FOUNDATION TRAINING
EXPERIENCE THE EFFECTS OF POWERFUL POSTURE.
Foundation Training Classes with Kendra Renzoni in Greenfield, Massachusetts Or With Remote Instruction
Foundation Training is a system of bodyweight exercises focusing on breath, posture, movement patterns and muscular engagement. It is designed to retrain how your body moves and supports itself. By targeting the root cause of dysfunction and activating deep postural muscles, it decompresses the spine, improves mobility, eliminates chronic pain and resuscitates our physical potential.
Through regular Foundation Training practice with Kendra Renzoni in Greenfield, students from across Western Massachusetts and all across the country study, heal and integrate these strong movement patterns into daily life.
FT EXPLAINED
BUILT FOR REAL LIFE
Rooted in biomechanics and trusted by athletes, manual laborers and everyday movers, Foundation Training develops the structural support needed for everything from everyday tasks to demanding physical pursuits.
WHO IS IT FOR?
If you are suffering from chronic pain that does not seem to go away, experienced an injury, surgical procedure, another physical setback that is keeping you from living your best quality of life, or if your doctor has recommended physical therapy, then this is a great practice!
WHAT DOES IT DO?
These exercises reverse damage from injury, postural imbalances or long hours of sitting and slouching — restoring the body’s natural order, strength and resilience. Foundation Training helps you reduce or eliminate pain, reclaim your body’s potential for powerful, sustainable movement and rediscover the strength, mobility and movement capacity that every human body is designed to have.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Foundation Training is a step-by-step physical resurrection process of rebuilding us from the ground up though using a series highly developed exercises. These simple and powerful movements emphasize strengthening the posterior chain of muscles, the muscles of respiration, shoulders, back, glutes and legs which will shift the burden of support to where it belongs: the large muscle groups. Done regularly, this combination of stretching, strength building, breath-work and decompression movements supports the spine, fights gravity and maintains a pain free and healthy posture.
WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT?
WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT?
Foundation Training:
- Views compression as the root of pain
- Creates and builds tensegrity in the body, the practice gets the body to hold itself expansively
- Views the body as an interconnected web; it doesn’t isolate parts, but instead asks the entire body to participate in movements
- Is completely applicable to daily life.
- Educates the individual and values putting each person at the center of their healing so you become your own greatest expert and know what to do for yourself.
COMPRESSION
Foundation Training views compression as the root of pain and its primary goal is to create space in the body. This means that joints are not compressed together, nerves are not pinched and can glide smoothly through healthy tissue, discs and vertebra are not experiencing pin pointed pressure spots and there is a suspensory and buoyant balance through proper tension in the muscles, tendons and ligaments. This balanced tension supports alignment and healthy circulation — blood flow, lymphatic flow and fluid exchange throughout the body — which is how the body heals itself. Space makes room to heal, recover and to perform.
TENSEGRITY
Foundation Training creates expansion through intelligent use of tension to strength train it. It trains the body to hold itself in an open, supported and expansive posture.
At the root of this is the concept of Tensegrity. This is the idea that the body is a system of continuous tension where its ability to hold itself well and move well comes from a balancing of tension.
INTERCONNECTED WEB
Foundation Training sees the body as a web of interrelated parts that are in relationship with each other. It does not see the body from a lens that isolates parts and labels them as “good” or “bad.” It works on creating changes through system wide shifts rather than isolated parts.
APPLICABLE TO DAILY LIFE
The movements you learn in Foundation Training are functional movements. You can literally find yourself using the movements to do everything! This means that you will stop creating the pain and imbalances that you then have to un-do later, you will start moving in a way that makes you feel good and builds you up instead of breaking you down.
YOUR OWN PAIN RELIEF TOOL KIT
Foundation Training is an autonomous pain relief protocol. This practice is designed to put us in the driver’s seat of our own life and body so we have the skills to bring ourselves into balance with our own strength. You will learn empowering techniques to manage pain, improve movement and prevent injuries, without relying on external treatments.
THE ORIGIN
It was designed by a chiropractor, Dr. Eric Goodman, to heal his chronic back pain and avoid surgery for multiple disc herniations. This practice is not a temporary remedy, but a systematic solution that creates long-term health.
Interested in learning about a non-surgical alternative to pain management?
THE MODERN DAY CRISIS:
COMPRESSION
COMPRESSION IS THE ROOT OF PAIN.
Our body is always working against gravity. A healthy body utilizes large muscles, aligned joints, and healthy breathing patterns to maintain a sense of strength and structural integrity as it moves through a lifetime. If our body adapts to work against gravity poorly – we begin using a compressed and less efficient version of our biomechanics.
Life in the 21st century often means living an extremely sedentary and immobile lifestyle – one that encourages too much time spent hunched over screens, devices, steering wheels, and desks. Assuming these poor positions throughout the day without adequate muscular strength to resist and push back against gravity can lead to degeneration of our joints, inefficiency of our muscles, and unnecessary pain. Our habits of sitting and curling forward, combined with the ever constant pull of gravity, cause a compression force on our bodies that is detrimental to every aspect of health. We modern humans must learn to live and move the way our bodies are designed or else we leave ourselves vulnerable to pain, illness, fatigue, and overwhelming general malaise.
COMPRESSION AFFECTS THE WHOLE BODY:
Chronic compression of the spine – and its surrounding areas – not only wreaks havoc on posture, it simultaneously reduces blood flow and oxygen in the body. It also plays a key role in a wide range of degenerative diseases and conditions. Mainstream medicine rarely – if ever – addresses this problem of pandemic proportions. Foundation Training with Kendra Renzoni in Greenfield, Massachusetts offers a proven way to counteract compression, improve posture, and restore healthy movement.
We’re hurting ourselves without even realizing it.
Our modern lifestyles, with all our time and effort saving devices, actually cause millions of people chronic, daily pain. A big secret to a pain-free life is to use Foundation Training to integrate simple, yet highly effective changes in the way we sit, stand, breathe, and move. Foundation Training provides the perfect antidote to the chronic compression that plagues so many of us.
“The human body is designed to thrive against gravity – else we tend to age rapidly and get injured. Foundation Training is the answer to many years of research on the negative effects of sitting.”
BREATHE BIGGER
STAND TALLER
MOVE BETTER
YOU WILL LEARN
TO UNDERSTAND
- INTERCONNECTION: How to see your body as a web of interrelated parts that are in relationship with each other, no longer seeing the body from a lens that isolates parts and labels them as “good” or “bad.”
- IDENTIFY COMPENSATIONS: To see how this web shifts, starts to break down and tighten, and how these compensations create imbalances.
- TRACE SYMPTOMS TO THEIR ORIGINS: To understand where symptoms are coming from, their origin, & how the imbalance that creates those symptoms occurs
TO DEVELOP BODY AWARENESS
- RECOGNIZE HABITUAL PATTERS: To recognize habitual patterns of posture, breath, and movement that cause unnecessary stress and strain, that compromise our joints, weaken our muscles and restrict organ function. (Patterns that lead to plateaus in performance, spinal compression, musculoskeletal and nerve pain, joint problems, fasciitis, inflammation, and challenging psycho-emotional states.)
- SOMATOSENSATION: The skill of translating symptoms. Our ability to feel and sense our body so that we don’t have missing pieces or places of ourselves that we lack feeling or have incomplete feeling, but instead, we are aware of and have a complete “body map.”
- TRANSLATE SENSATION INTO ACTION: Through developing greater internal sensing we can create meaning about sensation and formulate skillful action related to the sensations.
TO RETRAIN AND BUILD
- RETRAIN MOVEMENT PATTERNS: How to retrain movement patterns from ones that steadily break the body down, to ones that build the body up.
- BUILD BALANCED STRENGTH: How to build strength into places that are currently weak spots, allowing other strengths to become better balanced and how to provide systemic, large, integrated movement patterns that protect joints, protect the spine, give space to the organs, nerve pathways, lymphatic systems, and keep the head held high in a position that creates healthy tissue surrounding the brain stem, cervical vertebra, cranial nerves, and vagus nerve.
- INTEGRATE THE NEW MOVEMENT PATTERNS INTO LIFE: You will learn how to perpetuate those strong movement patterns and postures inside of our life. Foundation Training movements are functional, meaning that you find them in everyday life. This practice is an “adjunct” practice. It is designed to help your body feel and perform better at whatever it is that your heart desires.
FROM PAIN TO PERFORMANCE
AN INNOVATE APPROACH TO PAIN RELIEF
HOW Foundation training WORKS:
Foundation Training is a simple solution that gives you the means to change the way you move and correct the imbalances caused by our modern habits. Through a series of postures, poses, movements and conscious breathwork, Foundation Training effectively retrains the body to utilize the power of the posterior chain. This muscle chain is chronically neglected. It can bring significant healing when it is reactivated and strengthened. When practiced regularly, your pain diminishes, your resistance to injury increases and your body comes to life.
- Your torso, pelvis and back side strengthen
- Your hips reclaim their intended role as the epicenter of movement
- Your spine decompresses and space opens throughout your torso
- Your breathing capacity and oxygen levels increase
- Your muscles learn to correctly support your structure, taking the burden of supporting the body out of your joints and posture improves
- Your whole body becomes integrated and moves efficiently
Essentially, Foundation Training is a re-wiring of the poor patterns ingrained in our bodies from modern lifestyles that cause pain, deterioration, and inefficiency.
EFFECTIVE:
Foundation training targets the source of pain, not just the symptoms, making it a long-term solution for health. It brings the whole body, inside and out, into balance, allowing you to function at your absolute best.
SIMPLE:
Foundation Training requires no fancy equipment. It relies on your bodyweight, movement and breathing and can be done anywhere at anytime.
UNIVERSAL:
Whether you are young or old, have limited mobility or are an active athlete, Foundation Training can have an amazing impact on your health, well being, and sense of empowerment.
FROM PAIN TO PERFORMANCE:
Physical inspiration influenced the creation of Foundation Training and it is what made the exercises effective on a level beyond what they envisioned. Foundation Training is an adjunct to our practices. It is a part of the lifestyle practices we need in order to do what we love. It is both preparatory and supportive because it contains highly beneficial preliminary work that can be done before starting any practice, like yoga, martial arts, lifting weights, running etc… It also enables one to continue to advance in whatever practice they love, while giving one the groundwork and tools needed to address whatever pain, injury or challenge comes along the way.
What I’m realizing, as I go deeper into this process, is that the ability to sustain a high volume of chemical respiration, blood oxygenation, and mental awareness through more efficient breathing is one of the biggest pieces of what has made Foundation Training the pain to performance system it has become.
MOVEMENT & MAXIMUM HAPPINESS POTENTIAL:
Movement is the precipitating factor that determines our maximum happiness potential. You just can’t live with vitality when your body is suffering due to pain and injury caused by poor movement habits. Foundation Training is a solution. It is a journey of both physical discovery and deepened self-awareness that enables previously unknown levels of health and happiness. It gives you the power to reclaim control over your body and be the best version of you. Transform your pain into performance with a Foundation Training course led by Kendra Renzoni at her studio in Greenfield, Massachusetts, and build a healthier, happier lifestyle.
WHO IS FOUNDATION TRAINING GOOD FOR?
- An athlete who wants to improve performance
- Someone with injuries
- Anyone with pain: plantar fasciitis, sacroiliac joint pain, back pain, bulging or herniated discs, spinal injury, degenerative disc disease, spondylolisthesis, spinal stenosis, scoliosis, knee pain, hip pain, nerve pain, sciatica, frozen shoulder, shoulder injury & limitations, carpal tunnel, neck pain
- Anyone who has tension or limits in range of motion
- A therapist who works with somatic experiencing
- A chiropractor, physical therapist, occupational therapist, doctor, or bodyworker who needs tools to pass on to their clients so they can take a more active role in their own healing
- An office worker who is experiencing pain and limitation from sitting and working on a computer
- Someone who is experiencing degeneration and limitation with aging
- Someone who wants to be strong and present in their body
- A mom who is ready to strengthen and re-center their body after pregnancy
- Yoga, Movement, Dance, Martial Arts, Rock Climbers, Cyclists, Cross Fit Athletes, Runners and teachers who want to feel their bodies inherent strength and suppleness come online daily, as well as have tools to help facilitate their bodies capacity to heal itself and bring their body into that place when it doesn’t feel that way
- Someone who is hyper-mobile and needs to create strength and containment within their range of motion
- Physical laborers like farmers, gardeners, landscapers, builders and construction workers, who need to re-train their movement patterns so they are moving in a way that is building their body up instead of causing a steady break down; developing the capacity to finish a long work day feeling pain free.
- A bodyworker that needs to strengthen their alignment so that, when they work, they don’t cause overuse and compression injuries to their own body
- Someone who wants to increase their breath capacity
- A yoga student or any practitioner who needs something else to help with pain that their practice isn’t resolving
- Everyone
FAQS
Why is back and joint pain so common today?
Modern life has given humans a lot of amazing things designed to make our lives easier – computers, cars, etc. Over time, our bodies have attempted to adapt to their use. Unfortunately, many of these adaptations come at a high cost to our physical well-being. Spending our days at desks, on smartphones and stuck in traffic causes our shoulders to hunch forward, our necks to compress and our hips to turn outward. These patterns cause our bodies to lose their structural integrity. Throw your neck out while sleeping? Have a hard time tying your shoes or getting out of a chair after sitting for too long? These are all signs that your body is out of its natural alignment and succumbing to chronic compression.
How does Foundation Training help eliminate chronic pain?
The patterns and postures that you practice in Foundation Training will help your mind and body unlearn poor and chronic-pain-causing habits that have developed over the years. Foundation Training teaches your body how to overcome these habits through stabilizing movements, intentional poses and conscious breathwork to activate the muscles in your posterior chain. When practiced regularly, your pain diminishes, your resistance to injury increases, and your body comes to life.
How soon will I start feeling better?
It is important to gain a basic understanding of the Foundation Training concepts and how to perform the exercises correctly. Private sessions and group classes will ensure you are set up for success. Since every person and every injury is different, it will depend on your unique situation. In general, once you’ve learned the basics, commit to just 5-10 minutes a day of at-home practice and you will start to feel relief within weeks.
How does Foundation Training work so quickly?
Physics! The force of gravity, combined with the compression caused by our work and home environments (sitting at desks, in cars, or standing hunched over a bar or cutting hair, etc), is constantly pushing our bodies down. Foundation Training teaches you how to properly push back. Nature engineered us to stand up straight with the muscles supporting the joints and the bones. Foundation Training taps into your natural ability, restoring order and symmetry.
Can anyone do Foundation Training?
Yes. Foundation Training is for everybody. From the seasoned athlete looking to improve their stability and strength to chronic pain sufferers trying to improve day-to-day mobility, Foundation Training is designed to improve function and performance no matter where your body is on its fitness journey.
How is Foundation Training different than Yoga or Pilates?
The major difference between yoga/Pilates and Foundation Training is that FT was designed specifically to get people out of the pain caused by modern life. Foundation Training teaches you how to distribute the force of gravity through your muscles instead of your joints, making your movements regenerative and restorative. Like yoga/Pilates, FT is a combination of breathwork and strength-building exercises that support and improve your body’s performance.
How can Foundation Training be used in the workplace?
Incorporating Foundation Training for occupational fitness is an excellent way to help reduce workplace injuries. Back pain accounts for more than 264 million lost workdays per year. Help your employees learn the proper way to carry and load heavy items and to relieve the stress caused by hours of repetitive movements or prolonged sitting.
How soon after surgery can I begin Foundation Training?
As soon as your doctor clears you for physical therapy, you can begin Foundation Training. Foundation Training is also great paired with the traditional physical therapy or rehabilitation practices. While physical therapy can help you recover from serious injury or surgery, Foundation Training provides you with the tools to keep your body strong and in alignment as you return to everyday activities.
HOW DO I JOIN IN?
Sign up for a course here.
Book a session here.
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