The 5 Principles of Pain-Free Movement

Take a moment to think about the 3 big health paradigms:

• Exercise

• Fitness

• Physical rehabilitation

Do you know what all of their traditional medical models have in common?

They’re all based on cadaveric anatomy. In other words, by observing a dead body.

Here’s the problem with that:

A cadaver is obviously not alive and not moving.

These models are observing a system that is completely turned off. Then, they apply their observations to a system that’s alive. But when you dissect the system and make assumptions about how it moves, you lose the greater context.

That, in turn, creates a ton of dysfunction throughout the body.

Understanding how the body was designed to move is a critical first step in optimizing the body’s performance and resiliency.

This story from my early years is an unfortunate example of what happens when you fail to treat the body like it’s designed to:

Case Study: “I Don’t Think This is a Good Idea”

I had a patient in her early 60s named Alana come to see me for chronic back pain.

I identified a lot of restrictions in her hips, especially the right hip. We reduced her back pain significantly by focusing on walking, squatting, and lunging.

But since Alana and her husband were very active, I wasn’t surprised when she overdid it one day (something you must be careful about—when you start feeling less pain, it’s easy to push your boundaries).

Seeking relief, she came back for an adjustment and insisted I perform a special technique on her back—one she was certain would make her feel better.

My instincts told me this was a bad idea—that it might make things worse.

So I convinced her that I should work on her hips and not touch her back… until the end of the session when she insisted, again, that I give her back a try.

Now, Alana was a great patient—witty, sarcastic, and super smart. She was collaborative, had a great attitude, understood her situation, and was ready to find root causes. She also challenged me with many questions, asking why I was doing what I was doing and wanting to understand her body.

That’s maybe why I dropped my guard that day and trusted her judgment over mine.

I performed the technique, and she immediately felt relief…

But when she got off the table, her back went into a severe spasm, and she dropped to the ground.

I felt terrible!

True to form, Alana said, “You were right, Matt—this is not your fault, I should have listened. No worries. I’ll just crawl out of your office and get David to load me into the truck. I’ll be fine. See you next week!”

So what happened here? Why did Alana react this way?

I’ll tell you, but first, we need to understand the principles of the movement paradigm.