How Joint By Joint Approach Improves Your Movement In Everyday Life

When you experience sudden stiffness in your shoulders, neck, lower back, knees or feet, especially during the gym or even at work, usually it has to do with the lack of mobilisation of your joints. This is where the Joint by Joint Approach comes in to help create a better environment for the joints and make them stable.

This approach or systematic theory was first noted by Strength and Conditioning Coach Mike Boyle and Physical Therapist Gray Cook. They described the approach as the foundation of functional human movement in which “an alternating series of stable segments move on mobile joints.”

In this article, we will find out how the Joint by Joint Approach can improve your movement for a pain-free everyday life.

Discovering Joint By Joint Approach

When I first discovered Boyle & Cook’s Joint by Joint Approach, I was totally new to the scene and it in a way, surprised me of this new discovery. It changed my perspective and increased my appreciation of the complexity of the body. That a low back pain or a sprained ankle is not an isolated injury from overexertion or from doing excessive activities.

Proper mobilisation & stability in the joints are difficult to achieve. It takes a lot of practice, patience, and commitment to get to a place where you can move freely with lesser pain. Joints that are sloppy or unstable have a greater need for motor control and stability in the system. The longer you wait, the pain can get worse.

Through extensive research and practice, I now view injuries as something that can be prevented with the approach. I would advise against lifting heavy weights i.e. deadlift until you get to a point where the joints are less rigid.

Mobility & Stability

Think about it this way: The body is just a stack of joints. Each joint has a specific function that allows you to move or limit you. As hard as the human bone is, these joints are also prone to various levels of dysfunction thus the need to “train” these joints to avoid those injuries.

We’ve established that two things need to be done from this approach. Helping these joints through mobility & stability.

Mobility is the amount of movement at a joint or series of joints having a full range of motion. It allows you to get into positions needed to move in all planes of motion and perform any movement without sacrificing stability.

While stability refers to the body having maintained postural equilibrium and supporting joints during movement. It remains unchanged and/or aligned in the presence of movement. Stability combines the qualities of timing, strength, muscular endurance, and a good amount of balance to prevent any unwanted movement.

The Patterns Of Movement

The infographic below will show you the patterns of movement of the Joint by Joint Approach. You should notice that the joints alternate between mobility and stability.

Foot – Stable

• Ankle – Mobile

• Knee – Stable

• Hip – Mobile 

• Pelvis/Sacrum/Lumbar Spine – Stable

• Thoracic Spine – Mobile 

• Scapular – Thoracic – Stable 

• Glenohumeral/Shoulder – Mobile 

• Elbow – Stable 

• Wrist – Mobile 

• Cervical Spine – Stable

The pattern is that as we move up the body, it becomes apparent that the hip needs increased mobility and our pelvis/lumbar spine needs stability. I have observed in my practice that a lot of my clients commonly experience lower back pains. Some of the hypothetical causes include longer sitting hours at the desk especially during this pandemic where everyone is working at home. It is tempting not to move and just binge-watch a TV series or do deadlifts without involving exercises on mobility & stability.

Poor posture can be the cause of this. The hips do not move because work requires you to be at your desk the entire day, thus the lumbar spine will. However, the hips are designed for mobility and the lumbar spine for stability. So if the joints are not trained to their intended function, the body becomes less stable and you will notice subsequent pains.

In Evoke Movement, the programs highlight exercises that will help the alternating series of joints specifically designed to each client’s needs. I believe there is no one-fit-for-all exercise that is why I strongly advise that a screening test has to be conducted prior to enrolling in programs.

If you are interested in this Joint by Joint Approach, we have an assessment test included at the start of your journey to gauge your needs.

Tips To Become More Mobile And Stable

Using the Joint by Joint Approach, below are the joints to remember that are intended for their function:

Joints that should be more mobile: 

• Big toes

• Ankles

• Hips

• Thoracic spine

• Shoulders

• Upper cervical spine

• Wrists

Joints that should be more stable: 

• Feet

• Knees

• Lumbar spine

• Scapulae (shoulder blades)

• Lower cervical spine

• Elbows

Mobilising joints can be done through banded distraction and floss bands. While those are good, I would advise starting with the basics which are stretches. A 10-15 minute stretch with 3 reps throughout the day is good enough (though I would still suggest you’d take this further especially if you’re someone who is in pain).

Stabilising joints can be done through corrective exercises and other mobilisation tools. But Evoke Movement is all about going back to the basics and doing this at a slow pace that the client (and his/her) body is comfortable with. So breathing exercises and techniques are wonderful, to begin with, to help calm down the nervous system that allows for greater stability in the long run.

More importantly, be patient with yourself. Like everything else, it is a process so you do not see results overnight. Finding what your body needs is a challenge that needs to be navigated and guided carefully. If you do this consistently, you will see long-lasting change and achieve a pain-free life.

I would love to talk to you if you’re interested in learning more about how I can help you.