Improving The Way We Move

A lot of new training programs such as P90X (www.beachbody.com) and Crossfit (http://www.crossfit.com) are based upon conditioning the body to work as a more efficient machine. As a person in the exercise and rehab field I love to see these types of workouts. They are light on the usage of weights and focused on teaching you how to move your own weight better. Functionality is a very important aspect of the exercise. Getting out of bed, walking up the stairs, lifting a suitcase are common activities in daily life. These require that we not only be able to support our own weight i.e. standing, but also balancing ourselves as we move dynamically. For this end, it is always important to incorporate a lot closed kinetic chain activities into your exercise routine.

Research has shown that closed kinetic chain exercises or weight bearing activities offer a functional and safe approach to exercise, rehab, and the prevention of chronic disorders such as arthritis and osteoporosis. ACSM defines as an exercise that requires the use of an adjacent joint. Other sources define it as a movement in which the hand or the foot is on constant contact with a stable surface. A bicep curl, for example, only requires elbow rotation. A squat, a push-up, a pull-up, a dip, can be considered a closed chain movement. The advantage to using these forms of exercise is that use a variety of muscle groups simultaneously, helping the muscular as well as the cardiovascular system work stringer for longer.

If you want to be have big, bulging, bodybuilder type muscles, it will require lifting heavy weights. Weight much more than your own body weight at times. This look is naturally unsustainable and requires that you always lift heavy. Your body is not designed to regularly take some of these heavy weight stresses. More often than not, you’ll end up with shoulder, knee, and back pain that will haunt you the rest of your life. In real life situations, it is rare that you will ever be asked to life more than yourself. Although bench pressing 250+ lbs. is a terrific feat of upper body strength if you are 180 lbs., the stress that you are putting on your joints runs the unnecessary risk of permanent injury. Long-term, you’ll likely develop arthritis in the shoulders and knees, and chronic and possibly crippling back pain.

The most logical way to train your muscles, bones, and rest of your body is to teach it to deal with the stresses that it will regularly face. Activities such as playing sports, facing a long flight of stairs, carrying the groceries or moving furniture. Anything more than that is overkill. Focus on a solid and muscular physique, without necessarily having huge bulges popping out of the body. You will still feel and look terrific. As a matter of fact, the wannabe body builder look really doesn’t look to appealing very often.

Give The People What They Want!

I was online doing some research/surfing and going through the myriad of websites dedicated to helping people lose weight. I found it interesting how most of the ads pushed health first, and looks second. First let me point out that there definitely isn’t a shortage of gyms, personal trainers, and specialized health/fitness services out there. If you care about being healthy and losing weight, I PROMISE that there is someone out there that has the solution for you. My observation was more along the lines of how most people I know don’t work out at all thinking about their health first. More often than not, they are complaining about the flab behind their arms and on their bellies. Life free from diabetes, chronic heart or lung disease can be enticing, but looking better naked and impressing people is typically the dominant reason. Health ranks somewhere on the list of reasons as to why most people work out, but it’s certainly not at the top. They say that if they can take a pill to be fit, they’d just do that.
So why are fitness and health professionals (I’m guilty of this too), still pushing health first and looks second? Let’s just call it like it is. I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with that. My goal in this field and in my life generally is to help people live healthier, which can ultimately lead to them living happier. It sounds very soothing and pleasant, but, I think that people would much rather hear about how their flat stomach and tight butt will have their husband or wife chasing them around the house again or have the single people at the bar battle for their attention. If I tell people what they want to hear, give them what they want, and fool them into living healthy lifestyles while I’m doing it, then my karma has done no wrong, right?
Ironically, I am often annoyed by those ads and professionals pushing claims to be able to change your body in a few weeks and transform you into a healthy and happy person with the use of some ridiculous machine or some very unappealing diet. I’m annoyed because these things actually do sell. They sell to the people that are in need of sound, professional advice the most. Then when the diet doesn’t work and the machine becomes a new coat rack or book shelf (the most interesting adaptation I have seen is a display rack for Friday night outfits), these people are so discouraged that they don’t want to hear what I have to say. Meanwhile, what I have to say really can transform them into healthy and happy people and is probably the most effective way to manage weight throughout their whole lives.
So where is all this going? To announce to all that are listening that I am not going to try to change your unhealthy, lazy, self- destructive habits with soothing thoughts of a long and healthy life. Nope. You guys kind of don’t care. From now on, I’m going to give you what you want: a trim and sexy body that glistens longingly in the moonlight so that your partner, your date, or that random person at the bar, can’t keep their hands of you.