Roger Frampton - The Flexible Body: Move Better Anywhere, Anytime in 10 Minutes a Day

You can achieve every exercise in this book at home and without the need for equipment. I suggest using mats, carpets, rugs, blocks, books and chairs in some exercises to make them a little easier but theres nothing to stop you starting right now! Its all about your body.

Half the exercises in the book are static and half are slow and controlled movements that help you to develop strength and flexibility in the right places. Working at this pace gives you time to focus on being fully conscious, as well as allowing you to find flaws and weaknesses in your movement.

The book contains nine moves that you have a lifetime to master. However you need to complete 10 minutes a day. Every day! Each move is made up of ten support exercises, arranged by level of difficulty, 1 being the easiest and 10 the hardest. and each support exercise is subdivided into a 1-minute controlled movement and a 1-minute static hold.

Freeze! Right now! Dont move a muscle. Now, check yourself. What is your body doing in this current position? How are you holding your foot, neck, hands, feet? Are you leaning to one side, forward or back; left or right? Dont judge or try to change it, just notice it. This is your default position in this moment in time. Get used to identifying all these postural habits because it will give you a good idea of what to look out for when training. REMEMBER: stay conscious of your body as much as you can. The more aware you become of your body outside of training, the more aware youll become during training, too.

The first thing you need to do is to find what level youre at with all nine moves. Start at exercise 1 and see how many support exercises you can complete within each move before the movement or hold becomes unachievable.

The support exercise before the one that becomes unachievable is your current level of ability and you should practise this exercise until you can achieve it for the required time before moving onto the next support exercise. By the time you complete the support exercises, you will be able to tackle the move shown at the beginning of each chapter.

Keep track of your ability as you work through the exercises. For example, in the Overhead Squat, if I can get my heels to the floor but I cant yet stay there for the full minute then I will work on support exercise 4. The Overhead Squat is move 1. The support exercise is number 4. Write it down like this... 1/4 .

Youve picked up this book CONGRATULATIONS! This is a movement plan for life. By following the exercises in this book for just 10 minutes a day you will keep your body healthy and mobile.

Aim to complete 10 minutes of exercise altogether. Thats all 10 minutes. To make up those 10 minutes, choose five exercises from the book and perform a 1-minute movement and a 1-minute hold for each. Choose support exercises that you are able to complete. If you cant complete either the movement or the static hold, you need to step back to an earlier support exercise that is manageable for you. Dont rush. Slowly, your movement will improve so that you can then challenge yourself to progress to the next step. Dont skip steps or kid yourself youre there when youre not. If you have mastered an exercise, youll be able to hold the exact position for 1 minute without moving. Only at that point are you ready to move on.

Using the chart opposite, build your own personalised week of training. If you followed the instructions on , you should now have nine exercises written down that you need to work on, each containing a 1-minute movement and a 1-minute hold that looks something like this; 1/4, 2/3, 3/5, 4/2, 5/4, 6/4, 7/1, 8/3, 9/1 . Now write these into your chart on the right day.

REMEMBER: the second number is personal to you depending on what support exercise you are on. Write down your first move/level on the day you are going to start.

For example, if Im starting on Tuesday my five entries will be: 1/4 , 2/3 , 3/5 , 4/2 , 5/4 . This will be your 10-minute training for Tuesday. Your Wednesday will continue like so: 6/4, 7/1, 8/3, 9/1, 1/4 . (See how you continued back to move 1 again.) Keep repeating this until your chart is completely full! This will set you up for your training for the next 7 days.

As you work through your movement journey, you will find you progress and your ability improves so after a few days, weeks or months 1/4 becomes 1/5 and youll need to edit your chart as this happens.

Dont read any further until you have your plan for the next seven days in place. Remember youre only committing to 10 minutes a day. (Thats around three advert breaks.)

Lets get moving!

(You might want to photocopy this page before you write in your chart. If you need a spare copy there is a free PDF at www.roger.coach.)

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF

Did I feel anything in my body?

Can I name the movement as either good feeling or pain?

What level of intensity was the feeling or pain?

Was the exercise challenging enough?

THE FRAMPTON METHOD

In these next pages, I am going to explain why exercise is not what you think it is. Ill explain why conscious, slow, deliberate movement is the way to get your body back. But first, what is the Frampton Method?

I also believe that the best results take time. The Frampton Method is not a quick fix. It is a programme of training for long-term benefit. Imagine being in a maths class as a kid and the teacher setting a test, then screaming Go! Go! Go! You might complete the paper, but have you sacrificed the quality of your work and used your full capacity? Or, do you have a sense of relief that its over? The skills that teach you how to hold yourself in a Headstand are techniques worth learning properly and then applying consciously. They are the foundations of how your body moves and works at its best. If you take the time to learn and apply them, you get the best results.

USE IT, OR LOSE IT

Think of the stiffness you see in the older generation as they walk around you do you think that was how they were born?

Think of your own range of movement compared with how you could move as a child, or even a mere 10 years ago.