Making Exercise Healthy Medicine



Bookspan Basics
Functional Fitness Training
Copyright © Jolie Bookspan, MEd, PhD, FAWM
Copyright Legal and Reprint - Use in health, don't steal


Dr. Bookspan's methods to improve and physical ability and function
while reducing injury are used by military and top spine centers around the world.

 

Hello, You're on the web site of Dr. Jolie Bookspan. This is a free, no-ad site dedicated to getting your life back - healthy, mobile, and happy. This is evidence-based primary source sports medicine. There are hundreds of articles here on my web site for you. On this page is a program I developed to make healthy movement into a powerful sports and life enhancer.

What Are Bookspan Basics
Functional Retraining Drills?

 

Teachers, coaches, parents, babysitters, trainers, physicians, and others asked me for training drills to do with their sports teams, exercisers, clients, patients, schools, classes, and for themselves:
  • Bookspan Basics are short drills to retrain fundamental movements to be healthy. All are functional - movement habits directly needed for daily real life - around the home and workplace, and for recreational, military, and sports activities. Each combines strength, stability, mobility, and directly preventing common musculo-skeletal problems during real life movements - where you need them.
  • Six Bookspan Basic Functional training drills are currently taught on this page. More will be added.
  • Each has short instructions that work for group training and individual practice.
  • Teams can practice these drills before each of their regular training sessions, or incorporate into their other exercises.
  • School teams and athletes can use these to reduce sprains, knee pain, back strain, and other common musculo-skeletal issues that arise during the team season.
  • Use these in my exciting program of #FlashFitness for healthy alternatives for your Flash Mobs. Prizes for healthy creativity. Contact me on Twitter.com/TheFitnessFixer.
  • Each topic can be taught in a short lecture in less than 1-5 minutes, followed by everyone practicing the drill.
  • I consider these skills as basics - bare minimum knowledge and ability for healthy movement.
  • I do not teach (or even like) posture (a static rigid concept to most). I research and promote functional body mechanics, good ergonomics, healthy movement mechanics, functional movement.
  • The names Bookspan Basics and Functional Fitness Training are trademarked™ work of Dr. Jolie Bookspan.
  • This curriculum is part of the Academy of Functional Exercise Medicine (AFEM)'s programming. If your team is changing to healthy ways, you can be a part of this program, which includes certification, awards, teacher training, and other fun - click Academy. There is no charge to participate. This is for health.
I am looking for a Director of Youth Programs to take these functional Basics to schools and youth centers everywhere, and a Director of Healthy Aging to take these same skills to elder centers, residents and staff of convalescent and retirement homes, and individuals. I am developing a traveling health show teaching these (properly - see me first - in classes and private appointments). See the Academy page for what we do and Academy Students to see programs we have made, to give you ideas for more.

 

Send your videos of trying or teaching each. I will add them here to benefit all with credit to YOU.
Trainers send in your stories of how you use these great training drills (intelligently) in your program- Instructions on the Projects Page

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1.

First Group Functional Training Exercise:
Good Bending for Back and Knees

Here is the first of the series of Bookspan Basics Functional Fitness Training that you can teach your teams, squads, classes, students, kids, groups, battalions, etc.

 

PREP:

Assemble your group in neat rows so you can see each participant, and they feel the self-control of the neat rows. Stand in front facing sideways so everyone can see you in profile view.

Tell them that the first Functional Fitness Training is a basic move that is needed many dozens of times every day, for their special sport or activity and for daily life - good bending:

HOW TO DO IT:

  1. Tell everyone to keep both heels down on the ground (right drawing) while they bend their knees and crouch about halfway down
  2. Tell everyone to look down at their own feet and pull their (bent) knees back until they can see their toes (right drawing). Tell them if they cannot see their toes because their knees cover their toes, their knees are too far forward (left).
  3. Have everyone stand upright, legs straight, then bend again. Adjust knee placement if needed. Rise and bend again. The goal is to be able to bend each time with knees aligned over feet (right). They should feel the difference - using thigh and hip muscles, instead of sliding weight forward onto the knees.

 

TEACHING POINTS:

Repeat good bending 10 times or any number that suits your group's need - more for groups needing higher training (or groups with poorer memory), faster for teams requiring this skill done quickly in actual use, and so on.

Put items on the ground they use for their sport or work and use the new good bending to pick up the items. Then replace the items on the ground with good bending, and retrieve with good bending. Repeat for the number suited for your needs.

Tell everyone that this is how they bend for picking up all their gear (except medical or tactical reason not to).

Watch them for good bending practices throughout the team season.

Reduce back injury from bad bending, get leg exercise, burn calories, and build strong bones from the many free built-in squats daily.

This is the First Functional Training exercise. After learning this basic, learn and use the others below to teach your groups (or self) how to prevent common musculo-skeletal issues that arise during the team season or operational theater.

Good body mechanics are a powerful performance enhancing aid.

 

SEND IT IN:

Send in your videos of teaching or trying these and I will add the best here to benefit all. Trainers, send in your stories of how you use them in your program.

 

RELATED READINGS from DR. BOOKSPAN:

2.

Second Group Functional Training Exercise:
Ankle Stability and Ability

This is the second of the series of Bookspan Basics Functional Fitness Training (FFT or until we create a better name) that you can teach your teams, squads, classes, students, kids, groups, battalions, etc.

 

PREP:

Assemble your group in neat rows. Stand in front facing forward. Everyone sees your feet and you see each participant's feet. Footwear is whatever used for their sport or activity. Also try to practice barefoot and in different shoes so that you do not get your balance only from your shoes.

Tell them this Functional Fitness Training exercise is a basic, needed many dozens of times every day, for their sport or activity, and for daily life - ankle stability when rising to toes, stepping down, landing from jumps, running, turning skills, and other motions requiring ankle stability.

 

HOW TO DO IT:

  1. Tell everyone to stand straight and lift heels to stand on the ball of the feet
  2. Tell everyone to look down at their own feet. Feet and ankles should be held vertically (right photos) not allowed to tilt outward/sideways toward the small toes (left photo). While everyone holds tip-toe, make sure each participant straightens ankles, shifting weight back toward the big and second toe. 
  3. Have everyone stand flat on full foot again, then rise to toes again. Adjust if needed. Repeat good toe-rising 10 times or any number that suits your group's need - more for groups needing higher training (or groups with poorer memory), faster for teams requiring this skill done quickly in actual use, and so on. The goal is to be able to rise each time properly aligned.

TEACHING POINTS:

Tell everyone that this is how they rise to tip toe for all needs, not just as an exercise (except medical or tactical reason not to).

All participants should feel the difference - using leg and ankle muscles instead of letting body weight slide sideways, which bends ankles into classic sprain position - turned at the outside (inversion).

Tell everyone they will need this for skill #3 - for stepping down and landing from jumps.

Watch them for good ankle stability practices throughout the team season. Reduce ankle injury from letting the ankle invert (turn sideways). Instead use muscles and conscious control to prevent inversion sprains and turns, and get leg, foot, and ankle exercise, from the many needed neutral-ankle stability needed for varies movements daily.

Good body mechanics are a powerful performance enhancing aid.

 

SEND IT IN:

Send in your videos of teaching or trying these and I will add the best here to benefit all. Trainers, send in your stories of how you use them in your program.

 

RELATED READINGS from DR. BOOKSPAN:

3.

Third Group Functional Training Exercise:
Ankle and Knee Stability in Jumps and Landings

Here is third in the series of Bookspan Basics Functional Fitness Training.

 

PREP:

Assemble your group in neat rows. Make sure all can see you and you can see them.

Tell them this is a basic, functional physical skill to reduce musculo-skeletal injuries, that puts together the first and second skills, previously learned.

 

HOW TO DO IT:

  1. Tell everyone to crouch using good bending (knees do not sway inward or slide forward toward the toes (taught in the first Bookspan Basics), then rise to toes with stable neutral ankle (not tilting outward to the side, taught in the second skill).
  2. Next, have everyone bend and rise increasingly rapidly and smoothly, in a jumping motion, first without rising from the ground, then barely jumping. With each bend and rise, they maintain good knee bending and neutral ankle. Repeat 10-100 times, depending on time and needs.
  3. Next, tell everyone to jump, landing softly using thigh and hip muscles for shock absorption, and good knee bending and neutral ankle. Start jumping moderately, then work for increasing height with each repetition. Repeat 10-100 times, depending on time and needs.

 

TEACHING POINTS:

Teach everyone that this is how to land from stepping, jumping, and descending terrain and stairs for all needs, not just as an exercise (except medical or tactical reason not to).

Use conscious control to prevent inversion sprains and turns by not allowing the ankle to invert (turn sideways) when rising to toe during push-off in running and jumping, and coming down during landings.

Watch for healthy ankle and knee stability and placement throughout the team season.

Each Bookspan Basic Functional Training exercise shows how to teach your groups (or self) how to prevent common musculo-skeletal problems during the team season or operational theater. Learn this one to be ready for an upcoming Basic Skill, needed for cutting, changing direction, lateral movement, more.

Good body mechanics are a powerful performance enhancing aid.

 

SEND IT IN:

Send in your videos of teaching or trying these and I will add the best here to benefit all. Trainers, send in your stories of how you use them in your program.

 

RELATED READINGS from DR. BOOKSPAN:

4.

Fourth Group Functional Training Exercise:
Functional Upper Back Stretch

Here is the fourth Bookspan Basics Functional Fitness Training. It retrains how you look upward and reach upward, to reduce neck and shoulder compression and give a built-in extension stretch for the upper back:

 

PREP:  

Assemble your group in neat rows. Make sure all can see you and you can see them.

Explain that whenever you look upward, to get more range of motion from the upper back, not the neck alone. Have them feel, notice, and visualize where is their upper back. One way to do this is to tell them to watch a person in line ahead of them.

 

HOW TO DO IT:

  1. Remind the group that the neck is not a Pez dispenser - the idea is not to pinch the neck back (photo below) but to "unround" and lift upward more from the upper body.
  2. Have everyone turn their head to gaze upwards upward by straightening the upper back and by lifting more in the chest (drawing on the water bottle pictured below, upper bike rider).


Photo shows unhealthful neck compression - from extreme fold at back of neck and jutting chin,
creating a postural spondylolisthesis.

3. Repeat while reaching upward with both hands. Make sure not to return to pinching backward at the neck, jutting the chin forward (photo above), or leaning the upper body backward. Get the reach from the shoulders. Send your photos and videos so I have a healthful example to post here.

 

TEACHING POINTS:

The upper back is often maintained rounded forward (too much kyphosis) resulting in eventual deformity, stiffness, and chromic upper back pain. The neck is often misused resulting in chronic impingement and wear. The upper back can be stretched by getting range of motion for daily life which also reduces compressive pinching of the neck from mistakenly concentrating motion at one vertebral segment of the neck.

Extend the upper spine instead of craning the neck.

Tell everyone that this is how to gaze upward for all needs, not just as an exercise (except medical or tactical reason not to). Use conscious control to prevent pinching your neck back every time you look and reach upward.

Watch them for good upward gazing and practices throughout their exercise and daily use.

The water bottle (pictured) and other fun teaching tools are available at Bookspan BackSavers through Cafe Press.

Good body mechanics are a powerful performance enhancing aid.

 

SEND IT IN:

Send in your videos of teaching or trying these and I will add the best here to benefit all. Trainers, send in your stories of how you use them in your program.

 

RELATED READINGS from DR. BOOKSPAN:

Book to Learn Functional Stretching: Fitness Fixer:

5.

Fifth Group Functional Training:
Ankle and Knee Stability & Safety With Lateral Movement

Here is the fifth in the series of Bookspan Basics Functional Fitness Training (FFT) to teach your group, teams, classes, students, kids, battalions…

In this Bookspan Basic FFT, learn to be ready for changing direction, cutting, lateral movement, landing to the side from jumps, slips and missteps, and more. It builds on the Third Functional Training exercise where you learned to jump with good lower body mechanics.

 

PREP:  

Assemble your group in neat rows. Make sure all can see you and you can see them.

Tell them this is a basic, functional physical skill to learn how to reduce lower body injuries during sideways jumps.

Remind them they use the previously learned principles from the Third FFT of vertical jumps.

 

HOW TO DO IT:

    1. Have everyone crouch using good bending (knees do not sway inward or slide forward, taught in the first FFT skill), then rise to toes with stable neutral ankle (not bowing outward at the side, taught in the second skill). Remind them that when they land from a jump they use the same neutral ankle.
    2. Next, have everyone to leap sideways at once, off one leg onto the other foot, landing softly with good knee bending and neutral ankle. On landing, the knee is already above the foot, not bent inward. Foot is neutral, not flattened inward (pronated) or turning outward like a sprain (inversion and supination).
    3. Leap back to starting place onto the other foot. On landing, the knee is already above the foot. Repeat leaping sideways from foot to foot. With each landing, watch the knee of the landing leg. Make sure the knee doesn't sway inward of foot.

TEACHING POINTS:

Improve by jumping increasingly fast, and far, for longer periods of time.

Tell everyone that this is how they land for all needs, not just as an exercise (except medical or tactical reason not to).

Learn this to be ready for the sixth one coming next, needed for cutting, changing direction, lateral one legged movement, more.

Good body mechanics are a powerful performance enhancing aid.

 

SEND IT IN:

Send in your videos of teaching or trying these and I will add the best here to benefit all. Trainers, send in your stories of how you use them in your program.

 

RELATED READINGS from DR. BOOKSPAN:

6.

Sixth Group Functional Training:
Advancing Ankle and Knee Safety With Single Leg Movement
 
Here is the sixth in the series of Bookspan Basics Functional Fitness Training to teach your group, teams, classes, students, kids, battalions, or self. In this Bookspan Basic Training, advance your lower leg stability with single leg use, to be ready for landing from jumps, slips and missteps, and more.

This skill builds on the Third and Fifth Functional Training exercises, where you learned to jump vertically (up and down) and leap laterally to one foot (side to side) with good lower body mechanics. Make sure to know them first.

 

PREP:  

Assemble your group in neat rows. Make sure all can see you and you can see them.

Tell them this is a basic, functional physical skill to learn how to reduce knee and ankle injuries during sideways jumps. Remind them they need to use the same principles from previous (Third) Basic Training of vertical jumps.

 

HOW TO DO IT:

  1. Have everyone bend both knees to crouch using good bending (knees do not sway inward or slide forward, taught in the first skill), then rise to toes with stable neutral ankle (not bowing outward at the side, taught in the second skill).
  2. Have them stand on one leg only. Repeat crouching then rising to the ball of that foot (half-toe) on that one leg. Rise and lower on one leg. Don't let body weight sway outward to the small toes, turning the ankle.
  3. Keep strong neutral stance. Repeat 10-100 times, depending on time and need.

    Then use all good mechanics to hop - jump and land on that one leg. Hop 10-100 times, depending on time and need. Change legs and repeat.

TEACHING POINTS:

Lower limb stability and placement during landings of all kinds prevents injuries. Practice so you don't turn your ankle or knee.

Remind students and self that when landing from a jump, use the same good bending and neutral ankle, all the time, not just as an exercise (except medical or tactical reason not to). .

Each new Functional Training exercise shows how to teach your groups (or self) how to prevent common musculo-skeletal problems during the team season or operational theater.

Good body mechanics are a powerful performance enhancing aid.

 

SEND IT IN:

Send in your videos of teaching or trying these and I will add the best here to benefit all. Trainers, send in your stories of how you use them in your program.

RELATED READINGS from DR. BOOKSPAN:

 

7.

More to come, check back. Thanks.

 

What To Do Next:

Spirit Training to train Emotional and Mental Fitness as a Lifestyle.

Send me your photos and success stories showing Bookspan Basics in action. Prizes for the best ones.

Ask More. Personal detailed written answers to your questions - click Individual Care.

Learn In Person. Learn and Get Certified in Breakthrough techniques. Click for CLASSES and Private Appointments.

Earn Certification in the classes above, through AFEM - The Academy of Functional Exercise Medicine, plus Fellow Advancement. Awards. Better Earth.

The Fitness Fixer™ - Change exercise to healthier ways with my free on-line health compendium.

More Free Summaries on This Web Site

See Dr. Bookspan's Adventure Research on This Web Site

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Books. How to fix your pain and get healthier. All the books together cost less than your prescription pain killers, and show you how to never need them again. More info about each and more book on my BOOKS page.
             
Info, Drawings of the figure Backman!™ and photos in this article copyright © Dr. Jolie Bookspan from the books.
Health & Fitness" THIRD edition - step by step instructions to fix neck pain, back pain, and living a healthy, fun, pain free life. Includes exercise in and out of a gym, health for body and brain, nutrition, drugs, body fat tests, and having fun throughout your life.

Fix Your Own Pain" of all kinds - neck pain, back pain, shoulder and hip pain, knee pain, ankle and foot injuries, wrist pain, and everything else,featuring actual patient stories in every chapter.  The top of the line book - Healthy Martial Arts - for athletes of any sport. A treasure of training for strength of thinking, spirit, body, and life.

Stretching Smarter Stretching Healthier - Fun, innovative, immediately useful.

Ab Revolution™ Expanded THIRD ed- core training the way your body needs it for real life function - to retrain neutral spine.
Part 1: Stop back pain without needing exercises, just stopping injurious spine position, and part 2: Exercises for abs and core without flexion.

Classic for Divers - Diving Physiology in Plain English - hard to find. Written by Dr. Jolie Bookspan, the Navy researcher who did the work in the field. BLUE cover is the latest edition. (Green was old)  Get the new BLUE.

eBook editions and Kindle.

 

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