The power of movement is essential to everyday life. In
fitness when people think of movement, they think roaming on elipticals, moving
weights around, aerobic exercise and other types of stuff. That’s all good in
some cases but what I’m talking about by movement is using different functions
of the body that keeps you healthy, free and open to channel the body by
squatting, running, jumping, climbing, lifting and carrying weight and making
the habit to be practical and utilizing every inch of your body to it’s
potential. Functional Movement is precise in what brings the body as a whole as
you move through various patterns, using as many muscles as possible in any
given time.
When it
comes to sitting, we usually bring ourselves to sitting in chairs or our beds
sometimes but never take the time to actually squat and sit that way or move in
the squat. This exercise can help build the tendons and ligaments in the knees
and build strength in those muscles. Jumping has become a meaning to use in
sports or in other endeavors but never for any real fun anymore, when was the
last time you felt like jumping and playing hopscotch or something? Lifting
doesn’t always mean heavy but it means picking up an object of certain weight,
moving with the weight by carrying it is pretty fun to do, think of carrying a
heavy backpack or picking a 50 pound rock and carrying it a certain distance
then tossing it. We all know how running goes, personally I’m not a fan of
running but I like to sprint and amp up my body’s metabolism so that’s a form
of running.
Some
movements are in awkward positions like moving in an animal type fashion like
Bear Crawls, hanging and swinging like an ape or climbing like a gecko, your
body was meant to move in all sorts of directions granted how you’re structured
and the way your body can operate in a certain movement. Even walking in an
awkward terrain or non-flatted areas is moving in an awkward position and
changing directions as you go along. When you can move in an awkward position,
you’re utilizing other muscles you normally don’t use.
When you
move, you have a greater chance of having a longer, healthier life if you
practice enough to where you’re using practical movements, progressing and
utilizing your mind at the same time. I love moving around even when I’m out in
the snow hitting a tire with my Sledgehammer; I’m giving my body strength and
heading towards specific goals of movement. I even love to just move around in
the living room, stretching my body out and jumping & crawling just for the
fun of it.
To understand the fun of movement, look to what Mary Poppins says by
“in every job that must be done there’s an element of fun. You find the fun and
snap the job’s a game.” This applies the same way as moving in your training,
you learn to imagine having fun with what you’re doing and making it more
enjoyable instead of feeling like you have to punish yourself. This helps
having a longer life by using your imagination and building a happy attitude to
what you do and incorporate it to other things in your life.
