The Goal: Discover damaging mechanical patterns and develop healthier ones.
Pain motivates us to change, and moving well is the long-term solution to being pain-free. The plus? Moving well feels good!
Many injuries have common roots, made up of our genes and the environment. We can’t change our parents, but we can make the most of what we have by developing
• better posture,
• softer, full movement, and incorporating
• variety of movement in your life.
When people hear the word “posture,” most think of their mother’s admonition to “stand up straight; put your shoulders back.” In this book, posture refers to the whole body. “Good posture” means aligning the feet, knees, pelvis, trunk and head all should be aligned whether looking at them from the front, side or overhead.
Softer, full movement means involving the center of the body when you move, and not restricting your intended movement.
This doesn’t happen overnight. It is a process and there is an order. The first step is to achieve better posture, which gives you an opportunity to achieve softer movement. Developing better mechanics is not difficult, it’s just that our environment, including what we’re told, tends to take us in the wrong direction. If you follow the directions outlined in this book, your posture and your mechanics can improve significantly.
Doug,
I’ve tried playing into old age. I discovered racquetball in my early 30’s after spending 10 years running around 20-40 miles a week. It incorporated all the skill sets I learned and practiced in my sports-filled youth. Up until I had a grandson a little over a year ago, I played racquetball on the average of 3x a week. Since his birth, however, I haven’t been able to exercise as consistently as before and am now experiencing pain on the outer edges of both my feet. I’ll be interested in reading the rest of your book to see what I’m doing wrong and how I can improve my foot mechanics with different exercises. Congrats on the book! It was a long time in tge works!
Greg,
Nice! There are lots of things to do so you are healthy and pain-free, and I think you will find good insights in the book. As you read more and have your own insights and questions, let’s talk about them!
Doug