FUNCTIONAL MOVEMENT
Movement FOOD
By Gray Cook, MSPT, OCS, CSCS
to energize the human body. Interestingly, we think with greater clar- ity about eating than we do about moving. In his book, In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan deconstructs our assumptions and unnecessary anxieties about food. To over- simplify his body of work: Food is a whole and natural thing. Real food is full of many subcomponents that, in isolation, may be beneficial, may be toxic or could throw you out of balance. However, we live in an age of supple-
T
ments. Instead of drinking green tea, we just want to identify the few good things in green tea that we can stick into a pill, a candy bar or some bubble gum.
26 canfitpro JULY AUGUST 2016 JANU/ARY/FEBRUARY 2017
hose words were very wise advice in a time, much like the present, when factions of society were look- ing for performance enhancement, medical miracles and easier ways
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” – Hippocrates
It does not work that way with food. It does not work that way in move- ment or exercise either.
Vitamins and nutrients are much better
used to pull you out of a state of dysfunction than force you into a state of optimization. Our assumptions about vitamins, minerals or nutritional supplements are skewed. Supplements do not substitute authentic regenerative behaviours such as eating and resting. And they certainly do not offer a competitive advantage or performance octane boost.
But how does this apply to movement? Exercise is a movement supplement, not
movement food. We do it largely for hopes of a better future in movement. Furthermore, no single exercise demonstrates overall human movement capabilities. As babies, toddlers and children, we are biologically driven to play. We develop fundamental pat-
terns and physical capacities in those early explorations of our environment through our senses and movement. As we age, certain parts of our movement landscape draw our attention and we continue to play. Regardless of the ways we choose to
explore movement, we can break it down to an elemental level and find your movement food. The best starting point is to look at the four different levels of movement:
• Movement Health: Do you have
the basic constituents to both move in a healthful way and have that movement benefit you in a healthful way? What is the minimal effective dose of movement for your entire system?
• Movement Function: Can you take
all of the attributes of movement health and organize them to become a movement- competent learning machine? Movement function does not mean you know or are
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