Sustainable Movement

The current paradigm of sports, movement, and exercise is tragically flawed. Adhering to it results in significant acute and chronic pain, financial loss, an accelerated morbidity curve, and premature infirmity.

The principles of sustainable movement provide an alternative – a model of sports and exercise that supports maximum health and well-being, squares the morbidity curve, and extends the full function of our minds and bodies throughout our lives.

How Is the Current Paradigm Flawed?

It is a system based on life expectancies half of which currently exist, and most likely a third of those soon to be born. It is a system designed by the mind – that part of our being LEAST aware of the body. It rests on dangerous assumptions:

• That injuries are temporary and transient.
• That a compressed, rigid physical structure is “healthy.”
• That our thoughts and emotions are separate from the body.
• That “no pain, no gain” is a valid principle.

The result: a system that creates subtle and not-so-subtle structural anomalies to the detriment of every system in the body.

Most of us are born near perfect – then life happens.

The Matrix

The current paradigm describes our physical body as a collection of pieces: joints, muscles, bones, nerves, and organs. If one part is weak, we strengthen it. If something breaks, we sew, glue, screw, or plate it back together. This perception dates back to the anatomy studies of Galen the Greek – and it is naive.

Our structure is composed of a continuous matrix of interwoven connective tissue fibers. This meshwork permeates every bone, muscle, organ, and cell of the body. There is no separation of parts – just one matrix.

Distortion or trauma to any part of the body affects the entire structure.

The Ankle That Changed Everything

A moderate ankle sprain: one to two weeks of swelling, acute pain, and inability to bear weight, followed by four to six weeks of rehabilitation. The traditional paradigm would say the return to function is the end of the story.

It is NOT the end of the story.

An ankle sprain is a deformation of connective tissue ligaments. The current paradigm claims that with time and exercise, these ligaments return to their original state. That is incorrect. The strained ligament will never have the same integrity as before the injury – those of us with any history of ankle sprains will attest to this.

The PERMANENT injury to those ligaments results in an inevitable deformation of the entire body.

Even a reduction of half a millimeter at the ankle sends ripples of change throughout the structure. The hip drops. The body leans. The head, demanding alignment with gravity, repositions the upper body. The shoulder rises to compensate. The neck shifts. A simple ankle sprain, even after it is “not painful” and returned to “full function,” has set in motion a series of permanent adaptations and compensations.

Each year, millions suffer from sports-induced injuries. The acute discomfort, disability, and financial and emotional stress are significant. But the long-term sequelae will dramatically affect your middle and later years.

Gravity Never Stops

The force of gravity acts upon our structure twenty-four hours per day, compressing our body. Over the years, we shrink. Subject to this relentless gravitational force, every curve, distortion, and imbalance worsens over time. The spaces between vertebrae and limb joints lessen. What was once free movement is now impeded by bone or cartilage. That most subtle imbalance from an ankle sprain in youth manifests as bulging and herniated discs, bone-on-bone hip and knee arthritis, difficulty breathing, and compromised neurological and cardiovascular health.

To summarize: there are no do-overs regarding our physical structure. EVERY trauma, over time, will eventually manifest as reduced function and pain.

What Is Sustainable Movement?

Sustainable movement is a paradigm for the care and maintenance of our physical structure – a model to minimize trauma and its inevitable sequelae.

By reducing traumas and imbalances, we decrease the distortions and compensations that cause most of the musculoskeletal complaints and surgeries of our later lives.

Perhaps even more importantly: by maintaining balance and space throughout the body, not only does our mechanical nature stay intact, but the systems that travel through the musculoskeletal infrastructure function far better and longer. Whether it be the veins and arteries, the gastrointestinal tract, or the pathways through which nerves travel – SPACE is what is needed for them to work well. Compression will inevitably reduce their function.

Sustainable Movement Guidelines

• Keep whatever you are doing bilateral – not favoring one side or the other. Learn to use your mouse with both hands. Play sports that are not one-sided, or learn to use both sides equally well.
• Movement needs to be both anaerobic and aerobic.
• Keep things low impact. EVERY impact on our structure is remembered by the body. Twenty years from now, when the cartilage of your knees and hips gives out after years of running – your mind will remember as well.
• Stop doing things that put your body in jeopardy: skydiving, ski jumping, hang gliding, high dives into shallow pools, contact sports, and all the other dangerous things that no other living creature on this planet would even conceive of – worse yet, enact.
• Move through the full range of motion of all joints.
• Balance flexors with extensors, core with superficial.
• Expansion in all movements. Length in all exercises. Create space for breath and life.
• Moderation in all things.

Sustainable Systems of Movement

Done well, with joy, and NO pain:

1. Arica® psychocalisthenics
2. Traditional yoga with a good teacher – the idea of “Power” Yoga is an oxymoron.
3. Pilates
4. Elliptical trainers, backward and forward, low ramp
5. Most dance
6. THE GYROTONIC EXPANSION METHOD®
7. Recreational ballet (pay attention to the “no pain” part).

The Mind-Body Connection

Inherent in sustainable movement is recognizing the mind-body connection. Every negative event, whether internal or external, creates compression in your being – compression that amplifies the sequelae of prior traumas. Every positive thought, feeling, and perception creates expansion, reducing the impact of previous injuries and establishing a state of relaxation in which your body can heal.

Perhaps most importantly: whatever movement system or exercise you choose, it must align with your Spirit – that part of you that KNOWS (not thinks) what is best for you at any instant. If you do not have access to that information, then at least make sure whatever exercise you do makes you truly happy. NOT the false joy of climbing a higher mountain, lifting a heavier weight, running a longer race, or surfing a north shore winter swell. The pleasure from these events is transitory and false in so many ways. Pushing our physical limits as a source of happiness demonstrates an addiction that will almost inevitably result in severe trauma as you keep searching for the next big thing. If your actions stem from the mind and ego, they will almost always end badly.

Be mindful of your body in all things. It only takes a microsecond of not paying attention to fall off a ladder, get hit by a surfboard, take a wrong turn down a ski trail, or lift a weight incorrectly. Be mindful and PAY ATTENTION.