Articulating Joints

Joints - we have them. Lots of them. There are 206 bones in the human body. Bones that are joined together at well, joints. Have you ever wondered how many total joints are in the body? I actually looked this up, the answer varies. So I'll just say that the body is simply full of joints. In the human foot alone, there are 33 movable joints. 

We are one big pile of moving joints. Do you know why we have so many joints? It is the same reason that we have so many muscles. Because we were made to move! Our entire design screams out  for us to "move!" Everything about us cries out for movement.

Our vestibular system ties us together through movement. Our muscles are strengthened and trained through movement. Our brains are developed and enhanced through movement. Our bones are connected through moving joints. Our digestive systems are even stimulated through movement. And our skin tells us of every detailed movement that it encounters. 

There is nothing about the human body that suggest that we sit motionless for most of our waking hours. There is nothing about us that suggest we  sit for anything more than a brief rest. Sitting is for resting, not living. 

Your body is supposed to be a fully functioning, strong, mobile masterpeice of movement. It is equiped with countless movement detectors and movement enablers. The only time we should ever be motionless for hours, if ever, is when we are asleep. I'm not sure about that though. Have you ever woken up with your head at the foot of the bed?

Your body was created for movement. Think about that. Most created things have a purpose. A watch is designed to tell time. A dishwasher is designed to wash dishes. A mover is designed to move. You are a mover. To not move is to deny your design. To deny your design is to starve your life. The physical key, the physical "secret" to living a healthy, strong life is movement. 

Feed your design. 

Would You Believe Me?

If I told you that you could have the body you’ve always wanted (Fit, mobile, athletic, strong) by simply moving like a child, would you believe me? Some of you reading this would believe me. What if I told you that you could lose weight and pick up your metabolism by simply moving like a child? Would you believe that, too? 

I can hear your thoughts now: “Sure, anyone could lose weight if they bounced off the walls all day long like children do. They are so full of energy” 

Yeah, that might be true, but I’m not talking about moving like a child in that respect. I am talking about simply getting on the floor each day and learning how to move again: learning to roll and crawl - things like that. Hopefully you already know how these simple childlike movements can help you move better, feel better and restore your body back to its Original Strength. However, these simple childlike movements can also help you digest better, handle stress better, and pick up your metabolism too. 

Think about it. If rolling and rocking improve your reflexive strength and movement vocabulary, if they improve the efficiency of your brain, they can also improve the efficiency of your metabolism. If you improve one facet of your body, you can improve the whole. 

Do you think kids have so much energy and are able to “bounce off the walls” because they are kids? OR, do you think it is possible that they have so much energy because they spend time moving, and keeping things “right.” Kids can eat almost anything they want (kids that move - we have a whole other discussion here for a later time!) and stay fit, healthy and active. Why? Because they move. They move like they were designed to move. They crawl, roll, skip, run, laugh, play. 

What would happen to your body if you did those things? What would happen to your stress levels? Your stress hormones? Would you be more relaxed? Would you have more energy and less inflammation if your adrenals weren’t always in fight or flight mode? Would you digest food better? Would you suffer from acid reflux in indigestion? Would your metabolism pick up and burn “red-hot”? Would you be able to bounce off the walls? 

We dismiss a lot of things kids do by saying things like: “I used to be like that when I was a kid” , “kids have so much energy” , “when you get older, the body just slows down and things wear out.” 

Do you know what you should do with thoughts like those? 

THROW THEM AWAY! 

If you buy into thoughts like that, you will live out thoughts like that. You were made to move well, sleep well, eat well, feel well. Anything less than that is living below your design. If this is you, get some gumption and go after what is yours. Stand up, get down on the floor, learn how to move again and regain your body, your mind, and your life. Do not simply chalk things up to childish ways. Look at things through a different lens. 

You can completely change your life through the lens of a child. Can you believe that? 

Do Not Settle

Once upon a time, before you could even talk, you were filled with grit and determination. You probably don't remember this, but there used to be a time when you would not settle for less than what you wanted. There was time when you were so determined to get something you worked like mad to get it and you would not let any obstacle stop you from your goal. 

What am I talking about? I have seen many babies learn how to crawl, or creep, or slither because something across the room caught their fancy, and they just had to go check it out. They had a mission, a discovery to make, and they actually learned how to move across the floor with extreme effort and determination to get to where they wanted to go. I've also witnessed many parents, myself included, pick up their child, move them back across the room to remove them from where ever it was they were going? The result? Most times the child will just set off on his mission again, undeterred and full of conviction. This used to be you.

There was a time when all of us were once innately filled with determination, grit, and a no-surrender attitude. We were all filled with the secrets of success - unrelenting stubbornness. 

If you ask me, this is proof that we were all meant to succeed, to accomplish great things, to conquer our world. 

What happened to us? Not only have we let ourselves go and become broken physically, we have allowed ourselves to become broken mentally. We were not meant to be quitters! That was never placed in us! We had to learn how to quit because we sure didn't come in this world as a quitter. 

We all need to wake up. We live in a world where a pill is chosen over movement. We live in a world where settling is chosen over conquering. We allow ourselves to let other people tell us how we should think, what we should fear, and how we should feel. We were made for success, not defeat, not surrender. 

Again, here is something we can learn from a child. Children don't wait until tomorrow to get what they want today. Children don't change their minds the first time we tell them "no." Children actually determine themselves into new creative ways to move in order to get what they want. If a child that cannot talk can do these things, so can we. Tomorrow will never, ever come. The word "no" is just a word - it is not a prophecy. Your imagination was given to you so you would use it to create, not so you could lull it to death with mindless chatter from a TV. 

Everything about you was made for success. You were never intended to settle for cholesterol pills or shiny late night informercials. You were never supposed to be filled with thoughts of fear and a bunch of "what ifs."  You were once a conqueror. It is your innate desire to overcome. Don't suffocate what was given to you from your birth. Learn how to fight again. Learn how to crawl across the room again and grab that shiny red ball that keeps begging you to come play with it. 

This world is crazy. We don't need pills. We don't need fad diets. We don't really even need microwaves. And we certainly don't need to quit and give up when things get tough. We are capable of achieving and becoming anything that we set our minds to. Deep inside all of us there lives a "no quit" attitude greater than any negative force this world has to offer. It was given to us the moment we were born. All we have to do is dust it off and exercise it again. We were not meant to settle for less.  

Forecasting and Other Prophecies

The world is changing. Some time ago it was okay, if not good, to just intuitively know things. Today, we need data. We want numbers, stats, figures and information so we can make decisions and predict the future. I get that, I have a degree in statistics after all, so part of me really understands this. But we have a tendency to take things too far. We have started taking information and making bold predictions, if not harmful curses.

Take the corrective exercise world for example. We have all kinds of movement screens we can use to see how well, or how un-well, a person can move. This is not a bad thing. These screens can point us in the right direction when it comes to trying to help a person move better. And if that was the only use of a screen, that would be great. But that is not always what we do. Sometimes we take the information, the data, that we have determined from the screen, and we make predictions, or forecasts, or curses. 

We have been taught, or we have learned ourselves, to look at movement screens and make grave statements about the person being screened. We might say things like, "Oh, look at all these asymmetries you have. You are X-times more likely to get hurt than a person who doesn't have these asymmetries.", or "If you can't move this way, you should never try to perform this exercise, your risk of injury is very high." , or "Man, I surprised you have been playing soccer this long without an injury, look at your screen scores!" You get the idea, right? We have started cursing people that we screen. 

OKAY - If you are a "screener", just breathe. I am not picking on you. I have done this in the past. I ask forgiveness for doing this, too. I was wrong. AND, I am not saying screens are evil. I am only saying we need to be careful of how we interpret the subjective information we gather from screens and we need to be mindful of what we voice to those that we do screen.

Movement screens should NEVER be used to condemn a person, or to place fear and doubt in a person. That is cancerous. Sure, there may be statistically significant data that correlates with higher risk of injury, but that doesn't mean we have to forecast that injury to the person being screened. I know people that would probably score horribly on a movement screen and yet they can outperform, and have outperformed, most of their peers for years and have never sustained one injury. Perhaps they were able to do this because they never had a seed of fear (injury) placed into their heads? 

The truth is people who climb trees have a significantly larger chance of falling out of trees than those who don't climb trees. But the people who climb trees don't think about that. They are too busy climbing. They are too busy living. Numbers and stats don't always have to have meaning. Usually they only have the value that we place on them in the first place. 

We should not be using screens to plant seeds of fear, doubt, and pending injury into people. We should only use screens, if we use them, to try to build up and improve the quality of life for the person being screened. No one needs help accumulating more fear and doubt in their lives. No one needs more reasons not to move and engage in life. We need hope, not fear.

We should all be out there climbing trees. Yes the odds of falling out of a tree are greater than they would ever be if we were never in a tree. But way up in the tree, the view is beautiful. You can see for miles. Life happens way up in the tree. Teach people how to climb.