Let's discuss and demonstrate 3 big misguiding concepts in movement culture. Are you making these things your aim and purpose of training?

For us, movement training performs a very specific purpose. It’s not the be-all and end-all for everything. 

We don’t highlight it any more than necessary or display it in an unnecessarily mystical light.

Our look at physical fitness has always been objective. Even when we delved into the world of Qigong (a world that is largely woo-woo and out of touch with reality), we looked for the most practical and objective teacher we could find.

Similarly, we have always researched movement and movement training with a very objective and practical point of view.

We are not married to any particular way of training. Yet, movement training is something that continues to get more important the more we progress as athletes, movers and ultimately as humans.

And the benefits of movement training are incredible to say the least.

Our way of movement training is ultimately about these 3 things:

• Exploration of the body and ability to move. Understanding how versatile you actually are.
• Expressing yourself as who you actually are. Avoiding dogmas, strict patterns of movement and falling into a very specific box.
• Developing the body to the fullest capacity and capability using movement training.

Surprisingly, exploration of your body will lead to immensely practical results. This is what will open up the body and make you limber. This is how you develop well-rounded movement ability, coordination and awareness in space and body.

Expressing yourself on the other hand is a necessary element to possess the courage and freedom to move and develop the body without limitations.

But next, let’s break the limitations. Here are the 3 restricting concepts of movement culture we see right now.

1: The Robots

Nowadays, movement training is becoming a form of fitness where the same movements are continuously repeated over and over again with the exact same form.

These guys can be called “the robots”. The problem is that they have eliminated one of the greatest benefits of movement training by focusing on overly rigid and repetitive movement patterns.

It's not all bad however; this style of training has great benefits and it will produce results.

But movement training is a lot more than that and hardness needs to be balanced with softness. Too much stiffness can lead to problems as well as too much relaxation will lead to weakness.

Another problem with this style of training and attitude is that it will lead to over analysing, lack of freedom and lack of self-expression.

When it comes to some specific skills, the cues and strict form can be crucial to do the skill safely and effectively but for a lot of movements you only need to start moving.

“The goal of our movement training is to unstuck you and get you opened up. Movement rebels the unnecessarily strict form.” - Eero Westerberg

You just need to take the first step and do it. Don’t worry whether your shoulders are perfectly stabilised or whether your hands are too close or too far apart. Just move.

By the act of moving, many of the answers will naturally come to you through your body. And if you have questions, it only makes sense to ask once you have already started moving…

2: The Trick Chasers

The trick chasers have turned the entire movement training into a form of skill acquisition.

For them, acquiring skills is the main objective and the purpose of training.

For us, skill acquisition has to be one of the least important aspects of movement training. It’s something we do for fun on the side.

The reasons are real: developing the body comes first. In other words, developing strength, mobility and flexibility are the main goals as well as improving health, posture and structural balance.

The main problem with turning skill training into the North Star is that you will eventually be sacrificing a lot of the most important things (health, posture, balance) for the sake of acquiring skills. And no, doing occasional mobility work on the side will not fix the problem.

Read this article to learn more about the difference between Strength vs. Skill Training.

Learning an impressive skill might be very important right now but they can come at a great cost as they did for us. We ultimately started breaking our joints for superficial goals (not just skills but weights and muscle) which forced us to rethink everything.

What's the solution? Keep skill training as the secondary focus. You will avoid the pitfalls, maximize your body development and still learn a lot of really cool stuff.

Focus on what matters, not on something your ego needs to survive.

3: The Wet Noodles

This refers to the form of movement training that is more like dance than anything else. It consists of highly artistic, soft and relaxed movement patterns. 

Like with everything, this form of training has great benefits in opening up the body, teaching relaxation & contraction, lubricating the joints and how to flow with the body’s movements.

This type of training we have mostly in Morning Routine 20XX.

However, this is just one part of movement training. It’s almost like this is the opposite of robots. Similarly to “the robots”, you need to have the balance of softness and rigidness.

Uncovering the Essence and Developing the Body with Movement Training

When it comes to movement training, it all comes down to developing and taking care of the body. Our Movement 20XX Method consists of many pillars of body development.

• We have the skill training which is a very fun way of moving and showcasing your body’s abilities, strength and coordination.
• We cover variety and the explorative aspects of movement that will lead to a limber, flexible and open body.
• We cover many forms of strength training. The most special type is what we call “Animal Movement Strength Training Method”. 

Animal Movement Strength Training is a type of strength training that can produce second to none results in athleticism and physical fitness.

Seriously, in the future this will be one of the main pillars of strength & conditioning. Forget about the back squats, this is where the money is at.

Athletes have already started working on animal movement training in the past few years but they lack the proper methodology and know-how.

There are things athletes and coaches don’t know about and that they would only discover after 10 years of practice and research.

Even our methods have fundamentally changed over the years. This is because every method evolves and gets refined.

Something that used to be a good way of doing things is not necessarily the best way of doing things today.

That’s why as a student and as a teacher you have to be constantly refining your training.

So, let’s talk about the new "Movement MasterClass" we’ve just released.

For the first time ever, we have released an online course revealing the principles and methods of movement training.

This Movement MasterClass will not only improve your results with Movement 20XX but it will also allow you to expand your training outside of Movement 20XX giving you the keys and tools to develop the body with movement training.

Movement MasterClass is now part of Movement 20XX. If you are a new member, you can join Movement 20XX and Movement MasterClass at Movement20XX.com.

If you are already a member, you can log in and inside the program (Lessons in the menu) you will find information regarding how to get access to Movement MasterClass.

Let's move.