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After completing PFM Pilot Modules Three & Four, you will be able to:
Assess and understand the importance of:
presence and quality of the important ‘lifelong reflex of locomotion’;
its contribution to gait patterns, weight shifting & ALL planes of motion.
Assess and understand the importance of:
lateral flexions of the spine;
the coordinated motion of the shoulder and pelvic girdles;
their, often neglected, global influences on day-to-day movements.
You will understand this in the context of their connectivity, relevance to efficiency of movement and their contributions to pain and repetitive injury cycles.
Using the provided stimuli for these innate movements, you’ll then be able to map the improvements in Movement Efficiency they generate. -
Course Requirements and Benefits
All you require is a willingness to explore movement in ways that perhaps won’t be familiar. When applying what lays the foundations for any and all movement, solutions can be simple and powerful, because they tap into how we’re made.
PFM PILOT is unique in the movement industry in being able to objectively show the changes in real time, and in working with adults to demonstrate how life-long reflexes and movement development are relevant throughout our lives.
Let’s explore together.
Finding Catalysts for Movement Efficiency through the Lifelong Reflex of Locomotion and Lateral Flexions
Who This Is For:
1. For practitioners, where time is of the essence, this bundle provides you with tools that can easily, and with confidence, be included in your daily work.
2. For those interested in learning more about their own movement, this module provides practical tools enabling both ‘self-analysis’ and ‘self-help’.
Bite-size modules can feel more manageable, and whilst you’ll discover for yourselves how no one area of our body works alone, patterns of shapes and movement strategies DO exist and degrees of ‘separation’ can be useful during the learning process — especially if you’re seeking to self-help your movement issues.
Non-Negotiable #3: The LIFE-LONG Reflex of Locomotion and
Non-Negotiable #4: Lateral Flexions
The LIFE-LONG REFLEX of LOCOMOTION that -- surprisingly -- isn't much written about. Doris has 1000s of measurements that strongly suggest we should ALL be fascinated by it, be testing for it and fine-tuning it.
And given NN3 gifts us a light swing leg only IF the spine can laterally flex, this is an obvious bundle to collate.
Nobody visits me complaining of a lack of side flexion, and yet our ability to side flex influences how we reach, shift weight from one foot to another in gait, balance on one leg without falling over and sleep comfortably. Uncover harmonious movement between shoulder and pelvic girdles - literally.
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Non-Negotiable #3: The LIFE-LONG REFLEX of LOCOMOTION - 'The Amphibian Reflex'.
Consider this module for the obvious AND the seemingly unconnected.
‘Obvious’ reasons to look here would be anything to do with a gait pattern/way of walking that seems altogether too ‘arduous’. Given this amazing lifelong reflex helps to gift a lightweight ‘swing leg’, when legs appear to be a deadweight, they move 'clumsily' and/or there is a dependence on sideways/lateral/waddling movement strategies to ‘pick the leg up’, it’s a big clue.
Less obvious gait issues — but no less relevant — are ‘tripping over nothing’ (they don’t pick their feet up), scuffing/dragging feet as they walk, overt ‘picking up of feet’ (they’ve learned to pick their feet up to prevent falling over), tilted pelvis (the reflex is active on one side only), swinging legs ‘out and around’ rather than forward, tension in legs, difficulty co-ordinating contralateral arm/leg swings, excessive toe-lifting, a sense that running is somehow ‘easier’ than walking, walking with a very narrow 'tracking width' (feet landing towards the midline).
Common global issues connected to sub-optimal/asymmetrical amphibian reflex function are: repetitive ankle sprains, Achilles’ tendonitis, shin splints, repetitive calf niggles/tears, knee pain, hip pain, back pain, tilted shoulder girdle, shoulder pain, neck pain.
It must come as no surprise that our ‘life-long reflex of locomotion’ reaches far and wide in its movement influences. Do your hips have the reflexive reactivity — innate in their design — to stimulate the cascade of movement possibilities above and below them? -
Non-Negotiable #4: LATERAL FLEXIONS
Consider this module for the obvious AND the seemingly unconnected.
‘Obvious’ reasons to look here are visible frontal plane TILTS and SHIFTS (off axis to the L or the R when observed from the front or back) of the head, shoulder girdle and pelvic girdle, general ‘stuckness’ in a particular postural shape and asymmetrical arm swing in gait.
Less obvious — but no less relevant — reasons to look here are extreme one-sided L/R dominance, shoulder and hip restrictions/pain, fidgeting/restlessness/hyperactivity, awkward or laborious gait pattern, aversion to belts and/or tight clothing and/or ‘sitting properly’ (avoids lower back resting against chair backs), poor breathing mechanics, poor proprioception/coordination between upper and lower body as well as difficulties coordinating movement of limbs on the contralateral (opposite arm and leg), poor balance, hypersensitivity to sound, difficulty sleeping due to discomfort.
Common global issues connected to sub-optimal lateral spinal flexion function are: foot pain, repetitive ankle sprains & calf niggles/tears, lateral knee pain, lateral hip pain, ITB syndrome, back pain, shoulder pain/frozen shoulder, neck pain, TMJ issues, headaches.
Your spinal side flexions feature heavily in just about every day-to-day movement; does your spine have freedom to the left and right — innate in its design — to optimise your movement potential?