Meso is a biology prefix meaning middle. After age 30, doctor visits associated with some type of movement dysfunction top the list of emergency-room complaints. At Meso Fit Boca, we believe that’s because faulty soft tissue, or the brain’s software, is running on faulty programming. Young or old, previously injured, tight, performance athlete, or soccer mom, The RAMP Method is designed to bring the body back to when it moved best.

When it moved flawlessly.

The point where it moved completely aligned in its middle.

Any lack of joint range of motion forces the brain to borrow movement from elsewhere, usually the spine. Losses in hip and knee range of motion, coupled with restricted dorsiflexion of the ankle, add up to moving compensated, where the risk of injury increases. To get the body to move in its middle is no easy task. Overall improvements in daily movement can only occur with conscious awareness of prevalent side-dominance issues performed throughout the day (like brushing teeth, shaving, or eating with the non-dominant hand).

People tend to use, and practitioners tend to administer, corrective exercise long after it produces the desired result; which is to relieve pain, realign joints, and make the body function better outside of training. Corrective exercise should produce instant results. Done too long, they may cause the imbalance they seek to correct.

To improve overall movement takes creating new space to move in. Restricted feet and ankles impede the progress of all other joints and any intervention administered above them turns into a dead end. Because the foot and ankle bear all bodyweight, they need to be prioritized and any dysfunction cleared. The following exercises should be done after adequate dorsiflexion restoration (See Release-Stretch-Contract: Gastroc/Tibialis).

The Meso-Style Workout: These multi-joint, multi-directional movements require balanced feet and ankles capable of adequate dorsiflexion. Extending out of a lunge or step-up in the forefoot loads the knee and is the result of faulty weight distribution. Forefoot loading leads to knee, hip, and ankle issues and should be avoided. The ankle should remain dorsiflexed through all phases of hip and knee flexion and extension unless otherwise specified.

All exercises can be added to your existing plan and added as 3 sets of 10, or circuited with round length and exercises done according to fitness level and available equipment.

Step Up Into SDL (single leg deadlift) W/Single Arm Curl/Press

Landmine Reverse Lunge Into SDL W/Single Arm Curl/Press

Reverse Lunge Into Cable Rear Lateral

Single leg Dorsiflexed Around The World

At Meso Fit Boca, we take systematic approaches to things like movement prep to allow us to see progress from workout to workout. The following multi-plane movement preparation and workouts are just examples of how our programming can take you to the next level. The variations below allow you to use these movements as is, or peppered into your current program.

Remembering the planes is easy. If you imagine standing in a hallway where your shoulders almost touch the walls, the movements possible in that hallway happen in the sagittal plane. The coronal plane is best described as any movement possible with walls directly in front and behind you. And the transverse plane is where rotation occurs.

At Meso Fit Boca, we differentiate movements from the spine from movements of the extremities. The joints best suited for flexion, extension, and rotation, are the shoulder and hips, and they should create the majority of movement. That doesn’t mean that movement from the spine is against some unwritten law of physics. Plenty of people move from the spine and never have an injury. We just believe that for longevity, creating maximum power takes a stable spine.

We use Multi Plane Movement Prep before engaging in anything strenuous. This simple series of movements moves you through slow steady stretches and transitions that prepare you for the multi-plane movements below. First, work on moving into each pose after 5 full, deep breaths. Take your time.

Multi Plane Movement Prep:

Multi-Plane Workout:

Sagittal Lunge W/Side Reach- 3 Sets

Coronal-Plane Lunge W/Reach- 3 Sets

Transverse-Plane Lunge W/Reach- 3 Sets

Shuffles- 3 sets

Sagittal Jumps- 3 Sets

Single Leg Sagittal Jumps- 3 Sets

(Should any of these multi-joint exercises create excessive compensatory movement, regress to non-loaded versions)

Progressions:

Multi-Plane Lunge

Single Leg Deadlift W/Side Shifts

Box Jump to Step-down to Reverse Lunge (both sides) to Burpee to Side Lunge (both sides) to Transverse Lunge (both sides)

3 sets each

If the brain is the ultimate authority on how we move, then it stands to reason it will protectively tighten muscles to keep the body from joint actions it deems unsafe. But how the brain incorporates movement and what its preferences are aren’t always clear. But if compensated movement isn’t brought into the collective consciousness, how much can we expect to change?

Fascia can be thought of as fiber optic cable feeding information to the brain, and there are areas it seems to listen to very intently. The core is one of those places.

Training should focus more on the forces that destabilize than asking bodies slowed by the brain to speed back up. But we need more than fastidious interventions to fix dings in the body’s collective chain. At Meso Fit Boca, we consider the ripples dings leave behind that affect the entire system. 

When the core is weak, the spine is vulnerable. We train the core to brace and react to destabilizing force. Bucket Theory considers the relationship between the ribcage and pelvis extremely important to training. Since both the ribcage and pelvis resemble buckets, one inverted (rib cage) stacked atop another (pelvis), we need to consider the contents of these buckets to understand why the brain goes to such great lengths to protect them. People sleep fetal because it protects the contents of these buckets, and slouching may be a protective method in the absence of core strength.

Strong core’s keep the ribs and pelvis stacked and aligned while the extremities perform reach movements. The brain green-lights all movement when the buckets align, stabilize, and create a solid torso. The core is a reflex. Drawing in, pulling the belly button toward the spine, or any other miscue pertaining to ‘setting’ the core prior to moving is incorrect. The core needs to react, not prepare. No one has dictated which joint action should be stronger; or whether the mirror opposite joint actions should be of equal strength. But from the brain’s perspective there are only two joint actions of note, reach and withdrawal, and the brain uses the core to manage both.

To reach high-hanging fruit requires length, but also the power to withdraw reach quickly should reach become perilous. The core functions as intermediary between ribcage and pelvis while the extremities move away from the spine or midline.     

Bucket Theory looks at how the body creates and manages forces the world enacts on us. If torso stability is compromised, spinal rotation replaces the joint actions more suited to create movement. This creates shearing forces in vertebral disks and leads to eventual degeneration. Until silly putty is repurposed as a suitable disk replacement, we should work hard to keep the spine stable and let the extremities do their job.

Reach exposes. Withdrawal protects.

So it stands to reason withdrawal should be the focus of strength training. At Meso Fit Boca, our Signature Series of exercises elicits an adductive response, and therefore, a core response from all our exercises. We believe if the core isn’t involved in every exercise, it can hardly be incorporated into collective movements like walking outside of training.

It’s important to note that balance comes from the brain, not muscles. The inner ear protects us from falling forward with an errant alert system that reels you back the instant you lean forward. This is an important system to manipulate in training because prone position (plank and push-up) loads the core and forces it to brace the spine. But these bracing positions do not tax the obliques as effectively as they could. We need to add a rotational component to prone position to incorporate the obliques.  

Looking at fiber direction, the obliques are ideally positioned to prevent torso rotation. There is also sufficient evidence to support the idea the obliques are uniquely connected to the opposing adductor muscles (See Anterior And Posterior Slings). This begs us to consider diagonal patterns as the ideal patterns to strengthen.

Undoubtedly, one diagonal pattern is weaker than the other. To assess this, get into push-up position and try to place all your weight into the right hand and left foot and lift the opposing sides off the floor. If you instantly loose balance, there’s instability in the pattern. Now try the other side. This is one of the reasons to advocate using the non-dominant hand as much as possible outside the gym. Strengthening the weaker diagonal pattern takes precedence over all else if the system is to progress.

Diagonal Pattern Holds:

Very important things happen when considering abduction an exploratory joint action like moving your foot along ice to test it. If the ice cracks and splits, the body needs to withdraw the foot quickly. The protective action of adduction should be as powerful and fast as possible, even spring like. This was evolution’s brilliant adaptation to earth’s terrain that grants the body unlimited reach with powerful withdrawal so we can retreat should the earth fight back. This is why adduction is inherently stronger than abduction.   

More amazingly, every time you adduct, the core fires. This powerful coupling adds credence to the idea that adduction should remain a lasting, powerful, force or the brain will shrink your world. Yes, length is important, but if length gained is at the expense of the ability to reign it back, length becomes arduous.

Present the torso as a single, solid structure, and the hip and shoulder joints can manage any destabilizing force. Present the world an improperly trained core, one pretensed (set) before movement, and the brain’s ability to manage and properly distribute force is compromised. So the brain scratches all the activities that require a strong torso, including bucket list items.  

The Bucket Workout:

Diagonal Pattern Holds

Deadbugs

Supine Rear Laterals

Prone Pullovers

Prone Rear Laterals

At Meso Fit Boca, we didn’t come up with a new way to squat, deadlift, or pushup.

We created exercises that include the brain in the quest for brawn.

We believe that the loss of function associated with aging is really a system wide breakdown caused by misalignment. And by aging, we mean merely getting older, as we’ve seen movement dysfunction in clients as early as 13 years old. This is why we cannot continue to ask bodies to perform without regular check-ups for signs of movement dysfunction. These bodies still produce movement, and some of them do so exquisitely. But we also believe that to correct this, we have to measure the associated loss of equilibrium that comes with the repetitive movements caused by sport and life.

The more profound the difference between the non-dominant and dominant sides of the body show that the body isn’t in need of MORE exercise, it needs careful attention to restoring lost power (see Absolute Power). Our 4-phase system allows each client to proceed with the knowledge that our programming cleared enough movement restrictions to allow it to proceed into more challenging phases. Our pinnacle so called “5th phase” is reassessment that allow us to build on past successes.

Our Signature Series of exercises comply with what we theorize is the brain’s Modus Operandi, which is to move clients through their worlds unharmed. We say ‘their worlds’ because until we understand the movements clients perform thousands of times a day, we’ll be of little help in improving their lives. Anyone trainers can apply more exercise, but RAMP certified trainers assess every client to ensure they apply the correct interventions to the parts of the body in most need. Once that proves fruitful, we seal in those improvements, so that our clients can explore more.

Clients don’t just have a better understanding of their body, they report more mobility moving around hectic days. And when they need to hit the gas because some days requires it, they have more throttle. Other theories center on how to tax an existing movement system. We strive to improve every clients’ movement capacity before we apply exercise, because exercise won’t work without increasing overall ability.

Think of each RAMP phase (Restore-Align-Maintain-Progress) as a way to categorize movement ability. Restoration allows us to bring the body back to its middle. Then we align the body with exercises that re-pattern the brain and allow it to move in the new space created in restoration. Once these goals are maintained, the brain allows greater expressions of movement.

Below is a sneak peak at one of our Signature Series exercises, The Lateral Push Up Walk version 1. We design and use each exercise based on how easily it is either regressed, for people lacking full extension, and it lends itself to multiple progressions. All of The Signature Series exercises are designed specifically to match each of the phases, and all are able to be progressed in suit with our goal of constant improvement.

Peruse any gym and find most six-pack seekers grinding out sets from the floor. But is the floor the most effective way to challenge the core, or is it possible the brain grants it because one of its many safety requirements are satisfied?

The brain seeks a stable spine, and the spine is most stable when horizontal on solid ground. As anyone who’s been thrown to the mat knows, the brain often wants us to stay there until whoever flipped us goes away.

But reason dictates that if the core is strong on the floor and nowhere else, the core is useless until we’ve already fallen. Crunches have proven a costly backdoor into the core because the crunch moves the spine to contract the core. This poses a problem if you believe the core’s role is to stabilize the spine, not move it. At Meso Fit Boca, we believe the core is integral in preserving the precious disk space between vertebrae that act as vital shock absorbers.

We also believe the core lives in extension. To fully appreciate this, you have to feel it. If you stand up and lock all joints and squeeze your butt hard, you should feel the core. This extension is what most people lack and need to restore if the core is to act accordingly and keep the spine stable.

Imagine full extension to be ultimate reach where every joint contributes. The core’s job is to keep the spine stable during reach or it will be reeled back. This might explain why thrill seeking in adolescence bows to common sense in adulthood, as the brain kyboshes risk whenever it’s higher than the reward. Those who defy this pay the ultimate price with multiple injuries that force the brain to withdraw further. Soon, it’s hard to justify leaving the house, going on vacation, picking up kids, or walking puppies.  

Building a strong core takes challenging its role in movement, not it’s muscles. This means the core needs to be felt in ALL exercises; and the strongest cores are felt in all movement. Yes, the spine should be mobile, but it should only move upon conscious request, and should never move to compensate for other imbalances.

Planks are often done in an attempt to strengthen the core. This bracing exercise is ideal for when the core needs to hold the torso still. Since most people lack full extension, the plank falls prey to improper form. As a matter of fact, residual flexion, or bending, places undue load on the spine during plank. To prevent this the glutes need to engage. This is the only means of keeping the hips out of flexion.

The plank is really just pushup position with the elbows in flexion. Removing the wrist takes away the often heard complaint that pushup position hurts these joints. But shortened muscles won’t extend until released, and even then it’s anyone’s guess whether what’s gained in plank is useable elsewhere. But we’d be amiss without an understanding of why the plank is so effective at firing the core.

Of the balance systems in the brain, the inner ear has an important task. Filled with fluid, the inner ear alerts us to the slightest bend forward. The brain tally’s the risks of falling forward or backward and often chooses the latter because falling forward poses greater risk to vital organs. Prone, or pushup position, stimulates the inner ear and the core is, and should be, the first to respond.

Any modified version of the pushup proves the core cannot handle full extension. Seldom is this exercise progressed to the non-modified version. Discomfort in full pushup position usually manifests in the wrist, elbow, shoulder, and lower back, and is caused by misalignment. This won’t improve until realigned, which takes forethought.

At Meso Fit Boca, we reinvented the plank with designs on progressing this powerhouse exercise forward. The balance required to maintain pushup position on balls ideally places tension where it’s needed most, and the core response is undeniable.    

To gain full hip extension, short and tight hip flexors need release and stretching. Only then can pushup position, or high plank, be effective. But most people maintain some degree of hip flexion in pushup and plank. This places load on the spine.

The shoulder joint and blades also pose issues in gaining full body extension. Tight latissimus, pectorals, trapezius, and rhomboids name a few. But tight triceps, biceps, and forearms will prevent full elbow extension, leaving the rotator cuff open to risk. All this causes excessive lumbar curve and weakens the core. The same techniques of release and stretch will combat this problem and create better posture, and therefore, increased extension. It’s essential that the spine is not called upon to substitute for muscle systems out of balance.

At Meso Fit Boca, planned progressions are our only means of determining that our interventions are working. We restore extension so that plank can be mastered, then it’s used in a myriad of ways to continually challenge the core’s role in reaching.

Pushups lend themselves to multiple regressions and progressions. The versatility of this exercise makes it perfect for building functional strength that’s useable anywhere and everywhere. Elevating the upper body off the floor and onto a bench takes the intensity down a few notches and serves as an excellent place to start. Stable shoulder blades will allow full range of motion in the shoulder joint. Movement of the blades throughout the pushup point to instabilities in the shoulder, core. Excess curvature of the lumbar is thwarted by contracting the glutes. This also increases the effectiveness of the core.

Once plank and pushup position are mastered, it’s time to add some balls (pun intended). Start on 4 balls so that each extremity can bear equal weight. Undoubtedly, the non-dominant side will pose the greatest inability to balance. From there, master the 3 and 2-ball versions (2-ball shown below).

Progressing takes mastering previous versions. Once you can show proficiency in all versions, return to the 4-ball version:

Where does balance come from?

Proprioception is a fancy science word for body awareness. This is how you know you’re on dry land and not in water, are at home and not in a box, and why it’s very hard to move you to an undisclosed location while you sleep. Increased proprioception means we keep neural connections live and flowing with information for the brain to use. Issues arise when the brain is overwhelmed with work and has a shortage of workers. When this happens, the brain loses the ability to do things that were once commonplace. (Remember spinning to nausea on a g-force carnival ride after 12 beers and 3 corndogs then running a ½ mile home because you’re two hours late for curfew?) Me either.

If you imagine the brain as a security guard with the option of watching one big screen displaying the entire property, or many screens allowing more detailed examinations of bloodspots and shadows, the preference seems clear. This is not unlike how the brain uses proprioception to move. When it comes to fluid movement, the more information the better. Unfortunately, balance and proprioception fade with age, as does our ability to move. But there are ways to prevent this.

To maintain balance we have to be balanced. As Zen as that sounds, it’s not far from the truth. Imagine you have imbalanced tires. The car drives, but pulls to the right or left. Now misaligned, it creates drag and is much less fuel-efficient. Over time, the tires wear uneven increasing the chance of blowout. But that’s hardly the only problem. The struts, shocks, wheel wells, brakes, frame, and any number of other things are threatened by the imbalance. The car will have to work harder and consume more fuel to get the same done, and this worsens unless it’s realigned.

Now imagine a muscle is off. This happens when a muscle adaptively shortens or lengthens in response to repetition. Do something enough times and the brain adapts muscles to the length or breadth demanded most. This is why we need to work change of direction into our training.

The RAMP Method creates directional changes using the pivot, or rotation on the ball of the foot. Pivoting is essential to rotating the body, as doing so from anywhere else opens us up to compensation. The shoulder joint is also a fantastic place to create massive force, yet few lack the requisite reach to create such power.

Creating rotation from the joints best suited remains essential. At Meso Fit Boca, we believe rotating from the spine or creating any force with this structure is contraindicated. Rotation is a powerful force that when harnessed creates the kinds of athleticism we are in awe of and wish to emulate. But we are warned by the likes of Sahrmann and McGill that the spine needs stability above all else. 

So what is it that athletes tend to have that we lack?

Balance.

It might be a stretch to say only imbalanced bodies injure. But if the balanced body is destabilized, it shouldn’t topple without blunt force. Ask any quarterback, goalie, or sprinter, and they’ll agree if something is out of whack, production suffers. Most professional athletes have body workers working around the clock on their recovery.

Notice I didn’t say training.

Although training is paramount, if the body cannot recover fully from performance to performance, it cannot sustain optimal levels of output. Diet is helpful, but only when applied to fully recovered bodies. So how do bodies become balanced?

Balance is a lot more nuanced and cannot be applied to single situations. Physics tells us if you keep falling off the earth, something maybe wrong with how your body relates to the laws of gravity. When athletes dazzle us with feats across fields of ice and snow, we see perfectly balanced bodies adapting to multiple destabilizing forces. Can you imagine being crosschecked and come out with anything less than permanent brain damage?

So why can they and we can’t?

Each client presents a lifetime of movement. Some of that movement, depending on the amount of trauma the body sustained, is compensated. To the extent that it’s compensated, movement integrity suffers and is replaced with uncoordinated movement.  This body will produce very little power but will still produce. Now imagine taking this body onto a field, court, or mall parking lot and you’ll see why orthopedists and physical therapists aren’t in low demand.

But to say our idols walk away unharmed is ignorant as any pro-athlete will tell you the price for waging daily war on their bodies is tagged high. As the long-term effects of this lifestyle become more and more apparent, we’ll be able to learn more about what happens to those of us focused on recovery and balance.

Our focus is looking at each client and asking; what would make them better? To answer, we have to know what the body in front of us is capable of producing. Overloading an imbalanced body with more work is completely counterproductive and counterintuitive to the brain.  Exercise becomes endless beatings applied to a misaligned body.  

At Meso Fit Boca, our assessment answers simple questions as we detect what might hinder your progress. We’ll explain what we find and how to fix it. We do not place demands on misaligned bodies until they show an ability to align; and we cannot progress any client without proof our interventions are maintained from week to week. We do that with constant check-ups to make sure our programming is working. If it isn’t, we know early, and make course adjustments that get you back on track.