Growth while aging, or just growing old?

Functional Aging is a process of mindfully developing our abilities as humans.  We’re not just fighting physical or mental decline: at its core, functional aging is about learning, growth, and regeneration.  
And it’s exciting!  Maybe you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but as a human you can teach yourself new ways of moving and growing, despite your numerical age. In fact, learning new things as we age is vital for brain function and longevity.

What is movement training?

Movement training for Functional Aging involves learning to create a movement-rich life, creating more movement throughout the day, and expanding our movement capabilities. No matter where on the spectrum you currently land, your brain and body will benefit from learning new ways of moving and thinking about movement. At Sound Body Movement, we teach all kinds of functional human movements, including squatting, lunging, reaching, pulling, pushing, climbing or ascending, descending, throwing, catching… the list goes on. However, we don’t just do exercises that mimic the movements you do your life outside of a movement session. We teach you how to re-imagine your everyday movements, so that throughout your day you can benefit from more varied movement. This process involves creativity, play, curiosity, gentleness, and gratefulness for all the movement possibilities open to us.

When we do the same movements on repeat, day in and out for years, our bodies will adapt to those movements and forget movements that we don’t use. For example, if we never raise our arms above shoulder height, eventually we won’t be able to raise them above shoulder height. So if our are gets stuck, is the solution to find corrective exercises with movements above the shoulder? Possibly. But what if we could just creatively use our arms throughout the day in ways that made corrective exercise unnecessary? In ways that prevented them from getting stuck in the first place? That’s what movement training is all about — finding ways to move creatively, playfully, every day and throughout your day, that allow you to keep moving for years to come.

Another example is walking up stairs, or just walking down the hallway. If you do it the exact same way every time, your hips, back, knees, or ankles may become cranky over the years. You could do “exercises” to help your hips get stronger and maybe less painful. Or, you could take that opportunity to walk sideways, backward, or skip — by using the body differently the joints will thank you. And you didn’t even have to “exercise”!

Who relies on Sound Body Movement for functional aging?