Have you ever asked yourself any of the following questions?

What’s the best way to lose weight? How do I get my energy back? Can I recapture the strength and vitality I had when I was younger? I want to feel like I did when I was 20, is that possible?  How do I work around this nagging injury? What’s the best way for me to get back into shape?

Whether you’ve asked yourself one or more of these questions there is one simple answer to them all.

Move well and Move often.

The Movement Connection Between Every Fitness and Performance Goal

You see, before you can lose weight, improve your fitness or athletic performance you must have a solid foundation in proper movement.

Before you can be flexible your joints must feel safe enough to allow full range of motion in the joints. In order to increase your strength your movements must be resilient enough to tolerate the constant stress of resistance training.

Trying to build endurance? Can your joints remain healthy while absorbing the enormous amounts of stress from the many steps, miles, or reps of Burpees that you may do.

And what about athletic performance? You’re going to need optimal levels of stability, flexibility, and strength for your body to generate the power needed at high levels of performance.

You need proper movement patterns to reach any of your goals, with out it you’ll plateau and greatly increase your chance of getting hurt.

Why the Movement First Approach Will Work for You:

1. Learn the Fundamentals: Mastering the fundamental movement patterns will open the door for you to safely progress to the more challenging exercises and movements. I know, I know the basics can be so boring and even a bit tedious but if you stick with them you’ll get the results you want in a safe and effective manner.

2. Pain Relief: Often times the pain we feel in our body is due to a muscle imbalance which alters the way our joints are moving. The end result we put undue pressure on our joints and less on the muscles designed to handle the stress. By taking a look at your basic movement patterns it’s possible to identify areas that need attention and with a movement focused program you can bring your body back into balance.

3. Results with out Injury: On your journey to improvement the last thing you need is to get injured. By keeping the focus on the quality of movement versus the quantity (weights, sets, reps, time) you can achieve the results you’re working towards and significantly reduce the chance of injury.

4. Keep the Focus on learning movement skills: There’s a difference between working out to acquire movement skills and working out to just burn calories. If you’ve ever done a martial art, played a sport or musical instrument, you know what it’s like to struggle, to practice until you improve and then to finally get the technique correct. It provides a great sense of accomplishment and talk about sustaining motivation, it’s like nothing else. Your exercise program should be no different. It should provide a challenge and a sense of accomplishment that only smart work and movement mastery can provide.

How to Apply the Movement First Approach

Allow yourself the time, no matter your goal, to master the basics of movement. Get help if you see or feel that your movements just aren’t where they need to be, especially if you have had injuries in the past or are currently working around painful areas. Finally, keep your focus on the quality of your movement patterns and you’ll increase the enjoyment and effectiveness of your exercise program.

Move Well, Live Better

Edward Scaduto

As part of our complimentary fitness consultation we offer a  7 part movement screen that will help identify movement patterns that you may need to improve. If you’re interested you can sign up below.