Chapter 17: Local Positional Control - The Practice of Natural Movement

You now have a better understanding of the pillars of technique and how fundamental, universal laws and principles rule movement efficiency, both conceptually and experientially. Before you start learning complete movements, it’s a good idea to make sure that you have local positional control, which is basic control over your body’s simplest movement patterns, one at a time, which I’m going to tell you how to verify by standing in one spot—no locomotion yet. You’re checking the alignment of your spine and the position of your head, hips, arms, shoulders, legs, or feet, as well as their basic motions. Indeed, you would be surprised by how many people have issues assuming and/or performing such simple discrete positions and movements without thinking or getting confused.

Practicing local positional control can expose basic motor-control or mobility issues or limitations, dissymmetry, and imbalances before you dive into the next chapters where you learn and practice complete movement techniques and employ whole-body positional control. You also can do the discrete movements I describe here before you engage in movement practice to check out the body’s basic function, identify localized stiffness or pain, prepare for movement, or release tension. You can practice these movements when the body is otherwise almost completely idle (when you’re sitting, standing, and waiting, and so on) to add movement and well-being to an otherwise movement deficient lifestyle.

To learn complex movement patterns known as “technique,” you must first develop full control of other much smaller movements that participate in the complete pattern. There is a popular saying that states, “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” Complete movement patterns—or techniques—can be considered chains. (As a matter of fact, they can be called kinetic chains, and each discrete movement is a “link.”) A stronger link in a movement chain doesn’t always strengthen the whole chain. However, a weak link in a movement chain always weakens the whole chain.

If you don’t Hip Hinge efficiently, you can’t lift, jump, or land efficiently. If you lack mobility in your feet and ankles, any movement on your feet is altered to an extent. Unless you pay attention to the details, you can’t understand what is missing or not working correctly in the big picture. Local positional control enables you to have each part of the pattern do its job properly, which entails that particular body parts should be moving only if they’re involved in the efficiency of the overall movement. Therefore, local positional control is tightly related to overall positional control and efficiency.

When I teach, I often point out small, unnecessary movements that students do without being aware of it. I always ask, “Did you notice it? Was it intentional? Did it add anything to your efficiency?” The answer is always no. With experience, you modify your positions as little as possible not out of rigidity but out of efficiency. What doesn’t contribute is superfluous; what is superfluous is a waste of time and energy. Your brain must focus all its attention on the effectiveness and efficiency of movement, and if you add up constant little movements that alter your position, it is like “noise” in a symphony.

Of course, the discrete positions and movements that I describe in this chapter don’t encompass the full spectrum; however, I cover the essential ones that involve all joints and all planes of motion. Eventually, the real level of function of any body part or joint is revealed by movement done in context. For instance, you may have decent and pain-free shoulder rotation when you’re standing, but your shoulders get stiff and can’t rotate as well when you’re hanging.

The information I offer here is just a quick, partial movement screen for you to do on your own. It’s not a guarantee that if all goes all right, you’re ready for any movement without experiencing any issue, limitation, or discomfort. It also doesn’t mean that you’ll learn Natural Movement techniques without effort. In any case, the local positional control movements in this chapter may help reawaken dormant areas of your motor control. Eventually, you should be able to visualize and replicate precise positions and movements with your eyes closed.

A Few Words About Posture

 

One of the most crucial aspects of positional control that you need to memorize and reflexively, instantly reproduce is posture. Posture is commonly seen as holding a straight back when sitting, standing, or walking, but this is a restrictive view. Posture has to do with the linear alignment of the spine and, by extension, of the whole upper body, regardless of the particular position we hold or movement we do. For instance, posture is also present in various kneeling positions with an upright upper body, and in jumping, landing, lifting, and throwing techniques and other movements where the upper body is leaning forward at an angle.

Just like breathing, posture—good or bad—significantly affects our emotions, energy levels, hormonal balance, and so on. A “collapsed” upper body position shrinks us, compromises breathing and digestive function, and negatively acts on our cortisol levels. (High levels of cortisol are associated with many negative health effects.) We’re perceived by others as smaller, weaker, less present, and less capable. Conversely a tall, erect posture expresses confidence, presence, and intention, communicating to others that we’re capable, centered, in control, and self-assured; it makes us more attractive to others. There is an established interaction between posture and psychology: better posture promotes a more positive attitude, and a more positive attitude supports better posture. With good posture, things are literally looking up for you!

NOTE

 

To read more about the relationship between posture and psychology, I recommend the study from The Ohio State University covered in the article at www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091005111627.htm.

 

For those reasons, posture is rightfully a big concern in the modern world. We are constantly told to pay attention to it. There are devices and contraptions designed to improve posture and experts specializing in fixing “dysfunctional posture” with very detailed criteria of what good posture should look like externally. To most of us, holding a “good” posture is perceived as a chore that demands constant attention and effort.

However, is there really such a thing as a standard posture? No. This would be dismissing individual variations in our anatomy, physical makeup, and measurements. My standpoint on good posture doesn’t relate to arbitrary standards but to the biomechanical principle of joint centration. Whereas most animals are quadrupedal and have evolved to sustain a horizontal orientation of the spine from sacrum to neck, humans are bipedal and have evolved to stand erect. Whereas we may episodically assume positions that aren’t vertical, by default we want to return to a vertically organized position, typically when we sit, kneel, stand, walk, and run. Assuming vertically “stacked” joint alignment enables us to be efficient in the way we interact with gravity, which is especially important given that such erect positions are those we assume most of the time. With rounded alignment—of the spine from top to bottom—gravity demands that we exert more tension in the body’s posterior regions, such as the back, neck, and shoulders. For example, a human head weighs about 10 to 12 pounds, but looking at a smartphone with your head leaning down is equal to having a 60-pound weight pressing down on your neck. If you hold the positions for hours a day every day, such stress is very likely to cause tension and pain (and ultimately damage) in your neck. Similar issues arise with a chronically rounded spine, which used to be an issue in elderly people but is now common in much younger populations. Whereas there may not be an “ideal” posture that looks exactly the same for all, there is certainly an ideal way to interact with gravity, and individual posture is best when it is optimally aligned vertically with the base of support and gravity.

Day-to day-posture is very important, but it’s only one aspect of your overall physical and movement function. It may be much more beneficial for you to look at your overall movement and physical behavior rather than trying to episodically assume good posture in the absence of the general physical behavior and even lifestyle that supports it.

The practice of the movement patterns in this chapter will help you get a better sense of your current spinal alignment. Although frequently paying attention to your posture on a day-to-day basis when you stand or sit can contribute to improving it, this isn’t the most important or most effective way to address it. If you check out your posture even ten times a day and force yourself to hold a good position for a minute, your posture collapses again the moment you stop being mindful about it, and you still end up spending the overwhelming majority of your day with a rounded back, hunched shoulders, and forward-leaning neck.

Instead, you need to make posture reflexive. Posture needs to become something that you do not need to mentally remind your body to do; over time, it has to become a reflex of your central nervous system that unconsciously takes place in a matter of milliseconds. Without such a reflex, “postural strength” gained through specific drills becomes useless because it remains unused most of the time.

How do you reach that point? Most experts recommend that you give priority attention to how you contract such-or-such muscle (brace the abs, squeeze the glutes, and so on) in a sequence and at a certain percentage of tension so your joints and bones can “naturally” align. This might not be the best way to make good posture a systematic physical reflex as it leads people to overthinking. Instead, you need to restore the original movement behavior of your whole body as often as you can; in short, practice Natural Movement with the diversity, frequency, consistency, and, of course, efficiency it entails.

By learning to control breathing and position through many diverse movement techniques in many contexts, you synergistically learn how to organize your skeletal structure efficiently, and in most cases you will intuitively figure out, by feel, what levels of tension are required and where that tension is needed—whether it is in your abs, in your glutes, along your spine, or wherever else it is necessary—by feel. Consciously thinking of particular muscles and levels of tension may keep you mentally focused on limited areas of your posture, such as your “core,” and potentially distracted to the fact that your posture is still terrible because your head and upper back may not be vertically aligned with your base of support in the first place.

You need to acquire a physical perception of what is a healthy, efficient posture both in terms of position from toes to head and with the right levels of tension needed to maintain that position, but you start with the position rather than the tension. If you start with the perception of your position being optimally aligned with gravity, then everything else falls into place.

When you’re sitting at your desk, your central nervous system will remember the good feeling of aligned spine, centered joints, open chest, rib cage, and shoulder it has experienced while crawling, hanging, or lifting with efficient technique, and it will want to reproduce this good body feeling from its own initiative, reflexively.

A Few Words About the Core

 

Ever heard of the core? Of course you have. The “core” is a complex series of muscles that work together to coordinate to stabilize the midline of your body—lower spine and pelvis—in both static positions and dynamic ones (movement!). Does that relate to posture? Yes. Postural control is about the alignment of the spine from head to sacrum; in fact, it even includes the pelvis. Core stability protects the spine, especially the lower area of the spine, and protecting the spine protects the spinal cord and the ability of the central nervous system to direct motion (motor control). If you hurt the spine, you hurt your ability to move to a radical extent. So “good” posture isn’t just about alignment; it’s also the strength and endurance of the whole muscular system responsible for keeping the spine strong and safe, especially during dynamic and powerful movements.

The muscles involved in the core extend far beyond the abdominals. Many other muscles are involved, including the glutes and many other muscles. Trying to isolate all those muscles to strengthen them separately wouldn’t be such a good idea because the core needs to be trained in concert with the rest of the body through movement. The core isn’t about looking good with chiseled abs. The core has work to do—primarily to stabilize the pelvis and lower spine. Having a strong core is significant to the big picture of efficient, practical, and adaptable movement. Doing many crunches isn’t the best solution for developing the strength, endurance, and motor control that a functional core demands.

The control of abdominal breathing gives you a great head start in terms of bracing and lower spine stability, as well as supporting stability all the way to the top of your spine. It also helps your ability to relax. It is not mostly muscular strength but muscular endurance that ensures the ability to maintain posture over time. This explains why very strong individuals who can Deadlift very heavy loads may rapidly experience lower back pain when moving in nature on difficult terrains for some time; movement requires endurance and adaptability in your ability to stabilize the pelvis and spine.

The following movement patterns and techniques are very effective for teaching you postural control:

• The Foot-Hand Crawl

• The Hip Hinge, learned and practiced first separately

• The Hip Hinge applied to Stepping Under, Power Jumping, Neutral Landing, and performing manipulative techniques under load, such as the Deadlift and Front Swing Throw and Catch patterns

NOTE

 

Remember this: A straight posture in a living human being is not a chronic tightening of your muscles or the fossilization of your vertebrae and joints; when you’re sitting or standing with good posture, allow frequent minute adjustments and movements, undulations, and oscillations of your spine and bones to conserve fluidity of motion in the spine.

 

Standing Positions

 

Photos 1 and 2 show what standing with good posture and abdominal breathing looks like.

Notice the vertical alignment from the base of support to the top of the head. The model is expressing quiet composure, confidence, awareness, and readiness, yet he is relaxed.

 

Intentional Practical Stances

The following standing positions are all intentional, which means not only that you are conscious of the fact you are holding them, but also that you are holding them for a practical reason. There are more variations than the few examples shown, but the point is to illustrate that standing positions, just like in any other area of Natural Movement, are practical and contextually adaptable. None of the positions shown is “faulty” or inefficient as long as it serves a temporary practical purpose.

 

1 Split Standing with a slight backward lean: Need for stability, balance, observation

2 Split Standing, bending over: Looking for something on the ground or picking up very light objects

3 Split Standing side lean: Stepping through confined environments, looking for a passage

4 Split Standing Hip Hinge forward lean and arm reach: Reaching for something when stepping closer isn’t possible

Unconscious Behavioral Stances

There are a number of standing positions we may hold that do not express the qualities I previously described. These positions might temporarily consciously or (more often) unconsciously express a particular psychological state, which we commonly refer to as “body language.” Even though we see these positions as “normal” simply because they are so common, holding them by default or just too frequently is not a healthy postural habit. As you look at photos 1 through 10, you might even recognize stances that people you know often adopt. Compare the photos in this section with the photos in the first set and with how you regularly stand.

Unless they are intentional and temporary, the positions represented in photos 1 through 10 represent faulty positions because none of them displays healthy alignment or relaxation. As I mentioned earlier, the overall practice of Natural Movement, efficient movement, and positional control within context coupled with abdominal breath control and paying attention to your posture during day-to-day activities will gradually help you let go of those unconscious standing patterns and replace them with healthier ones.

 

1 Lumbar hyperextension: Suggests an exaggerated self-assertion.

2 Lumbar flexion.

3 Rounded back.

4 Shrugged shoulders: Suggests insecurity, protective stance.

 

5 Shoulder/trapezius tension: Suggests “tough guy” attitude, showing off self-confidence (most often expressing an actual lack thereof).

6 Hip sway with most of the body weight on one foot: The contrapposto (Italian for counterpose) stance was a common pose in Antique sculptures. Suggests feeling relaxed, secure, and “cool,” and but it’s an imbalanced stance.

 

7 Crossed arm chin support: Suggests insecurity.

8 Crossed legs: Suggests insecurity, indecision.

9 Crossed legs and crossed arms with a side lean: Suggests protectiveness of self, insecurity, disagreement.

10 Rounded back with hip sway and arms crossed in the back: Suggests insecurity, disagreement, disinvolvement.

Neutral Pelvis & Lower Back

 

1 Anterior pelvic tilt and slight lumbar (lower back or spine) extension

2 Neutral pelvis and lower back

3 Posterior pelvis tilt and slight lumbar flexion

To help with postural control or vertically aligned standing, let’s look at alignment from the base of support to the head instead of looking only at the upper back and shoulders. You’re going to make sure your legs are fully extended (no knee bend) then move your attention to the lower back, pelvis, and hips (they are so closely related that the term lumbopelvic-hip-complex is often used) to vertically align the center of the pelvis with the center of your base of support. At this point both your pelvis and lower spine have been placed in a nice “neutral” position (the term neutral indicates vertical alignment with the base of support). If you can maintain a neutral pelvis and lower spine position while also maintaining a straight and upright back, neck, and head, then all the vertebrae in your spine are optimally “stacked,” which takes pressure and tension off of your posterior muscles and makes you feel more stable and relaxed.

To help you center your joints and find this neutral position, try different positions for your pelvis by tilting it to the back (anterior tilt) and the front (posterior tilt) until your get a better sense of the middle or neutral position. This is something you can do in front of a mirror to get visual feedback, but you should be able to feel and “visualize” it without looking.

While you’re at it, you might want to make sure that your rib cage, shoulders, neck, and head are also centered along the same vertical line, which clearly the neutral pelvis and lower back will immensely help with. A good cue is to imagine that your head is being pulled up while your tailbone is being pulled down, moving all your vertebrae apart, lengthening your spine, reducing spinal curves*, and increasing spinal stability; this is formally known as axial extension.

Now that you have a sense of vertical alignment from feet to head, you may start to pay attention to the tension you need to maintain the stability of your posture. When I talk about manipulation movement in Chapters 30 and 31, you learn about bracing, which combines abdominal breathing and contraction to stabilize your pelvis and lower spine under load. It is maybe the single most potent way to learn about stabilizing your core, even though significantly less tension is required in day-to-day standing compared to lifting heavy loads.

Without waiting to start learning heavy lifting techniques, you can already apply a little bracing to your standing position. Once you have set your standing pelvic and spinal position to neutral, contract your glutes (or buttocks) and abdominals about 10 to 20 percent of the hardest contraction you could generate as you maintain abdominal breathing. The level of tension you need is a little like how much you would tense if you were expecting a three-year-old to punch you “hard” in the stomach. Do you feel how this extra tension makes your midline tighter and stronger?

Assuming ground position on all fours, either in a knee-hand or foot-hand position (see Chapter 24, “Ground Movement 1: Lying, Rolling, Crawling,” for some example positions), requires more tension in your core to support the neutral position. Being on all fours can help you better feel where tension happens in your body to ensure the stability of your pelvis and lower back.

 

1 Lower back extension

2 Neutral lower back

3 Lower back flexion

Hip Hinge

The Hip Hinge is a flexion at the hip joint that is performed while keeping the spine neutral and the knees slightly bent. Beyond being a position, the Hip Hinge is a movement pattern that involves both flexion and extension at the hip joint. It’s by far the most important—as well as challenging—pattern among this series of local movements. It is an essential component of a number of Natural Movement techniques.

Although it’s not an upright position, an efficient Hip Hinge demands postural control and benefits it greatly. The Hip Hinge teaches you to keep your spine stable and safe so the huge power of your posterior chain and hips can be harnessed. For instance, by adding an ankle extension that ends simultaneously with a knee and hip extension, you create a “triple extension” that generates most of the force in the Power Jump. While you look at the positional sequence of the pattern, you need to make sure that you are activating your core, which means performing the Hip Hinge with bracing and abdominal breathing.

People often tend to confuse the Hip Hinge with the Squat. The Squat involves an almost equal ratio of motion at the hip and knee joints, whereas the Hip Hinge is hip dominant, which means that you are moving your hips with great range of motion and your knees with slight range of motion.

 

1 You can get a sense of the Hip Hinge position by bending your knees slightly and leaning forward at about a 45-degree angle as you support yourself with your arms (hands on your knees or lower thighs), then extend (photo 1a) and flex (photo 1b) your lower spine to find the neutral spine spot.

2 Hold the position for a moment without the support of your arms while maintaining abdominal breathing. You don’t have to flex your hips—that is, move them backward—to the maximum at this point. But you may already play with the hip motion, coming back to standing by driving and extending your hips forward, then flexing them again to a Hip Hinge and trying to reach a greater range of motion. As you drive your hips backward and forward, your center of gravity ideally should remain vertically aligned with your base of support, which implies that the line of gravity doesn’t move and ensures great stability throughout the whole hip motion.

 

3 If you find yourself leaning at close to a 90-degree angle with your knees locked straight, you’re technically in a Hip Hinge position, but it is neither an efficient nor a sustainable one (unless it is a momentary stance in a particular context and not involving the manipulation of a load). On the other hand, if you cannot reach this position intentionally, it means you lack mobility.

4 Even with a slight knee bend, if your torso gets parallel to the ground, you’re pushing the hinge to an unnecessary extent that will also be unstable, weak, and unsustainable when you use the Hip Hinge as part of a more complex and challenging movement (jumping, landing, lifting, and so on).

Wall Drill

 

1 Stand tall facing away from a wall with your rear about a foot away from the surface it will have to reach when hinging. Place the sides of your hands on each side of the groin crease.

2 Simultaneously flex your knees slightly and initiate hip flexion while maintaining spinal alignment.

3 Keep flexion in your hips while bending your knees a little more, keeping your shins vertical and your knees aligned with your feet, and drive your rear back toward the surface of the wall until your buttocks reach the wall. Your torso should be leaning at about a 45-degree angle. As you increase the hip flexion, you should feel that your hands are firmly pinched in the creases of your hips. If you don’t feel that pinch, it may indicate that you are leaning too far forward or squatting too much (flexing your knees more and your hips less). If you have reached full hip flexion but cannot touch the wall with your rear, slide your feet back a little; you probably started standing too far from the wall. If you reach the wall before achieving full hip flexion, you were standing too close. In any case, don’t allow your rear to be supported by the wall; you just want to touch it lightly and briefly before you extend your hips to return to standing.

Another way to practice efficient Hip Hinge with spinal alignment is to use both hands to hold a dowel (a broomstick, PVC pipe, or something similar) behind your back; have one hand at lower-back level and the other at upper-back level. The dowel should run from your tailbone to your upper back and back of your head. Move into the Hip Hinge position without the dowel ever losing contact with any of the body parts it was in contact with when you started. If you round your back as you flex your hips, the dowel won’t stay in contact with all the body parts. You can use the dowel while doing the wall drill; the dowel helps you keep spinal alignment in check while hinging, and the wall helps you with range of motion at the hip. Holding the Hip Hinge at maximum hip flexion for several seconds while maintaining abdominal breathing is also a great exercise to start building stability and endurance in the “bottom” position, which is the phase of the motion that’s most susceptible to positional disruption. The next progression will be the Hip Hinge under (light) load, such as what you do in a Deadlift technique.

Neck Position and Cervical Motion

   

1 Neck extension

2 Neck flexion

3 Head/neck side rotation

4 Head/neck side tilt

Neck position is part of postural control, and ensuring head stability is paramount to efficient movement—due in part to the fact that most of the vestibular system responsible for balance in movement is located in the head, so minimal disturbance of the head’s balance helps overall balance. The best athletes have amazing cervical and head stability in movement.

Because neck movement implies that head movement is also occurring, ensuring head stability relies on cervical stability, but it doesn’t necessarily require constant linear alignment of the cervical spine. Some experts warn about the dangers of cervical hyperextension (pronounced backward head tilt), which is said to ruin spinal alignment and destroy the ability to generate power, such as when you’re jumping or lifting heavy loads. This belief is not true at all except in one particular case: a hyperextended neck under the compressive forces of a heavy load, which would happen if something or someone was pushing your head back and pressing down hard on your head and neck, forcing your neck to hyperextend as it’s subjected to large levels of compressive forces. In a nutshell, you would be “jamming” your cervical vertebrae and spinal cord, placing your central nervous system in a panic and protective stance called the “arthrokinetic reflex.” Because of the danger of your cervical joints being at risk due to intense compression with the wrong alignment, the survival reflex of the body is to inhibit muscular activity as a protective measure because the cervical area is the most important link between the brain and the body.

The compression of the spine isn’t the real issue; when lifting or carrying heavy loads, the spine can be placed under very large compressive forces, as demonstrated by Sherpas of the Himalayas or by African women who carry heavy loads on top of their heads. The real issue is a positional issue—the hyperextension of a series of joints in the neck—combined with large compressive forces. Have you ever had your hair pulled hard while you’re wrestling? Has it made you feel powerless? You didn’t feel powerless because of the pain in your scalp but because of the arthrokinetic reflex. This is an intuitive application of this principle in which your neck is hyperextended (in whatever direction) while a large compressive force is applied to it at the same time. So, except in some very specific circumstances, some level of extension of your neck doesn’t change your level of strength.

The problem is that experts see the slightest extension in your neck as “hyperextension” and believe you should make sure that your neck and head are aligned straight with the rest of the spine no matter what. The truth is that some extension of the neck is perfectly sustainable even in the presence of some compression, as demonstrated for instance by wrestlers when they “bridge.” When you’re lifting or carrying a heavy load, there is the presence of intense compression, except it’s exerted below the neck rather than on top of the head, which enables you to have your neck in any position you want. Therefore, a bit of neck extension, especially in the absence of any compression, doesn’t cause any problem. As a matter of fact, the extension of the cervical spine is sometimes necessary to maintain an optimum line of vision. When jumping upward to grab something above you, can you not look up by extending your neck? Of course, you can, and you should.

Line of Vision

 

Even though it is not mandatory that a person can see to be able to move, vision obviously plays a crucial role in the efficiency of virtually any movement, starting with ensuring balance, because vision plays a part in your vestibular system. Vision also helps you anticipate the environment and situation where you move so you can adapt your movement rapidly and accurately. In a gym, you do not have to deal much with this type of contextual awareness, so you can maintain a neutral neck position as you work out. However, in the real world, you often have to look up, down, or sideways to have the best line of vision possible. Can you imagine being unable to move your neck and head to the best position to see properly because you were told that doing so will rob your strength? Or being unable to maintain a neutral spine the moment you tilt your head back? It wouldn’t make any sense. Positional control is the ability to make minute adjustments to your position without disrupting the rest.

The influence of vision goes beyond spatial awareness, navigation, and balance; it also contributes to positional control to some extent. Turning your eyes up facilitates extension and inhibits flexion, whereas turning your eyes down facilitates flexion and inhibits extension. In a nutshell, you tend to straighten your back when you look up and round it when you look down. It’s as if the line of vision precedes the behavior of the body, and looking in a given direction pushes the body in that direction; if you stand straight and move your eyes to the side, doesn’t it feel natural that your body would orient itself in that same direction? This is not to say that your body and spine automatically extend if you look up and flex if you look down. Conversely, it also does not mean that you are obliged to overextend your neck to look up and to tilt your head down to look down.

True positional control means that you can establish and maintain any desired position regardless of line of vision and head and neck position, even though they are closely associated with the line of vision. However, it does imply that your line of vision may support a particular spinal alignment that is either beneficial or detrimental depending on the movement you want to perform. Therefore, you can sometimes use eye position and line of vision to your advantage. For instance, because you want to maintain a neutral spine when lifting a load, you may look up to facilitate back extension (with a little neck extension); at a minimum, you want to maintain a forward line of vision. When you land in a dive roll, you want to look toward the ground to facilitate a rounded back (without moving your head down too early).

Conversely, if you have to carefully put down a load, you must be aware that looking down at where you are placing the object tends to make you flex your spine. It doesn’t mean that you can’t look down, but you must be even more mindful of your postural control.

So, let me say it one more time: If you do possess postural control (the stable, linear alignment of your spine), then adjustments to your neck position—or any other body part, for that matter—should not disturb the stability of your midline or lower your ability to generate force. Neck position only disturbs postural control if you don’t have it in the first place.

Trunk Side Bend

Keep your shoulders level and your hips neutral and level. Lean your trunk sideways alternately on both sides. Maintain abdominal breathing.

 

1 Shoulder elevation-shrug

2 Shoulder retraction

3 Shoulder protraction

 

4 Big toe lift

5 Small toes lift

 

6 Foot pronation or inversion

7 Foot supination or eversion

 

8 Ankle extension

9 Ankle flexion

 

10 Shoulder neutral

11 Shoulder internal rotation

12 Shoulder external rotation

 

13 Single leg external rotation (with flexed foot)

14 Single leg internal rotation (with flexed foot)

15 External leg rotation (both legs)

16 Internal leg rotation (both legs)

Movement Is the Sum of Its Parts

 

Technique and efficient movement demand high levels of motor control. Motor control requires you to command diverse interconnected body segments to position themselves or move and apply force or relax in a given sequence and at a given time. This interaction of breath, position, tension, relaxation, sequence, and timing represents the whole spectrum of “coordination” and eventually determines efficiency.

I always start my workshops by covering the principles of movement efficiency through insights and drills, including the pillars that form technique, and I often end up demonstrating a Sliding Swing-Up, which is a climbing movement on a horizontal surface that starts with a hang and ends with your body on top of the surface. I do it with my eyes closed immediately after hanging from my hands to demonstrate that once your immediate environment has been visualized, movement happens internally before it’s expressed externally. As I perform the movement slowly, I emphasize using exteroception to aid in positioning on the surface with the right base of support at different stages of the movement while ensuring friction and avoiding slippage.

Thanks to proprioception, I can internally visualize my body position—the position of my center of gravity in relation to my base of support. My positions change through a sequence and with timing I have already predicted. I apply the minimum amount of tension I need to conserve energy and stay as relaxed as I can. I also use body-weight transfer to generate momentum through my leg and make the movement much more efficient. I end up on top of the surface, well balanced and relaxed, in a smooth motion sequence that seems effortless. Every detail of the movement has been mindful and intentional, and my breathing has remained controlled throughout the movement.

This single movement encapsulates most of the principles I have covered in Part 2 that are the foundation of technique and efficient movement. My point is that movement efficiency principles are not just about theory; they’re about the effective practical application of the theory. When you understand these principles and feel how they work when you move, you can use them to reach your full movement potential. Beyond the principles covered in this part, later in the book I cover a few additional principles of movement efficiency that are specific to particular movement skills.