Movement.
In my opinion, the quality of your movement can dictate the quality of your life. Even with exercise, if we have poor posture, mobility, flexibility, and strength then surely we will live life with more joint issues, back pain, neck pain and all round discomfort.
“No man has the right to be an amateur in the art of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which it is capable of” – Socrates 469-399BC
Reasons for exercising and training vary but as Socrates says, We should all strive to be the best version of ourselves and our foundation should be built upon more efficient, quality movement.
Improve our quality of movement, Improve our health and wellness.
One problem we see a lot is people trying to go faster or heavier in training than needed and their form breaking down unnecessarily. This not only increases the risk of injury but will also have a detrimental effect on the training stimulus.
As we become more Efficient, by building the capacity for good movement through conscious practice, we can ramp up the intensity making sure we still strive for movement quality at faster speeds and heavier loads.
Making things faster or heavier at the detriment of movement isn’t necessary when training, however, we can expect some loss of quality when we test. This so that we know the limits of our abilities.
Coach Glassman – founder of CrossFit said two very pertinent things
“Master the basics of gymnastics”
“Be impressed by intensity not volume”
By focusing on mastery of the basic movement principles, progress in training is made quicker. How many of you think the Air squat won’t help you lift a heavier back squat? Wrong!! Focus and control with the points of performance for the air squat will directly carry over to the back squat and increase your strength potential. The more efficient our air squat the less wall balls will suck!! If you’re someone that suffers from back pain when performing wall balls, maybe we should reassess the quality of your movement and focus on the basic principles.
Ultimately we are looking for improvements throughout the health and fitness spectrum. To do this we must focus on our movement efficiency, taking this into account we can increase our fitness with less risk of injury whilst always improving the quality of our lives.