Two levers to amplify movement performance (or destroy it)

Introduction: what a desk warrior wants

As desk warriors, we value the freedom of movement and bodily enjoyment as much as anyone. We want to experience the confidence of strength and the bliss of play and adventure.

However, for us to engage with movement fully, we need to overcome a double-edged challenge inherent to our situation:

our daily work is sedentary and mostly seated, putting us in the category of people most likely to experience movement deterioration, pain and injury
our busy schedules don't have the space for us to develop all the different aspects of movement that a well-rounded and athletic human being must surely develop to feel strong and free

Therefore, if there is a way for us to overcome these forces opposing our movement, it must lie in efficiency and effectiveness. We need to find some long levers to achieve our movement goals.

We must adopt the highest leverage movement practices possible - practices which give us the most in return for the time and energy that we invest, and practices which have the furthest and widest impact on all of our movement. We really need to be smart about how we develop our movement.

These requirements seem like a tall ask, because they are. But we are in luck - there is a way.

Often, through our biggest challenge lies our biggest opportunity.

To understand where to start our movement journey, let’s think about how we can reach our end goal of becoming capable and confident movers despite our daily grind.

If we start with the end in mind and backtrack to the fundamentals, maybe we can find some powerful points of leverage.

Layers: how performance is built

Advanced movement is built layer by layer, from the simplest components up to the highest extractions.

In my experience, and according to the wisest movement teachers I have followed, our proficiency in complex movement patterns depends on our mastery of their simpler components.

One framework I think of often, which I learned from Ido Portal, is:

Isolation → Integration → Improvisation (→ innovation is another layer I Iike to add)

This principle communicates the same idea though: movement is developed from simple to complex.

The best performers understand this process deeply and they comprehend that they never leave the basics behind - the basics are a foundation which must be maintained to support the structures built on top of it.

In other words, the structures are only as sound as their foundations.

Advanced movement practitioners continuously use the basic components to hone in and refine, or isolate, the different parts that make up their target movement pattern. Then, they build towards their goal by integrating the different elements, layer by layer, piece by piece. Repeating this process over and over, inching towards their ideal outcome.

Within a complex movement, there is too much happening, too quickly and simultaneously, to be able to precisely refine each of its elements.

In contrast, inexperienced and ignorant movement practitioners tend to skip over developing the layers properly, and instead, they head straight for the end result as soon as possible. This produces mediocre results.

There are endless divergent trajectories to pursue on the movement journey, with limitless variations and adventures.

Let’s consider all of human movement as one connected journey, developed step by step, layer by layer, with every degree of range and position or pattern mapped somewhere on the journey from simple to complex.

Every form and flow is comprised of simpler components, and also serves as a component in more complex manoeuvres.

Then, if we move backwards on all of these journeys, towards their simplest components, there is a convergence of these many trajectories towards a few universal building blocks of movement.

Several basic functions and foundational patterns lie at the root of everything that we do with our body.

Right at the centre of this many-layered movement onion are two entangled processes, or patterns, or phenomena - these are our spinal-core complex and breathing dynamics.

You may have noticed, I didn’t say spine or core, but rather spinal-core complex - we can also think of it as our spinal-core system. We will explore why later. For now, let’s just acknowledge that it makes no sense to think about either our spine structures or core muscles as separate from one another when we think about our movement.

In the same way, when we think about our shoulder, we think about the joint and the muscles which produce movement about that joint.

Additionally, from a functional movement perspective, let's think of our spine as our entire axial skeleton: the vertebrae, pelvis and skull, and the rib cage mounted along the spine. Then, our core is the system of muscles which produce stability and mobility throughout our axial skeleton: the abdominals, paraspinals, and intercostals.

Performance and Spinal-Core + Breathing

Because our spinal-core system and breathing serve as foundational components of every conceivable movement, then, we can improve all of our movement by optimising this dynamic duo. This is massive.

The exact reasons that such a massive opportunity lies within optimising our spinal-core and breathing dynamics is because;

their influence is completely inescapable and limitless in their reach,
yet, they are completely controllable.

Spinal-Core

Our spine has been touted by many deep thinkers in the movement space as the most important base layer of movement. The reasons for these big claims are many, and worthy of their own book. But we will cover as much as we need to know as we progress on our journey to better understand our movement.

For now, suffice to say that our spine is, both, structurally at the centre of our bodies, and dynamically at the centre of all of our movement. We have no movement without our spine. We have no structure in our spine without our core.

Thus, developing our spinal-core complex is the first long lever we will use to develop our movement.

Is the same true for our breathing?

Breathing

We are more dependent on air for energy and life than anything else on the planet for our entire lives, continuously. If we are cut off from it for just a few minutes, we die.

We need a steady supply of air, through our breathing, throughout everything that we do. And, the more we do, the more air we need.

Breathing insufficiently for just a few moments can bring our entire movement performance to a sudden halt.

Breathing inefficiently feels like driving a car with a puncture in at least one wheel.

Conversely, breathing effectively can give us a massive boost in energy and control over the state of our movement.

And, breathing is itself a movement - both, involuntary and voluntary.

A handbrake for the unskilled, a turbocharger for the skillful.

Proper breathing is a basic requirement for movement performance.

Despite the obvious central role that breathing plays, most people have terribly inefficient breathing patterns, especially desk workers.

Our breathing is another profound opportunity for us to develop our movement abilities.

In Conclusion

We can be confident that if we develop mastery over our spinal-core and breathing dynamics, the ramifications across our entire movement experience will be positive and potent.

Through the lens of movement, we are leaving volumes of opportunity on the table if we are not mastering the full awareness and coordination of this central duo.

These are two of the longest levers we can use to revolutionise our movement. Yet, there is a third related lever that we will need to pull to squeeze all the juice from this journey.

In my experience, some people have some spinal-core proficiency, and others have some coordination of their breathing, but very few have the full control to do both properly, simultaneously - yet this is what is necessary to truly realise this opportunity.

If we can develop mastery of the simultaneous coordination of our spinal-core and breathing, without compromise, we step into a new dimension of possibility of which I have not seen many operate. This excites me.

In part 2 we’ll take a deeper look at how these two elements impact our broader movement performance to understand the degree to which they play a role. In turn, we can then begin to understand this opportunity and what we might find if we seize it.

Part 1 Summary

Desk workers face challenges developing their movement due to sedentary work and busy schedules
Building great movement ability is a layered process that depends on sound foundations
The spinal-core complex and breathing are central to all movement
Optimising these two areas simultaneously unlocks major performance potential
Most people are inefficient in one or both, missing huge opportunities