Neuroplasticity and the lockdown: how a book can help you to help your parents get through it.

It can be a real cause of concern to see your parent’s movement deteriorate as they get older and for many the lockdown has made the situation worse. Movement specialist Stewart Hamblin’s latest book, ‘The Fit Sit Revolution’, gives you all the tools you need to help you help your parents stay as fit and independent as they can be.

“I think we all have people in our lives, that we love and care for, whose movement has become compromised and whom we want to help but often we just don’t know how,” explains former barrister turned movement guru, Stewart Hamblin.

“Telling your Mum or Dad to go the gym doesn’t really work and for some, because of the lockdown, that simply hasn’t been possible. Exercise, just for exercise sake, isn’t always attractive to this generation and consequently they don’t do it or give up very quickly.”

The lessons in this book are based upon the Feldenkrais Method of movement education which relies on re-training the brain through easily followed movement sequences.

“By changing the way, a person thinks about movement you can change the way that they actually move.” says Stewart Hamblin a certified teacher of the Method, “and as a result the changes can be very quick in coming. None of us wants to see our parents get old. We can’t stop them aging but we can help them to live as independently as possible.”

“People whom I work with  in my studio in Oakham often attribute their difficulties –  with walking, balance, getting up and down on a chair -  to the fact that they are getting older and they resign themselves to having to suffer”.

“The problem though for many is not that they are getting older but that they have ‘forgotten’ how they can move.”

“It sounds ‘crazy’ I know,” says Stewart, who also hosts a popular YouTube Channel which attracts a worldwide following, “but simple things like turning to look around yourself as you reverse the car, or bringing your weight onto one leg, become so much easier when you allow your spine to move in the way it was designed to do. Your pelvis and spine should act as your suspension system so that movement comes through weight transference rather than through a lift. It’s not that people can’t move better but they don’t know how.”

“The lessons in this book can really change your movement because they change the way that you think about your movement. This is what neuro-plasticity is all about,” Stewart explains. “My oldest student was 105 and I have seen how a person’s movement can be changed just be changing the way that they think about their movement. I want everybody to live the life that they want to as they age but this depends on your ability to move well. This book will help you to do that. It’s a book born in the lockdown for people in the lockdown.”

‘The Fit Sit Revolution: Functional Fitness for the Over 50s’ by Stewart Hamlin is available now as a Kindle e-book (£9.99) or in paperback through Amazon (£12.99).