Too often we throw around these cliché phrases like "movement is medicine" and people get this idea that all movement is good, regardless of a person's capacity to perform the movements.
We look for overly simplistic explanations and understandings and unfortunately there is a lot of nuance and specificity left out in these conversations surrounding movement.
This is one of the reasons why someone can make up a ridiculous social media post that states “Try this exercise for back pain” or… “The best exercises for knee pain”.
The truth is that these people are lying, exploitive, capitalist, charlatans either trying to grow a following or sell a shotgun approach product that might help a few, but will leave many still in pain or in a worse circumstance. But once they have your money they don’t care.
I’ve worked with many people who thought they would find the help they needed in some Knees Over Toes program or some other eye grabbing program that makes promises it can’t keep.
Some of the biggest issues are that:
no two bodies are the same and
no two issues are the same.
General programs are fantastic for general outcomes when applied to bodies that don’t have any specific issues.
But if you have issues that need addressing, it’s important to dive into the specific needs your body requires addressing.
Moving for the sake of moving is fine for a body that isn’t presenting any real issues, limitations, pain, etc.
However, if I have a knee that hurts every time I squat with load, or that gets worse with additional load, it’s probably safe to say that continuing to do more squats with additional load is not medicinal.
Movement Quality is what makes movement medicinal or not.
Here's another example with regards to exercise prescription:
If someone is highly stressed and not doing anything to mitigate cortisol levels, doing high intensity work may not be as medicinal for that specific person? Spending more time doing lower intensity activity and breathing might serve that person’s body better.
The movement that is medicinal for people is going to depend on many different factors.
But a few things we know for certain that you can begin today are:
Working on the quality of movement of your joints
Improving your aerobic base
Bringing a human with a broader capacity for movement to the tasks/activities you enjoy
Focusing on improvement of quality of movement will serve us better in the long run. So I would change this cliché phrase to “Quality Movement is Medicine” because at the end of the day the medicinal properties lie in the quality not the quantity.