The biggest change I made to my career as a trainer was changing my philosophy with exercise to be “movement focused” as opposed to strength or fitness focused. The reason I changed my entire way of thinking and programming with exercise was because it was not working. Sure, there were many clients who achieved great results from the muscle approach I was using but there were many people who never improved, and some who got worse! My desire to find out answers to the reason I was failing led me to the functional movement approach where many of the world’s leading practitioners were practicing these type of methods. At first it appears this approach is too aggressive or even risky, especially when dealing with injury and dysfunction, for the exercises seem too complex. However, once you understand many of these exercises are fundamental patterns we use in daily life, you appreciate how effective and absolutely necessary they are to teach people. For one thing is for certain, they are going to move with these patterns the minute they leave the gym anyway. If the only way they know how to move is dysfunctional, they will continue to create damage to their body for it knows no other way. The sooner you learn how to use a more efficient and effective way to move the better, and this will prevent weakness and pain taking over your body. I must state that it is not only injury prevention that is of importance with learning to move efficiently,  for strength, fitness, and sporting performance can never be truly achieved without these skills. Therefore, the rules of functional movement apply to all of us. The degree of difficulty will vary from person to person, but the fundamentals will always remain the same.

Many healthcare professionals and even other personal trainers often question the methods I use with people claiming they are too dangerous. Most of these professions ignore fundamental movement as part of their treatment process as they focus solely on treating the area in pain with specific stretching, massage, or isolated strengthening remedies. Some of these treatments may in fact be great, but they will provide little value to the patient/client long term if they do not address the movement patterns associated with, or causing the pain.

The more specialized we have evolved to with treating pain and dysfunction, the more ignorant to movement we have become. The end goal of every program must be to improve how efficiently you can move. That is it! It is really that simple, and this is where I begin with people on the first day by assessing how they move with fundamental patterns they will require to live their life. If they are unable to move well in these patterns I need to determine if it is due to a mechanical joint problem/s or if it is due to poor coordination and a more neurological deficit. While it is tempting to find ways to simply remove the pain, it is much more useful to look for the area with the greatest dysfunction. This may have no pain associated immediately from doing it but make no mistake it will be the driver of the problems. Change this, and you change everything.

Let’s take a look at exactly what I mean by this with this simple info-graphic giving you a visual idea of how basic movement patterns relate to life movements. And more importantly what happens when you neglect them.

You can clearly see in this infographic how movement patterns are so closely linked to simple daily activities of walking, sitting in a chair, getting off the floor, picking things up, and even opening a jar! These are not exercises, but patterns of movement.

You can also clearly see how easily a pattern that is dysfunctional can lead to serious health problems that will greatly affect how you live your life. The brain has a tendency towards creating habits with relation to movement in order to save energy for other activities that require our brain power. Repetitive behaviours become patterns and over time are permanently encoded into our nervous system via motor programs as the preferred way to move.

"Patterns are groups of singular movements linked in the brain like a single chunk of information. This chunk essentially resembles a mental motor program, the software that controls movement patterns. A pattern represents multiple single movements used together for a specific function. Storage of a pattern creates efficiency and reduces processing time in the brain, much as a computer stores multiple documents of related content in one file to better organize and manage information." - Gray Cook.

Functional can really be simplified into observing how we move in a standing position where all joints and muscles are involved in either a role of stabilizing or moving.

The brain does not question if is a good movement or not, it just copies what it sees the most. This becomes a big problem if the motor program is dysfunctional as it will begin to create havoc at joints leading to weakness and eventually pain.

This is why it is critical to learn good technique before you start an exercise program. See the article - Why you should never sacrifice exercise technique for more detail on this.

The End Result of Neglecting How to Move Correctly

If you do not exercise you will still need to develop good movement techniques for your body will need these movements to get through life. If you leave the body to decide how to move it will do anything it can to find the path of least resistance and most importantly avoid pain. While this sounds like a good idea, it leads to compensation that causes a chain reaction of more problems that can be very difficult to correct later on. It is so much easier to prevent them from happening in the first place.

The older you are, the more important learning how to move correctly becomes. Have you ever wondered why some people in their 70's move so easily and still play golf and even run, yet other people of the same age are restricted to a walking frame or wheelchair?

 Is it due to bad luck or genetics that some people are chronically disabled early and some are not? In some cases it may be the case but very rarely. I have seen people in the 60's recover from spinal cord injuries and severe car accidents with partial paralysis be able to recover and complete push ups, lift 60kg deadlifts and walking up the stairs unassisted with ease! It was not luck they recovered as they spent considerable time to rehabilitating their body by rebuilding their stability, strength and functional movement skills. I have also seen people in their 60's with no previous injury or accident be placed in wheelchairs and barely able to get out of a chair! 

The big difference between the two situations just mentioned is, one was prepared to exercise and learn how to move, and the other was relying on medication, surgery or physical intervention to "fix them". 

It is not bad luck that older people lose their functional movement, it comes back to the age old principle of "use it or lose it".

This is also when we see osteoarthritis become a massive problem limiting a person’s ability to move in life. Once again do not fall into the trap of thinking this is an inevitable part of aging for osteoarthritis is linked to poor movement strategies and instability of joints.

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative condition of the joints, which over time become painfully inflamed. If you have joint degeneration without pain, the condition is known as osteoarthrosis. With both conditions there is deterioration of the joint ‘cartilage’ – a smooth substance that covers bone endings, allowing bones to glide over each other with minimal friction. Cartilage also cushions force as it is transmitted through the joints and when you have used it up, there is no way to create more!

The real reason we see osteoarthritis surface in older adults is that the length of time the person has spent moving poorly eventually ends up completely wearing and tearing the joints, cartilage, ligaments to a point where pain sets in. Added on top of this is a lack of muscle and you now have the perfect recipe for unstable joints that create stiffness, osteoarthritis and eventually more pain.

Another classic example of poor movement patterns creating dysfunction, pain, and a reduction in quality of life is with a poor bending movement causing back pain. Poor bending actions are associated with bulging discs where we see someone constantly flexing their spine instead of using their hips. Sometimes occupations requiring constant bending contribute to this problem, but it is not the occupation, it is how you bend that is the problem. If it was the occupation then 100% of the people in this job would have a bulging disc. There is no problem with bending if you use your hips and maintain a neutral lumbar curve. Problems arise when you use your spine to do the bending.

In this example the bending movement pattern is the “pain trigger” as Dr Stuart McGill likes to call it. Identifying and changing this pain trigger is the most important part of the corrective program for it allows the body to avoid the very thing causing the pain and begin the process of healing itself. It also allows for you to apply mobilizing and strengthening methods without compensation taking over.

You can read more about this here – Bulging disc exercises & effective long term treatment strategies

What about strength? Can you simply strengthen muscles and not have to worry about complicated movement patterns?

Movement Is More Important Than Strength

I have fallen into the trap of thinking I can strengthen muscles to change or prevent problems and it will be enough to protect the joint from harm. Unfortunately, it does not. Many sporting athletes fall for this trap too as they constantly try to overcome poor movement strategies by applying isolated strength exercises to protect the joint.

Strength cannot overcome poor movement. If you move poorly it does not matter how strong your muscles are your body will have to compensate and create an alternative way to move that is less efficient, weaker, and more unstable. A classic example of this is seen with ACL injuries in sports. When you consider that 70% of all ACL injuries are classified as non-contact situations where the person landed from a jump or tried to chase or evade a player only to fall to the ground in agony. If strength was all you needed to prevent this injury then you would never see incredibly strong sporting athletes who can easily squat 150kg blow their knees out. Yet, you see this all the time occur in some of the fittest and strongest athletes all over the world. The strength of their quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes were not able to prevent the dreaded ACL tear if they move with poor quality.

The quote below by Dr Vladimir Janda sums this up perfectly.

Modern fitness equipment allows us to train our body in sitting positions that do not demand high levels of coordination, stability, and posture. We learn it is possible to avoid learning these fundamentals before lifting loads or moving fast and the principle of “earning the right” is not needed. A good example here is with the leg press machine, where someone can start lifting incredible loads on the first day, yet be barely able to complete an effective squat with their own body-weight. The squat is superior to the leg press for it demands stability and coordination in order for you to move. The leg press will not address the instability of the joints and allow you to cheat on these pre-requisites of stability and coordination seen in the squat. As a result your body will continue to move during the day with the same compensatory movement that is causing your problem. The strength gained from the leg press is negated and completely useless to you.

To change the faulty mechanics you have to identify the movement pattern and change that motor program. It is possible for the body to have perfectly good function with muscles in one pattern and not in another. For example the core and the muscles of the hip may perform perfectly in the squat but very poorly in a bending action or the single leg stance. This is an example of where the strength of the muscles is of little importance, for the problem is to do with the specific movement pattern of bending and single leg stance.

Weakness in muscle could be the result of many things such as;

• Muscle inhibition
• Poor coordination and stability
• Protective mechanism

Trying to apply an isolation strengthening method will neglect the underlying problem and leave it to fester and become an even greater problem.

Great articles to read with more detail on this are shown below

• Why you can never blame a single muscle for a movement problem
• Why the body chooses stiffness over stability

Address Mobility Restrictions First

One of the biggest mistakes people make when trying to learn these functional movement patterns is neglecting to correct areas of the body lacking mobility. You will never be able to execute the movement effectively if you have areas of mobility restriction. This does not mean you have to be perfect with your mobility before progressing, but you do have to have some plans in place to address and correct it. You do not need to be perfect but you must make an attempt to improve what you currently have and a belief that it can be changed.

Aggressive physical training cannot change fundamental mobility and stability problems at an effective rate without also introducing a degree of compensation and as we have already discussed this is a huge problem. It is impossible to develop strength to your full potential if poor mobility of joints is present. It is also very difficult to achieve joint stability if poor mobility is present. This is why mobility restrictions are the first thing I look during an assessment with a new client and is the main focus in the initial stages of the program.

See this article for details of how to complete a mobility assessment by yourself

Every time you improve flexibility and mobility new opportunities are created to alter and change movement patterns, and increase strength in weak and lazy muscles. For if there is a tight muscle, there is also an opposite, a weak lazy muscle. In the upcoming videos of each pattern of movement you will notice that I start with several mobility exercises relating to the pattern first. Many of these exercises I will use between sets of the various exercises to come as they enable the body to find the most efficient position to align joints and stabilize.

The 7 Fundamental Movement Patterns

Every program you design should include exercises that attempt to improve the following movements.

1. Squat
2. Bend
3. Lunge
4. Twist
5. Push
6. Pull
7. Gait

By improving movement quality and strength across these patterns you improve the strength of every muscle in the body. The variation of difficulty the exercises you will need to use for each pattern will be quite different as some movements you will find easy, and others very challenging. This is where you could be using advanced progressions with the squat and lunge pattern, but a simplified regression for the bending and twisting pattern.

Always remember that your body is only as strong as your weakest link, so most of your programming should be focused on improving the areas you are weakest in.

To help you grasp these concepts more easily I am going to go through each pattern individually starting with the most complex of them all, GAIT.

Before I go on make sure you download a copy of our Free Report on Functional Training below as this gives you all the key movements and programs in much more detail than what I am about to show you.

Improving the GAIT Cycle

Out of all the fundamental movement patterns this one is the most complex to work with, especially if you have lost your ability to walk. It is also the most important for without your life will change forever as you move towards disability and use of a wheelchair or walking frame. From an evolution perspective this movement pattern was paramount to our survival to ensure we could find food and avoid being eaten from predators. If you were unable to walk you would not live much longer. Luckily we do not live in those times anymore, but this has also made us very lazy and ignorant to maintaining the health of this pattern.

A gait cycle is a sequence of events in walking or running, beginning when one foot contacts the ground and ending when the same foot contacts the ground again. The human gait cycle is a very complicated, coordinated series of movements. There is so many moving parts within the gait cycle that the use of simple isolated exercises do very little to improve the motor program. But due to this complexity it makes it very difficult to find exercises that are both useful and safe to do.

The two main problems associated with loss of stability in the gait cycle are smaller stride lengths and a loss of speed. A slowing of neural firing speed, (the brains message to the nerves within muscles for movement) from lack of exercise produces a slower response time for the initiation of movement. To make up for the body’s lost reaction it compensates by slowing everything down and shortening our stride to overcome our lost reflexes and reaction times.

The video below provides you with 10 ways to enhance your ability to walk and run better.

There is obviously a ton of other exercises and things you will need to do but this provides you with a good starting point. I suggest to read the articles below with additional information to help you.

• 6 ways to improve your ability to walk
• How the Sensa Mat improves joint stability and walking
• 2 simple Gait assessment tests to identify the risk of a fall
• Using the Farmers Walk to improve functional strength & gait

Improving the Squat Movement Pattern

Learning to squat is actually a primitive skill you learn as a toddler, and it is where your body first finds the skill to be able to stand. Without this ability we would have great difficulty in performing even the simplest everyday tasks and be reverted back to a toddler and forced to crawl!

The best place to start is to learn the fundamental skills, technique and ensure you have the optimal MOBILITY and STABILITY to perform the exercise. A toddler did not need to spend time isolating quads on a leg extension, or building muscles on the leg press to learn how to stand up and squat. The missing ingredient was not strength either, it was coordination and stability. The same is true for most adults, but we also need to improve our mobility as many have lost this due to sitting and poor training techniques whereas the toddler still has great mobility. Fundamentals, stability and mobility is where you need to start, and in 99% of cases it is a problem in any one of these areas that people end up in pain, or never reach their potential in sports and performance.

A person with limited ability to squat struggles to get out of a chair, finds getting off the floor almost impossible and will find stairs even harder. As this movement is faulty the person has no choice but to find new ways to move to pick objects up off the floor and complete many day to day tasks with compensation.  Due to our sedentary lifestyle we develop tight joints, poor posture and dysfunctional movement patterns that limit our ability to squat, leading to inevitable problems at the back and the knee.

Here is a great video showing you 10 ways to enhance your squat movement pattern.

Other great articles to read with more information about squats are shown below.

• 7 Best Squats for bulletproof knees and strong legs
• Should your knees go over your toes when you squat?
• Why the knee is not the problem with knee pain
• How to use the single leg squat to pinpoint weakness

Improving the BEND Movement Pattern

As we discussed earlier with the example of bulging discs from bending poorly, the danger of injury to your lower back or hip with poor form in the bending action is extremely high. To give you an idea of how important learning this movement pattern is take a look at the rate of back pain in these statistics.

• In 2009 1 in 7 Australians (13.6%) reported having serious back problems—that’s 3 million people!
• Over 2 in 5 people with back problems (44%) have difficulty in tasks and activities associated with mobility, communication or self-care
• 1st according to the Global Burden of Disease estimates, low back pain is ranked 1st  in Australasia (including Australia and New Zealand), compared to 6th  in the world

Without a doubt the Romanian Deadlift is one of the best exercises you can learn to prevent back pain and is the number one exercise I teach to people of all ages. Whether you are a keen sporting athlete, someone recovering from injury, or even an 80 year old looking to maintain quality of life, this exercise provides amazing benefits and is something we use every day in life.

In the rehab field the RDL is often referred to as a hip-hinge as it requires very little knee movement but a large degree of hip movement. Anyone working with lower limb injuries will know how much influence the hips have with these injuries, and often tightness with the hip flexors and weakness with the hip extensors is a big part of the problem.

The deadlift and in particular the RDL is a perfect remedy for these injuries as it demands hip mobility with strength from the posterior chain. There are many variations of the deadlift and many exercises to use to complement this movement pattern as shown in the video below.

Additional articles to read with more information about bending movement and deadlifts are shown below.

• Why Romanian Deadlifts are the key to treating back and hip injury
• How to find the right Deadlift variation for your body
• Deadlift tips to prevent back pain
• How to improve hip mobility

Improving the LUNGE Movement Pattern

The lunge is very similar to the squat in that it is one of the very first movements you ever made as a toddler. It was the movement you used to stand up. And it is the very movement you must maintain if you want to be able to get up and down from the floor as you get older. It is also a very athletic movement and differs from deadlifts and squats in that it can be performed on the move and in multiple directions.

Apart from the obvious benefits of building strength in the legs and preventing many of the lower limb injuries many experience. The lunge is arguably the best exercise for learning how to use your core more efficiently and head towards sports performance! Why? It all has to do with what is known as the SLINGS of the body.

The body really is a complex system made up of many chains. These chains, when they are working well, help us move efficiently, produce more force, and create more speed.

There is 4 slings that are known as the:

1. Anterior Sling
2. Posterior Sling
3. Lateral Sling
4. Deep Longitudinal Sling

All of these slings share a common movement. Have you guessed what that is? Yes that is right, the lunge.

The split stance or lunge position is needed in every one of these slings. The reason for this is, this is how we are designed to move. It is how we create efficient movement and motion. Think of how you walk and run. When we move our left leg forward our right arm swings through, and vice versa for the other leg and arm. Another way to think of these slings in action is how we throw a ball.

This movement is definitely one of my favourites as there are so many ways to use this and incorporate upper body movements with it. The video below provides you with several ideas of how to enhance this pattern.

Great articles to read with more information on the lunge are shown below

• Lunges are essential to fitness success
• Why the multi-direction lunge is so good for your hips
• Improve Core strength using the myofascial slings
• Best exercises for improving hip and pelvic stability

Improving the PUSHING Movement Pattern

The first four movement patterns we have looked at are mainly lower limb and leg focused. This movement pattern looks at the upper body and the very important pattern of pushing.

The pushing action is very important for use in daily life and a weakness with pushing movement is linked to many of the shoulder and neck problems people suffer with. Most of the exercises people struggle to gain strength are with pushing, in particular females who have never completed strength training before. But true pushing movement patterns are not limited to the upper body, as the trunk and legs play pivotal roles in creating optimal positioning, stability and timing to execute this movement efficiently. This is the mistake so many people make who limit their training to body building exercises that eliminate the use of the legs such as the bench press or machine based exercises.

Key muscles used in these actions include the chest muscles of Pec Major and Pec Minor, the triceps, the deltoid muscles, the upper traps and very importantly the SERRATUS ANTERIOR. Anyone with shoulder or neck pain will have heard me talk about this endlessly as it is a big weakness to the shoulder complex. A bit like the glutes are a common weakness to the pelvis and hip region this muscle is the equivalent to the shoulder.

This muscle is used mainly in pushing actions, and easily develops weakness if not used at all, or if trained incorrectly. The first thing people think of when I mention the pushing pattern is usually the bench press. Have you ever been in a situation where someone strong walks in to a room and hear someone say "I wonder what he can bench?" As if this is the ultimate measurement of strength. But just like the leg press this is a very poor measurement of strength for I have seen many people bench over 100kg yet be completely useless in any position standing up! The bench press exercise was never intended to be a benchmark of a person’s total body strength and fitness. It is simply an exercise used for making you look good in a mirror, nothing else.

But what most people don’t realize is that this method of building muscle comes at a cost, especially for anyone playing sports, as it teaches your body how to become separate from the core and the legs when performing a pushing movement! It is almost as if you are telling your body, and your brain, we don't need stability. The star player on any sporting team is rarely the one with the biggest bench press! It is usually the player who has unbelievable balance, speed, stability, explosive power and strength resulting in awesome movement skills in a standing position. Nearly every sport that requires these attributes is played in a standing position.

The video below shows you how to develop your pushing movement pattern.

Additional articles to read are provided below.

• Why push-ups are such a great core exercise
• 7 best pushing exercises for developing upper body strength
• Why serratus anterior is so important to shoulder stability
• Top 5 exercises to correct a winged scapula

Improving the PULLING Movement Pattern

The opposing action of pushing is pulling and this movement pattern is vital for improving grip strength. Grip strength has been proven in many studies to be a good predictor of future injury and even overall body strength. Therefore, it makes sense that we should always be looking at improving grip strength using pulling exercises that are completely dependent on this.

Pulling movements are some of the greatest exercises you can use in the gym to develop a strong and healthy body, great posture and incredible grip strength. From chin-ups to bent-over rows, these exercises are known for targeting massive muscle groups like the Lats, Trapezius, and Rhomboids, not to mention they all hit the ever-popular muscles like the biceps too.

This movement is the easiest pattern to get right and comes with the least amount of risk. Having said that there are many mistakes you still need to be aware of.

The biggest mistake I see made is trying to PULL THE SHOULDERS DOWN & BACK! I must admit I used to tell people to do this and was taught that this is a good thing for our posture. We have all heard people say, "stand up straight and pull your shoulders back". The first part of that is good, stand up straight, but pulling your shoulders back is a great way to develop chronic shoulder and neck problems along with a chain reaction of muscle imbalance.

Why is this so bad?

Retraction of the shoulder muscles is a normal part of biomechanics during the phase of pulling exercises and also in the easier phase of pushing exercises. However overdoing these exercises or consciously squeezing your scapula together (usually the rhomboids and middle trapezius) can completely disrupt the timing and sequence of how the shoulder needs to move. Even worse if performed poorly it can reinforce the scapula into retraction in a downwardly rotated and anterior tilted position, creating more tightness, impingement, and discomfort. This is common to a winged scapula (picture below). I see this almost every day in the gym and it is very common to anyone with shoulder or neck problems.

Another big mistake we see made with pulling movements is when the elbows are pulled too far behind the body disrupting the ideal axis of rotation and driving the humeral head further in the socket. Take a look at the video below to see an example of what this looks like and how it creates all types of problems for the shoulder. Click here to watch.

This mistake of pulling too far behind you leads to gleno-humeral instability. I often see this with people using too light a weight and are able to really pull too far. Too much weight is not good either as this is when you see someone “chop” the movement by moving their head forward helping to create forward head posture and a new set of problems with the neck. A balance between the two is what is needed.

Watch the video below for more ideas of how to improve your pulling movement pattern.

Additional articles to read are shown below.

• Why chin-ups are the ultimate strength exercise
• 7 best pulling exercises for a healthy upper back
• Correct pulling technique for optimal shoulder function

Improving the ROTATION Movement Pattern

This last movement pattern is very similar to the gait pattern in that it relates to almost all of the previous patterns in some way. If we refer to the toddlers again you would see this is the VERY FIRST MOVEMENT you ever made. We used the twisting pattern well before the squat or lunge for this is what we used to wiggle around with before our limbs were strong enough to support the body. This is also how we developed our core stability and strength to be able to crawl and eventually stand.

Without rotation we would all move like robots! Even the simple task of walking requires some degree of rotation at the hips and thoracic spine to create a spring like effect to propel us forwards. Unfortunately for a large percentage of the population they do move like robots as their hips and thoracic spine has stiffened due to sitting for long periods, lack of exercise, and ignorance to moving correctly. 

This is seen very clearly with anyone who suffers with back pain. In order to protect their lower back they stiffen their body right up and avoid rotational movement altogether which seems like a good strategy at first, but in the long term sets them up for more pain. Learning rotational exercises can be difficult for it is one of the movements that must be trained at a relatively high speed in order to get it right, and with so many moving parts it is easy to make a real mess of it.

Some doctors and therapists tell people rotational and twisting exercises are bad for your back. This is absolute rubbish and the first thing I would say to that is show me how to walk without rotation. And secondly why are all the professional golfers and tennis players not crippled with back pain? This is where a bit of information is taken out of context and explained by a person who does not understand human movement at all.

What they should say is POOR rotational exercises are bad for your back. This is why it is so important to learn good technique so you can avoid doing damage to the spine and the discs.

This is similar to the lunge in that it is a very athletic pattern once you get to the later stages and has a direct impact on most sports for the rotational power is a key element required for elite performance. You can have a lot of fun with this movement pattern that is for sure.

Additional articles that relate to this pattern are shown below.

• 5 ways to improve core strength with the wood-chop exercise
• Is rotational exercise bad for your back?
• Using infant development exercises with adults to improve core strength
• To train the obliques you must understand their purpose

Conclusion

I hope you have enjoyed reading this article and it has provided you with some additional knowledge to improve how you move. We must move beyond looking at exercise as a form of punishment and a way to burn calories to look good. We must learn to respect it and maintain our ability to move efficiently with the fundamental movement patterns. For one thing is for sure, once you lose your ability to move life is never the same.

For more ideas and information on specific topics I may not have covered in detail be sure to check out our INDEX PAGE on the website that has over 300 of our best articles. These are all sorted into categories for quick reference so you can find what you are after more easily.

Do You Need More Help?

If you currently suffer with hip, knee, or back problems you will find our online programs shown below a great resource that take you through all of the assessments and corrective exercises to get you back to full strength and out of pain.

And if you live in Melbourne Australia and need specific help with your exercise program please feel free to reach out to me by clicking the banner below and we can organize a time to discuss how we can help you. And make sure you subscribe to our FREE NEWSLETTER so you stay up to date with our latest tips and secrets relating to health and fitness.

About The Author

Nick Jack is owner of No Regrets Personal Training and has over 15 years’ experience as a qualified Personal Trainer, Level 2 Rehabilitation trainer, CHEK practitioner, and Level 2 Sports conditioning Coach. Based in Melbourne Australia he specialises in providing solutions to injury and health problems for people of all ages using the latest methods of assessing movement and corrective exercise.

References:

• Functional Anatomy of the Pelvis and the Sacroiliac Joint - By John Gibbons
• The Vital Glutes - By John Gibbons
• Movement - By Gray Cook
• Corrective Exercise Solutions - by Evan Osar
• Back Pain Mechanic - by Dr Stuart McGill
• Diagnosis & Treatment Of Movement Impairment Syndromes - By Shirley Sahrman
• Low Back Disorders - by Dr Stuart McGill
• Ultimate Back Fitness & Performance - by Dr Stuart McGill
• Core Stability - by Peak Performance
• Athletic Body in Balance - by Gray Cook
• Anatomy Trains - by Thomas Meyers
• Motor Learning and Performance - By Richard A Schmidt and Timothy D Lee
• Assessment & Treatment Of Muscle Imbalance - By Vladimir Janda
• How To Eat, Move & Be Healthy by Paul Chek
• Scientific Core Conditioning Correspondence Course - By Paul Chek
• Advanced Program Design - By Paul Chek
• Twist Conditioning Sports Strength - By Peter Twist
• Twist Conditioning Sports Movement - By Peter Twist
• Functional Training For Sports - By Mike Boyle
• Athletes Acceleration Speed Training & Game Like Speed - by Lee Taft
• Knee Injuries In Athletes - by Sports Injury Bulletin
• The ACL Solution - by Robert G Marx
• Understanding & Preventing Non-Contact ACL Injuries - American Orthopaedic Society For Sports Medicine