Age Better
movement essentials for ageing bodies
Our bodies are amazing. They have so much movement potential and are capable of so much more than we often believe. We should know them, pay attention to them, understand how we are using them, move them in nourishing ways that allow us to live well in them for as long as possible. It’s never too late, or indeed too early to address alignment issues, postural habits or movement patterns. What do you want to be doing in 10, 20 maybe 30 years time. Are you after movement longevity? I know I am.
I want you to be able to move better so that you can age better. Although we can expect a natural decline, what if the decline and a loss of function is simply due to weaknesses created by poor movement habits or a lack of movement in general?
For most of us our modern lifestyles encourage all day stillness. If like me, you have worn shoes and sat in chairs for most of your life, the fact is that parts of you don’t move very well. These same unmoving parts cause compensations elsewhere in the body. For example, if your feet are immobile and tight, then everything stacked above them will be affected. Perhaps your knees or hips complain or maybe it’s the other way around.
It’s common to hear people in their 40s and 50s blaming their various musculoskeletal ailments on getting older. The truth is, we are all ageing, from the moment we are born! Have you recently found yourself complaining about various musculoskeletal issues? Are your knees or some other body part beginning to shout louder? Are you falling into the trap of telling yourself that these issues are because you are getting older? Are you struggling with your exercise program because a body part keeps letting you down?
“Michelle’s classes are more than an ordinary exercise class, they are educational and inspirational. They have motivated me to incorporate exercise and movement into everyday life outside the class!”
The good news is that we can do something about it and develop bodies that are more robust, resilient and ready for what life throws at us. I am going to show you how. I have created this 12 week class series which takes a whole body approach to these issues and will help you target areas of the body that have low mobility and/or strength. Organised into 12 one hour classes, we will start at the feet and slowly work our way through the whole body helping you find and unlock your sticky spots with restorative exercises and movement.
These movement classes will be highly educational and inspiring. I will provide context for every exercise. You will understand why you do the exercises and how they relate to your life. Using a biomechanical approach and objective markers, I will take you step by step through your body and set you on a path to better movement.
At the end of 12 weeks, you will understand your body better, have tools to increase your body’s untapped physical capacity and move in ways that offer more strength and mobility day to day, not just during class. You will be inspired and motivated to have a movement practise and make habit modifications to accelerate the learning in class and know that your body is on a different trajectory than when you started.
What these classes are not:
They are not like anything you’ve taken before.
They are not ‘flow’ classes
You will not be jumping up and down and raising you heart rate but you will definitely be surprised by how challenging a simple exercise can be when we’ve dialled in which body parts should be working in any given exercise.
“Michelle is a truly inspirational and motivational teacher. I have been doing her classes for almost a year and they have completely revolutionised the way I think about exercise and movement. She is helping me regain flexibility and strength by introducing small movements in areas of the body I hardly knew existed and certainly haven’t moved for decades! I had thought getting stiffer and less agile was an inevitable factor of getting older but now honestly believe that not to be the case. I cannot recommend her enough for anyone who wants to remain active and flexible as the years advance. ”
Benefits of taking this course:
An understanding of why you are experiencing issues with your feet, knees, back, hips, pelvic floor, shoulders etc and how to address them
Understand the habits that are contributing to these issues
Movement skills that you can apply anywhere, anytime
Help you to think outside the exercise box
Bring more movement into your day while getting life done
This course is for you if:
if you want to learn more about your body and how it moves
you are blaming your various musculoskeletal issues on the fact you are getting older
you have a sense your losing mobility and strength
you want to continue to be able to move well and with less pain
you want to improve your strength to weight ratio
your foot, knee, hip, shoulders or neck issues etc have become chronic
you want to decrease the likelihood of pelvic floor incontinence
you want to maintain muscles mass
you want to improve and/or maintain bone density
What you will get:
12 x 1 hour lclasses
3 x one hourly zoom meetings??
Access to a private Facebook Group to support your practise and ask questions
Movement tips to maximise your non class or exercise time
What I want from you:
Curiosity and an open mind
Commitment to the classes
Commitment to practise some of the exercises for 15 minutes each day
FAQs
Who is this course for?
For anyone who wants to learn more about how their own body moves with the goal of improving strength and mobility
Michelle has been teaching movement for more than 11 years. Initially as running technique coach and latterly in the broader context of more natural movement. For the last 6 years she has been a student of the work of renowned biomechanist Katy Bowman of Nutritious Movement and now works as a Restorative Exercise Specialist under her tutelage. She has clocked up thousands of study, movement and teaching hours and continues to learn with Katy and her team to deepen her understanding of movement and how we can better facilitate it at a time of unprecedented sedentary behaviours. She has worked with hundreds of people over the last 11 years who want to take control of their own bodies and has helped them to move better to prevent injury. She is particularly interesting in helping to restore movement to those who feel they are experiencing a decline from so called age related musculoskeletal issues.
