Hi gang! In today’s newsletter I am going to talk to you about strength but not any old strength, I am going to talk to you about ORIGINAL STRENGTH – your original strength!!
Before you ever lifted a dumbbell, kettlebell or barbell you did some serious strength training. You were born with an innate system that was to help you become ridiculously strong. That system is known as neuro developmental patterning
- You took your first breath and found your diaphragm
- You picked up that huge head of yours and moved it all over the shop
- You rolled from front to back and back to front
- You pulled up those little legs under you and rocked back and forth loading your hips and shoulders
- You crawled across the room so you could stick a teddy bear in your mouth
Many of us take these innate systems for granted but it is these movements that got us up and standing, walking, climbing, jumping, running and pretty much all the movements that we do today
We humans are the only animals that are bipedal, that is we stand and walk upright. Pretty amazing if you ask me!
Original Strength is a movement system created by Tim Anderson and Geoff Neupert that teaches how to restore movement, build strength and increase bulletproof-ness (thats a word) by tapping in to our tapestry and PRESSING RESET.
The 5 BIG resets ….
You guessed it
- DIAPHRAGMATIC BREATHING
- HEAD NODS (vestibular system training)
- ROLLING
- ROCKING
- CRAWLING
Diaphragmatic breathing:
If you have ever watched a baby sleeping you will see beautiful big belly breaths. Babies are great belly breathers which sets up their parasympathetic nervous system; that is our stress free rest and digest or as we get older feed and breed system. The other type of breathing is sympathetic which is our fight, flight, freeze or please don’t beat me up system
Head nods:
Babies have massive heads. As an adult it would be like having a 20kg kettlebell hanging off your neck. Imagine trying to pick that up off the floor just so you can look at mum making silly cooing sounds. Picking up that enormous noggin and swinging it around the room to look at stuff is what begins to solidify our vestibular system; that is our balance, proprioception and coordination.
Rolling:
Rolling around the floor is good for so many reasons and it feels good. Rolling gives us huge amounts of tactile stimulation which is nourishing feedback for our brains. Rolling is how we find our core musculature and it’s the beginning of our gait patterning.
Rocking:
Have you ever thought about why you rock a baby to sleep. It feels good and it’s super calming. Rocking is the way our bodies begin to find some hip and shoulder stabilization, it integrates our joints and plays a huge role in setting up our spinal posture. Rocking is reflexive and reflexive strength is the bodies ability to anticipate, prepare and respond to movement before it happens.
What that actually means is that if you’re trying to work on your posture by standing taller and pulling your shoulders back it’s probably going to do nothing. Our posture isn’t static it’s dynamic and it’s forever responding. Reflexive strength is what makes for better posture
Crawling:
This is where we really begin to dial in the core and fuse our body-brain connections together. Crawling is a fantastic way to work contra-lateral patterning which is the patterning that types all our systems together for locomotion.
Crawling and cross crawling are a go-to for any stroke patients, many with cerebral palsy and epilepsy. There are links showing cross crawling sets kids up for better learning and cognitive functioning too.
Adults too
Yes this stuff is for kids but it’s for us adults too. If you want to squat so easily and gracefully like a two year old then you have to do what the two year old does/did.
As an Original Strength Coach and someone that implements these movements in to my daily routine I can honestly say that they have been wonderful for restoring my movement and they feel good. And in the words of Tim Anderson – It feels good to feel good!!
Have a wonderful day and crawl on
Paul ‘back to crawling’ and Krystie ‘rocking to sleep’ Miller
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