Wednesday musings, 7/1/15

Wednesday musings:
Some of the movement disciplines I study bridge the rehab world with the strength and conditioning world. I find these disciplines interesting because, at the root of things, I think movement and exercise should be healing disciplines, rather than potentially harmful. I like to know how things work, and perhaps the reality is I am simply a nerd at heart that finds the nuances of how we move fascinating. Regardless, after spending the weekend up at Stanford with the PRI people (which I will write a more comprehensive blog on later), I realized regardless what the experts in the field believe about how to do things, there are three basic principles for rehabilitation and performance:

• To move well requires body awareness, proprioception, interception, esthesiology, or any other word you want to throw out that begins to explore where the body is in space and how that impacts surrounding structures. To establish body awareness requires patience, focused attention, and doing things no one really enjoys, but the end goal is well worth the work.
• Variability is king of performance. The more options you have available with regards to movement, the better you will move. Not only should movement be varied, but working in all three planes of movement will improve athletic ability and daily function. 
• Isometrics work. They are utilized in some capacity in every modality I study. Again, the how varies, but if you need to break through a plateau of some sort, utilizing isometric holds in various positions can be instrumental.
• The lowest ribs should stay down for optimal deep core control. I realize this is a fourth principle and should go without saying, but it seems to be frequently missed, so it’s a re-statement.