The benefit of learning movement principles as well as movements themselves
NOTE - This post was originally written for our 'weekly warble' segment in a few Facebook groups for the community local to our gym.
Welcome to the not-so-weekly warble!
This week I'm going to talk about the benefits of learning movements principles in your fitness training as well as simply learning movements (i.e. exercises). This discussion relates to the video attached to this post, but we'll come back to that in a moment.
At Ideanthro Movement one of our goals is to help you to get better at teaching yourself movement. I don't want my clients to end up reliant on me. I want my clients to be capable of looking after themselves, but to continue to come and see me for what we can continue to teach above and beyond what we taught you last time.
What's one of the best things that I can do to help you to get better at learning movement by yourself?
I can teach you movement principles as well as specific movements themselves.
That brings us back to the video. In this video we have a progression to learn something called a tripod transition. In the terminology that I've been using in this post, this is a movement.
But what makes the tripod transition and tripod transition? What fundamental movement pattern does it display? That is, what's the principle behind the movement?
Fundamentally, the tripod transition involves supporting yourself on one hand (e.g. the left hand) and the opposite foot (e.g. the right hand); all while moving the other leg around. Let's say that again.
One hand.
Opposite foot.
Move the free leg/ free hand/ rest of your body.
The thing is that this fundamental pattern pops up in an incredibly wide variety of real world human movements. Here's just a few examples. You almost certainly use this pattern when you...
Learnt to crawl as a baby
Climbed a fence as a kid
Climbed onto a chair to change the batteries in the smoke detector
Play a grappling sport like brazilian jiu jitsu
Swing on the monkey bars
Hold onto a branch while crossing a rocky creek out bushwalking
In all those cases the pattern manifests itself slightly differently, but it's there.
Of course this isn't the only pattern to human movement, but the point is that as you start to learn about these principles it makes movement less of a mystery.
Let's say you enjoy indoor rock climbing. You're trying to climb a particular route but you keep losing your balance and swinging away from the wall. In rock climbing terminology that's called "barn dooring" because your body looks like a barn door swinging open. If you know about the tripod transition pattern you could have a look for a way to arrange yourself on the wall so that you're holding on with one hand and the opposite foot while reaching with your free hand. That might be what you need to keep yourself on the wall. Of course it might not be. This particular climb might require a different pattern, but the point is that knowing the pattern gives you something tangible to try, rather than just trying random movements. Understanding the patterns bridges the gap between not knowing how to do it, and eventually having the movement become so instinctive that you don't even need to think about it.
This is why at Ideanthro Movement we don't just teach movements, but also the principles that underpin it. Teaching principles empowers you!
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