The body was designed to squat, twist, bend, push, pull, lunge, walk, run and jump. These are the dominant movement patterns that we see in everyday life and in sports. I have developed whole series of exercises based around these “Life Movement” patterns to help you achieve “Functional Fitness”.

Functional Fitness

I wrote in an earlier blog post that I define functional fitness as “training according to the architecture of your body and efficient performance of your work, rest and play activities”.

One of the key factors to help you achieve true functional fitness is building upon your dominant life movement patterns.

Movement For Life is important to keep us injury free and healthy, well into old age. We want to be doing and enjoying the same activities as we get older!

Life Movement Abilities

There are many types of physical abilities- flexibility, stability, endurance, strength, power, speed, agility to name a few- and there are many types of exercise systems that coordinate a unique and specific combination of these abilities such as Gymnastics, Athletics, Olympic Lifting, Swimming, Yoga, Qi Gong. Each system and its pros and cons.

Your genetics will predispose you to be gifted at a particular sport or activity. I highly encourage you to cast your eye around at a sport or activity you would like to learn or an event you would like to train for and participate in. Identifying and working towards a goal makes general exercise and fat loss more purposeful.

I would like to introduce an exercise philosophy that has given rise to many systems of training for everyday life.

Paul Chek’s Movement Concepts

When I was first introduced many years ago back in 1996 to the concepts of moving like a caveman, core training and incorporating the swiss ball into an exercise regime, I thought this was gymnastics for adults! As a former gymnast, I could appreciate the foundational movements that were being established and developed.

Functional fitness and corrective exercise as taught by Paul Chek helped me understand movement at its fundamental level. I have built upon this foundation over successive years through yoga, the healing qualities of Qi Gong, ultra marathons, Dragon Boat and outrigger canoe paddling, CrossFit and power lifting.

The key is that all movement is made up of one or more of the dominant movement patterns- bend, twist, push, pull, squat, lunge and walking / running / jumping.

My next Blog post will talk a bit more about Paul Chek’s approach.