At first The Movement Stick innovation was developed for Martti Nappari’s personal and professional needs, to find a simple yet multifunctional tool that anyone can use anywhere and enjoy great results.
For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by how the human body and mind works. I have often wondered how much effort we put into knowing about a technical thing, getting a diploma, or learning about space. A great deal of effort is directed outside and we have never really focused on who we are physically and mentally – somehow we have taken for granted the things that are the most close ones to us.
On my journey to learn and understand more, I have noticed that the most important study of all is the study of oneself. Keeping a childlike open mind, asking all the stupid questions, experimenting, falling down time after time and rising up again. Fear of failure, fear of not fitting “in”, fear of appearing stupid, and not getting respect or being liked are limiting our creativity and life.
I have learned that the most useful and practical things are simple and that simplicity holds within a fast amount of complexity.
You may have heard the phrase “same but different”. Beauty of it all is in nuances and details, finding out what works best for me.
The problem is that we do not realize we already have it all, we just need to learn from it. Instead, we pile more on top of more and think we can buy our way to happiness, development, respect & and health by having more and more. More “things” that complicate our lives and just create a bigger mess and uncontrolled chronic stress. I have seen how taking care of your body, exercising, eating healthy and doing all the right things becomes stressful. How taking care of the work, family, and hobbies and fitting all into a busy schedule can create a negative circle where we just perform life and wellness.
As a coach my goal has been to help people see how much complexity simplicity withholds and how greatly they can both physically and mentally benefit from it.
It all comes down to what are the most important things, the essentials for us, and how concentrating and learning from them and oneself create the best results.
In my surge to simplicity, the Movement Stick idea developed bit by bit. At first, it was just something I experienced at home. I had been training with boomstick for years and combined it with stretch bands and different kinds of strings and free weights – while the training was good with these simple tools I noticed some limitations and just by doing things I found a simple solution to the limitations that blow my mind, raised my training to the new innovative level. In the process, I broke a few sticks and noticed the critical design points and how the stick should be made to work optimally. Key feature is the rolling ball heads.
I use to have a lot of “must-have” stuff, or so I thought. The more I learned the more clearly I started to move in the opposite direction. Instead of getting more stuff, I started to sell it and give it away. Instead of having a 100 m2 training space, I ended up training in my home office and living room with just a few simple things. While still enjoying going to the gym and changing the scenery, once in a while, I noticed that giving all the opportunities with rooms full of different kinds of equipment I still do pretty much the same things I would do at home. Directing my customers also into the same direction while hearing comments like “this is very exciting – why did I not know about this before” or “why not everyone would do this “.
At that time Movement Stick did not have a name but I used it as a core in my own as well as my client’s training. I also combined it with heavy weight training, barbells, dumbells, and kettlebells with good results.
Out of those customer comments, I finally heard me saying to myself “so true, why keep it only in the small circle, when it has so much to offer to so many people”. It did not take me long before I started to put effort into making it a reality.
At some point, I called Jukka, with whom I have known and worked with for a long time. I knew we had a similar mentality – he is also an idealist with high skills and who does only the things he believes in. As an idealist, I believe only in things that authentic, done with the best intentions, and the ones that create and give us real value.
I said to Jukka ” I have something very interesting for you that you are going to love.” At this point, he was naturally a bit skeptical and said, “ha, haa… let’s see”. When we met I did not say much at first, just handed Movement Stick to Jukka and said “what would you do with this?”. For a while, he was staring at me like a living question mark, silently, but started to move and create, while I explained the basics – in five minutes he said, ” for sure, sign me up – I’m in” – and kept on creating more.
Now we are in a happy situation where we can offer this great training tool and principles, programs, and certification courses to all of you to enjoy and benefit from.
I can honestly say that if this is the last thing I will do in the field of fitness I will be very happy, because Movement Stick summarizes all the essentials in the most simple form while praising the details and holding in the most important study, the study of oneself.
The beauty in Movement Stick is that the more you use it the more you grow into it. Still after several years of using it I’ll keep on finding new exciting details and nuances.
As long as I can remember I have been moving. At the age of 9 months I already walked or like my mother remembers it; I first learned how to run, then much later to walk.
I genuinely believe that we are all made to move. I believe we should cherish our evolutionary history as movers and bring those skills and abilities to this century. Nowadays most of us are not required to move if we choose not to. We can manage through our daily activities with minimal work – if we choose. I strongly believe that we need to learn to choose differently and that we need new perspectives to training, recovery and health. We need new innovative ways to bring more movement to our daily lives without thinking it as “a workout”. Movement is not primarily about workout, though a good workout can be part of your overall movement.
For the past 15 years I have dedicated my energy to understand the depth of all the possibilities our body poses. That road is almost endless and still there are those fundamentals that we all should keep or bring back to our daily routines.
I started strength training when I was 14 years old and since then I have done some sort of strength training from powerlifting to kettlebell lifting to bodyweigh training and now to Movement Stick training.
I’ve had a good career in the fitness industry where I have done personal training, running the gym, manufacturing sports equipment and teaching fitness and physio professionals. I was the first in Finland who started teaching Bodyweight Training and certain kinds of movement training professionally and since that hundreds of professionals has accomplished the Movement Coach program.
When I first started practicing with the Movement Stick I knew immediately that this is something unique and revolutionary. It didn’t take long for me to understand that this will change my life and the lives of so many people around the world. Not only the endless possibilities of how to use the Stick but also how good it feels in my body when I practice with it. This is something every person said when they first tested it. There is something familiar and brand new at the same time!
What you see now is my vision of the concept and the Movement Stick Training System. I have created it as versatile as possible but still as simple as possible. But it does not end here. This is only the beginning! Once you get the Movement Stick in your hands, I will bet you will be just as exited as I and want to learn more and more. For that we have created online programs and certification courses to give you more in depth information.
Eventually you learn “how to listen your body signals” and once that happens, you can affect how your future looks. The interesting future is at your fingertips so grab the Stick and join us!
Human movement is a complex, integrated entity that needs to be approached through both general and individual needs and features.
One movement can serve many different purposes and functions. These will depend on such factors as the baseline, goals, execution, earlier experience, and intrinsic motivation, just to name a few. Graceful movement is something we all should nurture by finding the methods that suit us and our individual goals. By keeping things simple and putting the time and effort into practice, we can eventually grow and achieve something incredible. There is no need for complex equipment. We all naturally possess the perfect training tool – our own body. The rest is up to us – how well we learn to use it. Simple tools will offer a broader platform on which to work while giving us the best opportunity to learn. In simplicity, there is a lot of complexity.
Simplicity contains complexity, allowing us to create complex movements and skills – not vice versa. This belief in simplicity was the foundation for the birth of the Movement Stick tool and training concept. Any practice tool should be seen as a helpful device in the process of learning from our body and its functions – finding the finer nuances and the connection within and between mind and body – how to feel.
If you are an athlete, you have specific goals, but for the rest of us, we mainly focus on improving our general functionality, longevity and wellness. Even so, the training core principles should be the same. Our main mission was to create a tool, concept and training style that can deliver essentials regardless of individual variables and goals – either for rehabilitation patients and senior citizens, or for Olympic level athletes aiming for the gold medal.
With the Movement Stick, we introduce a kind of simplicity that includes extreme complexity and effectiveness, with an easy-to-start basic practice for everyone. Basic-level Movement Stick practice is easy to do – familiar yet completely new at the same time. It is something that feels 100% natural from the first moment you try it.
The Movement Stick is the new evolution of movement functionality. It is not only about the tool but more how to use it – and we have worked for years to create this exceptional tool and ways to use it.
The beauty is in constant learning – the more you use the Movement Stick, the more you get into it, learn, feel and find nuances. After years of using it, we still do.
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