Put movement in the spotlight. It projects who you are and how you feel about yourself. It’s the outward physical expression of a body, and mind, well developed.
When you watch ballet, track and field athletes, or gymnastics what do you see? Is it evident that there is incredible strength powering the movement? You would have to be blind not to notice. You were born with the neurology to assure graceful motion. The ability to move well requires training.
In the vernacular of today’ modern training, we are striving to build strength over a range of motion. Do you feel you have strength during every degree of extension and flexion of the muscles of your arms, chest, back, hips, legs? If you feel the deficit, it’s time to consider how this situation may affect your life. Are you over 40? Do you have a sense that you are leading a sedentary existence? Lifestyle and neglect of your physical health will preclude the ability to move.
You may not be a ballerina or a gymnast. You are a person who can learn to move better. You can train athletically and not be an athlete. You can learn the physiology of movement, even if you are relatively sedentary. If you are the kind of person, who goes to the gym multiple times during the week, learning to move correctly will propel your progress forward exponentially.
If you train well, build strength and learn to move well, you will undoubtedly become aware of your limitations. An invaluable benefit of proper training is the awareness of a “weakness” and solutions to mitigate through focused training modalities.
An example might be the pull-up. Few of us can do one full pull-up. It might take a right amount of time to do three, or ten in a row. If you cannot accomplish your first full pull-up, there are a few ways to build up the supporting muscles – negatives, pushups with variations, bar work, and stretching. Think of this as a cocktail of upper body work focused on arms, chest, back and core muscles. Once you enlarge the picture of the training moment, the benefits become evident. You are training, and you are now moving better.
What’s in it for you? Why would you do all this work for a pull-up? The physical goal of your training investment should be to strengthen the mid-line, so you are graceful and powerful about all three planes of movement. But there is a second benefit. Your brain loves action. It flourishes in a high-energy situation. Activity is your best shot at higher brain function.
In all conversations about fitness or conditioning, if a quality athletic movement is missing, pick up your gym bag and run. You will be wasting your time. Learn how to move first. How you look and feel will take care of themselves.
We must learn to move better. There cannot be any higher purpose to training than excellent human movement.