The Power of Play and Learning New Skills

When we are young, the world is a vast place, ready for us to explore. When we explore the world, we teach our brain new ways to move the body; new methods of neurological connection to our muscles. Dendrites reach out and our nerves begin growing based on the experiences we put ourselves through. The brain begins to organize our nervous system’s energy, and our skills become better.

Play is one of the best forms of creating new neurological connection. During play, we learn to utilize our bodies in various ways across numerous planes of movement in synchronism with our mind to achieve a goal that [usually] puts a smile on our face. How awesome is that!? We ENJOY the process of physical and neurological growth, and in addition to that, we’re doing them both at the same time!

Yet, as we get older, play becomes less frequent, and the chances of learning new skills becomes less and less available. We spend years organizing ourselves into specific patterns of walking, running, sitting, standing, sleeping, etc... and we begin doing these things almost unconsciously. I call this unconscious state of movement, “auto-pilot.” This is where we fall into movement ruts. On auto-pilot, learning new skills is hard, and we whine when we have to do them. Or, even worse yet, we’ve been on auto-pilot so long that we believe ourselves incapable of performing new skills. We've gotten so comfortable in what is known, and it's been so long since we’ve had to adapt like when we were young, that the unknown can sometimes appear frightening.

We ALL do this. We're ALL victims of this natural process of unconscious movement leading to eventual rut. This is because everything we learn eventually becomes an auto-pilot movement method. That’s how the brain is wired; it is an expert at adapting to movement. Once you learn how to do something, your brain starts organizing the movement pattern more efficiently with each repetition, making the movement require less and less cognitive energy. Slowly and eventually our movement skills become unconscious. But what if we didn't learn the best way to move in the first place? What if, we can continue to refine our walking, running, sitting, standing and movement so that we continually keep our brains awake to set in good movement patterns into our unconscious auto-pilot? What if... you were more aware of yourself?

Reader:

WHOA! That sounds scary man! You mean, I have to.... THINK!? But I don't like to think, that's work! What if I don't want to change? I like myself exactly the way I am!

Blogger:

Hey man, no worries, I can't flip that switch for you. The decision to be more conscious is something you'll have to decide for yourself. It is a scary prospect, because it requires work and habitual retraining out of the various ruts we’ve set in from “auto-pilot.” For those of you that are ready to flip the awareness switch, I invite you to please read on...

The growth and continued use of the brain relies heavily on understanding that, it too, like muscles, can grow and change. We just have to use it the way we want. The brain and our body are one unit. There is no separation. I repeat: there is no separation!  What you are thinking and feeling sends neurological signals firing down through all parts of your body, expressing moods and thoughts in a variety of ways from skeletal muscle signals to silent inflammation in the digestive tract. The more unconscious you are of that reality, the more you will stay on auto-pilot and not know it. Conversely, the more conscious you are of that reality, the more you will take conscious control of your auto-pilot. You will be able to express yourself consciously through your body and be aware of your unconscious signals! What?! Wow! This is the state we want to aim to live in.

The first step is to realize that you are on auto-pilot. Right now. Your posture is set in a specific position, your breathing is occurring without your knowledge, your head, neck and shoulders are all held unconsciously, you've sat down and crossed your legs a certain way etc... the list goes on. Understand this and don't try and change it. Just be aware of it.

The second step is be aware of yourself in movement. How do you walk, bend over, sit-and-stand, get in and out of your car, carry objects, etc... Most importantly, how do you workout? How we move in the gym is how we move outside the gym. Are you performing exercises that bring attention to your spine, breathing, core, and body position? Are you cultivating kinesthetic awareness in your repetitions, or are you performing them with the least amount of effort just to get them over with? Be aware of all of this.

Once that awareness sets in, you can begin to change. The power of learning new skills is the ability to not only see what your normal auto-pilot movement methods are, but what you can do to change them.

Step three: Stop doing the same fitness routine you do! Stop going to the same classes, stop performing the same three exercises six days a week (bench press, bicep curl and crunches... c’mon guys you know who you are), and stop doing the same workouts every time you go to the gym. Routine is the enemy, because it accelerates ruts. Make the choice to break out, now.

The fourth step, perhaps the hardest of all the steps, is to treat fitness like play! The more we play, the more the mind builds new connections inside the body. When mind enjoys what it does, it doesn’t try to check-out during the torture of your workout and it stays engaged! The more games you play and skills you learn, the more you will grow. Create workouts that are FUN. Think of the gym like recess. You just got off work and you’ve had a hard day, haven’t you earned some play-time? What would you do?

I freaking deadlift. When deadlift time rolls around, that’s geek city for me!

This is where the functional movements come in. When it comes time to play in the gym, not all exercises are equal. Single joint movements such as the bicep curl, or the leg extension do not require a lot of kinetic chain wiring from our nervous system. They are isolating muscle groups with a simple “on/off” switch, and do not require much skill to perform. Therefore, they’re kinda boring! Compound multi-joint functional movements, when done properly, work long lines of kinetic chains throughout the body and require a number of different physical and mental systems to come into play to perform them with accuracy. When strung together in workouts, functional movements can very much be like high intensity play. Run around, carry an object, throw some weight, and swing from a bar. That’s your workout. Fitness play.

So what are functional movements? That’s a pretty big buzz word in last few years of fitness. The commercial fitness world will have you thinking that everything from a bosu ball to a free cable machine is “functional.” However, true functional movements are universal and natural movement patterns that can locomote your body or external objects safely and effectively, and recruit muscle fiber activation through a wave of contraction from core to extremity.

Wait…..what?

To better understand functional movements, you can to put the exercise into the context of life. Let me give you some examples:

::Bending over to pick an object off the floor:: That’s a deadlift.

::Sitting down on a couch, or toilet, and standing back up:: That’s a squat.

::Picking up an object and carrying it:: That’s a farmer walk.

::Getting from point A, to point B quickly without a vehicle:: That’s running.

::Hoisting a heavy object from the floor to the shoulders:: That’s a clean.

::Pulling yourself up onto a high leveled surface:: That’s a pullup.

::Being able to lay down from a standing position, and vice versa:: That’s a burpee.

::Jumping onto a higher surface:: That’s a box jump.

Am I illuminating this well enough for you?

Here are some examples of NON-functional movements put into the context of life. Note the differences here:

::Performing leg extensions on a weight machine:: That’s working the quadricep muscles.

::Performing lateral raises with dumbbells:: That’s working the medial head of the deltoid.

::Performing crunches on the floor:: That’s working the abdominal muscles.

We don’t want to just “work a muscle” we want to “work our body, with purpose.” That’s the difference between traditional fitness and functional fitness. Traditional fitness can put you to sleep if you let it. Make the choice to break out!

Functional movements mirror how we move in everyday life in situations like dropping our car keys and retrieving them safely, playing sports, being able to handle ourselves safely in various life threatening situations, or simply aging well without injury. Their spectrum is broad enough to be inclusive in all scenarios we may find ourselves in. But what is best is that they require your brain to stay awake to learn them, and they take such a high degree of skill to master that the process of improvement promotes continued conscious observation of yourself during movement. This leads to continual rewiring and reworking your neurology. You can continue to get the same benefit from striving to master a functional movement as you did when you first learned it. That’s win/win for the mind and body!

Inside the gym, functional movements are going to be your best choice for fitness play. They’re fun to learn, hard to master, and keep your mind and body awake! They will create strong balanced physiques due to the high demand of kinetic chain inclusion, and you’ll never look at single joint movements the same again. Most importantly functional movements will require such a high level of skill to master that you’ll learn to be aware of yourself inside the gym, keeping your brain awake and alive when you’re outside the gym. How we move inside the gym, is how we move outside the gym. Your awareness defines your limits in functional fitness; you will stop getting benefit from them when you, and you alone, believe you are done growing and learning.

Just like in life.

Routine keeps the mind and body asleep in auto-pilot. The end result of auto-pilot is service to the ego because the mind wanders and become disconnected while you move. Existing in this state promotes disconnect between the mind and body, and allows potentially harmful movement patterns to set in. It causes individuals to become entrenched in an ever deepening mental rut that makes learning new skills difficult. That is the death of our body and mind, and that is not fitness.

Break out of your auto-pilot. Do not be afraid to try and learn functional movements, no matter your age or fitness level. Go to the gym to play. Play like you would in real life. Jump, hoist, heave, sprint, lift, leap, push and pull yourself into a world of fun fitness play. Take control of auto-pilot and set in good movement patterns that will help you get better at sports, move with less pain, and build a strong confident physique powered by by an aware and keen mind. Do not focus on physical change, but instead on the energy that flows between mind and body. Remember that fitness is about transformation and becoming more aware of ourselves.

Your homework: Go learn a new skill.

It doesn’t have to be something you’re good at. Sucking at something, is the first step to being awesome at something. Whatever you pick, I want you to engage in it wholeheartedly; dive into it with an open mind and a willing body. Treat it like mind therapy, in that you’re learning something new to break out of ruts you may have found yourself in. You’re never too old to try something new, just too stubborn!

Here are a few examples of new skills you can learn next week:

Any/all of the 9 foundational functional movements (click here for a list), sprinting, long distance running, box jumps, jump rope, kipping pullup, muscle up, handstand, one-handed handstand, handstand walk, gymnastics bridge, punching, kicking, any/all martial art skills, light saber katas fencing, tai chi, crow pose, shoulderstand, basketball, football, volleyball, tennis, swimming, keg toss, farmer walk, and atlas ball training, clean and jerk, snatch, overhead squat, biking, racquetball, baseball, any/all sports, hang gliding, ballet, jazz tap, dance, juggling, tumbling, rock climbing, golf, frisbee golf, hacky sack, rappelling, tightrope walking, horseback riding, trapeze artistry, pole vaulting, javelin throw, hammer toss, shot put, archery, breakdancing, swing dancing, diving…. JUST TO NAME A FEW!

There is a world of movement out there waiting for you. If you’re not having fun in the gym, WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING!?

I’ll keep working on My Body Kinection, you work on yours too!