Always Choose The Chicken

What is the secret to being strong and resilient? Well, let me ask this another way: What is the physical key/secret to being strong and resilient? It is having reflexive strength and stability. Reflexive strength is the foundation for being healthy, strong and durable. It is reflexive strength that will allow you to build and become the superhero in your imagination!

If you have read Becoming Bulletproof and Original Strength, you know that we use the words reflexive strength and reflexive stability interchangeably. Why do we do this? Well, really, they are one in the same.

In Original Strength, we define reflexive stability as your body's subconscious ability to anticipate movement before it actually moves and prepare the joints and muscles involved in that movement for that movement.  Now let's define reflexive strength. It is your body's subconscious ability to anticipate movement before it actually moves and prepare the joints and muscles involved in that movement for that movement. Yes, that's right. I just copied the definition I gave for reflexive stability and pasted it for the definition of reflexive strength. Other than the difference in pronunciation and spelling, reflexive strength and reflexive stability are pretty much the same thing.

If, however, I had to draw a line and just choose one word over the other, I would choose reflexive strength. In case the above definition(s) was a little confusing, here is a simple definition: Reflexive strength is "automatic" strength that is there for you before you need it, when you need it, and when you will need it. It is reflexive. We are not supposed to have to think about bracing our muscles to perform a pushup, or to pick up a pencil.  We should just have the natural ability to do these things without thought while our muscles do what they need to do, when they need to do it.

So why would I choose saying reflexive strength over saying reflexive stability? Because I like the chicken or the egg question: Which comes first...? Strength comes first and stability comes from strength. Strength is required for movement. Stability is "held movement". So, in my world, strength is required for stability. If I am reflexively stable, I must have reflexive strength.

What is the point to this rambling? Nothing other than reflexive strength and stability can be used interchangeably, or at least they often are. It really doesn't matter which term you use as long as you own them in your body. A reflexively strong, stable, solid center is the key to strength and vitality. It is the foundation for all the athletic qualities the human body was designed to have: strength, speed, power, fluidity, mobility, explosiveness, suppleness, endurance, etc... None of these qualities can be maximized without a reflexively strong foundation.

By the way, in case you missed it, you were made to have all of these athletic qualities. They are in you somewhere. If you own your reflexive strength, if you build your foundation and regain your original strength, you can unlock all of your body's athletic potential. You just need to use the key: reflexive strength.

How do you use the key? You do what a child does. You help your body remember what it used to do long ago. You regain the Original Strength you once had.

And, in case you are wondering, I choose the chicken. You know, "Which came first? The chicken or the egg?" The answer is simple. I always choose the chicken. You should too.

;)