Paul Chek’s teachings have been a major source of inspiration, knowledge and learning for me. His book “How To Eat, Move and Be Healthy!“ is an excellent introduction to movement and nutrition.

Functional Fitness

I touched in an earlier post on Paul Chek’s Movement Concepts.

Paul Chek‘s teachings have influenced me significantly.

In this blog entry, I would like to delve a bit deeper into a discussion about movement and the importance of diet and nutrition.

Unfortunately, “functional exercise”, “functional fitness”, “natural movement”, “primal movement” and the like are terms which are being more and more misused or even abused. The trends and fads in the fitness industry tend to mean that “catch phrases” of the day are commercialised often to a degree that takes them away from their original meaning.

Paul Chek interprets functional exercise as “any exercise that works to achieve a chosen goal or objective”.

I like to define functional fitness in a similar way, but with the additional qualification that recognises yourself as an individual.

My definition of functional fitness is “training according to the architecture of your body and efficient performance of your work, rest and play activities”.

Primal / Caveman / Natural Movement

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

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

You may have seen these patterns described elsewhere are “primal pattern movements” or “natural movement” or “caveman movement”.

Although our modern lifestyle is significantly different to that of our ancestors, these patterns are the key to performing your daily tasks efficiently and keeping yourself free from injury.

You Are What You Eat

Proper diet and nutrition is the foundation for a healthy lifestyle.

We are bombarded constantly with advice on what to eat and what not to eat, often conflicting advice or changing advice as “experts” jostle back and forth.

I adopt the approach pioneered by the work of Dr. Weston Price in his book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration where he studied the effect and relationship between health and diet among native peoples of many different and diverse cultures.

These studies formed the basis of further research by nutritional experts and developed into The Metabolic Typing Diet which is an excellent book written by William Wolcott that emphasises the importance of eating balanced meals according to your individual metabolic type.

In a nutshell, we should consume proteins, fats and carbohydrates in different degrees and varieties depending on our own individual make-up.

CHEK Practitioner qualifications

I pursued certification courses with the CHEK Institute over many years, and I am a qualified CHEK Level IV Practitioner.

I conduct a full and detailed health assessment for my clients, looking at all aspects of their lifestyle, physical health, nutrition and well-being. Once we are able to identify areas of strength and weakness, I can then fashion a fully customised programme ranging from proper diet and nutrition through to movement and mobility and exercise routines that is suitable for each of my clients.

I highly recommend Paul’s book, How To Eat, Move and Be Healthy! as an indispensable guide to a better lifestyle and an excellent introduction to many of these key concepts.

Here is a photo of me together with a great group of CHEK practitioners from August 2007!