Why Embodied Dynamics?
Daehan's experience in fitness coaching, athletic training, injury rehabilitation, and research in biomechanics and motor control has led him to believe that our movement reflects who we are. It is the neural representation of our unique perception of the relationship between the world and ourselves. That is why movement is such a fundamental part of our lives no matter if we are high-level athletes or individuals who do not care much for exercise. For this reason, Daehan believes that his role as a Kinesiologist is to help you "EMBODY" the movement that leads you to become your best self.
When Daehan first started working with athletes as a strength conditioning coach he became interested in the biomechanical mechanisms of injury and developing prevention strategies. Later, when he was doing research in biomechanics, he became curious: how do people explore and adapt to certain patterns of movement? Further studies in sensorimotor neuroscience helped him realize that the human brain uses fundamentally different reasoning than mechanical efficiency when organizing movement strategies. This renders an important challenge when guiding a person to improve their movement habits. As an outside observer, movement therapists or trainers inevitably rely on biomechanics to evaluate the functionality of other’s movement. However, our nervous system is not naturally tuned to follow the same logic when controlling our own movement. This is why biomechanics-driven instructions such as how to position joints or activate muscles are not enough to effectively help others adapt towards and eventually own certain movement.
Both conscious and subconscious perception of expected consequences of our actions hugely affects our choice of specific movement strategies. Such perception is naturally influenced by many factors that are unique to us and are shaped by our own experiences. Therefore, the role of movement therapists or trainers expand beyond just teaching people how to move: they need to be able to guide their patients and clients towards movement-related experiences that give a meaningful impact on the perception of their own movement. To do so, we need to first understand why the person possibly have adopted certain movement habits. Recognizing and appreciating this is fundamental to understanding how our body constantly adapts and re-learns how to move in response to injury, pain and to the demands of various levels of activities. For this reason, we believe that a client-focused mindset is mandatory for practitioners who want to help others restore movement and achieve their goals.
The "Embodied Dynamics" approach reflects our client-centered philosophy of movement training. We use biomechanical principles to understand the current health of joint motion, movement variability, and the person’s ability to control motion under external stressors. Although such analysis helps one appreciates each individual's unique parameters for safe and effective movement, we never use biomechanical theories to dictate how people should move. Instead, we strive to provide appropriate task demands and environmental challenges in which the nervous system experiences various movement options and naturally chooses those that work the best. Essentially, the "Embodied Dynamics" program aims to provide an exciting sensorimotor journey for you to explore and adapt for your own resilient, and transferrable movement options.
We hope the "Embodied Dynamics" approach can help bridge the gap between injury rehabilitation and strength conditioning and translate scientific knowledge into practice. We humbly invite you to experience the long-term benefit of this approach for your healthful and active life.