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

A broad area of contact distributes the load and prevents excessive stress in a small area. A narrow area of contact, for example a valgus (knock-knee) position, will tend to stress the lateral part of the bones and the medial ligaments. Small differences in joint angle can have large mechanical effects.

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.

If you take a snapshot of any elite mover in action, you’ll see a beautiful example of reciprocal use of the limbs for counterbalance. A dancer performing an arabesque, or a soccer player kicking a ball are perfect examples.

Nociception means the transmission of sensory information about noxious stimuli from the body to the brain. We can think of nociception as the process of detecting danger and sending danger signals to the brain. It proceeds through several stages as described below.

Thus, pain is a conscious experience created by the brain, not a damaged condition of the body. You can have one without the other.

the purpose of pain is not to measure tissue damage, but to encourage protective behaviors. The need for protection depends on more than just the state of the tissues. Second, pain protects against “perceived” threat, not actual threat, and the brain’s perceptions in this regard can simply be incorrect.

When a particular joint is in optimal position for safety and performance with regard to a particular function, we can say the joint is in neutral, or centrated. Centration implies maximum bony contact between the two bones forming a joint, which allows the safest and most effective transfer of force. It also means that muscles will be at their opt

The interesting thing about this exercise is the transitional movements produced by the mere intention to reach or get a view of something are often smoother, more integrated, and more coordinated than the same movements would be if we intended to perform them on purpose. This highlights the fact that babies do not learn movement by trying to learn

Even the simplest movement requires teamwork — lifting a finger implies cooperative activity between a prime mover (it contracts to create the movement), a stabilizer (it contracts to prevent unwanted movement), and the antagonist muscle (it relaxes to allow the movement). No matter how fit or capable the individual muscles are, if they are not coo