Everything You Need to Know About Functional Movement
Hello,
I’m Danielle from Get Well with Danielle and for the past twelve years I’ve used my combined training in Yoga, Personal Training, Foundation Training, & Massage to help people maintain and regain Functional Movement.
Functional Movement is any movement that you need to do regularly, such as:
squatting to get out of a chair, into the car, or off the toilet
reaching up high to grab a bowl or other object you need
twisting to get something out of the back seat or to see what’s behind you without pain
lifting children or grandchildren and getting down on the floor to play with them easily
getting up and down from the floor safely
sitting up from a lying flat position
pulling weeds from the garden
I take Functional Movement Coaching a step further by giving my clients tools to decrease stress and increase mobility with self-massage and therapeutic yoga.
Movement doesn’t have to feel horrible, become a part time job, or be something you hate doing. It can feel energizing and fun, even if it’s only 30 minutes a week. It’s easier to practice moving daily when you have a toolbox full of movements you enjoy doing. You can create a massive shift in your overall wellbeing by finding a few challenging and effective exercises to practice daily, in a short period of time. Here are a few that my clients love!
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The mind has a long list of excuses and can easily convince you to prioritize your mental and physical health later, when you have more time. The truth is, you can take one small step right now to carve out time for your self-care.
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Maybe it’s practicing ten squats or lunges. If these exercises feel painful, you can start with a wall sit. Press your back into the wall and bend your knees as far as you can without knee pain—don’t go below 90 degrees in the knees. Hold it for 30-60 seconds.
Or hold onto a counter or a solid door frame to keep your chest upright as you pull your hips back and down to squat. Practice 5-10 of these and if that feels easy, do three sets. That’s it! Just get moving in simple ways that encourage functional movement and healthy range of motion in your joints.
If you aren’t sure what healthy range of motion in your joints is, I understand. Before I took therapeutic yoga classes and learned The Joint Freeing Series created by Mukunda Styles, I didn’t understand my joints and how to healthfully move them. I used to hurt myself in yoga classes all the time because I could easily stretch into my tendons and ligaments. The tendons connect the muscles to the bones and the ligaments connect bone to bone. Tendons and ligaments are there to stabilize joints, not to be overstretched. They send a warning signal when they are being stretched too far, but when you don’t understand your body and what good vs. bad pain is, it can be challenging to know if you’re helping or hurting yourself.
For years I had chronic neck and low back pain. I kept turning to yoga or massage for help and although I experienced relief sometimes, the pain always returned—sometimes it was worse. Have you ever tried these modalities and ended up hurting yourself or seeing no improvement?
When I went massage school I learned that having my shoulder blades massaged helped release my neck pain. This was mind boggling to me, because if I had it my way the entire massage would revolve around my neck. If that’s where the pain was, shouldn’t massaging that area get rid of it? Not necessarily! The body is complex and it’s important to address the entire body, even when you’re feeling pain in one place. For this reason I include self-massage techniques with the foam roller, tennis ball, melt method ball, and back-buddy to empower you to increase range of motion and functional movement in your whole body.
How would it feel to move with more ease? What could you do if basic functional movements were easy and felt fine?
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As a functional movement coach I encourage clients to move daily, even if it’s just for 5-10 minutes. That way when we work together 1-3 times a week in group classes or one-on-one,(can we add links to these options here) we can do more together. All of my clients have adapted to practice a few movements on their own at home. Many of my clients say that meeting with me regularly keeps them motivated and feeling better.
Wherever you are at in your fitness journey, I am here to support your individual functional movement goals. Together we discover, which muscles are weak and tight or which muscles are strong and inflexible. Then I come up with a plan to give you the exercises that you need most to build strength, flexibility, mobility, and relaxation.
I provide functional movement plans that are uniquely fun, challenging, and relaxing.
My hope for you is that you take the time—right now—to invest in your physical and mental health, because your ability to live with functional movement is important. You get one body and it’s too easy to abuse and neglect it. What if instead, you set up a sustainable routine to support yourself. If you’re looking for a functional movement coach I’d love to be of service and if you have any questions about functional movement, please comment below.
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.
— Maya Angelou
