FOUNDATION TRAINING

EXPERIENCE THE EFFECTS OF POWERFUL POSTURE.

Foundation Training is is a movement practice based on biomechanics and designed to restore the body’s natural order. It is a step-by-step physical resurrection process. FT is a series of highly developed exercises that are designed to strengthen the posterior chain of muscles which support the spine and fight gravity. Strengthening the posterior chain of muscles, shoulders, back, glutes and legs shifts 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 maintains a pain free and healthy posture.

Foundation Training is an autonomous pain relief protocol. Which means that it is a practice 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.

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.

You will learn:

  • 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.”
  • To see how this web shifts, starts to break down and tighten, and how these compensations create imbalances.
  • To understand where symptoms are coming from, their origin, & how the imbalance that creates those symptoms occurs
  • 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.” Through that we can create meaning about sensation and formulate skillful action related to the sensations.
  • How to retrain movement patterns from ones that steadily break the body down, to ones that build the body up.
  • 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.
  • 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.
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.
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.” 
Dr. Joan Vernikos

Former NASA Director of Life Sciences

how it 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.
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 

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