How well does your body manage itself when challenged?

To reduce your risk of injury, you need to move efficiently and with confidence.

How to?

By developing mobility and stability. This means you have a range of movement necessary for what you want to do, and your body trusts it can use it safely throughout that range. You'll have a secure foundation for muscles to contract against, to avoid unnecessary movements and ensure force is applied in the most effective direction. Core stability starts with the breath.

There are four parts to this self-assessment process.

1. Observing your breath
2. Exploring your ability to move on or near the ground
3. Testing your balance
4. Observing your running style and considering signs, symptoms and previous injuries

Be reassured that you once had all the basic movement skills nailed - in your first few years of life. The mobility phase of this training cycle restores these original movements that makes us all human.

What to do

1) Follow the two videos in the Breath & Body assessments lecture, using the first two worksheets to record your observations, and how easy each movement felt, and whether some just weren't possible for you right now.

The exploration follows the natural pattern that a baby will take in becoming a toddler. These are basic movement skills that we all learnt, and can re-learn to restore our movement abilities.

This is nicely summarised by a short video from the practice of Feldenkrais, which uses this same baby to toddler development process as the basis of gentle movement exercise. LINK

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2) Then use the Balance Assessment worksheet #3 alongside videos in the 'General' lectures to observe balance, lunge and squat exercises.

Note these are screening and review tools only - we don't aim to diagnose or pinpoint problems through this work, although it may be an added benefit. As you'll learn through this course, your body is so complex that it's often impossible to truly diagnose movement dysfunctions. That's why patients may receive different answers from each physio they visit. I encourage you to tinker with movement and give your body time and space to solve it's movement problems.

These tests are best used as a measure of progress as you become able to move more freely and less wobbly. Reaching goals and milestones are a fantastic way to keep motivated!