Monday, September 8, 2014

Functional Range Conditioning Revisited

About a year ago I was watching my oldest daughter, now 2, squat.  The more we played, the more we squatted and looked at rocks and bugs and anything else that a 2 year old finds wonderful.  I was struck at how incapable I was of doing a 3rd world squat.  Heels on the ground, hanging out.  It became a goal.  I looked around and found some crazy info about a guy named Dr. Andreo Spina that did some stuff called Functional Range Conditioning.  I signed up and went to a seminar and was blown away by the quality of information and teaching.

I can now do a third world squat with tremendous concentration and effort.  My body will allow the position, but man I'm working for it!  This next chunk of time is to refine it, make it less Sympathetic and more Parasympathetic in nature.  I still need a good warm up and get into the groove.  I'm what is called "Renting" the movement.  I'm working on "Owning" it.

Here is the thing.  FRC is hard.  It's not rolling on balls and rollers and attaching some bands to hips and thinking about what your going to do later.  It's intense concentration, feeling motion.  Working on capsules.  There is a system to work though.  In a few minutes you will be sweating.  You may cramp. You will find out if you really want more mobility or just thought you did.

Increasing a ROM that you have not had or haven't had in a long, long time takes effort.  Real effort.  But if you are committed FRC is an amazing tool to help you get the mobility you are looking for.

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