What You Need to Know About Reaching Your Fitness Goals – Part 4
Nova Health Club • June 21, 2018
Moving the Way Our Bodies Were Meant to Move - Functional Movement.
Health comes before fitness and performance! Moving well and often is another component to being healthy and a prerequisite prior to attacking your bigger fitness and performance goals. Moving well without pain or restrictions is called ‘Functional Movement’. Having functional movement means that your body moves the way it was designed to, thereby allowing you to do the activities you enjoy doing without pain or discomfort. If you establish a foundation of functional movement you will more likely get the results you want from your fitness training program. On the other hand, if your body does not work the way it was designed to and you neglect this when starting a fitness program, you will struggle with reaching your fitness goals and even risk injury. A dysfunctional body with joint restrictions stemming from lack of mobility or stability does not work as well as a functional one and therefore the dysfunctional body must be more careful when starting a new fitness program.
To better understand functional movement we must acknowledge first how we were designed. The human body has evolved over hundreds of thousands of years to move in a specific way. Basic activities like lifting, walking, running, jumping, throwing and climbing were part of everyday life for human beings. Doing these movements repeatedly lead to optimal muscle strength and joint range-of-motion to live and survive and helped evolve the biomechanical bodies we have today. If our ancestors lived without such function or with movement restrictions the chances of survival would have been limited. Fast forward to today, in the last 50 years or so we have eliminated much of our natural daily functional movement through the advancement of technology. It is not so much technology that we should blame for our dysfunctional movement but our relentless pursuit to make our lives easier by doing less work.
In the book, ‘The Blue Zones’, highlighting areas on Earth with the most amount of centenarians (people over the age of 100) living functional lives, author Dan Buettner reveals the lifestyle habits that give these centenarians such longevity. One of the underlying themes in all the Blue Zones, is movement and moving often. None of these people living long high quality lives sit in cars or with screens in front of them all day. They are all moving every day whether with structured exercise, walking, gardening or manual labor. As a result, they maintain their functional movement to continue moving the way they want into their 80’s 90’s and often past 100 years old!
Most of the world’s population resides in cities where we naturally become part of the socio-economic system that promotes being sedentary. With this inactive lifestyle (compared to our ancestors or people living in the ‘Blue Zones’) we move less and lose our ability to functionally move the way the human body was designed for. It is evident in the stiffness and pain we may feel at rest in our muscles and joints. Then when we attempt to do something physical such as play a sport, hike on the weekend or move furniture we experience how much more difficult it has become due to increasing stiffness and pain. When movement causes pain the result is that we start moving less and the negative cycle perpetuates itself leading to chronic pain, weight gain or development of a more serious health issue. If we are fortunate enough to be aware of this and decide to take action it starts with us beginning an exercise program which is fantastic because movement begets movement…
...However if your body is not working well with respect to functional movement, it is imperative to clean this up with specific tailored ‘corrective’ movement that meets your needs and abilities. Unfortunately, most people start an exercise program without knowing what their body needs and begin programs that were designed for functional bodies. For example, a typical weight loss program (which people tend to look for over a functional one) requires high heart rate, high caloric expenditure and maximally targeting muscles in the legs with an exercise like weighted squats. However if your core is not stable enough or if you do not have sufficient ankle or hip mobility, doing this type of program only reinforces the dysfunctional movement patterns and ultimately can lead to injury, forcing you to stop doing the exact thing you need to keep doing - exercise.
Most of the exercises in the above example are not even so much advanced as they are just requiring basic stability and mobility of your shoulders, back, hips, knees and ankles. This stability and mobility was once there and at one point we were all able to do a great squat and hinge at our hips to pick something off the ground. As children we moved in all the ways our ancestors did thereby maintaining functional movement the way the human body was designed but through the course of life, spending more time in cars, at desks and watching TV on couches we lost it.
It takes a more knowledgeable fitness training coach to understand movement prerequisites specific to you and to then design a program that corrects your imbalances or asymmetries. To otherwise follow a high intensity exercise program on a foundation of poor functional movement is a recipe for more stiffness, pain and potential injury. An exercise program not specific to you will be inferior to an exercise program that addresses your body’s specific needs and abilities. The best exercise programs are those that provide corrective exercises to build and maintain functional movement. This foundation will allow you to progress into higher intensity compound strength movements that can then be used to increase your performance and optimize your fat loss.
Health is a prerequisite that comes before achieving results from your performance based fitness program. Part of being healthy is having a physical body that moves well without restrictions or dysfunctions and that is why it is so important to do the right exercise program for what your body needs. If you want the fitness, aesthetic and performance results that are possible with regular exercise, know that you may have to take a step back to clean up some movement dysfunction. One of the best ways to ensure you are training the right way is to invest in a professional coach who understands functional movement. Such a coach will assess your movement prior to designing a program thereby ensuring the sustainability of your investment and your body for the years to come.
Early in our series we exposed the flaws in most popularized exercise programs - those not designed by professional lifestyle and movement coaches. These cookie cutter programs available everywhere assume the trainee has the rest of their life in a healthy balance such as practicing optimal recovery and minimizing negative stressors. These programs are great in theory and can deliver results but the reality is that most people are not taking care of themselves in a way to benefit from this type of exercise training. Compound this with the desire for quick results and the underappreciation of functional movement for physical health and it is no wonder why people do not maximize the results they want from their fitness and exercise training program. Even worse is when injury then occurs while following such programs which will hold you back even further from your goals.
In Part 5 and the final post in this series we will explore nutrition as a health prerequisite required to get the most out of your exercise training program. Our nutrition habits have a direct impact on the results we get from our exercise program.
Andrew has been a Nova member for 9 years. One of his long standing goals was to do his first triathlon. He has been working towards this for years and just at the end of August he did it!
If you're doing all the “right things” — working out, eating clean, trying to stay consistent — but still struggling with stubborn belly fat, low energy and slow results, you’re not alone.
Tanya’s dedication to rebuilding her health after surgery offers valuable lessons and perspective for anyone facing setbacks.
Do Hard Things Now, So Life Becomes Easier Later Modern humans default to the easy way but it's not our fault... Throughout human history, we were wired to survive constant hardship - scarcity of food, threats from predators, harsh environments and manual labor for everything. Our DNA evolved for survival in these conditions, not for modern living. Imagine an early human stumbling across a fruit tree. It made sense to gorge - there was no telling when the next meal would come. The human who gorged had a higher chance of survival than the human who only ate a few pieces of fruit. Practicing self-control in an environment of scarcity would have been a death sentence. Likewise, if given a chance to rest instead of walking miles or hunting, rest was the obvious choice. The problem? Our genes haven’t caught up with modern life. Today, food is everywhere. We don’t have to fight to meet our basic needs. Technology does the heavy lifting, cars replace walking, entertainment is on-demand and calorie-dense foods are always within reach. Left unchecked, our instincts will always lean toward easy options like overeating unhealthy foods (that are so easily accessible) or driving to the store instead of walking. In other words, we’re still hardwired to take the path of least resistance. But here’s the catch: Choosing easy now often means a harder life later and choosing hard now often means an easier life later. Most modern humans are overweight, stressed, tired and dealing with chronic health problems because we’re following outdated survival programming that no longer serves us. It’s time to become aware of these defaults. To override them. To consciously choose the hard thing - because doing hard things is what actually makes life easier in the long run. Hard things like: Going to bed on time instead of watching another episode Preparing a healthy meal instead of grabbing fast food Moving your body instead of sitting all day Walking or biking to the store instead of driving Managing stress with deep breaths and fresh air instead of pouring a drink Looking at your habits instead of masking symptoms with medication It might feel uncomfortable because it goes against everything your biological programming is urging you to do. But that’s exactly why it matters. Don’t think of it as punishment or sacrifice. Think of it as an investment. Every time you take the stairs instead of the elevator, cook instead of order out, or put your phone down to truly rest, you’re building a life that’s easier, richer, and more fulfilling down the road. And remember: Do easy things, and you’ll have a hard life. Do hard things, and you’ll have an easy life. Most of the above information is probably not new to you. That’s because we live in the information age with the internet and now AI - we already know what it is we need to do. The problem however is implementation. This is where having a customized plan and accountability comes in. If you know the hard things you need to do more of but struggle with breaking past your ‘default mode’ then contact us for a complimentary consultation HERE .
Congratulations to Sonya Jeyaseelan, Our July 2025 SuperNova!
Congratulations to Liz Belford, Our June SuperNova!
We are back with our second series of 'Pod Calls' available exclusively to our Nova Health Club members. Don't miss these unique sessions to help you level up your health and wellness game! What is a Pod Call? A Pod Call is a live online (webinar like)_ session with a Nova coach, offering support and insights on key health topics like fitness, nutrition, recovery and overall wellness. Why did we create Pod Calls? Our goal is your success and your health goals can not be built on fitness alone. After delivering thousands of personal training sessions, we noticed a disconnect between fitness sessions we were delivering and the other pillars of health (and lifestyle habits that happen outside of the gym). To get the most out of your health and your fitness sessions at Nova we need to link other pillars such as mindset, nutrition, stress and recovery. Training coaches who care about your results will agree that a couple hours of personal training each week is not enough time to workout AND learn everything you need to know about maximizing those workouts... Things like how to eat before or after workouts, what recovery habits should be practiced or the link between stress and working out are all subjects that you need to know on your health and fitness journey. Pod Calls are dedicated sessions where we teach you essential health and fitness insights that we can't often cover during your gym workouts. We hope you take advantage of these expert-led sessions that will enhance your workouts, teach you new concepts about health and bridge the gap between fitness and overall wellness. Upcoming Pod Calls (all times in EST) Mon Jun 2, 2025 (6:00pm) Topic: How To Eat Carbs For Better Energy, Muscle & Fat Loss Coach: Josh Allen Wed Jun 4, 2025 (2:00pm) Topic: Hip Mobility Using the 'CARS' (active session) Coach: Kim Vo Sat Jun 7, 2025 (12:00pm) Topic: Benefits of Single Leg & Arm Training for Overall Strength Coach: Matthew Nadler Tues Jun 10, 2025 (6pm) Topic: Releasing Neck Tension Coach: Zack Fernandez Wed Jun 18, 2025 (1:00pm) Topic: Training The Backside of The Core Coach: Colin Soltesz Thu June 19, 2025 (7:00pm): Topic: Ayurveda for Healthy Ageing Coach: Kayla Hutchinson These calls are free for Nova members and Zoom links for each call can be found in the Nova Mighty Networks platform. If you are not a Nova member and would like to attend any of these please email Info@NovaHealthClub.com for a seat. We look forward to seeing you then!
Check out the interview with Beth to see the habits, mindset and lifestyle shifts that helped her reach her goals
Simon’s 6-Week Transformation: From Stressed & Stuck to Strong & Energized
Simon joined Nova through the LeanDads 12-week program in February. Like many busy professionals...
