Move like it is not an option
For this ‘Pillar’ we will be referring to any kind of movement as exercise. Exercise being anything using muscular power. This includes lifting your coffee mug, climbing the stairs to your office, lifting weights, going jogging, playing in the park with your personal trainer or fighting in the title fight.
Exercise is a complicated subject. Everybody seems to know something about exercise. However, without a complete picture of how the body functions it is very easy to harm yourself (or others) with exercise, or lack thereof. In fact this is a VERY common occurrence!!
Also, there are many misconceptions about exercise that cloud our ability to accomplish our goals, or even generate momentum towards our goals. It is even possible that these misunderstandings can hurt you. This includes cardio’s role as a fat loss tactic, how our lifestyle affects our physical fitness, what role the nervous system plays, metabolic control and how fat loss actually happens.
It is also very important to discern between what our wants and our needs are when it comes to exercise. Often what we would like to see cannot occur without first analyzing and correcting what needs your body has at the present time. For example: ‘I want a six-pack’, but I NEED to put down the and exercise better!.
The want-need battle is almost always related to one of the other ‘Pillars’ of health and can
easily be corrected. It might also require services provided by other members of the health network. A quick example is being out of alignment and needing a chiropractor, needing an underlying medical condition attended to by a naturopath or not knowing how to prepare good foods and therefore straying from the healthy path because it is easier!.
Determining the inter-relationship of your needs helps us to fulfill them quicker, more effectively and lends itself not only to looking good, but reaching your goals, feeling good and being healthy at the same time.
Exercise has many different functions, it moves us around from point A to point B, controls weight and body fat, increases muscle tone, hones reflexes and enables better hormonal control. It also plays a role in control of breathing and heart rate. Exercise has been shown to better mood, increase productivity and help fend off disease as well as making us look better, it promotes self-confidence and offers us a comfortable skin to live in!
On the other hand, if done incorrectly, exercise lends itself to degenerative changes in joints, injuries and illness. See our Exercise tips for more info. Improperly done exercise can even lead to death and as such much be respected and approached with caution and is best to get a proper guide to its ‘ins’ and ‘outs’….
Knowing more about movement will help you decide what type of exercises you need to accomplish your goals: Do you need plyometrics to make you faster? Are your mesocylces set up properly so you can most effectively lose weight, would negatives help you get bigger? Will isolation movements affect your sport performance, or would functional training be better?
Exercise is not just muscle either, it deals with nervous control, motor patterns, posture, flexibility, joints, tendons, reflexes, balance… Make sure you know what you’re doing, it’s important!
Movement is fundamental to life; ensuring that our day-to-day routines are conducive to better health and physical fitness is a no-brainer. This may include personal training, jogging, walking to work, playing with your kids, skiing, skateboarding or splashing in the pool. Exercise is everywhere, and in everything we do.
Lifestyle has a way of disrupting our exercise routines; we get caught up in business, television and the internet, we commute to work and don’t have time for sports. Is it any wonder that our metabolisms slow down, we gain weight, don’t have much energy and we lose our ability to touch our toes?
We can help!
