Have you ever been channel surfing during the Olympics and landed on the weight lifting? I think everyone at some point has taken a sneak peak at that freak show! Surely I’m not the only one to notice that these women and men of all sizes lifting sometimes in the realm of 150kg-plus over their heads, and then sitting into a deep squat. That’s more than impressive!

Setting aside the strength of these feats, what about that mobility! Yet, the rest of us are still inclined to go with ancient formulas of trying to increase our range of movement.

-“Don’t let your knees track over your toes!”

-“Stand with your feet straight on!”

These terminologies have been ringing in our ears for decades, and to what advantage? Some people continue to visit their physiotherapist for years- which perplexing to say the least. Isn’t the role of these professionals to correct the complication so that the individual can continue to move with the freedom that we are entitled to?

Yet this clinical system seems more about treating symptoms and not actually getting to the cause of the problem. The way things generally work from this perspective is that you come in with let’s say a shoulder issue, and guess what, they focus on… the shoulder. And sometimes rightly so. However, what happens when the shoulder is treated, and the problem continues to flare up over and over again? The result is an ongoing treatment that rarely gets to the bottom of things and a hefty bill in chiro, physio and osteo visits. Could it be possible that the problem has actually occurred from some other root cause? The shoulder could in fact only be a point of pain, and not the actual problem. If you’re looking for supplements for anti-inflammatory, check out quercetin australia.

The above scenario is very possible, and in my experience, in dealing with hundreds of clients, it’s very often the case. Often the answer to many of these issues are simpler than we think. It’s fair to assume that we’re taking a problem and making the answer to fixing it more complex than need be.

A New Movement

Thankfully, there are people who are transforming the way we perceive the concept of becoming more mobile. I was lucky enough to spend some detailed time with the best in the business when it comes to helping people move better, Ido Portal. Spending time with Ido Portal will change the way you look at freedom of movement; for me it highlighted how rather than adopting the multiple complex movement patterns we’re capable of, we’re all turning into a clones of the Tin Man.

Ever heard of the expression ‘move it or lose it’? Well nothing could be closer to the truth than what’s happening in the western world. How often are we using the shoulder joint as we should? Almost never! When we train, we use mainly open kinetic chain work on the shoulders and not the closed kinetic chain work we do with our lower extremities and the hips. The shoulder joint is all about complexity, yet we are never using it in that manner anymore. The Glenohumeral joint sits 25% within the socket, so how it is to be used is a give away in its structure.

It doesn’t stop there though. Essentially we’re not using things as it was intended. The lack of straight-arm work within our regime has caused weaknesses in areas like the rhomboids, serratus anterior and the trapezius. We’re no longer pivoting the body around our shoulders. The shoulders are great at keeping us stable, and this can be seen in the complexity of the muscles in the arms and around the scapula.

Passive hanging was something that was drummed into me by Ido and the logic behind it is obvious. Instinctively, when a child is given a choice of what to do in a playground they will automatically just hang from a monkey bar. Kids know what their bodies want, until someone comes along and takes that basic primal urge away from them. Passive hanging can help with integrity in the shoulders, lengthen through shortened muscles, and help sort out any rotator cuff issues.

Practice Makes Perfect

Remember what we stated at the start about Olympic lifters? How can they get this immense depth under such loads? Would it be fair to say, that to get so good at something like that, it requires repetition? Well what are they doing over and over again everyday? They’re deep squatting! This is what was intended for our bodies; check out a toddler when they squat- they don’t sit on the balls of their feet like us grown up tin men- they go into a deep, natural squat. We should be deep squatting for long periods everyday without fail.

Once again superior methods leave distinct clues; Olympic lifters are one. The other is certain cultures in the world where their daily routines involve deep squatting. This can be mainly seen in Asian cultures where life involves this system. You eat -‘deep squat’, go to the toilet – ‘deep squat’, having a chat with someone in the street -‘deep squat’, planting in the fields -‘ deep squat’ and even just waiting for a bus, yep you guessed it – ‘deep squat’. Asian countries have one of the lowest instances of osteoarthritis in the world, so this is a clear clue.

As westerners, we’ve taken these primal patterns away and replaced them with convenience. Even the most primal of them of all ‘walking’ we have replaced with non-weight bearing means of transport like cars and bicycles. We never load the knees anymore, and we can’t say with much confidence that we have less knee injuries today then we did in the past. If we don’t move more freely, and move more often, we don’t encourage synovial fluid in the joint, which helps to lubricate and protect it. By doing this (or not doing this), we promote calcification of our joints and in turn this speeds up the ageing process. It’s a heavy price to pay!

Getting Better – Hitting the Reset Button

So where do we go from here? Orthopaedic profiling is still an essential element of identifying where problems lie. In turn, this allows us to use methods like passive hanging and so forth to reduce the instances of complications to mobility. Using band work to help with imbalances can initially be good to progress beginners. However like everything in life, you need to keep on progressing forward and striving for greater range of mobility and especially mobility with strength.

Load could also be an essential tool to help more efficiency in movement. For a long period of time, the Russians have been using things like gymnastics and strength-stretching to increase mobility, and it’s obvious it works well for them. You only have to have been to a Ukrainian outdoor gym in Kiev, as I have, to witness this in person. These are not athletes, these are ordinary people like you and I.

It’s vital to note that poor mobility can be through lack of strength in the muscle and not always the case of it being tight.

So after all this, what’s the moral of the story? It is to firstly get the full picture of what’s going on in our bodies. Then to go back to basic mobility standards that are based on the movement patterns we are meant to do as human beings. At 5th Element Wellness, we take an approach that has an initial profiling phase that allows us to identify the mobility exercises that will be most applicable to you. Not only do we take into account all of the above points I have mentioned, but we also highlight the most significant areas that are hindering movement in the first place. This is undoubtedly a person’s lifestyle- e.g. poor intake of zinc and magnesium and gut inflammation can have knock-on effects to elasticity in tendons and ligaments. From there, there’s an inability to abdominal brace due to digestive complications. It all mounts up.

Put in place solid foundations first and then build unbreakable walls. If you’d like to find out more about how you can get back on track to having the mobility you deserve, let’s have a chat.

Come and discover the potentials of your body in space. An amalgamation of mobility work, bodyweight strength, and movement therapies. Sign up for a class today by clicking here – Free Movement.