From birth, and even in the uterus, movement is life. Movement runs the brain and literally, ‘if we don’t move it, we lose it!’ This is why god forbid, if we ever have a car accident, a physical therapist is employed and assigned to come in and move your limbs for you. The movement helps our neurology to continue functioning.
So too is movement: “life”, with nature. The wind moves the trees which then drop seeds that create new sprouts and new life force. The wind also moves the sea and allows for life to thrive under the water. Worms move soil to create a healthy biome for life to grow and thrive.
Let’s look at how we are designed to move too. Since the hunter / gatherer and Palaeolithic era, we are meant to hunt, pick, pluck and gather. The movements used to do these are called Functional Movement and in fitness terms now, we call it “functional fitness”. It’s how we are designed to move. We are meant to do pull-ups when we climb trees to pick the fruits. We will squat or deadlift the animal if we hunted it, wrestled it to the ground and then consciously shared it with our whole village without letting any part go to waste. We squat as we pick and gather.
Other functional fitness movements are anything where you’re using your whole body. We have push ups too. This is the best way to exercise. Isolation exercises are only good for about ten percent of the population who really body builders and body sculptors. Let’s face it, who has time to exercise that way anyway? By moving your whole body, you can get a much more effective work out.
However if we aren’t functioning at our optimum, it’ll be difficult to move well. Make sure you’re having chiropractic check ups and practicing your mobility stretches and exercises so that you can move well, be well and think well.
You might even like to start squatting to eat, work and do other things and put your laptop on a chair whilst you squat to work from home? In other Asian cultures, they’re still squatting to work, birth, eat and go to the toilet. It’s not because they can’t afford toilets or chairs. It’s because our bodies are designed to move this way.
More information in my 5th book – Real Fit Food: intelligent nutrition and functional training.
By Andi Lew – author and certified Food, Lifestyle and Wellness Coach
