Having trained a huge variety of people for nearly 10 years, when it comes to the general population there are common themes in types of movements that people typically don’t have in their programme.

The movements included here are simple to implement and can have a big impact on improving the function and performance of the body.

The general themes people don’t include are typically movements that focus on function rather than aesthetics. The reality of training is that it has such a powerful tool to enhance your ability to live a more fulfilling life that I hope people use it as such. When I am training the general population the typical focus I have is on health-span and longevity, how long can you stay healthy and free from chronic illness or pain and maintain a high level functioning body.

What movement abilities do you want to have in the last 10 years of your life?

How do you want to live your life when you’re in your ‘older’ age?

What happens if you don’t train and move your body now? What will happen later in your life?

Imagine being unable to play with your grandkids because you didn’t move your body earlier in life?

First recommendation you will notice in all the videos I’m not wearing shoes. Spend more time out of shoes. The feet transmit force from the proximity of the body to the ground and thus should be trained to respect this essential fact. A lack of general proprioception and awareness of how the foot feels on contact with the ground definitely contributes to ankle sprains and falling over in older age.

A general heuristic I have when working with clients… “Never add load to dysfunction”. Mechanical proficiency should always precede load. You should ensure you have correct movement patterns before you load.

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Video 1 - Plyometrics

Lower intensity sub maximal, low amplitude multidirectional jumps. As we age one of the key abilities we lose is the capacity to move quickly and contact our muscles rapidly. If you’re 65+ and fall over and brake your hip your one year mortality risk is increased by 40-50%! That basically means you need to do everything within your power to maintain balance, coordination, strength and the ability to move quickly to prevent falls.
These exercises improve the reactive ability of the calf complex which help with fall prevention. They also build general robustness and proprioception to help prevent ankle sprains which are very common in older age.
The execution of these is very simple. You want to land on the middle of your foot, stay relaxed and try to maintain a consistent rhythm while jumping at 60% effort. Think about being bouncy and light as you spring off the ground.
Start off with 8-10 reps if you’ve never done this type of activity and then build up to 20-30 over a series of progressive 8-12 weeks.
Multidirectional landings are important to developing elasticity in different ankle positions that you might find yourself in.

Video 2 - Hanging

Of all the issues people have with their bodies shoulders and backs are the most common. These exercises go along way to ensure you don’t have those issues.
From my experience people simply don’t move and activate these muscles enough and thus pain presents.
If you can maintain the ability to simple hang and hold your bodyweight for 60-90s you can be sure that your grip and shoulder strength are at a decent level to maintain function of your shoulder.
Basically the mechanism is the muscles around the shoulder are preventing your humerus (upper arm bone) from being pulled out of the shoulder socket and strengthening these muscles in this way help to maintain strength and function of this area. Isometric exercises such as this provide great adaptation to keep tendons healthy which is normally the issue around the shoulder.
When it comes to the back these exercises allow a decompression affect which increases the space momentarily between vertebra as gravity takes affect.
Start with just hanging onto the bar with the feet on the floor and just taking the weight of your body with the upper body and then progress over many weeks without the feet on the floor.

Video 3 - Hip function exercises

The glutes are the largest muscle group in the body and play a huge role in generating movement but also an integral role in supporting the bodies posture and structure.
If you want to maintain the ability to move efficiently as you age you need to ensure you can correctly and in an isolated way extend your hip.
I’ve seen a lot of clients that present with back pain and they simply can’t extend their hip without extending their back. Now imagine this scenario over and over again throughout the day and in other activities you can understand why pain would present. Addressing this and training the body to use the hips correctly can go a long way In potentially helping back pain.
Putting an emphasis, even in you movement prep or on lower intensity days on improving the mechanics of hip extension can be very beneficial to improve the function of the body.

Video 4 - Scapular function exercises

If there was one simple change most people could make to their upper body training it would be training the scapular through its full range of motion.
In pretty much all gym based programmes you see out there, you’ll have some type of pulling movement. Then if there was one fault that most people need to fix it would be the mechanics of the scapular (shoulder blade) in these activities.
I view this the same as not coming all the way up in a squat and fully extending your knees and hips, you need to go through the full range.
This recommendation goes back to the most common issue I have found with clients presenting with shoulder pain. They might do pulling movements but if your shoulder blade is not moving fully around your ribcage you’re not really using your back muscles to generate and control movement.

Video 5 - Varied dynamic exploratory movement

Adding activities in which promote self exploration and have multiple movement solutions helps develop dexterous, adaptable and variable movement options which is beneficial when it comes to participating in dynamic activities.
The mindset with these activities should be ‘how many different ways can I complete this problem’
These exercises typically train mobility, stability and strength in different and unusual positions that traditional gym based exercises don’t train.