Ever have that piece of technology that used to run smoothly, but now it has slowed down to a crawl? When the hardware doesn’t keep up with the software, problems start to develop…those bugs in the system start to affect the performance until finally, it just gives up and crashes.
The same is true of your body as you age. Every move your body makes (the hardware) produces feedback to your brain (the software). These motor patterns will then feed-forward to affect how you move.
When you move with poor mechanics or use a compensation pattern caused by an injury, stress, or pain, the brain holds on to these faulty patterns. That’s why the antiquated idea of pushing harder, going further, stretching longer, or massaging deeper, doesn’t always produce the best results. These faulty rigidity strategies may compromise the joints and soft tissue structures so that activities that were once easy or recommended might now actually set you up for further problems.
This is when it’s time to hit the reset button after an injury or event. Recovery is like rebooting and re-learning optimal movement patterns is like reloading the software to make sure you’re system is running smoothly. This should be done before challenging your system with increased load (resistance, speed, power, etc.). Remember that regular updates and system maintenance keeps your entire body running smoothly and efficiently so it’ll last longer and perform at its best.
Take home message: Add some slow, deliberate movement training to your program to make sure you’re mapping your brain with the right information for your body. The more relaxed your body is, the better the results.
Join the FREE ProBalanceTV Portal, goto the “Mini-Workouts” section to find the “Core Reset Jumpstart” or you can also try out the “Oov Basic Supine Workout” (doing it on a soft or padded foam roller will work) as another good option.