The Movement Guy

A lot of people I work with don't need more strength, they can push that button well, especially in the gym, but they struggle once we mix up the signals

Playing any kind of sport, or just playing with kids demands more than just button bashing the strength, maximum warp button, we need to vary it, shifting like water between contract and relax to meet the demands in front of us in real time

It's like button bashing in a game vs knowing the combos to do those sick moves, it takes time but once you've got you're playing on a completely different level

Wills loves sports, especially paddle and lateral movements and breaking are extremely important if he wants to react and move quickly

Despite moving really well but he does struggle with his left hand side so we use drills like this, a bit of Rhythm and the cross body motion with the ball to fire up his brain, calm his nervous system and get both hemispheres talking to each other

The cool thing is that he's like a sponge so every week his movements improve and I have to add to the drills

Absolutely love this work and I cannot wait to expand this experiment

Judes right leg, like him, has overcome a lot, but it doesn't like to let go and it takes a lot of encouragement to get his heel to drop down

That's the great thing about unstable surfaces and things like Bosus, they talk to the nervous system, they give it more information to map with and they upgrade someone's ability to decipher that information

Love training this little dude

I've done every stretch imaginable for my back, the banded ones, the loaded ones, I've owned several reverse hypers, I even used to hang upside down in a yoga hammock, but it didn't help

So I'd use massage balls, foam rollers, body tempering, psoarite, needles, blades, barbebells, pilates, they took the edge off and I could continue moving in what's best described in a basic b... manner

It was only when I started exploring different movements, different ranges, using load and gravity to map my tissues that the meat straight jacket I'd locked myself in started to loosen

Then all of a sudden I didn't need any of the both, I don't really need a warm up, or activations, I haven't stretched in well over a year or done any mobility and I'm more mobile than ever

Stretching/loaded mobility probably has some utility but even little movements like this done daily will do more for your back and mobility than any stretching or mobility routine

Save your money and dig out some old aerobics videos, there be gold in them thar hills

The body is pretty resilient, the knee included, but people really don't like loading them

Despite the work of Ben Patrick, knees over toes still scares people and once you add a bit of bounce or momentum people really don't like it

But, things need load to adapt, especially tendons and your main quad muscle (rec fem) has one all the way through so when you avoid these movements/positions it moulds to the ranges you use, creating tension and a guarded tone

When the thing connecting the knee and hip gets tight it has impacts far beyond the knee, changing how you move and can lead to issues in back/hips

Stretching won't remodel the tendon, it needs load, it needs stimulus and it needs exposing to those forces that the very thought of makes you knee ache - which it will (that's a good thing)

Helping fill in some of the missing pieces of his neurology

Riley's done an amazing job of adapting to what he's been through and he's never stopped moving forward, but that's left some gaps that need filling in, like crawling patterns

Linking the opposite limbs (left leg/right arm, right leg/left arm) mimics the reciprocal pattern used in walking and gets both hemispheres of the brain communicating while developing the visual and vestibular systems. It develops a rhythmic movement base too which helps to calm the nervous system

Simple but effective at plugging the gaps

Upgrading knees

If you read the 'good for knees' in the voice of Colossus from Deadpool we're on the same wavelength😂

Knees, a constant source of pain, injury, fear and confusion and the minute I share anything slightly outside of 'normal' knee movement, like the kind you see in gyms, people get worried

But movement isn't up and down, it isn't rigid, it's fluidly chaotic, especially in sport and life, hence introducing people and their knees to a variety of knee ranges and movements

We want those structures and their nervous system prepared for a bit of chaos and velocity in different positions so they can handle it without locking down/freaking out

People get worried, but if my knee, which I had rebuilt a few years back, can do it, most people will be r**t.

Time under tension (TUT) and a bit of gravity are great teachers and they'll expose where you're uncomfortable, where you're weak and where your nervous system doesn't like to go movement wise

I use drills like this, which is just a variation on some of my framework drills, to develop the knee and tendons, to build someone's glute (particularly medial) endure and to get them used to creating stability while in motion

The aim is slow and controlled while maintaining tension in the leg/knee, but don't do too many too soon as it will work your tendons extremely hard and stimulate remodeling, all of which is great but where only as strong as our recovery allows so ease into it and gradually build the angle

One of my favourite movements for testing and improving how someones nervous system handles more complex movement tasks

I use it to see how someone navigates a condensed range and a movement that requires moving through multiple planes of motion and connecting the upper and lower body to store and release energy

As with all my drills I start light, but it can be loaded up once someone's competent and this is one that I would recommend to anyone who does traditional gym training to diversify their movement diet

Pay attention to the spin of the dumbbell as we transition between upper and lower, if you're relaxed and have good shoulder/arm mobility it'll spin freely, if you're tense it'll show you where

I had a wrecked knee for years, I'm not 100% sure when I did it but I reckon getting hit by a car when I was 15 was probably the start of it

At first it ached, then after a few years it started swelling up about once a month to the point where I'd have to drag my leg and couldn't sleep

I tried everything to fix it, I'd acupuncture myself, injected peptides (before the hype) did every knee strengthening exercise you can think of, including walking backwards daily

I'd have a good run now and then but for over a decade I sported a knee support that reeked of tiger balm and deep heat. I didn't let it stop me doing anything, I fought with it, grappled with it and lifting with it, but for nearly 18 years I basically had one knee and a leg I had zero trust in

After paying for a scan and after anti-inflammatory wrecked my gut and kidneys, I finally got it fixed (MCL, Meniscus, patella tendon, cyst removal)

I'd gotten so used to the pain that the post surgery pain barely phased me and I didn't need any pain killers, it was sore but it was a lot more bearable

That's when I started my quest for two knees/legs and realised that while the stuff I'd been doing had taken the edge off, it wasn't going to restore my knee movement or confidence

Hence developing drills that not only developed my knee ability but my confidence in it too