How often do we push stuff away from us when we are lying down? Rather, we pick things up then turn around and put them away, in office or passing ball in sports game. Carrying bag on one shoulder, same as walking, such an asymmetrical and single-leg activity is what we do all day long. We hardly move in single joint action as we do in gym, curling our arms standing still or bench press. The exercises we do is supposed to make everyday life better such as lifting the luggage when you are travelling without fear of sprain the back or less exhausted running around with your baby in one arm.
We walk and jump in three dimensional world where we move in various combinations of three directions, forward and back, side to side and rotational. We bend and lift in the same way as the lady does in the image above, repeated trunk flexion and trunk rotation with loads, plus the moving arms and legs. The central nervous system is programmed for carrying out all integrated movement in collaboration with multiple muscles to move in efficient way. The systems of bone, soft tissue and neural systems are working in coordination with each other to achieve neuromuscular efficiency. If one of these components is not functioning efficiently, then the counterpart must compensate. Because of muscle restriction, joint motion is altered, thus changing normal neural feedback to the nervous system. Your body will find other way to move and leads to tissue overload, fatigue or faulty movement patterns.
In sports particularly is in need of movement efficiency. Look at the tennis player’s forehand. The motion of swinging the racket to hit the ball is the integrated movements of the legs, hips, trunk, and shoulder complex and the arm. If she only flexes her elbow and wrist to swing the racket, the power generated would be much less.
The aim of the movement training is to prepare the entire body better for the daily demands at work, at home and in recreational sports, moving in any possible direction, both predicted and unpredicted. The workout is a process of programming in an attempt to replicate functional movements by feeding the body with the common movement patterns. Through the practice your body would then be able to perform any integrated movements that made up out of these patterns.
The movement-based exercises are also beneficial for training a strong stable core which facilitates the body works as a functional unit. The tennis player in the above example, the exercises good for her are those require to engage the core muscles to a high degree along with shoulder complex, hip, knee, and ankle joint stabilizers.
The movement training starts with basic movement patterns, then progress to integrated movements, from body weight to external loads. Exercises that require to move in many different directions and changing the base of support to challenge the body to maintain ideal posture also helps to excite the nervous system.
Returning to the lady’s bend and lift example mentioned earlier, using the pulleys to perform reverse wood-chop is a more functional way to train for better neuromuscular efficiency in lifting and twisting instead of doing biceps curl with weights or fixed-path-of-motion machines. The shoulders, arms, back, abs, glutes, legs need to be well-coordinated when she needs to lift the weight while rotating the trunk and shifts weight from one leg to the other.
It seems that movement training won’t give you tone up body as it is not focus on a specific muscle at one time. Let’s look at how many more muscles are recruited in one exercise as compare to standing still arm curl or lying down doing crunches. Multiple muscles along the force of pull are working and will be toned in good proportion. As more muscles get involved, more calories burning means greater impact on weight loss. Now you have one more reason other than functional to train for better movements.
