MODULE OUTLINE

We often talk about training movement and improving movement patterns. However, in order to understand how to train people to improve their patterns of movement, we first need to understand how the body moves and and how it "decides" how to move and therefore what we need to be emphasising/focusing on in order to achieve the adaptation we are after.

It's probably important to note up front that going back in time, we have probably had far too big an emphasis on things like "ideal movement" or "ideal posture". This has been taking elements of research and applying them poorly. For example, one of the most common misconceptions in health care is that poor posture is often a primary driver behind pain. Research actually suggests this isn't true, and if anything, it is sustained postures, good or bad that is somewhat predictive of pain. Similarly, when we pick up our food out of the bottom of the freezer, do we really need to do a perfect hip hinge to do this safely? Clearly not. Like anything, there is a time and a place for this sort of thing and we need to be careful not to take a sound concept, and apply it in places it doesn't belong.

Throughout this module we will focus on when/why we may want to alter movement patterns, and further to that, how we will go about achieving that.