A Guide to Better Movement: The Science and Practice of Moving With More Skill and Less Pain

The best athletes, the best dancers, the best martial artists and yogis are not just those who are the strongest, fastest or most flexible. (Although all those things help!) The best are those with the highest quality of movement, the best coordination, the best organization of the body. What sets them apart — people like Tiger Woods, Roger Federer

Another central idea in the neuromatrix model is that pain is an “output” of the brain, not a signal or “input” to the brain from the body.66 In this sense, the pain alarm system is like the movement system, in that it gathers information from the body, interprets it, and then creates outputs to accomplish goals. With pain, the goal is to encourage

skill development is characterized not by adding new muscle contractions, but taking away the unnecessary ones. In the context of everyday emotional life, inhibition allows you to make measured responses to stressful events. When a car cuts you off in traffic, there is a flash of excitement in the muscles and heart rate, but the spread of excitemen

what Moshe Feldenkrais called parasitic tension — unwanted and unnecessary muscle contractions in many other areas (e.g. the shoulders, neck, or jaw). We could make similar observations about other activities we do all day long such as reaching, breathing, walking, sitting or standing. Excess tension in these activities is unlikely to cause any dis

a person who is standing up can do a lot of the work of moving in any particular direction by simply allowing their body to fall in that direction. Think of a sprinter falling forward to start a race.

it is easier to perceive the shape and movement of the spinal curves and ribs while lying on the floor than standing in space. On your back, you can sense lumbar flexion by feeling the low back press into the floor. In standing, this form of feedback is not available.

Some common directions into which people tend to lose neutral joint position during movement are upper cervical extension, thoracic flexion, scapular elevation and internal rotation, thoracolumbar extension, hip flexion, and foot pronation.

If you move quickly, your repertoire will be limited to “feedforward” movements that are well practiced or habitual. Slow movement is required if you want to move in novel or unpracticed ways. To use the skiing down the mountain analogy, if your priority is to get down the mountain as fast as possible, you will always select the deepest, most well-

The idea that flexibility is limited by the nervous system is supported by research showing increases in flexibility from stretching are likely caused by increased stretch tolerance, rather than increased length of the muscle.