Over 95% of what the nervous system does to produce human movement happens below conscious awareness.
Every step we take, every squat, every reach, and every rotation is coordinated by a highly sophisticated neurological system that is constantly organizing movement patterns, stabilizing joints, and adapting to the environment around us. Long before we are aware of a movement, the brain has already begun planning and coordinating it. Neuroscience research has shown that movement preparation occurs before conscious awareness of the decision to move.
Human movement is neurological before it is mechanical.
When movement sequencing becomes disrupted, the nervous system adapts. Compensation patterns develop, joints begin moving differently, performance declines, and eventually, pain or injury can occur. The challenge is that many of these compensations are impossible to see with the naked eye.
That's why we developed the NeuroPlanar® Methodology through the Kinetisense® system.
Using Kinetisense's clinical-grade 3D motion capture technology, NeuroPlanar objectively measures how joints move both in sequence and in plane during functional movement. Rather than looking at a single joint in isolation, NeuroPlanar maps how the entire kinetic chain is being organized by the nervous system.
This is a fundamentally new approach to movement assessment.
A restriction at the ankle can alter knee mechanics. Changes at the knee can affect hip function, pelvic control, and spinal movement. Often the location of pain is simply where the compensation shows up, not where the dysfunction started. NeuroPlanar helps identify these neurological compensation patterns by revealing where movement sequencing breaks down across the body.
For Certified Active Release Techniques® providers, this opens an entirely new opportunity.
NeuroPlanar findings can help ART Providers more quickly identify the source of dysfunctional movement patterns, helping to increase ART treatment speed and precision. Providers can use NeuroPlanar findings to identify the joints and tissues driving dysfunctional movement patterns and apply ART treatment with greater precision. This allows clinicians to move beyond pain management and into performance treatment.
Athletes can optimize efficiency. Active individuals can improve resilience. Patients can address dysfunction before symptoms become limiting. By combining NeuroPlanar movement intelligence with Active Release Techniques, clinicians gain an objective roadmap for assessment, treatment, and outcome measurement.
This is the future of movement health—not simply understanding where someone hurts but understanding how their nervous system is organizing movement in the first place.
References
D'Ostilio K, Garraux G. Brain Mechanisms Underlying Automatic and Unconscious Control of Motor Action. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2012. Demonstrates that movement is largely driven by neural processes outside conscious awareness.
Yeom HG, Kim JS, Chung CK. Brain Mechanisms in Motor Control During Reaching Movements. Scientific Reports, 2020. Demonstrates that much of motor control processing is completed during motor planning before movement occurs.
Purves D. et al. Neuroscience (NCBI Bookshelf): Movement and Its Central Control. Overview of how the nervous system coordinates complex movement sequences through distributed neural networks.