Occasionally we watch the sands of time collect at the bottom of the bottle that represents our lives, we watch each descending grain of sand fall – sometimes it moves quickly and at other times way too slow – especially at that Monday morning work meeting whilst you agonizingly suffer through the aftershock of the weekend Mexican theme party. At a certain age, this pile of silicate minerals begins to add volume and we notice the first indication of restricted mobility.
As children we would look forward to getting older – probably due the excitement of birthday parties, sleep overs and staying up beyond a certain hour. As we got older, came a certain independence and going to bed at our own volition was the ultimate demonstration of free-will. We later came to realise that after a while each age had its own desire – the older who wish to go bed early and the young wishing for the complete opposite.
The old get old
And the young get stronger
May take a week
And it may take longer …
(“Five to One” by The Doors)
What I do know is that both the young and the older desire the ability to move well, perform well and be pain-free. Even aging rock stars look at exercise as an elixir of fruitful longevity (except maybe for Keith Richards, who does exercise but probably doesn’t need to)
2022; and I find myself at age 59; this largely surprised me as I always thought I would be twenty-five for ever. Anyway, it did happen probably due to a set number of revolutions around the sun and other factors involving genetics, cellular damage and biochemical reactions. When I turned fifty, I did not really feel any different physically and carried on training in the similar manner of my thirties and forties. However, at the age of 53 I noticed a distinct change – everything hurt. Just like the Johnny Cash song; “Hurt”, – I hurt myself today … and most other days for that matter. Well during one particular training session; I thought I had torn my piriformus muscle going through a complex routine I was doing (Deep squat to push press) It turned out my hip had been slowly grinding away due to high impact and repetitive motions due largely to 26 years of ridiculous dysfunctional karate training (but that is another story for another day). After much deliberation, I had the hip replaced with medical-grade bits of titanium and ceramic. True to my stubborn Italian nature, I was walking with crutches the next day and eight days later I started my rehab in the gym. Three months after that I had my first jiu-jitsu roll, slowly and with a certain amount of trepidation, but pleased that nothing snapped off.
Being 0.005%-part titanium forced me to become even more technical in my approach to jiu-jitsu (and in my best John Danaher voice: “why ignore 0.005% of the body”) I digress, so, as I went down this voyage of discovery, I realised that if I did not correct any further biomechanical deficiencies, at this rate I would become severely restricted in what I love doing – which was moving well and jiu-jitsu. The hip replacement seemed to highlight many other restrictions that my body had slowly developed over time. Another restriction that arose was that my arm’s length had shortened – I could no longer fully extend my arms without pain. This was most concerning as I had already lost 1cm in height due to the prosthetic hip! At first, I thought it was tennis elbow, then it was later diagnosed as golfer’s elbow. In the end it was neither but rather an alignment issue from internally rotated shoulders. This was a massive turning point for me. I have trained non-stop since I972, with a large percentage of that time was spent in the karate sphere where the whole ethos of karate is to instil a devotion based on self-flagellation, beat the body into submission through high repetitions of meaningless techniques, banish creativity … (but that also is another story)
I qualified as a personal fitness trainer in 1995 and even through my qualification and work experience in gyms, I felt I still did not understand the principles of efficient movement. This however changed for me when I started studying the works of luminaries such as Gray Cook, Stuart McGill, Steve Maxwell, Kelly Starrett and Pavel Tsatsouline, now I had a whole host of credible people who had insightful information to share and learn from.
So, what is efficient movement?
The best example would be the flawless and uninhibited actions of children, one of the gifts of the young is movement in an unrestricted fashion in as many directions as possible, and sometimes (it seems) all at the same time. What is movement and how does it differ to exercise? Human movement is best described as bipedal and quadrupedal movement patterns both in upright, lateral, prone and supine positions. Which is accomplished through three systems within the human body: the nervous, skeletal, and muscular systems. These three systems are referred to as the kinetic chain.
Nutritious Movement (that which is good for the body and mind) can be further described as:
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Utilizes more than one joint (they’re compound movements, not isolation movements).
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Recruits multiple muscle groups.
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Incorporates movement in multiple planes (forward, backward, side-to-side, up and down).
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Utilizes strength, coordination and balance
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Encourages body awareness and joint range of motion.
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Is purposeful in application
Movement gets very little airplay, mainly due to its younger second-cousin; Fitness, who since the advent of protein powders, Instagram influencers and Spandex tights has hijacked proceedings to limit exercise (and thus efficient movement) to stationary bicycles, treadmills and single plane exercise movements usually in front of large mirrors. This is okay if one’s sole purpose is to keep medical insurance companies happy with reward-based motivation. Movement and fitness should be all encompassing – that includes the health of joints, structure, maintaining healthy conditions and to add a purpose of mental and physical fulfilment to your life.
Movement 101 starter pack:
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Correct movement quality before movement quantity (Check out the FMS screening tests)
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Prehab movements in all planes of motion – be free of restrictions.
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Train the seven human movement patterns – Push, Pull, Hinge, Squat, Loaded Carry, Rotation & counter-rotation and Lunge
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Follow your bliss! … run, surf, SUP, throw, catch, be still, be active, stretch, spar, skateboard, play, mountain bike, swim, fence, balance, hop, skip, move sideways, move backwards, kite-surf, dance, box, move by yourself, move with friends, handstand, flex, extend, cartwheel and learn jiu-jitsu … (of course!)
“First move well, then move often.”
Gray Cook