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Fast Twitch Fibers

Your fast twitch fibers are important to maintain, they are what help you respond to a sudden change in your walking surface, helping to prevent falls, the leading medical issue as a person ages. One of the ways to test your fast twitch fibers is by jumping.

jumpover

it is important to practice your jump technique by jumping over a board, line, or book. Make sure both feet travel together, use your arms and legs to propel you over the object landing on both feet at the same time, knees bent.

Stand with two feet together in front of a raised platform that is about 6 inches or 15 cm off the ground. Use your arms and legs to propel yourself up onto the raised platform, landing both feet at the same time, knees bent.

platform

FMS Workshop

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“Women Walking For Life”

The Fundamental Movement Skills are developed between the ages of 6-10 yrs. and are critical for coordination, movement and balance. They need to be maintained for Life for good quality of life.

Improve your Physical Literacy
Test your Fundamental Movement Skills

We are developing videos of the testing process for each fundamental skil, these tests you will be to  easy to complete, in the comfort of your home. When they are available they will be found under the members tab, so stay tuned.

Learn how to improve missing or underdeveloped fundamental movement skills. We will also offer recommendations of simple activities that will improve a specific skill

When you were developing your cognitive skills you were also developing your movement skills, remember neurons that fire together are wired together. Therefore, if your fundamental movement are intact the cognitive that were wired at the same time should be intact.

Women Walking For Life

Women Walking For Life is a project funded by the CAAWS.

The participants in the project found it motivationing and fun. They enjoyed improving their physical literacy and now make movement a part of their daily routine.

“I enjoyed participating in the project. It made me more aware of the skills I must maintain to stay healthy. I never realized that striking and throwing were so important. I have 6 grandchildren ranging in age from 3 to 14 and have been involved with playing with them so I have maintained the skills. Every summer I spend at least 6 weeks at the cottage in Muskoka where I walk, carry things, play with the kids, swim, kayak and dive off the dock and climb up the dock ladders to get out of the lake after my swim. Sometimes I think I should rest more but this project made me realize how my active life keeps me healthy despite the osteoporosis. I am learning to adjust my posture and movements not to aggravate my joints and strengthen my core to support my back.

Thank you for including me in your project.” Laura

jointwalk  Walking, one of your first acquired fundamental movements skills should be done properly, swing the opposite hand to the foot you are stepping with. This participant was initially swing the same hand, a simple correction and she was off walking correctly.

Fundamental Movements Skills

The Fundamental Movement Skills develop in children between the ages of 6 and 11 years. The current approved Ministry Curriculum in Ontario emphasises the need to design activities which promote the development of these skills.

Maintaining your Fundamental Movement skills is very important. As a child, motor development skills were happening at the same time as cognitive development skills and neurons that fire together are wired together. So if you test your fundamental movement skills periodically and they are fine then you are pretty well sure that your cognitive skills are in good shape as well. Strong performances of the FM skills require good balance and some agility, so testing them is also of benefit.

The tests to check your FM skills are not complicated but because they are not a part of our regular routine we often fail to know that we are losing them.

To test your balance all you need to do is stand on a line with one foot in front of the other with the heel of the front foot in line with the toes of the back foot. Hold steady for a minimum of 20 seconds, then reverse your feet and try it a second time for 20 seconds. Now try it with your eyes closed.

If your balance is off you could be at risk for falling, practice maintaining your balance on a regular basis. Practice for about 21 days, then retest as above.