Movement and Play are far more all encompassing then fitness, fitness is broadly seen as set of physiological measures body fat, muscle mass, vo2 max, even the more performance driven side of fitness primarily at a set of physiological attributes and capacities, strength, speed endurance etc.
A mover though is fit yes but more then that they must have movement intelligence, a rock climber has great pulling strength, balance, mobility but he also must have developed problem solving capacities, routes are in fact often referred to as problems, its an equation to be solved of finding the right sequences, the right body positions, the precise amount of grip and orientation of the grip on every hold. This process involves not just cognition but emotional management, fear, frustration, anger all get in the way of finding solutions. Through overcoming the problem we develop not just physical fitness but our cognitive and emotional capacities as well, all these together make a well rounded human or animal for that matter.
This not just true of rock climbing but all movement disciplines, even simple fitness approaches as well, writing the right program to overcome a plateau, learning to control reactions to regressions and setbacks, this is part of strength and conditioning top but to lesser degree, play takes us far more deeply into exploring and developing our entire capacity as human being then soley focusing on fitness, even within movement disciplines though we ca bias towards or away from mental or emotional developments.
One can intentional set up games in practice that challenge the brain as well as the body and that is what I wanted to focus on today. A simple one is to add props to your parkour. When you add the ability to move objects around to overcome an obstacle what can you learn? One can also hide an object or series of objects in an obstacle course which must be found. One of my favorites is to set an object in a place were getting to it and back is difficult and see what solutions you can find. Like placing a t-shirt on branch with limited approaches and finding ways to retrieve it from various other branches
So that is my challenge for you today find some brain teases in your training and find ways to use your brain to help solve movement challenges.
For inspiration today check out the escape artists capacities of the Honey Badger my newest animal parkour hero.
