I don't know anyone who does not want to be strong. From older person wanting to preserve strength for walking up stairs to sports people wanting improved performance, we all know being strong is great for the health of our body and enjoying life. This is where there has been a shift in recent times to using Functional Training methods. It is very much one of those buzzwords in the Fitness industry that is thrown around by all circles but actually knowing what it really means, and more importantly how to do it is often completely missed. Wikipedia defines functional training as “Functional training is a classification of exercise which involves training the body for the activities performed in daily life.” Pretty simple right. Does Olympic Lifting or muscle ups fall into this category? They do not, yet these exercises often have the term functional applied to them, but they are sports specific and not something we would ever do or need in daily life. This is not to say they are bad exercises, they are great to evolve to if you can. But if you skip steps and go straight to this training, potential problems will arise. To understand what functional movement really means, you need to think of what key or foundation movement patterns we perform as humans that form the basis of all movements. In this article, we will show what these key patterns are, but even better than that show you how to assess, and go about improving it if it is faulty or weak. Regardless of age, gender, injury or whatever goal you have in terms of health and fitness, you cannot escape the fact you must learn how to move efficiently to function in life. 

We have all at some point in our life suffered an injury or felt the intense sensation of physical pain from something as simple as a cut on our finger, to the intense swelling from a rolled ankle. The feeling is intense and immediate. It is more or less a signal from the brain telling you something is dangerous and needs our attention NOW! Very much like a fire alarm system in your house alerting you of potential fire and danger! The types of pain I described here are what you would call traumatic injuries or acute pain, often caused by an accident or unexpected incident. Chronic pain however is much different and rarely from an accident or one particular incident. It is constant and can last months, even years! Many people suffering from chronic pain are looking for a remedy or a solution to remove the pain and suffering. But the big problem with this is, that removing the pain is rarely addressing the real problem, why the pain was there in the first place. This is the equivalent to removing the batteries from your fire alarm instead of finding where the fire is! Having worked with so many clients over the past 12 years in our rehabilitation program, I see this same story everyday and many of these chronic injuries could have been avoided if the right approach was taken earlier on. This article we are going to look at chronic pain in great detail and challenge your way of thinking in how you address your current problem.

All of us have experienced that awful stiff neck at some point in our life and know just how draining it can be to our bodies, not just physically but mentally and emotionally. Imagine being like that every day? With the use of computers becoming so much more prominent each year and the introduction of lap tops, IPADS and smartphones, the rise of chronic back pain along with neck and shoulder pain injuries is substantial. If the problem is left unattended, and you just put up with the pain, it can lead to severe injuries that are very difficult to treat and lead to other more serious problems. Disc bulges in the neck are becoming very common, and not just limited to old people. The first thing people normally do is take some anti inflammatory pills, perhaps get a massage and maybe do some stretches and hope it goes away. And while all this gives some relief, it is just a short term remedy. It is really just using a band-aid approach to treating a much bigger cut or bleed. In this article we are going to provide with the knowledge on how neck problems are created in the first place, so you can treat the "real problem", prevent the onset of chronic pain and get rid of it for good.