If you want to understand how we are designed to move watch small children. Waiting in the infant school playground, at the start of the school day with my young son, I’m always taken by the boundless energy of young children. The favourite game, before the school bell signals the start of the day, is “Stuck in the mud”. Maybe you know the game by a different name, but the rules are pretty universal and simple, basically just run as fast as you can, swerve, duck and dive and avoid being caught at all costs. If you’re caught you’re “stuck” and have to wait for someone who hasn’t been caught to free you. To do this they have to dive under and through your widespread legs. This simple game requires skills of balance, sudden changes of direction, flexibility (including a wide adductor stretch to enable the biggest child to pass between the smallest child’s legs!), core stability, multi-planar dynamic moves, with the ability to accelerate and decelerate and incorporates intervals of flat out action with periods of rest.

Now try and picture a group of adults playing the same game. How many accidents do you imagine would happen?! The likelihood is someone will suffer inner thigh strain trying to stretch their legs wide enough to allow others to pass underneath, another will twist awkwardly and put their back out, a lack of balance will result in at least one person falling over, most will struggle to combine speeding up with sudden changes of direction and many would find their lack of cardiovascular fitness prevents them from playing for more than a few minutes. But perhaps none of this would happen because no-one could be persuaded to play; it’s just a child’s game – right?!

This is how I see it. We start off small and helpless and dependent on those around us to care for our every need. We get a little older and we learn to move; we push, pull, squat low, rotate, leap, hop, and run forwards, backwards and more. Then we get a little older, and stop moving so much, and then one day we can’t move enough to perform the most basic of human functions unaided. Suddenly, there we are, back at the beginning relying on those around us to take care of our every need.

So my message is this; keep moving! It is so simple and yet so beneficial. Don’t think about it, just go and do it, get up, take a walk, wash the car, ride a bike, rearrange the furniture, do whatever it takes to stay mobile and active. And yes, if you can find enough people to play, go and enjoy a game of “Stuck in the mud”!

Tags: Children's playground games, Functional Training, Stuck in the Mud