Body By Design, Inc. (2026)

12/01/2026

What Does "Functional" Really Mean?
In rehabilitation and performance training, "functional" is everywhere—but often misunderstood. Let's define it properly, using science.
The Neuroscience Foundation:
Your central nervous system doesn't recognize individual muscles. Instead, it organizes motor synergies—temporarily assembled, flexible patterns of coordinated muscle activation designed to accomplish specific tasks.
This is a fundamental truth: Isolated muscle training creates neural confusion, not functional adaptation.
The Cornerstone of True Functional Training:
Train movement patterns, not muscles.
Here's what the science tells us:
🔬 ECONCENTRIC Muscle Function – Muscles simultaneously lengthen in one plane while shortening in another, and experience isometric action in a third plane. This is how your body actually functions in 3D space.
🔬 Motor Synergies – All coordinated movements involve synergies where muscles cooperate (not compete) to accomplish a task. These synergies are task-specific AND context-dependent.
🔬 Chain Reaction® Biomechanics – Movement isn't isolated. Your body operates as an integrated kinetic chain, leveraging gravity, ground reaction force, and momentum.
🔬 Tri-Planar Motion – Authentic functional training occurs across all three planes (sagittal, frontal, transverse) simultaneously. This prevents joint capsule restrictions, facilitates proprioceptors, and lengthens muscles as they function.
Why This Matters:
When training respects these biomechanical truths, you get:
✓ Efficient, coordinated movement
✓ Reduced injury risk
✓ Better force production and deceleration
✓ Adaptable athletes who perform consistently
When training ignores them, you get adapted athletes who are inconsistent and injury-prone.
The Bottom Line:
Movement is a symphony, not a solo. Your body is a tensegrity structure—a 3D web of tension and compression. Train it that way.
In this video series, we're diving into the principles, strategies, and applications of Applied Functional Science so you can move better, perform better, and stay pain-free.
Ready to understand your body at a deeper level? Watch the video above, and let's talk about how this applies to YOUR movement goals.
Book your 3DMAPS Biomechanical Assessment and discover the root cause of your movement limitations.
Questions? Drop them in the comments—I'm here to help. 🧬

09/01/2026

🎬 VIDEO: The Science Behind Efficient Movement – Mass & Momentum

Ever wonder why you can walk without thinking about it? Your body is incredibly smart.

Here's something that blows most people's minds: During normal walking, your quadriceps muscles actually *stop* contracting once your knee starts extending. So if the quads aren't working... how does your knee straighten?

**The answer is momentum.**

Your body's mass combined with your forward speed creates momentum that extends your knee—without wasting energy on unnecessary muscle contraction. That's true efficiency. That's how your body is designed to move.

**But here's the problem:**

If you've been inactive, injured, or dealing with chronic pain, you've likely lost that natural walking speed. Without momentum, your body has to compensate by overworking your quadriceps and burning extra energy. That's why you feel tired, stiff, or in pain.

**This is exactly why our 3DMAPS assessment is different.**

We don't just look at isolated muscles. We analyze how you actually move in real life—your mass, your momentum, your movement patterns across all three planes of motion. We find where you've lost efficiency and why.

Once we identify the root cause, we create a personalized program to restore your natural, powerful movement. The goal? Get your body working *with* physics again, not against it.

If you've been struggling with pain, limited mobility, or just feeling "off," it's time to understand what's really going on.

📧 bbd@bbdinfo.com | 🌐 bobfanelli.com

09/01/2026

The Chain Reaction: Why Your Shoulder Pain Might Start in Your Ankle 🔗

You've probably heard it before: "Your body is connected." But do you actually understand what that means?

Here's the reality: Every movement you make creates a chain reaction through your entire body. Your ankle affects your knee. Your knee affects your hip. Your hip affects your spine. Your spine affects your shoulder.

When one link in that chain breaks down, the rest compensates. And compensation feels fine... until it doesn't.

This is where most rehab fails. People strengthen the painful area, but they never address the ROOT of the chain reaction. So the pain comes back.

3DMAPS analyzes all 66 joint motions across three planes of movement. We trace the entire chain—anterior, posterior, lateral, rotational—to find exactly where the breakdown started.

Once we know the real problem, we can fix it. Not just manage the symptom.

That's functional rehabilitation.

Ready to understand your chain? Visit bobfanelli.com or email bbd@bbdinfo.com

08/01/2026

The 3DMAPS Assessment: Finding Your Root Cause 🔬

Pain in your knee? The problem might be in your hip. Shoulder tension? Could be your thoracic spine.

That's the power of Applied Functional Science. I don't just treat the symptom—I trace the chain reaction through your entire body using advanced 3D biomechanical analysis.

If you've been living with chronic pain, you know how it limits everything. But here's what most people don't realize: that pain is your body's signal that something upstream is off. We find it.

66 joint motions. 3 planes of movement. One clear answer: exactly what's causing your pain and how to fix it.

This is personalized, science-backed rehab. Ready to get started? Visit bobfanelli.com or email bbd@bbdinfo.com

07/01/2026

Your Low Back is the Crossroads of Your Body 🔄

It's not the bones moving that causes pain. Instead, it's excessive motion at the joints and discs that creates stress and symptoms. And that excessive motion is always caused by restrictions above or below the lumbar spine. from your legs and pelvis flow UP to your thoracic spine and arms.

When this movement flow—your kinetic chain—is restricted anywhere, your low back develops symptoms.

Here's the critical insight most low back pain programs miss:

The problem isn't motion. It's EXCESSIVE motion at individual joints caused by LIMITED motion elsewhere in the chain.

It's not the bones moving that causes pain. Rather, it's excessive motion at the joints and discs that creates stress and symptoms. And that excessive motion is always caused by restrictions above or below the lumbar spine.

This is why traditional "lumbar stabilization" programs that limit motion are ill-conceived. Instead, we need to:

✅ Promote bone motion in all three planes
✅ Normalize relative motion between vertebrae
✅ Find and fix the bottlenecks in your kinetic chain

Using 3DMAPS, we assess your entire movement system:

**"Bottom-up" causes:** Ankle/subtalar restrictions, leg length inequality, hip motion limitations
**"Top-down" causes:** Shoulder, cervical, and thoracic spine restrictions

By identifying these bottlenecks—not just treating symptoms—we change your advice from "don't move" to "move and enjoy" pain-free function.

Ready to find what's causing your low back pain? Let's assess and restore. 💪

07/01/2026

Ever wonder what happens during a biomechanical assessment? 🔍

This is where it all starts. Using 3DMAPS technology, I analyze 66 different joint motions across three planes to find the ROOT CAUSE of your pain—not just the symptom.

Most people get told "rest it" or "do these exercises." But what if the real problem is somewhere else entirely? That's what we uncover here.

Watch as we identify exactly where your movement is compensating. Your body's incredibly smart—it adapts around pain. But those adaptations create new problems down the line. This assessment reveals the whole story.

This isn't guesswork. It's science-driven, personalized rehab that actually works.

Ready to understand your body? Let's assess. 📲

06/01/2026

Ever wonder what happens during a biomechanical assessment? 🔍

This is where it all starts. Using 3DMAPS technology, I analyze 66 different joint motions across three planes to find the ROOT CAUSE of your pain—not just the symptom.

Most people get told "rest it" or "do these exercises." But what if the real problem is somewhere else entirely? That's what we uncover here.

Watch as we identify exactly where your movement is compensating. Your body's incredibly smart—it adapts around pain. But those adaptations create new problems down the line. This assessment reveals the whole story.

This isn't guesswork. It's science-driven, personalized rehab that actually works.

Watch as we identify exactly where your movement is compensating. Your body's incredibly smart—it adapts around pain. But those adaptations create new problems over time. This assessment reveals the whole story.

05/01/2026

Understanding the "Friends of the Knee" for Effective Rehab 🦵

Your knee doesn't work alone. It has two best friends: your hip and your foot/ankle. And understanding this relationship is fundamental to restoring pain-free movement.

Here's the biomechanics:

When you walk, your foot strikes the ground and must manage gravity, ground reaction force, mass, and momentum. These forces don't stop at your ankle—they cascade upward through your entire kinetic chain.

At the foot: subtalar eversion, abduction, and ankle dorsiflexion unlock the midtarsal joint
At the hip: flexion, adduction, and internal rotation respond to ground forces
At the knee: flexion, abduction, and internal rotation occur as a result of proximal and distal influences

This is where proprioception becomes critical. Proprioceptors throughout your lower extremity sense these motions and transduce them into electrical signals that activate your muscles. Your hip and foot/ankle muscles work eccentrically to control these forces—protecting your knee from excessive or uncontrolled motion.

The key insight: dysfunction in your hip or foot/ankle doesn't just affect those joints. It creates a chain reaction that impacts your knee. This is why we assess the whole system, not just the painful joint.

Real rehab means restoring authentic movement patterns in your hip and foot/ankle so your knee can function optimally through every step, every movement, every day.

Ready to understand your body's movement chain? Let's assess and restore. 💪

03/01/2026

🍯 PROPRIOCEPTORS PART 8: Fascia

TEST FUNCTION WITH FUNCTION.

THE FASCIAL CONNECTION

Throughout this series, we've explored how different proprioceptors turn on. But what ties it all together? FASCIA.

Fascia is the connective tissue network surrounding muscles. It's the "connected separation" that allows everything to communicate. Ruffini Corpuscles, Pacinian Corpuscles, and Free Nerve Endings have been identified throughout fascial tissue.

These mechanoreceptors respond to three-dimensional tension and deformation during movement. The same nerve ending in different tissues provides different information based on its architectural environment.

Van der Wal: "The activity of a mechanoreceptor is defined by its functional properties AND its architectural environment."

Translation: Context matters. Position matters. Movement matters.

THE BOTTOM LINE

"Movement turns on proprioceptors. Proprioceptors turn on muscles. Muscles control movement."

This is why functional assessment must test the body in three-dimensional, task-specific, context-dependent ways—the ways the body actually moves in real life.

This is why Applied Functional Science emphasizes global movement tests that invoke motion throughout the body in all three planes.

Test function with function. Measure what the body likes to do while it does it.

02/01/2026

🎨 PROPRIOCEPTORS PART 7: Golgi Tendon Organs & The Power of Context

If you work with people and exercise, your job is to create the environment where movement creates a desired result. All movement should be purposeful, not arbitrary.

MEET THE GOLGI TENDON ORGANS

Golgi Tendon Organs (GTOs) are proprioceptors located in tendons. Historically, they were thought to be purely protective—inhibiting muscle contraction when tension got too high.

But here's what's changed: Modern research shows GTOs are far more complex and context-dependent.

THE CONTEXT SHIFT

In a quiet, passive state: GTOs send inhibitory signals that reduce muscle force (protective function).

In weight-bearing, dynamic movement: The SAME GTOs send facilitating signals that enhance muscle response.

The body uses GTO information differently depending on the task and context.

THE FUNCTIONAL IMPLICATION

Passive stretching alone won't prepare you for function.

Dynamic functional flexibility—where the tendon is stressed and lengthened while the muscle actively contracts—is far superior.

Your position relative to gravity matters. If your function is upright, train upright.

Tendon lengthening under load provides the authentic combination of signals that modulates your nervous system response.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Movement creates the environment. The environment shapes proprioceptive response. Proprioceptive response controls movement.

This is why loaded, three-dimensional, functional training matters. This is why Applied Functional Science emphasizes purposeful, context-driven movement in assessment and training.

Body By Design, Inc.

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