here is what you'll
get:
- A brief review of applicable pain science concepts.*
This is a foundational piece to help us keep moving forward with less fear and more confidence.
- Anatomy bit in plain English.
We'll start with a visual introduction to all the different foot and ankle structures. We'll then take a look at how these complex structures
work together and what happens when they don't.
- We'll get into very specific and functional release - hydrate - stretch techniques to provide optimal range of motion (not too much and not too little) for feet and ankles.
- We'll touch on strengthening. More specifically, we'll take a look at some strengthening strategies with a biomechanically - sound alignment.
*Bonus!
We've unpacked some of the most important pain science concepts in detail during the original Knee-Hub class. Sign up for Knee-Hub Downstream by October 1 and get
a full replay of the original Knee-Hub session FREE!
This includes:
Module 1 - Breathing and Meditation for Pain Relief.
Module 2 - Pain Science, Neuroplasticity, Ball Rolling Targets.
Module 3 - The Anatomy Bit - Knee Structures.
Module 4 - How To
Move The Body In Pain.
Each module has written information and also videos with guided practices.
