I recently attended a MovNat Level 1 certification. Our instructor opened the weekend with a question: How do you MovNat? We proceeded to learn how MovNat uses natural human movements like crawling, climbing, balancing, lifting, carrying, running, and throwing to develop greater physical competency. He then asked the same question, but this time with a different emphasis: “How do you MovNat?”

I had no idea. The question caught me off guard, and that sent my type-A personality into a frenzy. Should I know? How will I know? Am I good enough to know? The thought of having to define my own movement path was overwhelming.

However, as we progressed into the weekend, I realized that my apprehension was self-imposed and I was staring at a chance to embrace fitness in a whole new light to reach a level of health that I never thought possible. I just needed a place to start.

We Need to Move

It is estimated that the average person spends 9-10 hours a day sitting, which is so much inactivity that even a 60-minute workout can’t counteract the negative effects. Considering that nearly half of Americans never engage in any vigorous exercise lasting more than 10 minutes per week, it is clear that most people simply need to move.

Developing your movement practice doesn’t have to be weird. Running around barefoot climbing trees certainly isn’t for everyone, but natural movement practice doesn’t have to mimic any preconceived notions of what you think it should look like. You make the rules. Don’t underestimate the power of your “weirdness” to inspire someone else to shift their view of what healthy movement looks like. Maybe your tree-climbing lunch break adventure will motivate someone to move, and that could trigger a domino effect to help make natural movement a more normal part of society.

If you need inspiration on how to get started with natural movement, give these activities a shot. If any of them speak to you, stick with it and see how your outlook on fitness and health changes or evolves. Movement should make you feel good, so start simple:

• Crawl for a few minutes a day.
• Do a few air squats while waiting in line for coffee.
• Try groundwork instead of traditional mobility work.
• Balance on a curb while walking the dog.
• Practice handstands.
• Sit on the ground while watching television.
• Walk barefoot in grass.
• Hang from monkey bars with one hand.
• Play catch with your friends in a park.
• Climb a tree during your lunch break.

A playground is an opportunity to play, explore, and tap into your child-like mindset. [Photo courtesy of MovNat]

Break Your Routine

Integrating more movement into your life doesn’t have to be complicated. Getting over the fear of doing something that society deems socially awkward is the hard part. Is it weird to sit in the bottom of a squat while you wait in line at the post office? Depends on your perspective.

Maybe something simple like balancing on the curb while walking your dog sparks a bit of playful joy in your otherwise mundane morning routine. Take that feeling and run with it. What do you have to lose? When you find movement that makes you feel good, lean into it and let your movement path unfold. Too often we become slaves to our fitness routine, pushing performance and under-prioritizing recovery.

How often do you tune into what your body really needs? Do you attend to the feedback your body gives you before, during, and after a workout? Do you honor your body when it craves stretching instead of a brutal kettlebell workout, or do you grab the steel and swing? Your body allows you to do amazing things, and it deserves to be heard. If you aren’t willing to listen and give back, you are inviting injury, stalled progress, and frustration.

Make New Friends and Keep the Old

You don’t have to divorce the barbell or quit CrossFit when you get into natural movement. If those activities bring you joy, by all means, continue. There is absolutely no reason to replace your first love. It’s not about sacrificing one for the other, but when you ignore the thousands of ways your body was designed to move, you miss a huge opportunity to expand your physical range to help you evolve into a more well-rounded athlete.

Natural movement is a complement to traditional strength training and translates across disciplines. For example, crawling is a safe and effective way to build shoulder stability and overall core strength. My physical therapist literally had me crawl my way back to health after a back injury. Climbing trees or hanging from monkey bars will do wonders for your grip, and having a daily conversation with your spine through basic articulation movements will translate into a better position for squats and overhead lifts.

Give yourself permission to explore movement without judgment and you might notice more breathing room opening up in other areas of your life, including your preferred fitness discipline. Let go of the self-imposed pressures, and let your fitness evolve naturally. Health doesn’t subscribe to periodized protocols. The journey is long, and when you remove the pressure from fitness, you may become more adept to handle life’s stresses with clarity and focus. Planning and organizing plus allowing results in balance, and a more fit version of you.

Reprogram Your Fitness Worldview

Movement is so much more than reps, sets, and pounds. It’s not something you only do inside a gym on the count of 3, 2, 1. When you let go of the idea that fitness has to fit into a neat and tidy box, you reprogram your view of the world and uncover opportunities all around you to add movement and play into your life. Own your movement practice and own your individuality. Moving with intention has the ability to create freedom regardless of perceived physical obstacles.

Constantly demanding more from your body makes fitness unsustainable. Lasting health is about nourishing and connecting to what your body allows you to do in this moment. What is your priority?

Ready to Learn More?

Beyond GPP: The New Model of Performance Traning

The post Start Your Movement Practice appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I am no mobility expert. In fact, at my CrossFit L1 certification years ago, I was the victim called out in front of the group for having an immature squat. I was warned that my poor position would take years to fix. They were right.

I’ve spent the past five years chasing a perfect squat. I have worked through every hip and ankle drill in the Supple Leopard. I’ve banded up, flossed, and smashed. Progress has been frustratingly slow at times, admittedly because I hate banded distractions, flossing, and smashing.

I know what you’re thinking. If I’m not doing what the experts tell me to do, then I can’t complain about my sub-par position. Well, yes and no. All of these mobility techniques work to free up restrictions, and I’ll suffer through them because smarter people than me say I should. But lately I’ve started to wonder, do I have to suffer to feel successful? There has to be a better way to reclaim and own the space in my body by doing something that makes me feel good.

The impetus for this shift came from integrating MovNat groundwork drills into my daily routine. Notice that I didn’t say daily “training.” With twin toddlers and multiple jobs, formal training isn’t a priority in my life right now, but feeling healthy is. Every day I’ll spend five minutes exploring different lower-body positions and joint configurations in my living room before my family wakes up, and I’ll do the same a few more times during the day.

These movement snacks make me feel like I’m taking care of myself, not like I’m trying to fix a part of my structure that’s wrong. And nothing has done more to improve my squat position.

If you enjoy banded distractions, flossing, and smashing, get after it. But if you don’t, that’s cool, too. Groundwork doesn’t have to replace your current routine, but it is a worthwhile addition to get more movement into your life. You might even notice that after a few weeks, your traditional mobility work is more effective.

Once I stopped trying to force myself into a position from a book, I found my perfect squat.

The post Daily Groundwork for a Stronger Squat appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

When it comes to mobility challenges, it seems like mastering the flat-footed squat is one of the trickiest. Progress can be frustratingly slow, and even if we do get our heels down, we often find ourselves uncomfortably hunched in the bottom position. Rarely is it a position we’d consider rest. In this article I want to introduce you to some of the most effective tools to unlock freedom in your squat.

Keep in mind: there’s no overnight fix. But if you commit to the process of freeing up your joints, you’ll find that the benefits extend far beyond gains in the gym.

What Makes a Squat?

The full squat involves big time flexion of the hips, knees, and ankles. I’m going to avoid the mobility versus stability debate and focus on the deeper issue: control over range of motion. You need to hone in on your body’s ability to organize its various components within a given task.

Let’s take a look at some common sticking points. Test and retest your squat before and after each exercise to notice any differences in quality of movement.

An essential piece of finding your perfect squat is patience. [Photo courtesy of Chandler Stevens]

Build From the Ground Up

Even if you swing kettlebells barefoot and nail those single-leg balances in yoga class, you likely have an issue with your feet. Your feet are designed to be some of the most sensory-rich pieces of real estate in the body. But we give them a bland diet of sensations and situations. We lock them in shoes, train on flat floors, and generally give them the perfect conditions to atrophy.

An athletic foundation is built on your feet, and these lessons don’t go away. Controlling your toes is a crucial step. Start with this:

1. Press your outside four toes down, and slowly attempt to raise just the big toe on each foot. Don’t be surprised if you encounter cramping in the foot. That’s a sign from the nervous system that you haven’t mastered control in this movement. Perform this 12-15 times.
2. Reverse the pattern. Press the big toes down into the ground and attempt to raise the lateral four toes. Even if you can’t yet lift those toes, focus on the intention of lifting them to rebuild your neuromuscular control. Aim for 12-15 repetitions.

Retest your squat now that you’ve found your footing. Has anything shifted?

Controlling Dorsiflexion

Moving up the chain we often see problems with dorsiflexion (i.e., bringing your foot towards your shin). This is especially problematic with ladies who wear heels all day, but many men’s shoes have excess heel as well. This chronic plantarflexion position eventually limits your ability to dorsiflex entirely.

Step one is to gradually switch up your footwear. Think wide toe box, and zero drop heel to ball. But we also need to regain control over our ankles’ ability to dorsiflex. Here’s where the elevated step drill comes in:

1. Place a rolled up towel or mat beneath the ball of one foot, high enough that you feel a slight stretch along the back of that leg. Maintain your footing and stand in this stretched position for 15-30 seconds.
2. Gradually begin to press the ball of your lead foot into the towel, as if you were going to smoosh it into the ground. Actively resist the stretch from step 1. Don’t raise the heel. Hold this tension around 30 seconds.
3. Actively deepen your stretch, driving your knee forward toward (or over) the ball of your foot. Think of pulling your foot up toward your shin. Expect to cramp a bit. Hold this tension 15-30 seconds.
4. Maintain position (stay tall with your heel on the ground) and begin to step your trail leg forward and back over the towel. Slow, controlled steps are key.

Repeat on the other leg, then check in with your squat once again.

Controlling Hips and Knees In Deep Flexion

The triple flexion position is one we rarely find ourselves in, so our neural pathways for this movement may be a bit fuzzy. In the video below I’ll walk you through an interesting way to explore variety within this position, helping you find new options for organizing flexion.

Unraveling the Spine

Spinal movement is a fundamental prerequisite of our more advanced patterns of movement. But too often we have sticky spines, and we lack control over its huge range of motion. This is where the spinal wave comes in. Think of it as the slowest cat-cow of your life.

1. Begin on hands and knees.
2. Gradually begin to reach your tail to the sky, arching your back one vertebra at a time.
3. Slowly move from the lumbar spine to the thoracic, moving with control.
4. Let the movement grow to encompass your neck as well, ending in a global spinal extension. Try to hold in this final position for 15-30 seconds, engaging through the back-body.

Honing in on your ability to control spinal movement will help you find more uprightness in your full squat, making it a much more comfortable place to be.

There’s No Perfect Squat

We’ll never find a perfect movement. What you can do instead is optimize your ability to control a wide variety of positions. This is where MovNat ground drills excel. By exploring novel positions and joint configurations you can learn how to better manage your body. The following video demonstrates some common ground patterns that can help you rewire your squat.

Putting It Together

When it comes to mastering the flat-footed squat, you have an entire system to organize. You need to have adequate control over your range of motion, and this requires a two-pronged approach. Address the musculoskeletal system along with the nervous system if you truly wish to find freedom in any of your movements, including the flat-footed squat.

If your hips need even more work, try these on for size:

5 Stretches to Regain Hip Mobility and Flexibility

The post The Definitive Guide To Owning Your Flat-Footed Squat appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Ready to get “high” and skyrocket the performance of your body and brain? In my last article, I discussed a new model of performance that stimulates development of the brain right alongside the body. Today, we are going to move from concept to application and talk about how that affects workout structure.

Physical performance is measured by the brain’s ability to perceive the environment and optimally harness both its and the body’s resources to produce maximally efficient patterns of movement. I’ll explain how to apply this concept to your workouts in the three-part template you’ll find below.

Find your movement flow by challenging your brain.

How Natural Is Your Movement?

But before we get to the nitty-gritty details of workout structure, let’s talk about movement pattern selections. The most effective patterns for increasing general human performance are those that are totally unspecialized. Our brains and bodies are fundamentally designed to perceive and overcome endless variations of environmental obstacles, which makes the comprehensive natural movement patterns taught in MovNat’s curriculum the obvious selection.

These natural movement patterns include:

Manipulative

• Lifting
• Carrying
• Throwing
• Catching

Locomotive

• Ground Movement
• Crawling
• Walking
• Running
• Balancing
• Jumping
• Climbing
• Swimming

Combative

• Striking
• Grappling

MovNat’s natural movements not only have practical value for everyone, but also imply the development of an equalized amount of broad-based perceptual motor skill, functional work capacity, and healthy range of motion. From this authentic and unspecialized pool of diverse movements, we can forge the strongest base of general perceptual motor development (G-PMD) and general physical preparedness (GPP).

Workouts designed to progressively develop general physical performance are most effective when broken up into three distinct parts.

Part 1: Natural Developmental Sequence (Warm Ups)

The Natural Developmental Sequence (NDS) is nothing short of a goldmine of teaching efficiency. In addition to being a comprehensive, sensory-rich warm up, coaches have plenty of opportunity to discover students’ limiting factors, challenge alignment, and refine patterns of stability and range of motion in fundamental, accessible positions. The NDS usually begins in a prone or supine position, transitions through several seated/quadruped/kneeling variations, and finishes in a standing position, but there are endless iterations to explore while using personal creativity and style.

Depending on the level of the student, the NDS can work through basic or advanced positions and transitions. Bolsters are highly encouraged for those with severe movement dysfunctions.

Part 2: Emphases (Skill/Strength/Power Development)

The emphases are the patterns that you wish to develop with a specific goal over the course of the mesocycle. Depending on the goal, anywhere from 2-4 patterns can be combined to produce the stimulus and volume required to elicit the desired central and peripheral adaptations.

For example, let’s say on days one and three you want to work on improving the strength of your push press and swing-up (climbing) strength. Here’s one option of what the emphases portion of your workout could look like:

Day 1

• Barbell Push Press: 5×5
• Side Hang to Leg Hook to Sliding Swing-Up: 3/side

Day 3

• Sandbag Clean to Push Press: 5×3
• Front Hang to Leg Hook to Inverted Row (thick bar): 8/side (row only)

In the example video, I show these movements (Day 1) as an intermediate level example, as well as some simpler movement choices suited better for beginner students. I also include some counter-balancing drills for active recovery and additional G-PMD stimulus.

This strategy allows you to kill many birds with one stone. You’ll use the volume and intensity required to ensure the body gets the stimulus it needs to adapt at the peripheral neuromuscular level. You’ll also use longer rest periods to keep fatigue low enough to make subtle refinements to the patterns you are trying to improve. The use of environmental complexity (barbell vs. sandbag push press, whole vs. partial swing-up on varied bar thickness) works the patterns with slightly varied loading stimuli, challenging motor control while building up baseline adaptability alongside strength.

This portion of the workout sets us up nicely for the final segment.

Part 3: Combo (PMD/Conditioning)

I used to despise conditioning. Now, it’s the favorite part of my workouts.

The combo is a longer chain of movements with little to no rest in between. Pattern choices can be varied and creative, but the driving force of the combo should be progressively increased environmental complexity to stimulate PMD. While the patterns themselves can be refined and strengthened during the emphases in part two, re-combining movements, practicing transitions between movements, and introducing subtle contextual complexity between trials (rounds) or workouts will actually improve overall retention, which is an indicator of learning.

Ultimately, the more the student’s brain is engaged and challenged, the more she or he will generalize their movement skills and become highly adaptable. The conditioning factor is obvious, especially when you include varied distance running intervals.

Personally, I get a distinct “high” from combining movement sequences in this fashion. It’s different from the typical cardio buzz, and results in a distinct trance-like state of awareness. I call it the “PMD high.” Others would call it a “flow state.” Whatever you want to call it, it’s something transcendent, and it certainly makes cardiovascular training much more engaging and effective. It also prepares you for the ultimate “purist” experience of training in complex outdoor environments.

Train Your Brain Alongside Your Body

This flexible template was created to give MovNat coaches and students the structure they need to best utilize principles of perceptual motor and work capacity development in order to make dramatic improvements in physical competence and performance. The underlying model represents an incredibly powerful shift in our understanding of how to not only set athletes up with a better base for athletic performance, but also most effectively help the great majority who need “movement” the most.

In my next article, I’ll show you how to strategically implement training variables (volume, intensity, complexity) over time to forge elite levels of unspecialized movement skill in highly complex environments. Until next time.

Click here to read Danny’s introduction to this new model of performance.

You’ll Also Enjoy:

• Beyond GPP: The New Model of Performance Training
• Why MovNat Benefits Athletes in All Sports
• Proprioception: The Next Frontier in Performance
• New on Breaking Muscle Right Now

Photos courtesy of Danny Clark.

The post Beyond GPP: Find Your Movement Flow appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Although we know exercise is good for your brain, it is less clear what type of exercise is most beneficial. Aerobic exercise was presumed to be the gold standard for a long time, but mounting evidence points to similar benefit from both anaerobic exercise, such as resistance training, and mindfulness-based training, such as yoga or Tai Chi.^1,2 It seems like a wide variety of activity is a safe bet.

Based on the available literature, there are four main characteristics that optimize our neural function in exercise:

• Focused attention
• Proprioceptive demand
• Subtle variation
• Slow movement

Let’s take a peek at each one.

1. Focused Attention

As a society, we’re largely distracted from our bodies and our movements. Even when we do go to the gym, TV monitors and music compete for the attention of our nervous system, much to the detriment of our movement. Evidence suggests that when we are distracted by external stimuli, we actually diminish our performance.³ If you need to blast pump-up jams every time you hit the gym, you may be leaving gains on the table by decreasing your motor control.

When was the last time you left the gym and explored your movement potential?

Simply put: distracted movement is sloppy movement. When we’re learning new movements or actively seeking improvement, it helps to pay attention.

It’s a whole new experience to train with active focus. Next time you train, pay attention to what cues your body is actually giving you. Take the headphones out. Unplug. Tune in. These sensory cues are key to tapping into the brain-body conversation. When we focus on the task at hand, we see huge increases in performance.

2. Proprioceptive Demand

Proprioception is the body’s ability to identify where it is in space and sense the effort required in a particular movement. It’s closely linked to our sense of balance. Mounting evidence demonstrates that when we challenge our proprioceptive system, we see major improvements in executive function, working memory, and psychological health.⁴ These activities, ranging from tree climbing to dance, force our brains to kick into high gear.

Proprioceptively demanding activities challenge us in novel situations. Rather than the rote movements of traditional cardio and strength training exercise, these new movements provide a greater challenge to use your mind and lay down new neural connections.

How do we tap into this? Try something new! Get out of your training comfort zone. You might incorporate outdoor or ground-based movement (a la MovNat), take up a dance class, or get in some sparring. We need to incorporate variety in our training, not for the nonsense concept of “muscle confusion,” but for brain engagement.

3. Subtle Variation

Many of the benefits of exercise stem from neuroplastic changes, which are changes in how your neurons interact with each other. Task complexity appears to promote these changes.⁵ More so than repetition, variation facilitates the learning process and lights up our brain-body connection.

When you’re exploring a new movement, incorporate subtle purposeful variations. Explore how changes in grip width influence your deadlift. See if where you look changes the difficulty of a Turkish get up. These subtle variations bring in a whole new set of sensory-motor cues for the brain to process, and facilitate learning new skills. And of course, incorporating conscious variety can also help break up the monotony of your training routine.

4. Slow Movement

I’ve talked about the power of slow movement before. When we slow things down, we’re able to take in much more bodily feedback. This lets us get a visceral feel for the quality of our movement. This can play a crucial role as we learn new movements, which as we have seen is critical to the neuroplastic process.

Your Brain On Movement

Exercise literally changes the structure and function of your brain. To make the most of your inherent neuroplasticity, work slowly with focused attention, through challenging movements in novel situations. Explore a wide range of movement options to fire up your nervous system. Add these proven methods to incorporate more brain candy into your training.

You’ll Also Enjoy:

• Your Movement Needs an Upgrade: How to Reboot Your System
• Is What You See What You Get? Focus Your Internal Camera
• How to Be a Thinking Athlete: A User’s Guide to the Brain
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

References:

1. Gothe N et al., “The acute effects of yoga on executive function,” Journal of Physical Activity & Health, 10(2013): 488-498.

2. Yaguez L et al., “The effects on cognitive function of a movement-based intervention in patients with Alzheimer’s-type dementia: a pilot study,” International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 26(2011): 173-181.

3. Johansen-Berg H & Matthews PM. “Attention to movement modulates activity in sensory-motor areas, including primary motor cortex,” Experimental Brain Research 142(2002):13-24.

4. Alloway RG & Alloway TP. “The working memory benefits of proprioceptively demanding training: a pilot study,” Perceptual and Motor Skills, 120 (2015):766-775.

5. Carey JR, et al. “Neuroplasticity promoted by task complexity,” Exercise and Sport Science Reviews, 33(2005):24-31.

Photo courtesy of Breaking Muscle.

The post Your Brain on Movement: Challenge Your Nervous System appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

But I’ve also always felt that something is missing from our current model of performance. In my quest to help both myself and my students experience how empowering a high state of performance can feel, I’ve experimented with endless angles and styles of training. What I’ve come to discover recently is an entirely new dimension of training, with profound value for those who pursue and coach performance.

The principles of natural movement support a comprehensive approach to fitness.

The Rise of the Current Fitness Model

First let’s rewind back to 2008, when the current model of performance began penetrating the mass fitness market. I remember lying on a grass football field watching Pavel Tsatsouline lecture about performance training as part of his iconic RKC (now StrongFirst) kettlebell certification.

“GPP, general physical preparedness, should always come before SPP, specific physical preparedness,” he explained with a thick Russian accent. He labeled strength the “master quality,” and his training protocols clearly nurtured the development of this quality. In an industry dominated by gimmicks, machines, and muscle isolation, Tsatsouline’s words were incredibly refreshing.

Concurrently, Greg Glassman was popularizing his famous definition of GPP, with a broader scope to include “work capacity across broad time and modal domains.” With a performance model similar to that of high-level athletes, coaches and fitness enthusiasts alike were training in a way that distinguished them from bodybuilding and calorie counting dogma, methods which had pervaded the industry for decades.

An Incomplete System

Both Tsatsouline’s and Glassman’s approaches were correct in their own way. But now, decades later, it’s time we as coaches re-evaluate the current performance model, as emerging evidence points to its lack of completeness.

The current model emphasizes quantifiable movements like squatting, deadlifting, and pressing.

Depending on the specific brand of training you choose, the current model often begins with refining a student’s movement patterns. The initial goal is to correct dysfunctional patterns of mobility and stability and restore baseline function. Because the eventual goal of GPP is measurable work capacity improvement – i.e., strength, power, agility, endurance, etc – the movement patterns coaches gravitate toward are those patterns that best display work capacity.

Hence the high emphasis on “functional” patterns that are also well-suited for quantifiable work capacity development, such as squatting, deadlifting, pressing, pulling, running, and their variations. “Mobility drills” are often included to allow the student the benefit of executing these patterns with a fuller range of motion, avoid patterns of compensation, and to avoid injury and discomfort related to stiffness.

Those who train for a specific sport spend additional time refining skill and developing work capacity specific to the patterns most relevant to their particular sport. This is the case even if the sport is as relatively straightforward as weightlifting, It’s a clean, effective model that certainly has stood the test of time. So, what’s missing?

Train Your Brain

To answer that question, we need to visit a different branch of science.

In the early 1950s, a French developmental psychologist named Jean Piaget published his work on the link between movement, external environmental challenges, and cognitive ability in children. His work was inspired by watching his own kids interact with natural environments, which he contrasted with the sterilized laboratory settings found in most research studies.

Piaget discovered that sensory-rich environments stimulate the brain’s ability to perceive and produce adaptive movements. This neurological problem solving process is called perceptual motor behavior, and it is essential to a child’s overall ability to learn and develop properly. His work would become a powerful theory of cognitive development, which acknowledges the extensive neural interconnectedness of the brain, and is still referenced extensively in modern child development research and occupational therapy.

The driving force of perceptual motor development (PMD) is motor learning in response to environmental demands, which is a step beyond learning new movement patterns in isolation. For example, balancing on a new surface requires far more sensory integration and adaptive movement, and thus perceptual motor skill, than deadlifting a heavier load. Complex, highly practical and functional movement drills, such as crawling, become perceptual motor drills when unfamiliar obstacles or other environmental complexities are gradually introduced. Any external challenges that demand complex, adaptive movement patterns stimulate the brain to refine and build its neural pathways, increasing its ability to adapt via this neuroplasticity.

Responding to environmental demands will retrain your neural pathways.

A New, More Sophisticated Model

In the same way that general work capacity (GPP) increases the capacity and robustness of the body, general perceptual motor development (G-PMD) can be seen as increasing the overall capability and robustness of the brain.

This leads to robust health. Modern evidence supporting the benefits of this type of training for all ages is flooding in, both in clinical and non-clinical applications. Potential benefits include:

• Increased working memory in aging adults
• Increased synaptogenesis
• Increased neuronal complexity
• Improvements in proprioception
• Greater competence in a wide range of practical life patterns
• Greater athletic performance, especially in sports that require high degrees of adaptability

Further, the brain’s ability to perceive both its internal and external environment is subject to the same “use it or lose it” principles that govern work capacity. Lack of use, whether through over-specialization or lack of movement, can have detrimental effects for both the athlete and average person. In contrast, this general perceptual motor skill manifests itself as general adaptability, and it’s the hallmark quality of a person who trains and develops perceptual motor skills.

Like GPP, perceptual motor development can be approached generally or specifically. Interestingly, G-PMD would more closely resemble the elementary stages of the classic Russian PASM (Process of Achieving Sports Mastery) system, with a higher emphasis on building skill in natural human movement patterns and less emphasis on increasing work capacity. Specific perceptual motor development (S-PMD) is already well established in many current models of training for elite athletes- task (i.e. sport) specific perceptual and motor skills that build task specific performance.

Examples of G-PMD:

• Learning how to lift an object efficiently using the hip hinge pattern for the first time
• Ground locomotion patterns with variable situational demands (for example, moving under and over low obstacles or getting up and down off the ground on varying terrain)
• Precision jumping and balancing on various objects
• Walking barefoot on varied surfaces
• Brachiation, aka arm swinging patterns

Examples of S-PMD:

• A new defensive strategy in football
• Adjusting foot positioning and weight distribution for a more agile fighting stance
• Fine tuning an elite lifter’s barbell clean
• Refining a tennis serve
• Drilling a new wrestling takedown, then attempting the technique during live sparring

With this new understanding of the complete spectrum of human abilities, we can lay the foundation for a new and improved model of performance training:

Force the body to increase performance through work capacity or movement capacity.

MovNat’s model of performance represents a sophisticated understanding of how the body responds to different types of stress. We can then create more effective movement and training programs.

By emphasizing movement sequences that demand PMD, the body is stimulated to make adaptations predominantly in the central domains, including it’s sensory-perceptual, coordinative, and processing systems.

By emphasizing movement sequences that demand work capacity, the body is stimulated to make adaptations predominantly in its peripheral domains, including the musculoskeletal and cardiorespiratory systems. Even though peripheral adaptations are regulated by the brain, studies have shown that synaptogenesis (the formation of new synapses between neurons) doesn’t occur without exercise that requires motor learning.

The overlapping adaptations in the diagram happen in the body during both forms of training. This means the adaptations that PMD stimulates aren’t exclusively central, while the adaptations that work capacity stimulates aren’t exclusively peripheral. In the body there is always overlap, so making a concrete distinction would be overly simplified. For example, crawling through obstacles will primarily lead to central (brain) adaptations, but there are muscular and cardiorespiratory benefits as well. No type of training style is exclusive to any one physiological system.

The outcome of these adaptations is the tangible increase in performance for our students that can be directly observed, either by increased movement skill or work capacity.

Train Both Systems

For the purposes of modeling, I have separated work capacity from perceptual motor skill development in the diagrams, but I am by no means implying that these training styles need to be mutually exclusive. When most people use the buzzword “movement training,” they are usually referring to a small fragment of PMD: the increases in proprioception and coordinative ability that follow refining movement patterns with little environmental enrichment. A solid training program incorporates a more comprehensive version of PMD right alongside GPP, developing movement performance synergistically and organically.

Combining these two forms of training for optimal performance is exactly what my work entails, as I am in charge of developing specific, science-based “Performance for Everyone” programs for MovNat, a Natural Movement education system. In my next article, I’ll be discussing how to implement both GPP and G-PMD into a successful training program. Until next time.

This article was originally published on Breaking Muscle US.

You’ll Also Enjoy:

• Move Your Body, Move Your Brain: Training for Neuroplasticity
• Is CrossFit’s Definition of Fitness Flawed?
• When Comfort Is Uncomfortable: You Need Natural Movement
• New on Breaking Muscle Right Now

References:

1. Alloway, R, Alloway, T, “The working memory benefits of proprioceptively demanding training: A pilot study,” Perceptual and Motor Skills, 120 (2015): 1-10

2. Aman, J, et al. “The effectiveness of proprioceptive training for improving motor function: a systematic review,” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8, (2014): 1075.

3. Black, JE, et al. “Learning causes synaptogenesis, whereas motor activity causes angiogenesis, in cerebellar cortex of adult rats,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 87 (1990): 5568-5572.

4. Briones, TL, et al. “Stability of synaptic plasticity in the adult rat visual cortex induced by complex environment exposure,” Brain Research, 1018 (2004): 130–135.

5. “What is Crossfit” Crossfit.com. Accessed Jan 18, 2016.

6. Myslinski, T, “Development of the Russian Conjugate Sequence System,” Accessed Jan 18, 2016.

7. Piaget, J,“The Origins of Intelligence in Children,” New York: International Universities Press, 1952

8. Tonoi, G and Edelman, GM, “Consciousness and complexity,” Science, 5395 (1998): 1846-1851.

Photos courtesy of MovNat.

Reviewed by Jon Morey, DC, MS, MCT3.

The post Beyond GPP: The New Model of Performance Training appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

We’re not talking ballet here. The Black Swan refers to an unprecedented and unpredictable event that has a huge impact. It’s the unknown and the dangerous. This concept, developed by scholar Nassim Taleb, is the epitome of what we don’t want to happen. In our physical lives, this is slipping and falling.

Unfortunately, prevention only takes us so far. Although a fall is particularly concerning the older we get,¹ the truth is anybody can fall. Leaves get slick, ice accumulates, and sometimes we’re just clumsy. We need to prepare our bodies to handle these uncertainties. Today we’ll explore why and how to integrate falling into your training program.

Incorporating falls into your routine can get your body more accustomed to an inherently disorienting experience.

3 Ways to Bulletproof Your Body for Falls

Without intending to, we put a lot of emphasis on predictability in our training. We strap on our favorite shoes. We train on flat, even surfaces, often with plenty of extra traction. We pick up barbells, dumbbells, and kettlebells, all conveniently shaped to be lifted with relative ease. We have an overload of convenience.

But life isn’t always convenient. The most important aspect of preventative training is variability. Variability can be a tricky element to add to your training program, but it needn’t be overwhelming.

Here are three simple solutions that will help prevent injury from slipping and falling:

1. Spend More Time Barefoot

We’ve already covered how crucial foot strength is to overall health and wellbeing. Barefoot time also improves balance, another important part of preventing falls.

In addition to more barefoot time, you might consider sled drags outdoors, snowshoeing, or trail running. The key is to find as much variety as you can in the surfaces you move on.

2. Learn How to Roll

Learning how to fall correctly is helpful, even though it carries the risky assumption that you’ll be falling under ideal circumstances.

A good fall will look quite a bit like a roll, distributing your impact over as much surface area as possible. Check out this video for a brief primer on rolling effectively, and keep these rules in mind when you practice your rolls:

1. Protect your head and neck.
2. Move with control whenever possible.
3. Be aware of your surroundings.

3. Practice Falling

Incorporating actual falls into your routine can get your body more accustomed to an inherently disorienting experience.

They won’t be graceful, but falling over varied obstacles can help you build a bit of armor and add new options to your reflexive arsenal. Your falls might look like this:

Prepare for the Unexpected

Since we don’t want to spend our lives tip-toeing around, we better learn how to fall. It’s not only a good life skill, it can be a lot of fun if implemented wisely.

When a fall does eventually occur, your body will revert to reflexive movement, so it helps to have these three extra tools at your disposal.

A bit of preparation won’t help you predict the Black Swan, but you may be better able to keep yourself intact.

You’ll Also Enjoy:

• Your Mind is Your Gym: Your Brain Is All the Equipment You Need
• Antifragility: Learn to Thrive Under Pressure
• Breaking Your Fall: Gait Mechanics for Injury Prevention

References:

1. Masud T., et al. “Epidemiology of falls.” Age & Ageing 30 (2001): 3-7.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post The Black Swan: 3 Ways to Bulletproof Your Body for Falls appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

If you want to ditch nagging pains, improve mobility, and give your body a balanced diet of movement, you need to find ways to move more throughout the day.

What Are Micro-Movements?

Like food, we have both macro- and micronutrients when it comes to movement, and we need all of them to be a healthy, functional animal. Just as trace minerals play an important role in your body, trace movements make a big difference in your physical ability. These micro-movements determine your health and wellbeing.

So what are micro-movements? They include:

• Shifting our weight
• Changing positions
• Small joint movements

Micro-movements are key to owning our big movements, like the squat, bench, and deadlift. They keep us working like a well-tuned instrument. If we ignore them during our day-to-day, we end up with a body that doesn’t quite work like a body.

Human beings are built to move for a huge amount of the day, in a variety of positions and circumstances. This huge spectrum of movement has now been consolidated into a few hour-long chunks during the week. We’re seeing an accumulation of evidence that no amount of exercise makes up for a sedentary lifestyle.¹ No matter how intense it is, one hour of movement a day simply doesn’t make up for the other 23.

2 Tools for a Better Movement Diet at Home

These two simple tools will help you include more of the micro-movements listed above without throwing out all your furniture. (But I still encourage you to get off the couch whenever possible.) You’ll spend about $25.00 total and find huge improvements in your overall function.

You will need:

• One 2 x 4 beam, about 8 feet long
• One large plastic tub (with lid)
• A bag of landscaping river rocks

Step 1: Train Your Brain

Your first step is to assemble a very high-tech, proprioceptive stimulus device – a.k.a., a balance beam.

Here’s the step-by-step guide:

1. Find a hallway you walk down multiple times each day, and lay a 2 x 4 along it.
2. Now each time you go down the hall, you can get a tiny bit of movement stimulus by balancing along the beam.

That’s it.

It may not seem like much, but proprioceptively-demanding activities like balancing light up the brain and are linked to improvements in working memory, cognition, and more.^{2, 3}

Step 2: Strengthen Your Feet

The second step is slightly more complex. This video details how to construct your own rock bed.

This simple tool provides a much-needed change from the monotony of flat floors. The rock bed is your secret weapon when it comes to foot health. And as we’ve seen before, foot health is your secret weapon for strength, speed, and power.

Take Control of Your Health

Here’s the big take home: your body is always changing, and it’s either improving or declining. It takes cues from the things you eat, the way you sit, the environment around you, and based on those factors, it adapts.

You have a tremendous amount of control of the way your body looks, feels, and moves. If you aren’t happy with it, it’s time to change things up. These two simple tools can have a tremendous impact on your overall health and function if put into daily practice.

Remember: consistency trumps intensity.

You’ll Also Enjoy:

• The Power of 5-Minute Practice Snacks
• Take a Break From Weights: How to Train Intuitively
• Set the Foundations: Include Balance Drills in Your Workout
• New on Breaking Muscle Right Now

References:

1. Biswas A, et al. “Sedentary Time and Its Association With Risk for Disease Incidence, Mortality, and Hospitalization in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis,” Annals of Internal Medicine 126 (2015): 123-132.

2. Alloway RG & Alloway TP. “The working memory benefits of proprioceptively demanding training: a pilot study,” Perceptual and Motor Skills 120 (2015): 766-775.

3. Colcombe S & Kramer AS. “Fitness effects on the cognitive function of older adults: a meta-analytic study,” Psychological Science 14 (2003): 125-130.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Daily Movement Snacks: 2 Tools to Move More at Home appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

When we don’t focus on the foundation, we set ourselves up for dysfunction. As Aristotle said, “He who sees things grow from the beginning will have the finest view of them.” So let’s turn back the clock and look at human development.

Today we’ll explore two human developmental patterns that form the building blocks of your movement.

1. Spinal Movement

The spine is the axis of our movement, and it plays a huge role in organizing our bodies as they move. Every movement, from the big, sexy Olympic lifts to more basic walking and locomotion, depend on spinal integrity.¹

The vertebrae act as a supple column, giving us our sense of what “vertical” means. Spinal movement is one of the earliest human developments. When these fundamental movements are compromised, we see big-time compensation later on. Repatterning spinal function has a tremendous impact not only on strength, but also on alignment and mobility.

The most fundamental spinal movement pattern is flexion and extension. Check out these exercises for a powerful reset.

1. Lie on your back with knees bent (see photo below). Notice the curves of the spine here, particularly the space beneath the neck and low back.
2. Begin to oscillate the low back, pressing it into the ground and arching it. As you do, tune into subtle shifts in the neck and head.
3. Arch and flatten the back 12-15 times, then tune into the neutral curves of the spine. Do they feel any different?

Flexion and extension are the most fundamental spinal movements.

Now that you’ve brought some awareness to the spine and reminded the body of this foundational human movement pattern, it’s time to hone in on your control. We’ll explore the world’s slowest cat/cow stretch to do so.

1. Shift yourself to hands and knees.
2. Moving from tail to head, gradually arch your back, trying to slowly articulate one vertebrae at a time – think all 24 vertebrae above the sacrum. (See photo on left below.)
3. When you’ve found your full arch, slowly reverse the movement one vertebrae at a time until you are curled into global spinal flexion. (See photo on right below.)
4. Repeat 2 more times. See if you can control each step of the movement.

Right: Spinal extension; Left: Spinal flexion

It gets easier, I promise. But when you start out, it may be difficult to find this level of articulation. Through years of disuse we tend to forget how to control these building blocks. Remember, movement is a language, which means if we don’t use it, we lose fluency.

2. Homologous Movement

Homologous movement is how we first learn to coordinate the upper and lower halves of the body. It involves symmetrical movement of both hands or both feet.² When thinking of homologous movements in your routine, the big three come to mind: the squat, deadlift, and press. If you want to unlock ridiculous strength in these movements, you better hone in on your building blocks.

In this case, we’ll explore rocking on hands and knees. Rocking utilizes a controlled push from both hands and both feet, forcing the halves of the body to work together. Dr. Perry Nickelston details a fantastic modification for rocking to power up the core, the resisted quadruped rock. Introducing resistance to the movement kicks our stabilizing musculature into high gear and helps us relearn this fundamental building block.

Add the resisted quadruped rock to your warm up to activate your core before performing strength exercises.

Here are Perry’s instructions for this movement:

1. Use a 1.5 inch or 2 inch resistance band for optimal width and tension.
2. Wrap the band around your waist and bring it up to the thoracolumbar junction T12/L1 – the bottom of the ribcage. It’s best if the band is on your skin to prevent sliding on clothing. This will also shear the fascia more effectively.
3. Anchor the band low to the ground. This helps with the downward and forward pull of the band and prevents slipping.
4. While in quadruped position, move back from the anchor point to establish tension.
5. Your hands go below the shoulders and knees go below the hips.
6. Now widen your hips for a more stable base by widening the knees.
7. Bend your ankles so you are in a dorsiflexed position with toes extended.
8. Keep your head in a neutral position. Do not extend or flex the neck.
9. Rock backward by pushing away with your hands and sitting back into the ankles.
10. Do not round your back. The band will help prevent rounding.
11. Hold for 4 seconds and maintain normal breathing. If you cannot maintain normal breathing, either move closer to the anchor point to reduce tension or get a lighter band. Loss of breath control indicates the load is too high.
12. Eccentrically control the return to starting position and repeat the pattern holding each concentric repetition for 4 seconds.
13. Do a total of 10-12 repetitions.

Check out his article for the full scoop on the resisted quadruped rock.

Movement Is Your Alphabet

On the surface, these movements aren’t glamorous. It may feel like you’re going back to high school English. But these two developmental patterns – spinal movement and homologous movement – provide the foundation for all of our more advanced movements. When they grow foggy and fuzzy, our motor control suffers, and we miss out on huge amounts of future strength and flexibility.

Think back to language. These patterns are your alphabet. Learn them forward and backward to make consistent, injury-free progress.

References:

1. Field-Forte, EC. “Spinal Cord Control of Movement: Implications for Locomotor Rehabilitation Following Spinal Cord Injury.” Journal of American Physical Therapy Association. 80 (2000): 477-484.

2. Bainbridge Cohen, Bonnie. Sensing, Feeling, and Action: The Experimental Anatomy of Mind-Body Centering. Contact Editions, 2008.

You’ll Also Enjoy:

• The 4 Undebatable Fundamentals of Training
• Why MovNat Benefits Athletes in All Sports
• Foundation Training: Relieve Pain and Improve Performance
• New on Breaking Muscle Right Now

Photos 1 and 2 courtesy of Chandler Stevens.

Photo 3 courtesy of Perry Nickelston.

The post Movement Is a Language: 2 Patterns to Develop Fluency appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Just like any instrument, your body needs to be tuned from time to time. Luckily it has its own built-in tuner. Or it did, until we decided to spend our entire waking life in a chair.

The Body Is a Self-Tuning Instrument

When our knowledge of structural anatomy comes from taking apart cadavers, we forget that the body is actually a complex, interconnected system. Like any complex system, it has developed self-correcting mechanisms over time. When a system isn’t allowed to self-correct, problems arise. Individual elements become overused, and we see things like low back pain pop up like weeds.¹

“These are natural positions for the human animal. If your body doesn’t work the way a body should, movement will suffer.”

Complex systems crave variety. They’re true examples of antifragility, meaning they actually thrive from a bit of manageable disorder. Changing up your habits and patterns can have huge benefit for the health of a system. For the human system, something as simple as sitting on the floor can be just the change we need.

5 Resting Positions to Improve Your Movement

Our whole evolutionary and developmental history can be seen as an epic quest to rise from the ground to vertical. This is a vast simplification of course, but as we’ve seen before, spending time on the ground has marked benefits. What we haven’t explored is how mind-bogglingly simple it is to incorporate ground time in your day-to-day life.

Floor sitting requires no additional time in your day. I often tell my students it feels like a cheat code because all you need is a change of position for the things you’d do anyway (reading, eating, watching Netflix, etc). Floor sitting integrates seamlessly into your time outside the gym for great benefit to joint health. Even miniscule changes in body position create a change in joint loading.²

So let’s explore a little variety in our patterns, shall we? The following five resting positions are often called “archetypal postures” because they’re seen in cultures across the globe. They’re an inherent component of natural human rest.

1. Squatting

The full squat is hotly contested, but it’s a fundamental building block of human movement. The full squat puts the legs in the unique position of triple flexion, flexing the ankles, knees, and hips. This brings length to some of the most overworked muscles in the body. Ideally the squat is done with feet facing forward, heels close to the ground, and knees tracking toes without collapsing into the arches of the feet.

This position may elude you for some time if you’re out of practice, so it’s important to approach it wisely. Pain is never a good sign. Ease into the position, using as much padding or propping with pillows as needed. You may need to hang on to an object for additional support. The key here is to give your body permission to release into the position. Savor the small improvements, and you’ll find your squat getting better and better over time.

2. Kneeling

Kneeling gives the body a huge number of options to explore. You can kneel low or tall, with toes tucked under or pointed behind you. These positions are found fairly often outside of Western cultures, but again, if your body is unaccustomed to this range of motion or posture, you’ll have a relearning curve.

Some individuals will need padding under the butt to rest comfortably (particularly if the quadriceps have excess tension). If your knees are sensitive, make sure to pad beneath them as well. From kneeling, you can easily find the fold up position (or child’s pose) to bring more length to the back in global, whole-spine flexion.

3. Long Sitting

Sitting with the legs extended in front of you can be quite revealing. Ideally you should be sitting on our ischial tuberosities, those bony bumps beneath the pelvis. Many folks will find they collapse here and rest on the tail bone. If this is the case, simply prop the pelvis a bit higher and let gravity do its thing. Explore this position with both legs out, or one leg tucked in.

4. Cross-Legged

The prior positions are more linear and don’t take the hips into much rotation. It’s not uncommon for chair-bound individuals to have knees significantly elevated in this position. If that’s you, you know the drill: give the knees some support to release into. From cross-legged you may explore the tailor’s posture, with the soles of both feet together and knees out to the sides.

5. Side Sitting

The last position we’ll cover here is side sitting. In this position, one hip is in internal rotation, while the other is in external rotation. This position may strain the knees if they are forced to compensate for overly tight hips. Pay close attention to differences as you switch from one side to the other.

Wrapping It Up

This is by no means an exhaustive list of resting positions, but it gives you a lot of room to explore. These are natural positions for the human animal. If your body doesn’t work the way a body should, movement will suffer. One surprisingly simple way to improve your movement is to rest better. Use these resting positions to tap into the body’s natural ability to tune itself.

You’ll Also Enjoy:

• When Comfort is Uncomfortable: You Need Natural Movement
• Squat Therapy: 4 Drills for a Better Squat
• 3 Basic Drills to Improve Your Strength and Movement
• What’s New on Breaking Muscle Today

References:

1. Hoy, D., et al. “The epidemiology of low back pain,” Best Practice & Research Clinical Rheumatology 24 (2010): 769-781.

2. Baumgartner, D., et al. “The spinal curvature of three different sitting positions analyzed in an open MRI scanner,”The Scientific World (2012): Article ID 184016.

Photos courtesy of Chandler Stevens.

The post Sit Better to Move Better appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

As adults we may grudgingly get on the floor every once in a while, but for most of us the journey down to the floor and back up is not a pleasant one. And we certainly don’t think of it as therapeutic. But if you suffer from cranky joints and chronic tension, it may be just what your body needs.

In the natural movement method we spend a lot of time getting cozy with the ground.  It’s not unusual to go through a few crawling variations, some rolls, and ground-based mobility drills all in one session. For those who are new to MovNat, this is quite an adjustment. You might meet the floor for the occasional Turkish get up or a bit of yoga, but a full class on the ground? It seems crazy.

The truth is: it’s a booster shot for your nervous system and musculoskeletal health.

Why You Should Get on the Floor

You probably don’t remember it well, but the floor is where you first developed motor control. We go through huge amounts of neural and musculoskeletal development in our infant and toddler years, and it’s all thanks to our relationship with the floor.¹ From our earliest development, the ground serves as a constant source of support and stimulus. We can reap these same rewards once again later in life. Here are three reasons getting low will help you move and feel better.

1. The Ground Is a Mirror of Tension

When you make your way down to the ground, it’s hard to fake good posture. The firm surface makes it clear where you’re holding excess tension that you may not notice while standing and walking around. The floor provides an unfamiliar jolt to the nervous system and highlights just where you could use some release.

Try this:

1. Lie face up on the ground with knees comfortably bent.
2. Pay attention to where you notice contact with the ground.
3. Notice whether one side carries more weight than the other in the shoulders and hips.
4. Tune in to the curves of the spine. Note their depth.
5. Be aware of any areas that feel tense in this position.

If you’re not accustomed to this level of body awareness, you’ll probably get some pretty surprising feedback from this exercise. Go in with curiosity, and try to resist the temptation to “fix” things while you’re down there. 

The crucial thing about this exercise is that any differences you feel on the ground exist in all of your upright movement as well. You just haven’t paid attention to them until now. The floor isn’t making you tense. It’s just revealing formerly hidden pockets of tension.

2. Added Stability

Moving on the floor provides a tremendous increase in stability thanks to additional points of contact. This stability sends a powerful message of safety to the nervous system. And when the nervous system feels safe, it gives you more room to play.

This is particularly useful in releasing chronically stiff muscles and finding increased mobility. You’re only as mobile as you are stable. By borrowing stability from the floor, you give the body the conditions it needs to let go of excess muscle tension.²

Try this exercise, the Figure-4 Sit, to unravel tight hips:

1. Sit on the floor with one knee bent, resting on the ground. Arms can be behind you for support.
2. Place the opposite foot flat on the floor (so the shin is upright), just in front of the lowered shin.
3. Get tall here. You will likely feel more weight on your lowered hip.
4. Shift your weight from one hip to the other, uncrossing and recrossing your legs.

By increasing the surface area in contact with the ground, you cue the body to let go of tension, particularly in the hips. When your hips feel the external support, they have less need to maintain tension and rigidity.

3. Limit Your Options

Getting ourselves down on the ground can be a powerful way to retrain dysfunctional motor patterns. Increased contact with the ground leads to a reduction in degrees of freedom, which decreases our chances of messing up.¹ 

Take the six-point crawl for example. With so much ground contact, you limit the options for hands, knees, and feet. The “right” movement is favored, while options for “wrong” movement are limited.

Try this:

• Stand up and go for a short walk.
• Pay attention to the relationship between arms and legs. Do the arms move? If so, do they move with the legs?
• Next make your way down to hands and knees.
• Go for a crawl. Notice the relationship between arms and legs here. Is it the same as walking? Or slightly different?

In crawling we tend to reinforce the pattern of contralateral movement – that syncing of opposite limbs. This pattern translates to walking and running, but we often lose it if we don’t actively practice it. Crawling is a great way to hone in on this pattern.

The six-point crawl

Make Friends With the Ground

In so many words: the ground is your friend. It’s the simplest, most ubiquitous tool we have for reestablishing baseline mobility and motor control. If your idea of groundwork is mowing the lawn or vacuuming, do yourself a favor – get low.

More Like This:

• Beyond Crawling: Cross Patterning for Athletes
• Kick Pain in the Face With Natural Movement
• Move Your Body, Move Your Brain: Training for Neuroplasticity
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

References

1.Shumway-Cook, A., and Woolacott, M. Motor Control: Translating Research Into Practice, 4^th ed. 2012.

2. Weppler, CH., and Magnusson, SP. “Increasing Muscle Extensibility: A Matter of Increasing Length or Modifying Sensation?.” Journal of the American Physical Therapy Association. 2010.

The post 3 Reasons the Ground Is Your Body’s Best Friend appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

It’s surprisingly easy to improve your foot strength, and this leads to huge improvements in performance. I’m going to show you just how important the feet are for performance and health. I’ll also share some surprisingly simple ways to enhance your foundation of intrinsic foot strength.

The Role of the Feet

Show of hands: any bipeds out there? If you’re reading this, odds are good you spend a fair amount of time upright on two feet when training. Those feet do more than just hold you up. The complex structure of the human foot – 26 bones and more than 100 muscles, tendons, and ligaments – makes it ideal as a shock absorber, locomotor, and structural support. Not to mention, a major source of sensory input.

“The feet effectively act as a bottleneck for speed, strength, and power. So, you want to move better? Then fix your feet.”

A recent study in The Journal of Physical Therapy Science found that a simple foot strengthening routine could lead to significant improvements in running speed, horizontal and vertical jump distance, and strength.¹ The feet effectively act as a bottleneck for speed, strength, and power. So, you want to move better? Then fix your feet.

The Foot Bone’s Connected to the…

With such a complex structure and a multitude of functions, it’s clear that your feet play a key role in performance and health. The trick comes when they aren’t quite up to snuff. Years of moving in shoes on flat floors can weaken the intrinsic muscles of the feet until they function less like feet and more like bags of pudding. If your feet don’t work like feet, you can bet you’ll pay the price.

The body is a master of compensation. When the feet aren’t able to effectively bear a load, then other tissues and structures are forced to pick up the slack. This sets the stage for big-time overuse injuries.²

“The fascial system of the body connects the soles of the feet all the way to the head, through the muscles of the legs, back, and neck.”

What areas are most prone to compensation? Think knees, low back, and neck. When the feet take a vacation, the upstream effects can be crippling. How many former runners do you know with bad knees?

You may also notice tension in the calves and hamstrings, even your neck. The fascial system of the body connects the soles of the feet all the way to the head, through the muscles of the legs, back, and neck. After all, if the feet aren’t supporting you, something else has to.

So, if rebuilding healthy feet is so easy and so beneficial, what are we waiting for? Let’s explore a few primary methods to restore natural function in the feet. 

1. Ball Roll

If you haven’t spent much time moving your feet, they may have taken on an unnatural rigidity. Due to our old friend the SAID principle – specific adaptation to imposed demand – your body will adapt to the conditions it encounters most frequently. Spend much time in shoes on flat surfaces? You’ll have flat, shoe-shaped feet.

The ball roll is a basic tool to unravel tension in the feet and mobilize the skeletal structure. To do this, spend 60-90 seconds rolling a lacrosse ball under each foot as a simple warm up.

2. Improving Flexion

This exercise, influenced by the work of sports chiropractor Dr. Andreo Spina, has two parts. Begin in standing, and then:

1. Press your outside four toes down, and slowly attempt to raise just the big toe on each foot. Don’t be surprised if you encounter cramping in the foot. That’s a sign from the nervous system that you haven’t mastered control in this movement. Perform this 12-15 times.
2. Reverse the pattern. Press the big toes down into the ground and attempt to raise the lateral four toes. Say “hello” to your arches for me! Even if you can’t yet lift those toes, focus on the intention of lifting them to rebuild your neuromuscular control. Again aim for 12-15 repetitions.

The more frequently you go through these movements (barring pain and fatigue, of course), the sooner you will regain natural function in your intrinsic foot musculature. 

3. Six-Point Crawl

The six-point crawl is a fantastic tool to restore the foot’s ability to drive your movement. It’s not enough to strengthen and mobilize the feet. You need to re-teach them how to play nicely with the rest of the body.

1. Assume a stance on hands and knees and tuck your toes under. That part is crucial.
2. Drive each step from the toes of the foot. Think about the flip-flop point between your big and second toes. Imagine pressing from that point, and you’ll be amazed at the force you can generate.
3. Aim for 1-3 minutes of crawling.

4. Barefootin’

The best way to build feet that work like feet is to treat them like feet. Think SAID principle once again. If the Vibram FiveFinger lawsuit taught us anything it’s that you can’t jump into minimalist walking and running. You need to ease your way into spending more time barefoot.

“Remember, you’re only as strong as your weakest link. Without a focus on your feet, you’ll sacrifice speed, strength, and power.”

You might start with ten minutes per day walking barefoot in the grass. Gradually begin to explore different terrain and longer periods of time. Don’t jump straight to walking on hot coals. Please. But do make a habit of gradually freeing your feet from the confines of shoes. Ever spent time in a cast? That same atrophy occurs in the feet when we keep them shod. And just like you need to slowly regain strength the gym, restoring your foundation will take time.

Build From the Foundation

Remember, you’re only as strong as your weakest link. Without a focus on your feet, you’ll sacrifice speed, strength, and power. It’s an easy process to rebuild, so kick your shoes off and stay awhile.

More Like This:

• Build Strong and Stable Ankles for a Strong and Stable Body
• Breaking Your Fall: Gait Mechanics for Injury Prevention
• Barefoot Basics: How to Regain Your Footing
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

References:

1. T. Hashimoto and K. Sakuraba, “Strength Training for the Intrinsic Flexor Muscles of the Foot: Effects on Muscle Strength, the Foot Arch, and Dynamic Parameters Before and After the Training.” Journal of Physical Therapy Science. 2014;26(3):373-376. doi:10.1589/jpts.26.373.

2. P. Levinger, et al., “A comparison of foot kinematics in people with normal- and flat-arched feet using the Oxford Foot Model,” Gait & Posture. 2010; 32 (4);519-523.

Photos 1 and 2 courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Building on Quicksand: How and Why to Strengthen Your Feet appeared first on Breaking Muscle.