Functional Performance Lab

In 1905, Dr. Philip Hoffman published a study comparing the feet of people who had never worn shoes (from indigenous populations) with the feet of individuals who had worn them since childhood.

He found that modern shoes deform and weaken our feet.

The second photo is of a newborn's feet, clearly more similar to the feet above.

As general recommendations, try to spend as much time as possible barefoot and wear minimalist shoes.

DO YOU EXPERIENCE PAIN WHILE SITTING DOWN?

If you experience pains when sitting down then you have a bigger problem to worry about than how you sit.

If your movement is dysfunctional, changing the way you sit, the chair you sit in, or the height of your desk is not going to solve the problem in the long run as you will keep dragging your dysfunctional positioning into the way you sit.

You need to get to the root causes of your pains by addressing your body as an integrated system. When your muscles learn to work together efficiently, it will be able to handle periods of sitting with ease.

We need to move better in order to sit better, there is no way around this.

Stop looking for quick fixes and learn to get to the source of the issue.

Our biology is not adapted to live in an environment of so much comfort and abundance. It requires challenges to grow.

A concept called hormesis explains how we get a healthy adaptive response when exposed to a stressor that could be dangerous or deadly at a higher level.

In short bursts, these stressors knock you out of comfortable homeostasis and activate a variety of cellular mechanisms that promote stress resilience, improve immune system, produce new mitochondria and repair cellular damage (via processes like autophagy).

Overall these stressors energize us and make us more resilient to handle the demands of the current environment.

In June 2020, Michael came to us chronic glute and hamstring pain. 16 months later not only is he pain free but has just completed Capetown Marathon in the best time in 5 years!

Testimonial from Michael as follows: 👇👇👇

I met Javier and FPL after experiencing hip, glute and hamstring pain for some 18 months. I had done the rounds of physio, bio, chiro, podiatrists, acupuncture, dry needling etc etc. I usually experienced short term relief but running or driving quickly set me back. I also did traditional strength training two or three times a week.

The Functional Patterns approach which looks at the body as a whole and prioritises gait was very different to anything I had experienced. Learning how years of sitting at a desk had affected my upper body which in turn limited my stride was fascinating.

After about two months of working with Javier I noticed that my discomfort levels on long drives had reduced and that running was easier. This improvement has continued and I now run pain free and at better paces.

In addition to being nice people Javier and team are knowledgeable, dedicated, focussed and precise. I look forward to running even better times in future - not to mention an all round happier and more mobile body.

























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