I’m reading (or rather listening to on my iPhone) the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey. This is a classic book and one in which I have found a wealth of information and guidance on more effective living. One principle he talks about in the book is the balance we need to keep between production (P) and production capability (PC) in every area of our life. He calls this the P-PC balance.
The principle means we need to work on keeping and growing our production capability, and not just focus on producing more. This concept is obvious in some areas of our life, and harder to see in others. For example, most people understand that if you don’t work on the production capability of your car (oil changes, new tires, fluid replacements, etc) it will eventually stop producing. It is easy for the simplest of persons to see the connection between “worn out tires” and eventually “car no move”. However, when the time 
between what we are doing now and when the effect of that action will take place is long, it is harder to focus on production capability. It’s harder to eat healthy now and not see the effects of healthy eating until much later. It is harder to save for retirement now, and not feel the effects of that until much later.
In the same way, I see that people don’t have a good P-PC balance in their life when it comes to their body’s movement. It really is absurd when you think about it. How important to you is the ability to produce pain free movement? To be able to walk, lift, squat, sit and lay down without pain. I would say that most people would place a huge priority on that function. So how much time during your day do you spend on maintaining that capability? I guarantee you that you are doing things throughout your day which are taxing your body and depleting its reserves.
I am talking about postural and daily activities which cause your body to either weaken or tighten up and reduce your capability of pain free movement. Even some of the activities which we view as healthy, like running, can at the same time be wearing down our body’s capability of pain free movement. Now, I’m not saying we shouldn’t run. That would be ridiculous. I’m just saying we need to have a focus on maintaining our body’s capability to go through pain free movement. In the same way we brush our teeth to avoid cavities, we should maintain our body’s movement with basic daily exercises. This is what the heart of Body Maintenance is all about. Giving you the education and tools to maintain the production capability of your body’s moving parts.
So have a look at the articles in this blog. They are mainly about that very principle. Have an intentionality about keeping your body’s capability to move in a pain free manner.
Matt Swift, DPT 