the CRAIG VAN cast
Hey, I’m Craig. I've dedicated more than a decade to understanding the human spine. Now I’m sharing what I’ve learnt. Get started with my SPINE STRENGTH project - Part 1 is free. Subscribe and you’ll receive my work as I release it.
the CRAIG VAN cast
52 | One movement project to tie everything together
In this episode, Craig explores the concept of prioritization and the power of focusing on one movement project. He discusses the Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, and how it applies to movement and exercise. Most of the harm experienced in movement development comes from sedentary activities, particularly sitting, while the greatest potential lies in prioritizing a select few movement practices. Craig delves into the importance of neutral spine stability, which addresses both harm reduction and the development of movement potential. They emphasize the significance of mastering neutral spine stability and highlight the three components that make up functional neutral spine stability. By engaging in this transformative project, listeners can avoid most of the harm associated with modern movement and reclaim their movement potential. The episode concludes with an invitation to enrol in the Kinetic Keystone course, designed to guide individuals on their journey toward movement resilience and accessing their true potential. Listeners are encouraged to visit craigvan.com to get started for free and share this valuable resource with others. The podcast aims to make real health education accessible to everyone, prioritizing long-term well-being and unleashing movement potential.
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If I were forced to choose one movement project for the rest of my life, one movement project to develop my strength, to develop vitality, confidence, self-awareness, resilience. One project to try and access all of the benefits the infinite benefits of a movement practice. I know what that one project would be, do you? At this point you might be asking why choose one thing? Someone who's become quite popular for discussing the one thing, gary Killar, in his book, lays out a few different reasons. We're not going to go into depth, but understanding what is the one thing that we should prioritize above all else has many benefits, including understanding what our priority is and being able to make better choices. Because of understanding what our priority is, we're able to better manage our time. When we make such decisions, when we know what's important, when we know how to structure our time, how to prioritize our time, especially when we're tight on time, when we can't do everything, what should we prioritize? There's less stress. When we have a clear understanding of what is important and when we know we're moving forward in what is important, even though we're not getting to a bunch of other stuff we would love to do. I think we should do if we know we're getting what is primary, we reduce our stress In general, we have a much greater clarity and understanding of what levers we need to pull to get where we need to go, to get where we want to go. These are some of the reasons.
Speaker 1:Gary Killar explains why prioritizing, why understanding what the one thing is and prioritizing it can give us so much benefit. He also mentions how success generally comes in. I explained this in the previous episode and we discussed how movement is developed from simple to complex, layer by layer, that by mastering the basic, by mastering certain elements, we can in much more proficiently master complex elements. By focusing on certain things, we can build towards much more complex and sophisticated things. But if we try and achieve everything at once, then we'll chase all the rabbits and catch none. But there's another reason that we would benefit a bunch from focusing on one thing or understanding at least what our highest priority is, and this is the Pareto principle, the 80-20 rule, and we're going to look at it now through a double edged lens.
Speaker 1:Firstly, that acknowledging that most of the harm that we experience through our movement experience towards our movement development is actually coming from a select few activities, those activities being sitting, the various forms of sitting and sedentary activities we perform. Most of the harm on our movement experience is coming from sitting and related activities. Conversely, most of our potential lies in prioritizing, or can be accessed by prioritizing, the longest levers, the select few movement practices. Most of the benefit that we can access for our entire movement experience is accessed through some fundamental practices. Nothing is more fundamental and far reaching in its impact than our spinal core system, our spinal core complex, and there's a almost sadistic but very interesting connection between these two. Most of the harm that sitting exerts on us, most of the insult from sitting, comes from its impact on our spine, the way it is anti-developmental on our spine, the structures and the dynamics of our spine, and nothing is more central to our movement potential than our spine and core systems. It's the structural and dynamic center of our movement experience. And so here we have a connection between where our biggest opportunity lies to avoid most of the harm, most of the losses that we are experiencing in our movement in this modern era, and there is a connection from this to where our potential is a natural human mover lies. How do we access our movement potential? Well, at risk, on a solid bedrock spinal core proficiency. And so is there a way that we can? Is there one project we can engage with that takes care of both reversing the harm that sitting has caused is causing on our spinal cord complex and simultaneously develops our spinal cord complex in the direction of our movement potential? Because if there is one practice that takes care of these two, these two directions, then we have found ourselves a double-edged, double-wammy, compounded opportunity to remove most of our harms and amplify most of our potential. And there is something, there is one practice which perfectly achieves both of these inverse ends at the same time, and this is neutral spine stability, as popularized by Professor Stuart McGill.
Speaker 1:What is neutral spine stability? As a complex of skills or a movement project, I've come to understand advanced neutral spine stability as the precise awareness of our spine's position in every moment, and whether it's in neutral or not. Secondly, it is the coherent, coordinated control of all of our spine-supporting muscles, from very low levels of activation through to maximal activations, and while constantly accessing the awareness of our spine's position and the control of our spine-supporting structures, the muscles we need to maintain unimpeded breathing, full, deep, unrestricted oxygenation, fueling of our system, relaxation of our nervous system. These three elements, when come together make up an advanced or elite neutral spine stability ability and so mastering neutral spine stability to the highest degree and the three components which make up a functional neutral spine stability. By mastering this whole project, this one project, we get to avoid most of the harm that we are currently experiencing in our modern movement era and we're able to reclaim and re-access much of our movement potential as much as is possible with a single practice, but more than we would have thought possible with a single practice. And this is why I have made the course Kinetic Keystone and hopefully that name even makes a little bit more sense now, why that has resonated with me. Kinetic Keystone, really the Keystone to unlock our movement, to build movement resilience, to access our potential.
Speaker 1:If you're interested in getting started on this journey, head over to kregmancom. You'll find everything you need there. You can get started for free. If you know someone who might benefit from this, please share this with them. Do your good deed for the day. Let's get real health education out there. Subscribe to the channel. Your future self will thank you. I'm on a mission to make sure that we get real health education out there and accessible to everyone. Until next time, I wish you wisdom and wellness.