Every single person on this planet is in some way unique. Personally, I am all for an individual approach; however, there is something that we all mutually share, regardless of age or training beliefs.

The way we move in real life (three dimensionally and variably) 

We want to be as efficient as possible with minimal risk of injuries, have endurance, have boundless energy and to age well. 

These are the reasons why we cannot underestimate the power of ViPR.

The body consists of muscular structures, bony structures, nerves and fascial components. Michol Dalcourt, creator of ViPR, says, “It’s important to note that our biology is actually set up to adapt well to the tasks requiring us to move with load.”

If we use a sub-maximal load, it allows us to move with a greater degree of freedom and engages all the structures mentioned above to contribute and deliver effective and safe movement. Without such integration, this would not be possible. Relying on and training only the muscular system is way too energy expensive and provides an incomplete message to how we move.

Efficiency

Our goal is to create a balance between dynamic fascia and sensitive muscles (that is, switch on and off). It is important that muscles are able to turn OFF because, if the muscle stays on for too long, it co-contracts and causes rigidity in the system.

1.      Fascia (connective tissue) is a part (together with muscle and skin) of viscoelastic structures. It provides shape stability and it will store potential energy for a later time. Fascia needs a different load, speed and angle to be stimulated. In other words, mechanical variability.

2.      Collagen (fibres) is a chain of amino acids and it’s by far the most widespread protein in the body. It has the shape of a triple helix. In general, the longer the collagen the body produces, the more strength it will give us back. This is achieved by: 

·         anti-inflammatory nutrition

·         recovery

·         stress management

·         variable load (guess what tool you use the most).

1.      Skin is the heaviest, most vast and most superficial organ. It's tensile, connected to fascia, has an elastic component and helps to provide shape stability. Due to these properties, skin helps with locomotion. As we age, we lose hydration of the skin, elasticity and tension – and, as a result, we lose the ability to move.

Skin is often overlooked when we discuss movement. But do you think that our body would carry something so heavy for a lifetime and it would have nothing to do with our movement?

Lines of stress and injury

When we apply external stress to our body, fascia responds by mechanotransduction, which is a process where mechanical power is translated into chemical and/or cellular activity. Our system adapts to these external forces by increasing density along these lines of stress (which you have just created with ViPR). You deform these lines (and depolarise them) and fibroblasts (cells) are attracted by these deformations; they remodel along the lines of the stress and produce and release mainly collagen. Because collagen has a triple helix shape it floats and, as soon as it comes into contact with another collagen molecule, it will tangle up. Proteoglycans and glycosaminoglycans, which are soluble carbohydrate substances, reinforce this structure.

Good-quality collagen becomes long and resilient and is very hard to ‘split up’ – this is called tensile strength.

However, if we have poor nutrition, if we are dehydrated, sleep deprived or have poor program design, our body will produce short collagen (less resilient), which will result in unwanted soft-tissue injuries.

As we age we lose both fascia and skin elasticity – we shrink. Both are vitally important for our movements. How do we train skin and fascia? We must add Loaded Movement Training into the existing approach and, in my opinion, ViPR is the most versatile tool for Loaded Movement Training.

Summary

If we want to present with strong and healthy bodies that function well, look younger and will be effective in all three planes of motion (life/sport) we have to:

    •      apply external load on the body using sub-maximal load

    •      vary the load

    •      consider vectors and angles, in order to prevent areas of weakness.

If we are going to neglect Loaded Movement Training in our program design we will set the body up for instability and lack of strength in daily life, which will result in injury, and we will not maintain our hormonal response efficiently.

On the other hand, if we add Loaded Movement Training into our existing training, we will be stronger and healthier for life, our body will function as a whole and we will also look stronger.

ViPR is the way to go. 2016 will be our healthiest year.