anatomy refocused
What Is Functional Exercise?
You can know the name of that bird in all the languages of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird.… So, let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing—that’s what counts. Richard P. Feynman, What Do You Care What Other People Think?
BY JAMES EARLS
During everyday activities the body naturally swaps back and forth between openand closed-chain movement. The most common pattern is for the upper limbs to move in open chain as we reach for our glasses, cups of coffee, or the steering wheel, while our lower body carries out closed-chain actions as the feet stay in contact with the floor, or the pelvis is perched on a seat.
As the famous physicist Richard Feynman points out in the quote above, knowing the names of anatomical bits does not provide an understanding of what they do. We need to look beyond the individual elements and see them in context. This book aims to be ecumenical in its approach to movement—there are many styles, disciplines, schools of thought, and anatomical variations that could be covered when discussing how humans move. I do not aim to analyze, correct, or challenge any of them, as they all have a place and each can help people live happier, healthier lives. There is a movement style out there to gel with each therapist, and, in turn, each therapist will find the clients who connect with that style. My hope is that the application of our interventions will be enhanced if we can understand the rationales behind them.
Rather than attacking the claim exercise, let’s understand what it does and what it does not do. If we want to claim it is not functional, then we should understand what “normal” movement is (if we consider normal, everyday movement to be the defining character of functional). So, it is at this point that we should define the difference between the anatomy of functional, everyday movement and functional movement and exercise.