By Anonymous Parent,
A few years ago I discovered functional movement videos on YouTube and fell in love with the philosophy, and the feeling I had when doing these movements. I don’t even want to call them exercises, because my brain intrinsically cringes away from that word.
Doing this (functional movement) is something I enjoy and find fulfilling. “Exercise” has always been something I had to force myself to do and found draining. I had two children in my later 30’s, both delivered by c-section. I have been heavy my entire life, but after the second pregnancy I was firmly in the “obese” category in all those charts people keep thinking are somehow helpful to show you.
I believe my lifelong history of being overweight, and the movement patterns it caused during my recovery from the surgeries, left my body twisted and fighting itself every time I tried to do any kind of physical activity. Functional mobility led me to fascia, and I finally understood why I felt all twisted up - because I was!!
An absolutely essential part of my self care now are these micro-moments where I check in with my body, and make sure I’m positioned in a way that is using my entire body to support itself, and not letting myself fall into the old movement patterns.
I have noticed SO MANY positive changes in my body since increasing my awareness of these patterns and correcting them as soon as I notice. I’m not talking about changes anybody else would even notice - things like, I can reach things on higher shelves more easily because my shoulders, back, hips and ankles are so much more properly aligned now! And I can see so much further behind me when I’m shoulder checking in the car because my neck is so much more mobile now!
I enjoy moving my body now, because I feel like it’s working with me, not against me! I believe these small daily celebrations of the positive changes I’ve been observing have even decreased the amount of negative self-talk I used to subconsciously engage in. And an unexpected benefit of getting my fascia to release has been an improvement in the gastrointestinal issues that have pretty much ruled my life for the last several years. It seems that as I gain more mobility in my hips/abdomen/torso my GI symptoms are improving as well!
It’s all connected! 😂😂