Part 2: Movement Efficiency Principles - The Practice of Natural Movement

“Learning is an experience. Everything else is just information.”

 

—Albert Einstein

 

Among the twelve Natural Movement principles, principle 10, “Efficient,” gives us compelling insights on what efficiency is and why it matters so much. In this part, I want to share with you how movement efficiency works, which will lead us into the discussion in Part 3, practice efficiency.

It is my observation that masterful world-class movement practitioners and athletes might not have much scientific knowledge of movement, whereas world-level exercise scientists might move very poorly. My point is that experiential knowledge and conceptual knowledge of movement are two different animals, and they can exist independently. (The knowledge of teaching movement is yet another skill altogether.) However, there are universal principles that not only can be applied to human motion but that have conditioned fundamental aspects of it. The skillful use of the body can’t be achieved without the skillful application—either conscious or unconscious—of the movement efficiency principles after they have been learned spontaneously or through teaching.

I strongly believe that acquiring a basic conceptual knowledge of the fundamentals of movement efficiency should be a fast and simple endeavor rather than a long and overcomplicated intellectual pursuit. My assumption is that, even though we are cerebral and intelligent people, our main goal is to learn just enough to gain a basic, effective understanding of how and why techniques work. We want to avoid having to go through a bunch of scientific intricacies that would have little to no carryover toward a better movement practice or performance.

It is better to understand little than to misunderstand a lot.”

—Anatole France

 

In short, we first need the fundamental conceptual knowledge that supports greater levels of experiential understanding—that is, knowing how to move well through our sensations. Ultimately, we need not for our brain to think of what efficient movement is but for our nervous system to remember how the efficient movement feels so we can reproduce the experience without thought. Principle 11, “Mindful,” taught us that we must move mindfully, which is different than reasoning about how we move.

Therefore, some simplified notions of movement efficiency in this part work hand in hand with “perception drills,” which enable a physical experience and awareness that generates a symbiotic mental and physical understanding of these principles. Mindful movement practice doesn’t mean thinking of everything you know about movement or analyzing every aspect of your performance as you move; it’s quietly paying close attention to what matters the most at a given moment. Simplicity in movement practice entails mastering the hidden complexity of movement without adding complication in your mind and movement. Of course, it is up to each of us to pursue advanced education related to the diverse fields—physics, biomechanics, kinematics, kinetics, kinesiology, and so on—of the conceptual side of movement study.

Keep in mind that the notions in this part don’t conform to subjective conventions, dogma, or traditions that one must strictly respect. They are rational and reliable principles that you’re free to apply as you wish and that you can personally verify through motion. As a result, you’ll have an experiential basis for knowing that the principles work instead of being left with an assumption or mere belief.

The Formation of Technique

 

A technique is a movement pattern that makes movement more than effective; it makes it efficient also. Simply put, a technique is a movement strategy for a particular movement goal. By producing efficiency, the use of technique provides the three essential outcomes we’re seeking: greater performance, greater energy conservation, and greater safety.

A movement pattern becomes a technique not only because it’s efficient but also because the specific variables that ensure its efficiency can be strictly identified, explained, taught, learned, and—most important—applied and reproduced. Wild animals use technique without having conceptual awareness of it because intellectual understanding of it is superfluous; technique is built-in. Humans, on the other hand, can learn more efficient movements through the acquisition of technique.

Every technique involves a specific pattern of breathing, position, sequence, timing, tension, and relaxation. The first, most fundamental pillar of technique is breathing, and naturally it is the first technique I address in this part. Breathing is THE technique that supports all other techniques. Once you understand that breathing has a technique for efficiency, understanding that you can use technique to improve basically any movement becomes a no-brainer.

The end-goal of technique is optimally using the kinetic energy we produce—our physical effort—for the practical goal behind our movement. Of course, no technique—even the best one—completely conserves all the energy produced by the body; energy losses are inevitable. But the better the technique is executed, the less energy is dispersed and wasted.

It might seem that not every movement you do relies on a “technique.” However, like breathing, even the simplest movement can benefit from improved technique if you’re not currently doing it spontaneously with natural efficiency. Even what we call “gross” motor skills, which represent most of Natural Movement, can be improved to very fine levels of perception, accuracy, and control. This explains why untrained, out-of-shape individuals might look utterly stiff doing a basic transition from kneeling to standing with a poor movement pattern—holding their breath and having a rounded back, wobbly knees, and overall imbalance and stiffness—whereas other people could look both smooth and strong doing the exact same movement. If you belong to the first category, then learning the elements of breathing and position, sequence and timing, and tension and relaxation and physiologically adapting in the process could be considered working on technique.

When we think of movement skills, one of the first words to come to mind is coordination. But what exactly do we coordinate? We could naturally think of the diverse body parts (including joints and muscles) that need to integrate into full movement patterns and how these parts demand impeccable organization to work synergistically. However, joints and muscles are body tissues that function only after the central nervous system has activated and organized them. So, to achieve coordination, movement effectiveness, and—ideally—movement efficiency, the nervous system needs to ensure the coordination of position and breathing, movement sequence and timing, and tension and relaxation. (The illustration shows how these three components interact.) These principles are commonly shared by all techniques regardless of the movement skill. Now on to the efficiency principles!