OPTIMAL ABILITY

Many years ago, I really started my journey into bodyweight flow work. I truly understood how important it was to have a natural approach to dynamic movement in regards to health. It was something I really enjoyed as well, and through necessity, began to develop a system for it. I called it ‘Flow Release’ and developed it within a confined space, as those were my limitations. It was implemented with one to one clients and yielded some cool results for mobility and range of motion.

I was quite happy with it and made videos for my online PT group at the time. Flow release was still fairly young. It was nothing particularly new. As I discovered after. There were quite a few people with a similar approach out there, Animal Flow, Scott Sonnons stuff and so on.

I wasn’t looking to break new ground really. Just create something useful that  could be easily interpreted to others. Allowing them to gain and maintain better body function.

Turn the clock forward a year or two and I meet Paul Gray, of Firepower Gym in Durham. The man that would turn out to be the best teacher I have had the pleasure to work with. I feel I can genuinely say that now, after working with, and learning from some great people. Anyway, that and AFM is a whole other blog.

So, staying with the flow(boom boom), he introduced me to his system, iFlows. A system that works as a self diagnosis tool and also a great diagnosis tool for a PT to use with clients. I use the term ‘system’ so that I can intentionally correct myself. It is, as I often say to our clients at Origin Arts, the iFlows mentality. The way in which he teaches you to build up, break down and think about your movement. Because, at the end of the day, movement is universal. Nobody owns the poses or patterns. iFlows looks like many things and many things look like iFlows.

Come back to my Flow Release. It was designed for a similar purpose, like all others. A focus on increasing range, mobility, joint health and so on. All the intention and also success to back it up.
So why then did I decide to leave it behind? A movement program all of my own. Why? That is the golden question. A question I needed to only ask once of myself. I have spent my life avoiding dogmatic, close minded and stubborn organisations, people etc. Remaining open to evolution of myself. The iFlows mentality was a revolution. It was that thing, that ‘Yes, this is the next level’ thing. A mentality that I could adopt into my methodology, without fear of backlash to my interpretation. Something that hit all the key points that I targeted with movement, with precision. It is simply the greatest form of movement therapy I have come across.

Paul is a constantly evolving animal too. So I know, inside that head of his, there is so much more to come. My journey is far from over too. The movement revolution is young, it is vibrant, but it is in direct opposition to the commercial approach. An uphill struggle as the community seeks to educate people on greater life function. Of course, there are those who wish to carve out their own corner of the industry. Pardon the comic book reference here. But we must do our best not let it end up like the post apocalyptic world in ‘Wolverine – Old man Logan’ Where the dark forces divvy up America and run their section with their single minded vision, or lack of. You can stick whatever name or label on it you wish. My Martial Arts styling were affectionately named ‘Boog-Fu'(my nickname was Boog) by my guys at the time. I had Flow Release and have names and labels for many other movements and concepts. But so do many other individuals. That is the essence. To try and lay claim to it as your own? To me, seems greedy and selfish. This I have always believed. The closest to a dogmatic belief I will have on anything.

So for now. I say goodbye. I hope you enjoyed this blog.