MOVE SERIES

Integration. The act or process of uniting different things.

The human body is a fascinating complex system. It’s not only has a frame but has an unconscious program as well. It keeps us alive without us having to make an effort (breathing, metabolism, etc.) and it protects us in threatening situations (just think how fast we duck down when something is flying towards our pretty face). All the processes that we don’t think about keep running in the background to keep us going until the end of our lives. Imagine what is possible if we gain additional control, consciously develop ourselves and integrate all these together!?

Luckily we can update the software and when we do, the hardware improves with it. This is the way to create a body that doesn’t hurt and supports us in challenging situations. The one that looks the way we want it to look and is strong enough to do what we want it to do. The one that gives us the green light to go for whatever we decide to do.

Some want to get rid of the constant pain they live with. Some want to be ready for tomorrow. Some want to enjoy walking with ease, do yoga, run, lift weights or play sports. Some want to be better than yesterday or be the best in the world. We all have different goals but we all have the opportunity here to achieve what we desire.

In this Movement Series we introduce the principles of the human movement and teach how to integrate them step by step so together they create a well-functioning machine. Firstly, we start with the basics. In order to know how we can improve ourselves, we need to know what we work with. Through simple terms and examples, we learn how the body is built and how it moves. You know, bones, joints, tendons, muscles and captain nervous system who drives the whole ship. At this point, we talk about physics and movement mechanics in general.

The personal journey starts when we introduce breathing, start widening our awareness for it and improve it through practice. Surely we haven’t been doing a bad job on that as we are still alive, but improving breathing mechanics will improve all areas of our life. More importantly, breathing will help us to be more stable so our body can handle forces in a safer and more efficient way. Now, understandably we need to learn the best shapes that both protect our sensitive areas and provide support so the strongest muscles can get a given task done – but luckily it’s all part of the first section.

Simply saying, if we learn how to not harm ourselves, we are less likely to cause damage in the future. In later parts of series we continue to build on these foundations. When we understand how the body moves we can recognize dysfunctions. We then correct them, which protects us from getting hurt. We improve all areas to build a stronger system that will support us in doing more things. Our main goal is to build a body that is not prone to injury but smart and responsive so one thing that we do will support many other bits.

As an example, if we work on the ankle we might get rid of that annoying little neck pain we have had in the last couple of years. Or maybe working on balancing on a single leg will make us run faster. Comprende?! Good. Now, imagine this with EVERYTHING. Every single idea that you improve on will further improve your overall existence and capabilities. Better range of motion -> better muscle control -> better efficiency -> better shape -> better state -> better everything -> better will to improve range of motion and control again.  It doesn’t matter where you are in the circle at this point, improving on anything will improve everything else.

So, once the mechanics are working well, we don’t have limiting factors anymore. We have been building muscles, learning control and we are ready to spice up things and increase intensity. By this, we simply mean whatever we have been doing until now, we do it a little faster. A little higher. A little heavier. A little more. IDENTICALLY – without doing anything differently. And this is the key. If in normal circumstances one can fully squat down to a bottom of a deep squat but the “squat” looks something completely different in a HIT class, then the movement has changed and not the intensity – which is not necessarily a problem, but it’s also not the same. Increasing intensity or producing more power simply means we do the same things just more intense. Again, identically. Any two reputations in any training set should look the same: the first one, the last one, the lightest one, the heaviest one, the slowest one and the fastest one too.

Needless to say, this last thought requires a lot of awareness and control. We need to have freedom in the body so it can achieve the desired and necessary shapes. We need to know how to control the body and we need to have the strength to do it. We then need to improve on our skills so we can use these movements any time in our life – not only in training. And when we have it? We practice it more and live a limitless life.

The last section of the series is the playground. By arriving at this point, you have control over your body. You know how to move it and you know what it takes to learn something new. At this high-level state our body is ready to do anything: run a marathon, move heavy weights, play sports or participate in any class or activity. All we need to do is condition it for it. Do you want to do something new? The body is ready, the opportunity is given. Integrate every lesson you learned together and you can do anything.

Total body control = limitless future. Welcome to the Move Series.