Are You a Shark?

“You know, in the water a shark would clearly swim faster than me.

However, on land, I would definitely outrun a shark.

So, in a triathlon, it would all come down to who’s a better biker.”

I love this joke. But it’s also an illustration of both adaptation and environment.

Why is it that we can be fit in some ways but not in others?

We can run, but walking hurts. Or we can do pull-ups but we can’t actually pull ourselves up onto a tree branch. Maybe we can swim for miles, but sitting on the floor hurts.

Fitness, unfortunately, doesn’t translate across all activities.

The body adapts to exercise but it adapts specifically to the activity you do.

So, do you ever wonder why despite your exercises, you still hurt or have trouble moving?

Part of the reason may be that you don’t have a Natural Movement Based Approach to using your body.

Many approaches to exercise are very narrow in range of motion and lack functional application. Sure, certain sports and skills are fun to do and satisfying to have, but they leave parts of our bodies “over-used” and others “under-used”. The trade-off with any specialization in activity is you get really good at one thing but aren’t very functional at others, and the wear and tear on your body is greater over time.

With a Natural Movement Based Approach, we compare your current alignment with the neutral alignment of the skeleton to see how you are over or under using parts of yourself in order to create strategies for developing better balance of all the tissues of the body. That way you may begin to move more freely overall. Then, we build in useful strength and skills of movement that reflect evolutionary based ways of living and relating to the natural world.

We are not sharks and did not evolve to swim at super fast speeds (mako sharks are reported to get up to 45 mph/70 kph!! ). We are humans who are generalists in movement - meaning we are super adaptable and evolved to move in a myriad of ways to meet the demands of our particular environments. Our bodies work best when we practice moving in all the ways: crawling, squatting, walking, running, jumping, climbing, lifting, carrying, etc…

The really cool thing about this approach is: once you understand the principles and practices, they become “meta-skills” - meaning they become useful in practically any activity you do. The result is  you can live more fully.

So, are you a specialist like a shark? Or are you a human animal craving to go back your generalized movement roots?

Looking for ways to dive into these waters (so to speak) of movement and life?

Book a free Consultation to Move Freely and Live Fully

Keep on swimming, (and all the other movements too),

Patrick