Do bigger movements

Ever been to a physical therapy clinic and noticed that most of the exercises you do are focused on ‘the problem area’? If you’re going for knee pain, you will ‘isolate’ the glutes and the quads. If you’re there for your shoulder, you will ‘isolate’ and ‘activate’ your rotator cuff.

Now, there is 100% a time and place for isolation of muscle groups. Those muscles sometimes need to be taught, how and when to ‘turn on’. And sometimes the only way to do that is to poke it, wake it up, and make it work (@ my left glute).

However, most of our movement in daily life is not isolated. We don’t only move in internal and external rotation, and our muscles sure as shit don’t work alone. Thomas Myers is the founder of a book and idea called ‘anatomy trains’ which states that muscles work TOGETHER. Just because I’m doing a calf raise doesn’t mean I am only working my gastrocnemius and not my soleus, hamstring, glutes, and big toe just because I’m not isolating them.

Our muscles work better - together. No muscle ever works in isolation. All muscles are surrounded by fascia and while our muscles are not inherently connected - our fascia is. So, when one muscle contracts, all the fascia that connects that muscle to another muscle, also contracts. This happens all the way from the tip of the toe to the top of the neck.

There are 2 main reasons I recommend ‘bigger movements’. One is that we don’t move in small motions; when we move, we move big. Our rehab should reflect that. The second is that we need to be strong. We don’t need to be lifting 2x our body weight but we do need to be strong enough that we can hold our own weight and move beneath it.

Big movements do not need to be complicated, either. Do I recommend deadlifts, squats, presses and pulls? Yeah, when you’re ready for that. But you can still do so much between those heavy powerful movements and simple isolation exercises. I’m talking arm bars, deadlift with 5lb dumbbells, bear crawls (a quick google search will help if you’re not sure what these exercises are). Get your body moving as a BODY, not it’s parts. If the idea of being a ‘holistic’ practitioner appeals to you, then move big and use your whole body.

So, next time you’re seeing someone for an injury and you barely get off the table to move - ask when you will move onto bigger movements. Push for that. Own your right to move and if they tell you “no” as you’ve progressed, move on to the next therapist who will.