Move Well and Then Move More

But what does “moving well” even look like?

Here’s the thing – there seems to be no standard definition or agreement about what “moving well” means. The first thing that comes to mind when I hear the phrase “move well” – is the feeling of easeful movement. Of feeling light and free. It’s the absence of pain and stiffness.

That’s a good start, but in order to go to the next step and evaluate if we’ve got “good movement” or not, we have to first define and characterise what we are looking at. Reeves et al propose three key factors should be evaluated in determining good movement of a human body (Reeves, Narendra & Cholewicki, 2007):

1. Stability
2. Robustness
3. Performance

And I would add:

4. Movement variability

Stability

The term “spinal stability” emerged in the 1990’s yet there is still debate amongst clinicians and researchers as to a uniform definition and application of the term (Reeves et al 2007). “Stability” really refers to our ability to respond to environmental challenges and the demands of the task. Can we get knocked off course and regain our balance and composure? If yes, we are stable.

The spine is a dynamic structure that must constantly balance the need to bear loads while allowing movement within ranges that prevent pain or injury. Stability demands may be still (static) or moving (dynamic).

Static stability is challenged in the task of sitting comfortably still for a length of time (anyone tried seated meditation and discovered how hard this actually is?). Carrying your groceries from the car into your house is a dynamic stability challenge – the car doors, the changing surfaces to walk on, the added weight of the grocery bags (and the cat walking over your feet) all create challenges that require stability to navigate while you bend, lift and walk without falling over or dropping your items.

The key to spinal stability is to somehow be not too bendy but not too stiff. A stable spine will allow us to walk (and run when we need to), to sit, stand and bend. And let’s not forget other important functions – to dance, twirl, kick, spin, ride a bike and cruise along on a surfboard.

Note: Considering the variety of demands our spine is subjected to, is it any wonder that just “planking” can’t ever make our spine more stable?

Robustness

Reeves et al (2007) describe robustness as the ability to “cope with uncertainties and disturbances”. They say that when most of us talk about stability, we are actually referring to robustness. This is our ability to cope with challenges and demands – the ability to bend over repeatedly. To sit for a long time. To run the whole 5km and not get sore.

In terms of our spine, “core stabilizing exercises do not make the spine more stable, they make it more robust, thus reducing risk of injury.” (Reeves et al 2007).

Performance

Performance is related to the level of precise control a system has. Watch children learning to throw a ball – the movements are large and the ball doesn’t often hit the target. They have lower performance of the task. Over time and with practice, they build better control and can perform the task to a higher level. This is evident as so their throws become harder, faster and more consistently reach their target. Spend any time watching the Olympics – every competitor is displaying a high level of performance in their chosen sport. Another way to consider performance is in terms of energy expenditure. An efficient body that shows skilled performance expends the “right” amount of energy. An example of performance is the use of metrics like heart rate related to running economy – how efficiently runners are moving (Barnes & Kilding 2015).

Movement Variability

A more recent field of study looks at the level of movement variability a system shows when repeating a task. Normal variations occur in how we do something on second and subsequent attempts. No two attempts will ever be the same and this allows us to repeat a task, but subtley use different muscle fibres and neural patterns so we get “repetition without repetition”. This adaptation is thought to decrease overload and overuse  (Stergiou & Decker 2011). Too little movement variability and we become rigid and robotic. Too much variability and we are uncontrolled and unstable.

Clinically, I see movement variability being related injury and repetitive tasks. Because if you do something over and over the same way – for example, if you’ve hurt your hip and have learned to limp so that your hip doesn’t hurt – you start to learn the movement as a habit. In this example, the hip pain may resolve, but your limp remains. The same thing happens with repetitive activities at work (sitting slightly twisted and having to reach too far when your workstation isn’t setup well) or sport (batting, kicking, throwing sports where you always work on one side of the body). When you learn habits and patterns of movement that become your “automatic” way of moving because you don’t move in other ways, you start to decrease the amount of movement variability and overuse injuries creep in.

What stops us moving well?

Anything in life that reduces our stability, robustness, performance and movement variability will see our movement patterns deteriorate. We will move “less well”.

We can become less stable if we suffer certain injuries to our joints (a joint that has torn ligaments, a bone that is fractured for example will have less passive support or “integrity”). Insults to our nervous system which impact the messages getting through to the muscles and joints will also make us less stable (brain injuries, nerve palsies).

Sickness and significant or repeated injuries may make us less robust. If we don’t participate in physical activities that build (or at least maintain) our strength and flexibility we lose our robustness. If we don’t look after ourselves  (nutrition, hydration, sleep, stress), we will also become less robust.

Performance is important if you’re wanting to change your movement habits or banksacompete at a higher level. This takes focussed practice and repetition.

Move it or lose it. Our movement variability is impacted when we reduce the variety of movements we participate in and this is happening earlier in our lifespan. As kids, we are less likely to climb and play outside and are more likely to specialise in sports from a younger age. This can lead to injury later in life. Also, our jobs and recreational activites are increasingly more sedentary, so we’re not moving our body through all of it’s options daily.

How can I learn to move better?

Move mindfully and move in more different ways. Pilates and Yoga can be incredibly powerful tools to better movement patterns. You need not push through pain (effort is okay and actually desirable if we want to make significant changes), but pushing through pain is not necessary.

Yoga

Yoga helps by moving our body through ranges we may not other experience in our day or week – reaching over head, bending and twising our spine through it’s full range. Getting on and off the floor. Yoga is a mindful movement practice so can have further benefits for us mentally and spiritually.

Pilates

Pilates aims to build stability, robustness, performance and movement variability in an individual’s automatic movement patterns. The founder of the method, Joseph Pilates, is perhaps the most famous movement therapist in the world. He developed a set of principles for what he believed defined and described good movement. Joseph Pilates reportedly referred to it as “contrology”. The method involved training people to move differently by applying these principles to repeated exercises. Joseph then added various speed and resistance challenges to the tasks to increase challenge so that people could learn to embody these principles to be come a part of their automatic movement patterns.

We know this system now as The Pilates Method. Nowadays, there are “traditional” and “clinical” branches to the practice and a large degree of variation in how it is taught. But every system will take at least some of Pilates’ principles and apply it to the “rules of the game” for how you perform the Pilates exercises.