Easy to get started and no equipment is needed.
Movement Flow is one of the few fitness activities that are easy to start and does not require any training equipment. This means you won’t have to sit in traffic to the gym or buy expensive workout equipment which you will never use again after a month. Instead, you can practice Movement Flow outdoors, in the park, on the lawn, or indoors when you just move some furniture around to make some space. Because getting started with Movement Flow is so easy, you are more likely to practice consistently. So, let’s get ready to move and flow!
Consistency is the key when you learn a new skill or start a new habit. You have probably heard that one popular method to build habits is the 21/90 rule: If you commit to a goal for 21 straight days, after three weeks it should have become a habit. And after 90 days, it will have become a permanent lifestyle change. As an example, let’s say your goal is to practice Movement Flow every day for 10 minutes consistently. If you have to commute to the gym to do it, you are likely to quit after a week. You may even find yourself making up excuses to not go! But if you practice your sport anywhere and anytime, you can immediately experience the joy and benefit of being active. This positive feeling will motivate you to continue practicing more, and with excitement. Sooner than later, creating a flow will be your new habit, and you will move better and live happier!
Fully engaged fitness that trains both big and small muscles.
If your goal is to gain muscles, it seems the most efficient way is to do a machine workout. After all, there is a machine for every muscle group with clear instructions! But if your goal is to train big and small muscles together and move your body as a whole, you need more diverse training than just an isolated machine-only workout plan.
Machine workouts usually train a singular muscle, isolated in one plane. But any practical movement requires your body to move as a whole and through all three planes of motion. Moving dynamically requires strength, flexibility, mobility, and stability – which is exactly what we need in daily life.
Movement Flow can guide you from training a singular muscle to using the whole body together and then applying it to your daily life.
Unlike machines that are fixed to focus on certain muscles and planes only, movements require us to control prime movers and stabilizers to perform well. Movement Flow has our bodies work multiple muscles together, including even eye muscles, to help us balance and coordinate. While using our muscles together and at the same time, we also avoid imbalanced muscle strength and muscle dysfunctions from only using one dominated side or isolated patterns.
3. Improve your joint mobility and build a bulletproof body.
Movement Flow empowers us to understand our bodies better. We spend a lot of time moving our bodies on the ground; so, how we can be soft on the floor and avoid the impact will be one of our training objectives. That is why we say that Movement Flow can help build up a bulletproof body.
To move smoothly on the floor requires many small muscles to be activated and joints to be flexible instead of just extending away from the body’s core. Our brain is far more aware of how our body works than we may give it credit for. By figuring out how to move smoothly on the floor without giving ourselves bruises, we will have intuitively created strategies to engage specific muscles and move certain joints even before receiving instructions.
In Movement Flow, the concept of ground flow is the interaction between body and ground that results in strengthening your motor control internally and externally, thereby gaining proprioception. With floor work, you must use the potential of literally any surface to propel yourself into motion. Through training, you will gain insights into how to roll, twist, jump, and absorb seamlessly, transferring one movement into the next. By practicing on the floor, you will learn where those specific muscles and joints are and how they work, so that you too can move without tension. This concept can then be applied to your daily life and other activities to decrease the chance of getting injured.
Imagine our body mobility is a full circle: If we limit our practice to a small square in that circle, we will never reach the full potential of the whole circle. The only way to reach the edge of what is possible is by thinking outside the box. Only then can our physical ability and motion fill out the circle. Movement Flow encourages people to step out of the box, explore their bodies, and fill out the missing piece of the exercise ring.
4. Stay healthy and happy, both mentally and physically!
Movement training is not just taking responsibility for our physical body. Body, brain, and mind are three cooperative aspects of the fantastic human-machine working together in a perfect subconscious and conscious state of perfect harmony.
Recent research has shown that our body releases natural hormones – endorphins, dopamine, adrenaline, and endocannabinoids – after physical exercise, which bombard the receptors in our brain to make us feel positive, happy, confident, and less anxious. However, these chemicals are not the only way to make us happy! We usually hear feedback from students that they are having so much fun and enjoy thinking back to their childhood during Movement Flow. Professor Markula explains why:
“The ‘fun’ of ‘flow’ would thus be connected to the present and the experience of moving or exercising itself, rather than to the various ‘positive’ future outcomes to be reaped from exercising.”
In a flow moment, we only focus on feeling and listening to our bodies to figure out how we can solve movement puzzles and smoothly transition from one move to another. Usually, this is when we unlock our physical potential, and we are surprised that we can do more than expected. This also explains why exercise can boost our confidence. Confidence is one of the essential keys to boosting our happiness. When we exercise, we challenge ourselves. And every time we make progress, we feel we are capable and strong. Our brain will turn that accomplished feeling into self-identity and translate it into self-confidence. That is the beauty of the movements and our body: no limitations, and endless possibilities.
5. Lifelong learning in a strong and supportive community.
When we do movements, we create moments to engage our mind, body, and muscles. At the same time, we also build connections with others – and connections in our community are as important as connecting with our bodies. Have you ever noticed #fitfam on social media? Or have you ever noticed how you feel stronger and more motivated when you work out with a group of like-minded people? McGonigal explained that when we move with other people, our brain finds a sense of being “bigger than the self.” This sense will empower your mindset and physical ability to move far beyond what you thought was possible.
We can then transfer that same feeling and power to our daily lives. It has been repeatedly proven that exercise brings us far more profound and meaningful benefits than just physical health. Movement brings us joy, identity, community connections, open-mindedness, and positive thinking that allow us to tackle all challenges, not just in the gym but in our lives.
Humans are social creatures; we are hardwired to help others and like to overcome challenges together. The Movement Flow system enables a comfortable, nurturing environment and a positive-minded community that creates safe spaces for all participants to share their practice, strengths, and weaknesses. We all get the opportunity to teach and learn, to offer and receive help. When we receive the support we needed, we feel that “we matter” to those around us. And when we offer help, we do so because we believe that “we matter” and can help others. This dual role of teaching and learning encourages people to engage and connect with the community more. It allows us to grow together and improve faster, which is exactly what Movement Flow is all about.