Dear Harvey,
I’m writing to share about functional movement, vibration, and foam rolling on a Fit as a Fiddle Friday in Palma, Spain. As I approach my 65th birthday next week, I’m convinced these things keep me feeling years younger than my chronological age.
In short, I am grateful for understanding functional movement and the importance of vibration and foam rolling.
I’m not sure these things were around back in your prime at Austin Country Club, teaching Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw and five LPGA Hall of Famers. Ironically, Tom Kite exemplifies all the points I hope to make in this letter. I always enjoyed working out with Tom at Train 4 The Game in Austin. Tom was one of the first on the PGA Tour to embrace fitness and gym work. See Fit as a Fiddle Friday: Deceleration with Tom Kite.
A couple of weeks ago, when celebrating BARCH, our gym in Richmond, UK, I touched on Gary Gray, the renowned physical therapist and movement specialist widely recognized as the “father of functional movement.” See Fit as a Fiddle Friday: BARCH (Gaelic for respect).
Gray’s contributions to physical therapy and sports rehabilitation have revolutionized how practitioners approach movement and injury prevention.
The concept of functional movement.
- Functional movement emphasizes the importance of training and rehabilitating the body to mimic real-life, three-dimensional movement patterns.
- This contrasts with traditional methods that focus on isolated, two-dimensional exercises.
- Gray’s approach is grounded in understanding how the body works as an interconnected system, emphasizing the relationship between different joints and muscles.
- He pioneered the idea that movement should be multi-planar (involving all three planes of motion), dynamic, and tailored to the individual’s daily activities or athletic needs.
When we moved to London from Austin, TX, in the fall of 2021, one thing we left behind we knew we would miss was our gym, Train 4 The Game—founded by Todd Wright, who is now Vice President of Player Performance for the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers. Todd is at the top of the food chain in wellness and athletic training. Todd and his mentor, Gary Gray, the Father of Functional Movement, have always fascinated me. See the Gray Institute to learn more.
Furthermore, I am grateful for my Power Plate vibrating foam roller, dual sphere, and pulse gun.
Power Plate is a fitness equipment company known for creating vibration training platforms that use whole-body vibration technology. Their flagship product, the Power Plate, is a vibrating platform designed to engage muscles through rapid vibrations, enhancing physical workouts and rehabilitation exercises. The platform oscillates in multiple directions, causing muscle contractions and improving balance, flexibility, strength, and circulation.
Founded in 1999, Power Plate has gained popularity in fitness centers, rehabilitation clinics, and home gyms. Their products improve strength, accelerate recovery, and increase muscle activation. Professional athletes, physical therapists, and wellness practitioners use Power Plate products to enhance performance, aid in injury recovery, and promote overall well-being.
Being married to a talented physio-therapist has helped me maintain an understanding of functional movement and the importance of vibration and foam rolling.
In addition to just feeling good, why else might I carve out time each day for these things?
- In the golf swing sequence above, true golfers will recognize a 12-handicapper striving to get to single digits.
- To get there, those hands need to be a bit higher on the backswing.
- And my head and body need to stay behind the ball at the bottom in the second image.
The photo above was taken at The Richmond Golf Club on hole 18 a couple of weeks ago, so I could say I was a bit tired at that point in the round, but no excuses!
Do you agree, Harvey?
gPage
“Millions of people were charmed by the homespun golf advice dispensed in Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book, a sports classic that became the best-selling sports book of all time. Yet, beyond the Texas golf courses where Penick happily toiled for the better part of eight decades, few people knew the self-made golf pro who coaxed the best out of countless greats — Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw, Betsy Rawls, Mickey Wright — all champions who considered Penick their coach and lifelong friend.” – Kevin Robbins, author of Harvey Penick: The Life and Wisdom of the Man Who Wrote the Book on Golf.
