Monday, October 14, 2013

Functional Movement and Its Benefits


Functional Movement is the capacity to move one's body with proper muscle along with joint function for effortless, pain-free movement. Mastering how one can become bio-mechanically efficient with everything one does, whether it's for sports and athletics, overall fitness, or everyday life ventures, it is vital for sustaining a sound body and avoiding injury.

You would think that automatically our bodies would just work well...but this is often not true. From birth, we start to build up dominant and weaker muscles. Lack of muscle stimulation can lead to inadequate muscle utilization, and any sort of injury or mishap can further limit the body's capacity to develop in a well-balanced manner. The end result, we don't make full use of the ideal form or support to train functional movement systems for whole-body health and fitness.

If many of us consistently move our body with bad posture, or poor body mechanics, our joints don't have sufficient space needed for our bones to maneuver freely, together with the muscle groups that ought to be active our bones can't fire effectively producing constraints within our flexibility, and muscle instability which in time can result in injury. Not only can our mediocre functional movement routines result in injuries, but also the body will accept these muscle routine as the way to normally move!

For instance: Let's say your knee hurts because you frequently lock the knee. You've walked, and exercised always straightening the knees to a locked position! 30 years later...you're dealing with a knee replacement surgery because you can't take the suffering any more. Replacing the knee joint will take the pain away, but unless you improve your functional movement habits along with HOW you are utilizing the muscles of your leg to hold up the knee, you will keep having problems. (And it is likely that, with 30 years of hobbling around hurting, you're also suffering from ankle pain, hip discomfort, and back problem - not forgetting how the other knee is beginning to feel because it took the majority of the weight!)

Excellent functional movement isn't only about the knees... It doesn't matter much if it's your knees, feet, ankles, hips, pelvis, back, shoulders, neck...the entire body was constructed as a system of levers and pulleys that operate for us and move with mechanical efficiency. Whenever we walk, run, play sports, lift weights, or just sit in front of the computer - we should be attentive to how we are utilizing our muscles to optimize our form and functionality for healthy movement.

Pilates is one of the best training systems that will help increase body awareness and discover new, more streamlined muscle habits for enhancing functional movement. If you're unaware of your positive and negative movement habits, it can be hard to improve them! In addition, without enhancing your body awareness and functional movement habits, you won't know really know there's a problem and you get hurt! In my opinion, it's a better solution to learn efficient functional movement habits with Pilates and after that incorporate this knowledge into your other fitness and day-to-day life activities to help reinforce using the body correctly to compliment good posture and healthy movement.

You can find functional movement habits to concentrate on, from the soles of your feet, to the top of your head. If any part of your body is experiencing pain, there's a good chance that certain parts of your body's functional movement system has been compromised. It is seen as a weakness, muscle imbalance, poor functioning joint, limitation in strength, or flexibility. Regardless of the issue, how old you are, or the length of time you've been functioning with ineffective body mechanics - if you're serious about improving form for improved functional mechanics things can change!

It will require a completely new and improved comprehension of your present posture and movement habits, better body awareness, together with doing the appropriate exercises to bolster new muscle routines. Over time, you'll understand the health improvement benefits of focusing on how your body moves, and enjoy moving well with superior functional movement habits for much better whole-body health and well-being.

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