“Movement is simply an interaction between our body and our external environment.” - MovNat
At Soul of Medicine, we always express how important it is to surround yourself with a positive and joyful environment that inspires energy. Functional movement does just that – it utilizes the external environment to your advantage by practicing exercises that build strength, agility, flexibility, and expose your range of motion.
Navigating and accessing resources from our external environment, and performing essential movements such as balancing, gripping, squatting, walking, etc. are pertinent to our survival. There’s a theory, referred to as the Dynamic Pattern Theory (DPT), that states our movement is connected to an influential connection between both our bodies and our environment. Our patterns of movement shift depending on our environment so that we can perform the movements needed that are basically essential to our survival. Therefore, a poor environment leads to poor movement and vice versa.
“Natural Movement helps you generate organic, clean, renewable, sustainable energy. This deliberately healthy behavior is often not just physical but also psychological and combined with positive thinking. We know that our thoughts affect our bodies, but we too often forget that our bodies affect our thoughts.”
The basis of functional movement according to MovNat is that “our environment plays the crucial role of both our original teacher and ongoing sharpening stone of movement quality.” Whatever our environment may be - the gym, grocery store, work, etc. - it is important to recognize the influence it has on our movements. The goal of functional movement is to equip you with those essential, everyday movements, so that as you age and grow, you can continue practicing and using those movements- such as gripping, squatting, standing, etc.
Once you learn the fundamentals of functional movements, you are then able to practice in your own backyard or anywhere else you feel comfortable exercising. These movements are crucial to sustaining your agility, flexibility, range of motion, etc. This may mean substituting the elevator for stairs to work out your legs, or mimicking your child’s movements as you interact with them to rebuild flexibility and regain muscle strength. Interested in learning more about MovNat and functional movement? We’d love to have you join us in Owensboro for one of our Introduction to MovNat classes! Find our class schedule here and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages for updates on more workshops happening near you soon!
Comments