Elements of Efficient Movement to Prevent Falls

Professional athletes make movement look graceful, flawless, effortless.  We're not professional athlete's but your brain's ultimate goal of movement is efficiency.  Efficient movement requires less energy and your brain likes to conserve energy.

So how does your movement become efficient?  Practice, practice, practice!!!  Practice solidifies neural pathways with myelin and your brain (and body) get good at that movement.

But here's the kicker;

your body gets good at whatever it does

exactly how it does it.  

What that means is that if you're practicing sloppy, compensated movements, your body will get good at bad, inefficient form.

This is why you need to practice movements in perfect form. Dr. Cobb, creator of Z-Health, has identified four elements of efficiency that must be present in the "PERFECT REP".  And they are:

1. Perfect Form
2. Dynamic Postural Alignment
3. Synchronized Respiration
4. Balanced Tension and Relaxation 

What does that look like?  Well, perfect form begins in Lengthened Spine.  Dynamic Postural Alignment means that all joints are relaxed and properly aligned.  You're sitting, or standing, tall and relaxed.  Feet, knees, hips and shoulders all facing forward.

Synchronized Respiration is relaxed nasal inhale into your belly and nasal or mouth exhalation.  This breathing pattern continues throughout the movements.  It will change as energy requirements increase but you SHOULD NOT HOLD YOUR BREATH AT ANY TIME!

The final element of efficiency is the ability to maintain balanced Tension and Relaxation in your body.  This means no contraction, flexion, forward bending, locking of arms when doing movements, no tension.  This is a challenge when a person is asked to move a joint in directions and speeds they haven't done in....forever!

IT's very common to see people tighten up when trying to move a body part in isolation that has never been moved before.  It takes concentration!  Concentration can rob your body of efficiency because all your brain wants is to do the movement and not look stupid.  This should be easy.  But it's not.

One perfect rep means doing whatever drill with all the forms of efficiency present.  Breathing.  Relaxed.  Postural aligned and perfect form.  In my Brains and Balance Training classes, we practice drills that should be easy. You would think three circles clockwise and three circles counterclockwise would be easy.  But it's not always the case!

Learn how to control your body with the elements of efficiency.  Get good at good movement.  Quit living your life in bad form!  Say goodbye to poor posture and instability.   Learn how to move each joint in isolation so you can move them all together efficiently.

Brain-based training: The future of Fitness.
If you're not training your senses, half your brain is dying.  Use it or lose it.