Wellness & Beyond Anatomy of Longevity
Functional Movement and Strength
Conventional resistance training focuses on isolating and overloading specific muscle groups with the assistance of free weights and heavy exercise machines. Muscles are programmed to perform primary muscles actions while activating assisting muscles to stabilize, neutralize and extend in opposite directions.
This functional movement cannot be achieved from isolated weight training exercises. In addition, when opposing and stabilizing muscles are not engaged to work in a coordinated fashion primary muscles have to compensate leading to faulty alignment and injuries.
Lack of functional in daily life can create limitations in your lifestyle and deprive you of independence. For example, inability to squat with proper form can weaken joints and muscles in the lower body and can result in difficulties to walk and get up from the supine to standing position.
Bodyweight exercises require multiple muscle groups to work in a coordinated manner. If it is not easy to get up from lying or sitting position on the floor, it means that all necessary muscle groups are not engaged to support the movement.
Weight Shift
It is not widely understood that proper weight shift refers to moving the center of body weight as opposed to moving the whole body. When you see a person moving awkwardly, it means the body is lacking proper functional to shift the center of body weight.
The pelvis, hip joints, and gluteal muscles are intended to transfer center of weight. The pelvis and hip joints must be aligned to engage gluteal muscles to shift the center of body weight properly.
Also, the weight shift is directly related to the ability to balance the body. Did you see a person moving with balance and precision? The difference is that the body of that individual is functionally aligned to support the center of body weight shift and stay balanced.
Also, the following elements are required to perform shifting the center of body weight: skeletal alignment, range of motion, bilateral movement and muscular control.
Joint and Muscle Awareness
If you wish your body moves more efficiently you need to understand how it is designed to function. In order to improve your overall movement, you need to develop awareness about skeletal and muscular components of the human body, and how they are intended to be used. For example, it is not widely recognized that shoulder girdle and pelvic girdle are meant to support in a particular way the movement of the upper and lower extremities.
Movement Mechanics Awareness
The primary purpose of the shoulder blades and colar bones is to provide stabilization for performing skeletal joint and muscular actions also known as motion mechanics. If the shoulder joints are not properly supported the shoulder joints will carry excessive load and it can contribute to injury.
If you have not been engaging shoulder gidle the muscles responsible for their movement are likely to be tight and weak. As a first step, you should learn how to move properly shoulder blades and colar bones movements to accomplish roll and slide joint motions.
For example, you play baseball, basketball or lifting weights joints and you may experience upper limb pain. The wrist joints, elbow joints and shoulder joints should be aligned with the shoulder blades and colar bones to throw a pitch, make a shot or lift a weight. It is important to understand that shoulder blades, colar bones and shoulder joints are supposed to work as one functional unit when upper limbs movements are performed .