Exercise Is What You Do, Movement is What You Feel

Movement gets a lot of hype these days and receives plenty of attention in the fitness industry, strength & conditioning industry, and rehabilitative fields. From movement screens to movement coaches, movement is a buzz word it seems some are simply trying to capitalize on.

Movement screens don't prevent injuries, they just give you information. What you do with that information is what matters. And do we really need all these screens to 'diagnose' what's wrong? Does someone suck at an overhead squat because they have tight ankles, weak glute medius, tight TFL, hip flexors, and lats? Or maybe because they are just simply uncoordinated? Because they don't understand the movement? You'd be surprised at how quickly movement expression can change with proper coaching of postures and technique. Watch what happens. Our brain has the ability to figure things out.

Coaches or therapists may provide an elaborate 'corrective exercise' program or 'activation' warmup, but what's the use when it's executed with poor quality of movement? Now you're just doing stuff that doesn't help. You could do a lot more with basic exercises that have a high quality of execution and movement competency. If all the focus is on "doing exercise" without the focus on the "feel of the movement", you're missing the boat.

Movement competency, injury prevention, and performance-based training are all linked. You can't separate them out. The best injury prevention methods are found in performance based applications. The best physical and athletic development models reduce injury. And both performance and prevention have a focus on movement efficiency or movement competency.

Performance and injury prevention boil down to how well do you express fundamental movement qualities. The best programs coach someone through movement so they feel and understand how to express higher levels of function/performance in exercise and sport.

Training and rehabilitation occur through movement, not simplistic exercises. Sadly that's what most people get. And that's why they don't progress, why they have pain, or why they relapse.