The Movement Guy

I've never really had much rhythm, even when I drummed in a metal band, but it's something I'm working on

Your body is a symphony of Rhythms, every system basically runs off one and your nervous system loves it, even just swaying back and forth can help you to regulate

With this one we're utilising the calming effect of rhythm with the brain stimulating effects of passing the ball to ease tension and settle into our glutes as we land on each side

A simple one that ticks a few boxes and helps to build those all important breaks

Something I'm adamant on is that there's always an opportunity to improve something, even a little and that not everything needs to be perfect, you've just gotta do the best you can with what you've got

That's how it started with a bit of activation in one leg, then the other, so we built it, nourished it and expanded it

That led us here, to him learning how to shift his weight into his glutes to improve his gait mechanics - a boy told he'd never walk or stand again

Do what you can with what you've got

I share everything on here, not just the jumpy, athletic drills, I share the faults, the struggles, the beginnings, the imperfect, the beginnings of biomechanical restoration so whether it be this young man learning to walk again or someone with chronic pain learning to let go of tension and regulate their nervous system, please be supportive and understanding

Helping Wills upgrade his movement and his neurology

When we think of triple extension we often associate it with lifting or maybe sprinting and jumping, but it's also how you get up out of a chair or walk

The cool thing about adding the basketball is that it gives Wills something to focus on, helping him be present in the movement. It also helps to keep both arms engaged + bringing both arms in/out gets both hemispheres of the brain taking to each other

So while this is a good Movement to get the body moving, it also fires up the brain and puts us in a better position to learn new patterns/relearn lost ones

This is a good one to help strengthen up the knee and expose the patella tendon to some isometric load, which they love

It also gives you a chance to get to know your hip/glute while you stabilise to allow the other leg to move

If you struggle with glute stuff or stabilising just bend the knee slightly, try to position your head over that foot, push your knee out to that outside of the body, keep your big toe pressing down as you do (you should feel tightness in your outside leg), then slowly lift the back leg up, embrace the wobble, fight he knee cave and hold

If you can do that, add the foot taps

Building Lynne's triple extension - a vital foundational movement, especially if you want to do things like stand up, walk or get out of a chair. It also helps to open up the thoracic spine/ribcage and ease tension in tissues in the front line while encouraging deeper breathing

Moving both arms and both legs simultaneously—and bringing them back to the centre also forces communication between the left and right hemispheres of the brain - stimulating neural pathways and helping to maintain cognitive maps and motor planning

Movement is so vital for health and no matter how bad it gets we need to do everything we can to keep moving

FYI when I met Lynne a year ago they told her she was done and to make plans, but she's a fighter and if you're willing to keep trying in the face of such overwhelming odds, you're exactly my kind of person

The idea of drills like this is to put some give in the system so that the forces we're dealing with during movement, like walking and running, are distributed evenly across the kinetic chain rather than one joint, like the knee, bearing the brunt of those forces

Imagine if the shock absorbers in your car were replaced with solid pieces of metal, you'd feel every little bump and before long your car would shake itself apart

Your body is the same, you need give in the system so that the forces from movement
don't shake you apart and so you can channel and redirect that energy efficiently and effectively back into movement

These drills also develop your ability to process the information coming in from the tissues and adjust the tone/pressure accordingly to meet the demands of the task while nourishing the gait cycle - fun little drills with a lot of utility

I nicked this one from years ago to help me keep my lower back moving between lifting sessions and those who used to come to Hybrid HQ will remember me using it in warm ups

Here I'm using it to help rebuild movement foundations

🖥️ The back up computer

The spinal cord contains neural networks called Central Pattern Generators (CPGs). These circuits are pre-programmed to produce alternating, rhythmic patterns like walking or crawling - they know how to walk and move the legs automatically without needing direct commands from the brain

In a spinal injury, the brain's signals can get disrupted, but the CPGs don't necessarily need the brain and can be triggered by sensory input from the lower body - like the cushion of the mats

Every time the leg moves, drags, or changes pressure against the mat, millions of receptors in the skin, muscles, and joints send signals up into the spinal cord sparking these receptors which stimulate the nervous system to adapt by forming new connections and re-establishing the commutation pathways

It's also a great movie for a tight lower back

The ball🏀

I get asked this a lot so I thought I'd cover it again

It started as it helped me figure out where to put my weight when I was playing around with different movement drills and when I didn't plyo stuff, it really helped me to relax into a rhythm, it just felt right

Then I started trying it with clients, I'd get them to do a lunge complex, they'd struggle, I'd add the ball, show them where I wanted it to be during the drill so that their centre of mass was in the right place and all of a sudden they settled right into the movement and it now looked smooth and rhythmic

So I carried on, but I soon realised more was happening - the rhythm of the drills helped to calm the nervous system while making people more present in the movement, they had to stay locked into the pattern and forgot about the world for 30 seconds or so

Then I found out about how cross body movements, like your hand reaching to the opposite hip gets both hemispheres of your brain communicating, making it easier to learn

So not only does it calm the nervous system, it fires up the brain too, providing the perfect neurological environment to reprogram some faulty movement patterns

But honestly it just started because it felt right