My 6 Top Tools for At-Home Movement

Are you interested in functional movement and functional training, but unsure how to do it or what tools you need?

My definition of functional movement is different than most – it’s not about performing movements in the gym that replicate movements in your life, it’s about making movement apart of your life. How can you incorporate movement into everything that you do? To take it a step further, how can you make movement who you are and not something you do?

You can do so by creating a movement lifestyle and these tools are what have helped me do so.

Pull-up bar

If you are well-versed in the Align Method, you know how much of an advocated I am for hanging. I suggest everyone hang from a pull-up bar for at least 90 seconds daily to help reset our posture and realign our body. At the same time, having a pull-up around the house encourages fitness to be incorporated into your day. You can challenge yourself to do a certain amount of pull-ups a day, or challenge yourself to do 5 pull-ups every time you walk through the door it’s hanging on.

Yoga swing

I’m also a huge advocate for making fitness who you are, not what you do. A yoga swing is a great tool for helping you accomplish this. Once you learn how to properly utilize a yoga swing, it can help improve circulation and balance, decompress the spine, improve sleep, and even give you a full body workout. Whenever I have a few extra minutes to spare, I utilize that time by hanging on the yoga swing. The improvements it has had on my overall wellbeing have been significant.

Floor Cushions & a Comfy Rug

The power of floor sitting is highly overlooked and under-utilized. In the western world, we typically never bend our knees past 90 degrees, which means we fail to move our joints through their full range of motion. Long-term, this causes a plethora of negative health effects. If you look at the healthiest cultures in the world, they sit on the floor and are constantly moving their joints through their full range of motion. Encouraging floor sitting in your life will encourage you to move your joints in the way they are intended to be moved.

Rebounder

I believe we do not play enough in our lives. Our movement is very linear and serious, but it doesn’t have to be that way. The more playful movements we incorporate into our daily lives, the more youthful we become. The Rebounder makes it simple to play. I love hopping on it during phone calls and just bouncing around and being silly. It’s great and I highly recommend it!

Parellettes

Whether you are a fitness beginner or an expert, these are perfect for you. For beginners, you can use parallettes to take the tension off of your rests when performing push-ups or dips. For the expert, these are great for exploring different arm balances and challenging your body in new and creative ways – which I believe is essential in optimizing your fitness. I recommend leaving this out in your living room or your house to encourage you to use them at any point in your day.

The Align Band

You don’t need fancy workout equipment and lots of heavy weights to build strong muscles. The Align bands allow you to get an effective, full body workout anytime, anywhere. Whether you’re short on time or traveling, it’s possible to incorporate fitness into your daily life. A 15 minute resistance band workout is way more beneficial than no workout at all. My Align Band Exercise Vault shows you 60+ exercises you can do with the bands, plus gives you 11 fully programmed workouts, including 3 upper body workouts, 3 lower body workouts, 3 core workouts, and 2 full body workouts. Plus, it gives you video tutorials on how to utilize the band for mobility and increasing flexibility throughout your entire body.