Meet Gary Stockdale | Kinesiologist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Gary Stockdale and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Gary, what is the most important factor behind your success?
That it is focused on educating people about the fundamental principles of human movement, on land and water.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am obsessed with functional anatomy, postural biomechanics and the myriad ways humans express movement.

I began my career over 20 years ago in aquatics, further enhanced my aquatic and general movement prowess through my degree and then spent nearly a decade working in physical therapy refining the “ground-up” fundamentals of rehabilitation.

Throughout my education in the field of human movement, I have been privileged to learn from a great number of knowledgeable teachers and mentors, resulting in a distilled philosophy that both clarifies the human experience and makes bodies feel good.

That is what I seek to share with the world.

What further distinguishes me as a person of service is my commitment to education. The culture around physical fitness is wrought with disinformation and limited ideologies about what the human body wants, is expressing and what it deserves.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
There are so many fun ways to spend a week in Ventura and L.A. county. Beach days would consist of Trench digging workouts followed by body surfing sessions or just a casual roll about the waves. You can’t run out of hiking trails and beautiful views. Places like Moody Rooster and Model Citizen are great examples of cuisine that honor our local farmers and move with the seasons, let alone their showcasing of some of the county’s up and coming wine makers.

All that being said, my life is wildly too busy to entertain anyone for a week.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My wife was my inspiration for getting into aquatics, which began my career as a movement educator.

My professor, Dr. Robert Schleihauf, significantly expanded upon my aquatic understanding, through advanced biomechanical analysis of stroke dynamics.

My movement mentor, Dan Kinney, introduced me to the fundamentals of functional movement, helped refine my understanding of tri-planar movement and helped me develop “ground up” sense of physical rehabilitation.

Among a number of other noteworthy influences is the “Anatomy Trains” text, for it’s discussion of myofascial meridians and the structural principle of tensegrity.

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