What is Movement Capacity?

How Does Movement Capacity Make a Better Workout?

Movement capacity is the ability to perform a specific movement. The more movement capacity you have, the less limitations your body has, and therefore the more options you have in choosing an exercise method or movement, and improving your overall workout.

The truth is, the human body is elaborate, but consistent. That means movement faults will appear regardless of the modality we choose to pursue.

Some good news: that also means fixing issues in one setting will fix them in others—IF you’re truly addressing the movement deficiencies you have.

The Movement Capacity Loop

This all starts with creating a strong foundation of good movement and the basics. This creates movement capacity: the ability to transition movements in various environments for various needs.

The more movement capacity you have, the less limitations your body has, and therefore the more options you have in choosing an exercise method or movement. 

A positive feedback loop is formed that benefits all aspects of your fitness. Now, stay with me here. More options leads to  → better/stronger compound movements → less risk for injury → more variety of exercises you can use → generally more fun during workouts because you’re not bored! → more consistency because it’s fun and you enjoy it → longevity and sustainability in your workouts → a lifelong journey towards greater health! Phew! 

There’s No Benefit to Any One Exercise

Compensation (in any movement) is just an option your body came up with to perform a task under whatever limitations exist. The goal of a good training program should be to restore ability, develop your functional movement patterns, and remove limitations, which therefore gives you more options.

Because the more options you have, the more you can mitigate injury and keep training in whatever way you enjoy.

There’s no shortage of exercises and methods that get criticized for one reason or another. Everybody likes to believe that their way is the best way (this is called confirmation bias).

And to some extent, they’re right: if something works for you that’s kind of all that matters. BUT when we create fear around certain movements we are taking options away from people who need them to stay healthy and enjoy their workout.

Repetitive movement is only bad for you if you don't have the capacity for the movement you’re repeating. 

We hear these types of things a lot: running is bad for your knees, cycling is bad for your hips, etc. But, it’s unfair (and incorrect) to criticize entire movements and create fear in people who enjoy these activities.

Whether you love pilates, weight lifting, yoga, crossfit, barre, etc. you’re either moving well and training smart, or you’re not. We’re all human and the same laws apply regardless of the modality you choose. Instead, it’s how you use the tools in your tool belt that makes it effective, and create a better workout.

How do you make sure you don’t experience pain and negative side effects from your workout choices, and get the best workout you can? Make sure you have the capacity to perform it!

How Do You Create Movement Capacity?

No movement, specifically repetitive movement, is inherently bad—so long as you are capable of doing it properly. If you have the capacity for the movement, then repeating it over and over won’t be harmful.

If you don’t have the capacity, and therefore you’re compensating on every rep—you’ll eventually run into problems.

So, how do you get to perform the movements you love, and make your workout better?

Three Steps to Having a Better Movement Capacity

1. Make sure you have the prerequisite movement capacity. This means you should break down the goal movement into its overarching components and make sure you have the ability to do each these components. 

   For example, a squat with an overhead press requires using different functional movement patterns to combine into one exercise move.

2. If you don’t have the capacity, get out there and create it! In the overhead squat, many of us are lacking really solid overhead range of motion, but if you want to squat with weight overhead, you’ve got to have it. Otherwise, we typically see compensation through hyer-extension through the back.

   So, while you might have no back pain whatsoever with a regular squat, you might find when you go overhead you feel it for days. Go through the components you broke the movement into before, and once you’ve identified all the building blocks, you practice them and train them individually until you can put them all together. 

3. Feel great doing whatever workout strikes your fancy without injury! Okay, that may be oversimplifying it a bit, but the point is that you can do whatever exercise you want as long as you can build up the capacity to do them.

   That may sound obvious, but this can take time, and know-how, but it’s important and possible. 

Want a bonus? Once you get the basics now, you can keep growing! Loading your workout, or adding weights to your workout, is only scary when you aren’t sure how to do it properly.

If you’re weary of adding weight or load to your workout, introduce the goal movement in a unilateral format to self limit the load you can add and focus on technique.

The human body is capable of amazing progress and you were made to adapt. If load is greater than capacity, that’s where we find injury. If you are responsible about cleaning up capacity, you can safely add load without worry, and create a better, newly improved workout specifically for you.

If you have any questions on movement capacity, and how you can create it specifically for you, let me know either through my email or Instagram page. Let’s get moving!