In November, I attended the Fitex 2016 conference put on by
Exercise NZ and was pleasantly surprised that the content was extremely forward
thinking and relevant. There was definitely an underlying theme on the topic of
fascia and fascial release or self-myofascial release. Most people are familiar
with this in the form of foam rolling. No longer confined to Pilates classes and yoga studios,
foam rollers and other mobility tools are very much a part most gyms now. But
addressing myofascial restrictions goes way beyond a superficial pass over the
ITBs with a foam roller. The guys from OD on movement gave a great talk on what
they call fascial mobilising, which
involves active movements targeted at releasing certain fascial restrictions
and fascial freeing which uses the
foam roller and/or other tools to release restrictions around joints and bony
landmarks. Whereas most people tend to roll in the meatiest part of the
muscles, these guys advocated working around joints and bony areas, as they have
the densest concentration of fascial connective tissues and therefore you can affect
the most change by working there.
There was a fascinating talk given by a structural
integration practitioner on developmental movement patterns and how we unlearn
these movements as we age which causes pain and dysfunction. The idea is that
by revisiting these movement patterns learned in the first 2 years of life,
such as rolling and crawling, people can overcome certain types of pain or
injuries brought on by movement dysfunction. So what are you waiting for? Get
down and start rolling and crawling on the ground. Or if you want to try a more
gym friendly version of this kind of training, have a look for some videos on
Zuu training.
I thoroughly enjoyed the talk, Inflate Your Intensity, on
training with balloons. I thought it would involve something along the lines of
inflating balloons in different postures, but was pleasantly surprised that it
was in fact an extremely fun and engaging presentation with plenty of games
that involved balloons. Now to be sure, this is progressive stuff, and wouldn’t
go down well with every client, but it certainly gives an easy and effective
way to get people in the zone and having fun. It’s amazing how much following a
balloon with your eyes and then returning it to someone with your hands or feet
gets you into the present moment. And the best thing about it was that we were
squatting, lunging, bending and twisting without being told any specific
movements to perform. So for people who have a hard time committing to
traditional gym training this is a great idea. There was also a great talk on sandbells,
a bag filled with sand that can be used like a kettlebell but offers a
different kind of resistance as it has a shifting load. The talk focused on the
differences between performing movements, like swings, with dumbbells,
kettlebells and sandbells and also some creative ideas for making group
training fun and interactive.
