The Freedom Program [A Focus On Empowerment]

Lifestyle Freedom: Having the ability to do whatever you want with your body, any place, any time without being fearful of injury, disease, or ill health.

 

The Freedom program.

It’s the end goal for our patients at MTP Health.

An entire program that is based around one goal. Allowing you to live your ideal lifestyle as freely as possible, without having to worry about pain, sickness or injury.

The whole reason behind this design is because we aim to deliver programs around our key principle of empowerment.

This is because we know that the key to getting a great treatment outcome for the long term is that the program being delivered teaches the person how to manage things themselves. Any good program that aims to make a meaningful change in someone’s life should teach new habits and ideally become part of their way of life. And the research supports this notion. In terms of long term health outcomes, behaviour change has been shown as the only real way to provide positive long term results.

Solving a Massive Problem: Exercise That Makes Our Life Better

And that’s where MTP comes into things.

As health practitioners, we spend much of our life working with people to fix their biggest issues to do with their movement. Whether it be a niggle here, or an injury there, or something a little more sinister like a surgery. Much of our time is spent simply undoing what has been a lifetime of poor movement & sloppy habits.

For us, this work was something that made us think 🤔

What would the ideal exercise program look like for someone who simply wanted to move well, be strong & simply support their lifestyle so they can be as healthy as possible for life? How would they feel if they did this program?

And that’s where we came up with the Freedom Program!

Exercise: More than Just a Treatment For Disease

You see, in the body of research, we can find study after study that supports the use of exercise for helping with the treatment of pretty much every condition under the sun. Whether it be something to do with our mind (such as depression, anxiety or stress), an issue with our organs (e.g. heart disease, cancer etc.) or a simple nagging ache or pain; exercise has been shown to have tremendous health benefits.

To put it quite simply, the reason for this is because our body thrives on movement.

Our human body is an adaptive machine. An organism that is comprised of thousands of independent chemical systems that all interact with one another on a moment to moment basis. These systems all have an adaptive nature to them, which is to say that based on the stimulus they face, they will slowly start to adjust to that particular stimulus.

It’s “Use it or lose it in action”. Without constantly challenging our biological systems through movement & exercise, our body won’t be forced to produce the biochemical reactions needed to sustain it.

The adaptive nature of the human organism is truly a thing of beauty. Once we understand how it works, we can start to use it strategically to improve our lives. In fact, the minimum exercise & movement requirements for a healthy life are quite minute. In fact research shows, that the biggest bang for your buck comes within the first 15 minutes of exercise we do!

However, there is a little bit more to the equation than just 15 minutes per day. At MTP we like to look beyond the idea of general ‘exercise’ & instead focus on what we call ‘specialised exercise’. In a nutshell, specialised exercise is exercise that has been designed with a very specific purpose in mind. The nature of this type of exercise is that it is unique to each person, helping them move closer toward their individual goals while being as close to the level that they are currently working at as possible.

Make Exercise Work For You [Lifestyle Based Movement]

With this in mind, we much prefer to focus on movement & individual goals as opposed to exercise for exercise sake. Exercise should be something we love, something we really enjoy doing. There is a reason why we feel so good when we’re outdoors in nature, exploring the limits of our body. It’s because we have evolved to move!

We always encourage people to set a goal for themselves around their movement.

In an ideal world, if you could wave the magic wand, what would you be doing with your body if everything was where you wanted it to be. For some people this is playing elite sport, or climbing Mt Everest. For others it’s simply being able to play with the grandkids & get up from the lounge without using their hands. Whatever it is that you wish to do with your body, specialised exercise will be the tool that allows you to get there.

And yet the beauty of taking this approach is that positive health outcomes are a consequence of chasing movement goals, not necessarily the direct result. In other words, because we’re exercising in order to achieve a meaningful goal for ourselves, we’re inherently creating a healthier body. But the best thing about this whole approach is that once someone achieves their goal of being able to move as they wanted to, they’re now at a stage where they can do exactly what they want with their body. Simply by doing what they want with their movement, they can maintain the health of their body & experience all the benefits of exercise. In other words, they’re empowered to look after their own health for the rest of their life! They’ve learnt how to fish & now are able to eat for a lifetime.

The Freedom Program: Realising the Benefits of Movement

What we find is that once people go through the process of achieving a movement goal they have set for themselves, they truly start to realise the lifestyle benefits that a focus on their movement has for them.

As their body starts to develop a habit, they start to crave the positive neurotransmitter release that comes from a bout of exercise. They notice the difference in their energy on the days they do exercise. They start to look better, feel better & have a generally more positive outlook on life. Their sleep quality increases, as they start to feel great about themselves & what they can achieve.

Once this feedback loop starts, they typically find that they want to keep chasing bigger & better things with their movement. And this attitude is one of the inherent biological rules that govern our existence. It’s essentially the manifestation of a psychological principle known as the progress principle. This principle underlies much of human motivation & is the specific neurochemical feedback loop behind the adage “enjoy the journey, not the destination”.

At MTP, we came to realise the power of this psychological phenomenon and so created what is know known as the Freedom program.

The whole idea behind the Freedom program was to create an entire exercise program that allowed people to feel ‘free’ & capable in their body, while also experiencing the strength & beauty that it is capable of. As you can see in the ‘model of care’ diagram at the top of this page, the freedom program is the last stop in the healthcare journey of someone who comes through MTP.

It’s the program that people go to when they have resolved all of their movement issues & they want to be able to do something that allows them to continue to improve, while also maintaining their health for the long run. This program works best when it is combined with other specific movement-based activities (such as hiking, sports, yoga etc.) and is essentially designed to compliment movement goals & lifestyles. It’s completely scalable to each individual within the class & can be tailored to suit individual goals. When it comes to movement there are certain ‘key movements‘ that facilitate optimal functioning of the body. The Freedom Program has been designed with these in mind.

Sure, issues will still come up, but the advantage of the Freedom program at MTP is that those issues are able to be addressed by the watchful eyes of our movement experts who run our programs at MTP. This means that they’re will be able to jump onto the root cause for any aches or pains before they turn into a major issue. In the process of doing this, they will learn another valuable skill set for looking after their body, protecting their joints & inherently improving their health for life.

Listen to The Signs!

What we encourage people to do is listen to the signs of their body.

If you’re experiencing an issue to do with your health, then chances are there is something about the way that you live your life that is causing you to experience this ill-health. In the large majority of cases, a lack of properly structured movement for a significant period of time will be a major contributor.

At the end of the day, we have to work with reality, not against it. There are certain universal rules that govern our existence. When we follow these rules, we thrive. When we don’t, our existence starts to suffer.

The sooner we can accept that whether we like it or not right now, our body is designed to thrive on movement, the sooner we can live the happiest, longest & best possible life for ourselves. While you might not feel like you like movement & exercise now, we guarantee you that after 12 weeks of specialised exercise, chasing a meaningful movement goal for yourself, that you will become addicted to the positive feedback loop that exercise provides.

It typically takes a minimum of 57 days to form a new habit. We can assure you that the habit of movement freedom is one that will improve your life in ways you cannot imagine.

At the end of the day, it’s all about feeling free in your body. Free to live a long & healthy life. Free to do whatever you choose for as long as you’re alive. Free to be as happy as you possibly can & experience that which your body is capable of.

And that’s what the MTP Freedom Program is all about!