A few weekends ago I taught a movement restoration workshop at my facility, Primal Strength New York. It’s called “From the Ground Up,” and it’s an overview of the Original Strength movement restoration system. This workshop and this system are all about restoring your/our lost functional abilities. We were made to move, move well, and move often. These days that is not exactly the case, though. Through this system, I have learned a lot. I have helped a lot of people, as well as personally baby-crawling back from a torn labrum and a denervated teres minor. That is an interesting story in and of itself and one that I will gladly tell in later blog posts.
Movement Restoration Workshop Success
The workshop took 2 hours. There was a good turnout. Even better, it was a varied assortment of demographics. Some young, some middle-aged, and some older. Some were athletic, looking to be more so, and some were just looking to alleviate some of the common ailments of living in today’s sedentary society. You know the ones; achy joints, poor flexibility, balance issues, etc. The wonderful thing about this system is that it works for everyone. Many of the same movements that will help a young athlete run faster, jump higher, and lift more weight will help a 70-year-old move more easily, more confidently, and exhibit better balance.
Workshop Overview: Big 5 Movements in Original Strength
What did the workshop consist of? We covered each of the Big 5 movements in Original Strength. Breathing, head control, rocking, rolling, and crawling. For each of the Big 5, we covered a progression and a regression. So after all was said and done, we covered 15 techniques. I finished a little early so I had time to go over some extra-curricular resets that I enjoy. Before and after each reset we tested and retested a movement to see if we made some improvement. The movements that we tested were a bodyweight squat, a toe touch, and single leg balance.
What is cool to see is over the two hours everyone’s movements tested better and better. Some movements were better for some than others, but all improved. Everyone came into this workshop with a different movement history. And different movement histories require different solutions. But improving your diaphragm function, stimulating your vestibular system, and crossing mid-line through various resets will help everyone to some degree or another.
Optimizing Movement: Good, Better, Best in Original Strength
Within the Original Strength system, we adhere to a good, better, best principle. This means that all of the resets are good for you, some are better, and then others are the best for what you need right now. What is “best” today might not be “best” tomorrow, but the more you understand the system the easier it becomes for you to find what your own personal “best” reset will be. That being said, once you find your “best,” it doesn’t mean to ignore the rest.
It just means that the “best” reset is addressing a particular weak link in your chain, one that will help all of the other resets that much more. Peppering your day with that reset will have a cumulative effect. Same as all of the intermittent sitting that we are forced to do all day has a negative cumulative effect on your mobility, balance, and strength.
Movement and Quality of Life
I’ve learned that the quality of one’s life is directly related to how well they move. So progressively getting tighter and less agile as we age is stripping away the quality of our lives. What if I told you that with just a few minutes a day, you can begin to turn back the hands of time? Learning and performing some of these movement “resets” every day will improve the quality of your life. And that increased quality becomes cumulative. The better you move, the more you want to move. The more you want to move, the more life you can enjoy. At the end of the road, what we regret is the things that we didn’t do. No one says, “Man, I wish I sat on my butt and watched more TV.” Or,” I wish I had more joint pain in my life.
Addressing Nagging Pains: The Origins
It’s not too late. If you would like to learn more, check out one of Original Strength’s books. Their most recent release and the most updated is Original Strength Reloaded. If you would like more personal instruction feel free to contact me at Tristan@primalstrengthny.com or go to my website. Something to think about… How many people do you know that have a nagging pain or ache that came out of nowhere? They didn’t fall out of a tree or anything. One day their knee just began to hurt, or it was their back or hip. Where did that pain come from? Why is it so common these days?