This is a chapter 15 summary of the book “Movement” by Gray Cook.

The Goal

The goal of movement retraining is to create authentic unconscious movement at acceptable levels. We can develop many methods to achieve our goals, but working under sound principles is paramount. Some of the principles Gray advocates include:

• Focusing on how we move.
• Look to movement to validate or refute your intervention.
• Movement is always honest.

When designing a movement program, we must operate under the following guidelines:

• Separate pain from dysfunctional movement patterns.
• Starting point for movement learning is a reproducible movement baseline.
• Biomechanical and physiological evaluation do not provide a complete risk screening or diagnostic tool for comprehensive movement pattern understanding.
• Our biomechanical and physiological knowledge surpass what we know about fundamental movement patterns.
• Movement learning and relearning follows a hierarchy fundamental to the development of perception and behavior.
• Corrective exercise should not be rehearsed outputs. Instead, it should be challenging opportunities to manage mistakes on a functional level near the edge of ability.
• Perception drives movement behavior and movement behavior modulates perception.
• We should not put fitness on movement dysfunction.
• We must develop performance and skill considering each tier in the natural progression of movement development and specialization.
• Corrective exercise dosage works close to baseline at the edge of ability with a clear goal.
• The routine practice of self-limiting exercises can maintain the quality of our movement perceptions and behaviors and preserve our unique adaptability that modern conveniences erode.
• Some things cannot be fixed, but change what you can.
• The brain that learns function can learn dysfunction.
• Be safe, be satisfied, and play.