Exercise: The PRIME360 Way

Here’s where we get a little nerdy, the cool kind though.

    PRIME360 stands for Performance and Restoration in Movement Exercise through 360° of motion. We know, it’s a mouthful. But the real message in that tongue twister of a sentence, is that’s you. Yes, YOU. PRIME360 is personal, and the definition means something different depending on what individual (foreshadowing) is reading it. Let’s clarify:

• Performance: 
  • This is what you do. If you are in the NBA dunking on seven footers or a grandmother needing to keep up with her grandchild; this is your personal performance. We’re training you to perform these acts to your fullest functional potential. If you hike Everest for fun or work in landscaping you’re going to need to be able to perform differently. You being, ya know, an individual (crazy thought) is why some plans need more strengthening and others need more mobilizing. This is the farthest from a cookie cutter plan, everything is dependent on, well, you, how it’s supposed to be.
• Restoration: 
  • These are your aches and pains; physically: your joints and muscles and psychologically: your mind and spirit. Sore elbow from your curve ball, cramped lower back from your desk job, tired spirit from years of fitness failure. We start by restoring and recovering these impairments to prepare you for your life altering transformation. Through various techniques of movement, diet, rest, and mentality acclimations let’s just say we feel sorry for the next obstacle that gets in your way. 
• Movement: 
  • This is how your body moves. There are many variables to movement such as the reason we’re doing so, the environment we’re in, the equipment we have, etc. Doing the right movements in strategical manners have significant impact on restoring current and reducing chance for future injuries and enhancing your functional performance and exercise intensity. 
• Exercise: 
  • The activity which trains your body and mind. It is not only the movement, but actually exerting physical force to mobilize and strengthen, you. 

    This entire concept may sound different or unfamiliar, but isn’t that what you want? We’re not here to feed you the same false information that you’ve been fed, because as we all know, it doesn’t work (!!!). This is why we train functionally. I’m sure you’ve heard of it, but it’s actually more simple than complicated you just have to give it a chance. We’re here to tell you about true functional training that is evidence based and results driven. Functional training is actually a general concept because the practice is entirely specific to you; my “functions” are different than yours. In PRIME world, we are all athletes competing at different levels and variances of activities. So dust off and lace up those old sneakers because we’re taking you back to the basics.

    Based on Applied Functional Science (AFS), as developed by Gary Gray and the Gray Institute, it’s the convergence of the three major sciences; physical, behavioral, and biological. We believe optimal health is achieved when these three sciences are understood and implemented into daily routines. All three sciences are equally significant , no one science is more important than the other. Though, what truly sets AFS apart from the rest of the field of training philosophies is their PST (Principals, Strategies, Techniques) process. 

    The entire process begins with the principals of the sciences; it’s the “why” behind what we do. It’s the truths in our world; for example, the constant force gravity exerts on our bodies. This knowledge then leads us to develop the strategies and eventually the techniques to implement correct ways of exercising while being conscious of gravities force. So the principles, or truths, are the things we have no control over, positive and negative, but need to be present of to create the most effective plan. 

    From all the principles that make up human health, we then develop the strategies to restore and enhance us via movement, diet, meditation, etc. For example, you’re scrunched over on your computer all day resulting in a tight right hip flexor (or as we call it in PRIME world: Front Butt) creating back pain on your right lower back and that pain is restricting your ability to fully function (and exercise, too). So the strategy would be, without passing through the areas in pain, implementing a Bottom Up Driver (We'll explain shortly).  Once strategies are developed, we then focus on the techniques; you will perform (the Bottom Up Driver) a left leg forward (anterior) lunge to create extension within your right hip (Sounds confusing, we know. Provided will be a step- by- step video). All techniques are specific to you because they’re all derived from the principals and then the strategies. Once we create those techniques, they’re administered in movements (exercises). 

    After the PST process we then proceed to the the Three Planes of Motion: the Sagittal Plane, the Frontal Plane and the Transverse Plane. The Sagittal Plane moves front to back or flexion/extension. The Frontal Plane moves side to side or right/left lateral. The Transverse/rotational Plane moves right/left rotationally. We want you to efficiently and effectively move as far as possible while maintaining control in these three planes of motion, (hint hint) 360°. In order to move and function most efficiently as humans we must maximize our abilities to move through all three planes of motion. This is really where we separate ourselves from the strictly aesthetic community and enter the realm of athlete (that's you, no seriously) training. An example would be including the lunge matrix (lunging forward, to the side, and backwards to the side rotationally) in a program vs just a typical forwards or backwards lunge. Think about it, we don’t just move forward and backwards. Functionally we move in all different angles and directions (because we're human) and that’s what we’re trying to mobilize and strengthen. 

    The single most important piece of PRIME360’s philosophy though isn’t PST, it’s having fun. If you’re not enjoying what you’re doing, it’s not worth it and you aren’t going to want to continue. Our goal here is to create a complete lifestyle change that you want to make because you’ve never felt better, you’ve never looked better and you’re having a blast doing it. It’s taking common sense in individual functional training and turning that into common practice. Let’s do this, it’s PRIME TIME! 

- The PRIME360 Team