Weekly musings, 5/28/17: Clearing up why and learning

Weekly musings, 5/28/17: Clearing up why and learning
Over the weekend, I hung out at the park with my 4 year-old nephew. We played, with the loose rules of the game appearing to be I did what he did, unless he put me in time out or gave me alternative directions (for the record, I seemed to spend a fair amount of time in time out). When he would get stuck on a particular task, he would have me do it. He would watch how I moved, and then mimic me, trying to figure out how to move his limbs in the same configuration.

Children have an innate curiosity about how their bodies move and how they can manipulate their shapes. Adults lose this curiosity, largely because we don’t have the flexibility and control to move our bodies in the ways we do when we are children. This loss of freedom doesn’t have to be a foregone conclusion. I will never be as flexible as my nephew because of fully developed growth plates and muscle mass, but I can still move spontaneously in a variety of ways. I have options because I do the work in and out of the gym to develop those options. 

One of the most challenging parts of training is figuring out what people’s goals actually are and if they have the motivation to do the work it takes to meet those goals. Our lives don’t require much activity; we have to search for ways to include varied activities in our everyday lives. For me, this means I can play with my nephew at the park and not worry about getting injured. For others, it might mean maintaining the ability to get up and down from the floor. It’s not about everyone having the same goals, but it is important to be clear what your goals are.

*In this excellent, short blog post from Jules Mitchell, she eloquently describes what it’s like to write publicly about movement. I write to work out my thoughts and deepen my understanding of what I observe. They are a snapshot, freezing my thoughts in a moment of time. As I continue to learn and grow as a practitioner, my opinions change, but the old posts remain. They represent growth and the never ending process of learning. Read her blog here: http://www.julesmitchell.com/question-everything/