Monday, May 28, 2007

Managing the Body

A lost art I have found amongst my clients and even athletes whom I have worked with is the importance of managing the body. In particular I am referring to the rehab/prehab aspects such as myofascial work, stretching, mobility, etc. The success of your body and the progression and health of your body depend on these factors as much as resistance training, cardiovscular conditioning, and nutrition. In fact they form a 1/4 of the pie.

It is essential to use tools such as the foam roller, tennis ball, baseball, golf ball to perform myofascial release, trigger point work on the muscle tissue, scar tissue of the body.

It is essential to stretch and this comes in various forms such as active stretching (using same or opposing muscle groups to stretch), static or passive stretching (similar to Bikram Yoga), yoga in general, relax into stretch (pavel has an excellent book on this), and mobility work. Mobility is a form of flexibility done through dynamic or active movement taking joints of the body thru various ranges of motion.

It is important to determine what your body needs, and build a program around the needs of your body. Of course, you do not want to neglect aspects or areas however if pressed for time then focus on the areas that need the most work first. Note that this may change through time and that if you keep up the maintenance or management of your body using this tools you will move more freely and with limited to hopefully no pain or limitations.

No comments: