Movement is about freedom
Exercise that gives a total sense of freedom - Movement! Marcel and Lotta Henriksen work with the body's movements and believe that everyone can learn new exercises, regardless of age.
Ido Portal is a movement guru who has developed a method for developing freedom of movement and new physical abilities, regardless of age and background. His "Movement camp" attracts hundreds of participants from all over the world every year. Movement Stockholm is an exercise group that trains according to Ido Portal's principles. We met with founders Marcel and Lotta Henriksen to find out more about this form of exercise.
- Movement means movement. We use different systems and methods to safely challenge and increase the body's possibilities. A good example of something we do is locomotion, which includes many different movements used to, for example, crawl along the ground," says Marcel Henriksen.
The Ido Portal team is coming to Stockholm on June 24-25 with the workshop Motion. Sign up if you are curious to learn more about movement!
Movement is about becoming more mobile, i.e. opening up the hip, building strength in the knees and wrists and becoming more mobile in the back.
- All joints in the body have a great capacity for movement, but we use a very small part of them in everyday life. As a result, we gradually become stiff and weak at the extremities, making us more prone to injury. If you don't use the movement possibilities you have, they disappear. If you instead tell your body that you want to keep your possibilities by challenging the extremes, you can maintain and increase your movement capacity and experience greater body control and freedom," says Lotta Henriksen, who is also a yoga teacher and physiotherapist.
Everyone can develop
Both a 60-year-old and a 12-year-old should be able to start with movement without having done anything before and take advantage of the mobility and strength that they have - and then develop it.
- Movement is something we do every day of our lives. We think it's worth becoming more aware of the quality with which we move. In many specific sports, the same movement pattern is often worn, which increases the risk of injury if the total dose is too high for a short time. 'We try to strengthen the places that are most prone to injury,' says Marcel Henriksen.
What is the biggest misconception people have about movement?
- That you have to be flexible and strong before you start. It's about inhabiting your body better, everyone can do that, says Lotta Henriksen.
Locomotion is a movement language designed by Ido Portal.
What is the best thing about movement training?
- Developing the ability to move as freely as you want, whether it's in Olympic rings in the air, crawling in complex exercises on the ground or just playing with a child and wanting to be able to sit comfortably on the floor. It's a sense of freedom to actually be challenged and to learn something new," says Marcel Henriksen.
It's not about looks
Unfortunately, many people go to the gym because they have to, where they do the same things as always, to look a certain way. Movement is much more than that. You learn new things, make physical progress and also become happier, because you use the plasticity of your brain.
- Locomotion looks complicated, but if you learn the parts and put them together, you'll get a small rush of happiness from accomplishing something new. The brain is stimulatedras by it. It is actually the brain's biggest task to be a bank of movement patterns," says Marcel Henriksen.
Ido Portal's quote "reverse engineering" refers to the fact that fitness and a lot of training focus today is about building the body for the sake of appearance. Ido's movements focus on creating function to be able to function as you wish instead of building a certain type of body.
- It is about living with a high quality of life and being healthy, not training hard and starving yourself to look good. Make sure your body feels and functions as well as possible and that you reduce the risk of injury," says Lotta Henriksen.
Movement Stockholm's summer period runs from May 15 to August 25 with daily classes in central Stockholm. Everyone is welcome, beginners and experienced. Email info@movementstockholm.com to register or if you have any questions.
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