Love How You Move, Do What You Want to Be Good At
Movement is medicine. Period. The end.
Possibly no truer words have ever been written. You, we, me need to move our bodies every day in small and big ways no matter our age, or injury, we just do.
The question then becomes, what should you do? How should you move? Does it matter what you do? Well, to be perfectly clear, it does and it doesn’t.
It doesn’t matter so long as you are doing something that you enjoy doing. At the end of the day getting our bodies moving takes precedence over how exactly we move them.
It does start to matter when we identify things we want to be good or better at. At least once a week someone asks me if they should be doing yoga and/or Pilates and my answer is always the same…you tell me! What do you like? What do you want to be better at? What, if any, are your movement goals?
If lifting more weight, moving more efficiently or getting out of pain is a goal or you know you have limited mobility in one or more movement patterns then yes, absolutely you should be doing yoga and/or Pilates. Both practices train joints at their full range of motion. But don’t take my word for it, just ask Alchemy member Matt C.
Matt on what drew him to Ore: A few things drew me to Ore but I primarily wanted to work on my mobility so that I could perform better at CrossFit. Overhead squats, for example, require a lot of shoulder, thoracic spine, and hip mobility that I just didn’t have. I knew Coach Kasey from Alchemy classes and that was the big selling point for me to come to Ore in the first place: I wanted to improve with great people at a place that I trust.
What Matt loves about attending classes at both places: It’s great seeing friendly faces at the Ore classes! I love running into CrossFit coaches in a yoga class and seeing the Ore instructors at CrossFit! Ore really feels like an extension of Alchemy, it’s been really easy to be a member at both.
Matt’s biggest gain since starting classes at Ore: My balance and flexibility are next level. They’re improvements I’m really proud of because I could hardly touch my toes 6 months ago. I literally feel like I’ve unlocked a superpower and let me just say that I am now the Twister champion in my friend group. In all seriousness though, I definitely notice enhanced strength and stability at CrossFit. I feel significantly stronger at the bottom of a squat and I’m way more stable locking out jerks and overhead presses.
And so, whether it is at Alchemy or Ore (or both) love how you move and do what you want to be good at.