Playing With Movement: How to Explore the Many Dimensions of Physical Health and Performance

Playing with Movement is about solving “movement problems,” such as how to complete your first marathon, recover from back pain, put on more muscle, or improve agility on the soccer field. Play means moving in a way that is fun, exploratory, variable, and personally meaningful. The most capable movers - kids, animals, and athletes - develop skill and fitness through play, not “working out.” But the mainstream approach to sport training and physical therapy is all work no play. It is focused on movements that are boring, repetitive, planned, stressful, and intrinsically meaningless. This stems from viewing the body as a machine to be “fixed,” instead of an organic system that can evolve, grow, and learn. The arguments in this book are not based in romantic feel-good reasoning, but hard evidence drawn from diverse fields of study, including the sciences of play, complex systems, pain, motor control, exercise physiology, and psychology. They show that the best pathway to movement health is found not by tracking data or following algorithms, but through curious exploration of the physical world. If you want to take control of your movement health in a way that is fun, meaningful, and empowering, and learn some fascinating science on the way, this book is for you.

"Playing with Movement weaves together a broad swath of research related to optimizing perfomance and reducing pain. Hargrove's insight and crystal-clear writing lead the reader on an informative and enjoyable journey."

-Stephan J. Guyenet, PhD, author of The Hungry Brain

"Todd Hargrove has done it again. Taking a complicated and diverse body of knowledge and making it interesting, topical and useful. Consider this book your personal FAQ resource on how to move better and feel better.

- Dr. Greg Lehman, Author of Recovery Strategies, Your Pain Recovery Guidebook.

"Playing With Movement is a marvelous synthesis of science related to fitness, health, sport and complexity. The writing is lucid and inspiring, with substantive content that could fill numerous books. Even with plenty of exposure to the subject matter, I learned a lot."

- Paul Ingraham, publisher of PainScience.com