One of our Core Values is “Keep Learning and Improving Everyday.” We love to read articles and books, and brainstorm with our colleagues in the fitness industry. We also gather intel in our training sessions with our members by watching them move, and listening to what is going on in their lives, and that’s where we discover what we need to do a deep dive on in terms of continuing education.
Since we first began coaching clients almost 16 years ago, we have noticed a shift in the past several years. Many new members are arriving at our door with more aches and pains, more stiffness, and less ability to perform certain movements than we used to see years ago. Our culture has certainly trended dangerously toward sitting more and moving less. And then this escalated even more during the pandemic, as people started to work from home more and generally go out and do things less frequently.
Having the mindset to learn and improve everyday gives us the chance to evaluate what things are truly getting lasting results for our members, and what things aren’t. We have been using some joint mobility exercises, isometric strength work, and different ways of stretching with good results. I’ve explored quite a bit of this in my yoga classes over the last year and a half with some exercises I learned from people in the Functional Range Systems. Seeing the results for myself and our members from just this small amount of knowledge, I knew we needed to immerse ourselves in this system.
As 2025 kicked off, we decided we needed to gain this knowledge as a team and have been attending courses in the Functional Range Systems. We started with Functional Range Conditioning, and I recently completed the Kinstretch course last weekend. The foundation of these systems is understanding that if we want the best possible mobility, pain-free movement, and to maintain range of motion as we age, we need to affect change at the capsular level – at the joints. There are of course, some specific ways to do this and a whole system to progress your internal strength and mobility.
Obviously we all know the health of our joints is important, but here are some facts about joints that should get you excited about just how important they are:
- Our brains prioritize information coming from the deepest tissue (joint capsules) above information coming from more superficial tissues (muscles). Our bodies see themselves from the inside out – from the joint capsules out. One of the things our brain cares about the most is how much space we have to move within our joints for our safety and survival. Our spinal cords receive afferent information (signals received by the brain) at the dorsal horn, and at this point a decision gets made by your central nervous system as to what to do next. Does the information get sent directly to the brain, or can it be handled with more “processing” at the spinal cord level? When a muscle contracts, information is sent from the dorsal horn to the ventral horn of the spinal cord where motor neurons create synapses that cause us to move. But when we initiate movement, the first piece of feedback that goes to our central nervous system comes from the deepest tissue, which is capsular tissue. The information coming from our joint capsules bypasses that extra processing at the ventral horn and goes directly to the brain. If that feels too complicated, just take away this piece of information: if what is happening at a capsular level is so important that it goes directly to your brain, that should be an indication of the level of importance we should also put on the health of our joints.
- The health of your joints depends on movement. The cartilage protecting your bones and joints has no blood supply. The only way for that tissue to receive nutrients is from the surrounding joint fluid, which happens during movement. The pressure created during movement pumps waste products out, and brings new nutrients into the fluid. Without movement, cartilage that doesn’t get nutrients starts to break down over time. Our bodies try to “fix” this by limiting our range of motion, or even possibly adding more bone to a joint, resulting in arthritis.
- Joints don’t get stiff and achy just because we get older. In large part they become problematic because they are exposed to less and less movement as we age. Yes, it does become more challenging the older we get, and there are some genetic predispositions to things like arthritis that we might have to contend with despite our best efforts. However, if you’ve ever broken a bone, had to wear a sling, or had some part of your body immobilized for a period of time as a child, you will likely remember that there was almost no movement available to you once the cast or other barrier was removed. That didn’t happen because you got too old. It happened because that part of your body was immobilized, was receiving no nutrition through movement, and sending no signals to the brain that it’s range of motion needed to be preserved.
I hope this information has piqued your interest enough to get you motivated to move your joints more. And I hope that if you live in our area, you’ll join us for our upcoming “Use it or Lose it” Joint Health Seminar on Saturday April 26th at 1pm. There are specific exercises and methods that will get you the best results that go way beyond just joint circles and stretching. All are welcome, and we are beyond excited to share this information with you.
The investment to join is $69 for Breakthrough Members and $99 for Non-Members. Email us at info@breakthroughgym.com, or call/text (818) 230-4565 to reserve your spot – we have 10 spots left!