Have you ever been in a class trying to learn a new activity, such as dance or a martial art, and absolutely struggle to remember which foot goes back, which arm is up, which way to rotate, etc?

For years, that was me, too.

But then, last week, as you may recall, I started taking Capoeira classes. Stepping into that room for the first time was a daunting experience – after all, I was always the liability on the field growing up. So, the idea of getting in there and doing something that was not only active, but downright acrobatic, was scary as hell for me.

And then we started…

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When I’m in the mood for a quick interval training session, but I know the kettle bells aren’t going to cut it, I head over to Golden Gardens and run the stairs.

Today was particularly challenging since it was my first outing in several weeks. But, because I am just 12 weeks from my Kilimanjaro climb, I have to get some serious climbing in and don’t always have time to get over to the east side to hike in the Cascades. However, Golden Gardens has a great set of stairs just minutes away.

But, I digress, this is about you….

As I started heading back up the stairs – yet again – I started getting TIRED and began going through my mental box of movement tricks to see if there were any tricks I wasn’t using.

• Steady breathing? Check.
• Forced exhalation? Check.
• Steady pace? Check.
• Playing with different foot strikes? Check.
• Positive attitude? Well, that one could use some work.

Okay, that wasn’t cutting it. What was left? I started thinking about biomechanics and thought about what my arms were doing.

I realized that the more and more tired I got, the less my arms were swinging. I then thought about how the body transfers force and energy, and realized that my arms were working against me. So, I started experimenting with consciously swinging my arms as I went up the stairs. Sure enough, as expected, my stair climbing got easier, faster, and more effortless.

How did that work?

The body transfers energy in what is basically a big X. Energy comes up into our feet, up our legs, crosses to the opposite side at the low back, and then transfers out the opposite arm. If you reverse that, the momentum from an arm would provide energy to the opposite leg. It’s the same reason why our arms swing while we walk. So, what I was doing was reversing the idea from walking to provide more energy to my legs.

How can you use this?

When you are hiking, walking, running, or climbing stairs, and you need some more energy, check your arms. If they are hanging limply by your side, then give them a swing.

Let me know in the comments below how that works for you.

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Efficiency.

This afternoon while I was out walking the dog I saw a UPS truck come rumbling by. It slowed at the intersection, and my brain immediately thought, “it’s either going to go straight or turn right here, because they plan their routes to minimize left turns.”  Two things became immediately clear, first, I really am a geek, and second, I’ve seen too many UPS whiteboard commercials.

UPS has long had a special place in my heart, dating back to my undergrad days when we had a really cute UPS driver that used to deliver packages at the the student union where I worked. 2:15 I’d be downstairs – without fail. Since that time my fondness for UPS has gone from crushes on the drivers to admiration and respect for the efficiency of their operations. And, I love the left-hand-turn bit of trivia; with 95,000 trucks on the road each day, even little changes can have a big impact. With that many trucks on the road each day, you can imagine that they have collected a lot of data about their drivers, routes, delivery rates, etc. Several years ago UPS realized that they could use this data to significantly reduce gallons of fuel used and time in transit if they minimized left turns. So, they implemented routing software to eliminate left turns where practical – cutting 28.5 million miles off their delivery routes AND reducing CO2 emissions by 31,500 metric tons per year.

Now, that is efficient!

So, is high quality movement. Efficient movement uses the least amount of energy to get a job done right. You can think of it as, “just the right thing, at just the right time, with just the right amount of energy.”

As a movement coach, what do I look for:

• Speed. The speed should not only be appropriate to the task, but also be relatively consistent. Abrupt speed changes for no obvious reason usually something is wrong. I was in a martial arts class this past weekend, and the speed of movement would abruptly change based upon how comfortable the students were with what they were doing. They typically slowed WAY down right before they hit the floor.
• Going in the right direction. Sounds obvious, but this is a biggie – particularly with walking and running. When you watch the best runners run, their heads are essentially on a single horizontal plane and their arms more or less go back and forth. You don’t see them bobbing up and down and you don’t see a lot of trunk rotation and arms crossing across their bodies. Since your goal is to go forward, go forward. This doesn’t mean stick-straight arms pointing straight ahead, but don’t let the momentum of your arms rotate your trunk, either.
• Quiet. When we are moving efficiently, our bodies are appropriately absorbing the force of our activity. Someone who walks or runs loudly isn’t rolling through their foot like they could, so their feet slap down to the ground. The same thing applies to rolling, martial arts, jumping, etc.
• Smooth. This is a bit of an ambiguous term, but all I can say is that I know it when I see it. You, do, too. Someone who looks like a natural looks very smooth, fluid, and graceful. I look for the un-smooth pieces and help my athletes smooth them out.
• Excess Tension. Many people instinctively tense up when trying out something new. Sometimes it’s appropriate, but most of the time it’s unnecessary. Most people start by scrunching up your face, or tensing up their hands when they don’t need to.
• Breathing. Many people forget to breathe when trying something new, which then causes their body to get quickly out of whack. They end up quickly behind the 8 ball from an efficiency standpoint.

I care a great deal about efficient movement, because not only does it look insanely cool, but because when you are moving efficiently you have more energy left in the day to do the things that really matter to you. Wasting energy just getting from Point A to Point B is, well, inefficient.

What can you do?

Become of aware of where your movement inefficiencies lie.  Just pay attention and listen (literally) to how you move. Once you become aware of it, you will likely try to self-correct – some of which you will be able to do on your own, some of it perhaps not.

If you aren’t able to fix it and want help, drop me a note. We can either set up an appointment to meet, or I can point you towards products I recommend. If we chat, then I’ll make sure the product is the right one (I’ll even do that for free if you use my affiliate link so I make a few dollars to buy coffee for the day).

Product shortcut guide:

Quick Start: 6 drills that work wonders on 80-90% of clients.

R-Phase: 160 drills. That can be a bit daunting for many people, but if you are serious about movement efficiency, you’re gonna want this. It comes with a written program so it’s not more than a few minutes a day – I promise.

Neural Warm Up 1: This is a follow-along DVD that is a subset of the R-Phase drills. It’s a perfect replacement for your daily pre-training stretching and warm-up.

Breaking down movement is one of my favorite things to do, so over the next few weeks I’ll put up some video examples of good and bad movement. Then, you can see for yourself exactly what I’m talking about. (If you want to be sure you get those posts, sign up over on the right to have them sent to you by email.)

Oh, and that the UPS truck I saw earlier today – it turned right.

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I really, really believe that regular exercise and movement will save the planet, so I get really excited when I find a well-researched book on the topic. SPARK by John Ratey is just such a book.

If terms like dopamine and neurotransmitters scare you off, this might not be the book for you, so I’ll give you the cliff’s notes version here. For the rest of you, I HIGHLY recommend it.

The short, short version is that regular movement and exercise can:

• Improve learning
• Reduce stress
• Alleviate anxiety
• Lift depression
• Reduce attention deficit disorder (ADD)
• Aid addiction recovery
• Mitigate the effects of hormonal changes
• Slow aging
• I know that sounds like a really tall, impossible order, but the data is there. Our bodies are designed to move a heck of a lot more than most of us do today.

What Can You Do

Get up and move right before it’s time to learn something new. In the book, studies at Naperville High School consistently showed that test scores went up markedly in whatever course was immediately after PE.

For best results, don’t just go for a walk. Instead, try to make sure there is a physical learning element to whatever you are doing so the brain engages more. Instead of a walk, take less time and go shoot hoops for 10 minutes, hit a tennis ball against a wall, etc.

Be prepared to invest more time up front. So, you might need 30 minutes a day, every day, initially for alleviating anxiety, but eventually the time requirement should taper off. The need will never go away, but you might get down to a few times a week. As with everything, test it, as everyone is different.

Inspiration

As someone who was always picked last in gym class, the story from the book that touched me was of Naperville High School.

They completely turned the traditional PE model on its ear. They changed the entire curriculum so that there were up to 12 different activities that students could choose from — letting everyone pick an activity they could succeed at. All activities were small group activities, so everyone was participating at all times – no sitting on the bench for 39 minutes of a 40-minute class. Kids loved it, they developed confidence, found success, and academic test scores went up. Naperville HS Students also have the lowest obesity rate in the country – 3%, compared to 30% for the rest of American High Schoolers.

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