Movement That Matters

by Paul Chek

"Movement That Matters" provides trainers and fitness enthusiasts with the tools necessary to create functional training programs for themselves and their clients. This book is a must-read for any trainer desiring to provide their clients with higher caliber training programs that work. In "Movement That Matters" you will - The body's five different reflexes and how to determine the dominant reflex profile of your client.
- The importance of static and dynamic stability.
- How to determine if an exercise is functional based on the six defining characteristics.
- How to evaluate a compound movement and identify its "Primal Pattern" movements, enabling you to accurately determine which portion needs training.
- The difference between open- and closed-chain exercises.
- 10 tips for optimal motor learning.

Genres: Health

Paperback

First published May 15, 2001

Reviews

[Emantenf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome

[Tommy Belt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple little book that is simply fantastic!

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Puts to bed the argument that functional training is NOT a waste of everybody’s time (looking at you Mark Rippetoe of Starting Strength). Paul and Mark must be sworn enemies. This book elaborates on the most brilliant of all his teachings in his primary book, HTEMBH! — most notably the seven Primal Pattern Movements he developed (coming from infant development & developmental biology or the ‘developmental man’ as its known in anthropological circles).

I’d argue that there’s a bit of fluff in here, but overall the content is amazing. Would also benefit from more photos and illustrations – particularly on the internal neuromuscular systems, and how they are coordinated with the muscles, tissue, bones and ligaments. Like his other books, some of the illustrations are more polished than others, giving an inconsistent feel.

All in all, Paul is ‘the’ Yoda grandmaster of strength and conditioning for athletic training, and his technical genius really shines through in this book. Would definitely recommend for anyone who’s involved in ‘functional’ sports and/or fitness such as martial arts, wrestling, snowboarding, motocross, mountain biking, etc. etc. Would even recommend it for the hardcore CrossFitters out there as well, to have a sound set of best practices to adhere to when programming their own routines.