Sit Less Move More – By Chris Watts
FLEXIBILITY TRAINING
If you believe in the mind/muscle connection, then the more soft-tissue flexibility you possess the more easily and effortlessly it is to move and the more relaxed you will become as a result of unwinding the tense and entangled resistance that occurs in muscles and fascia. Restrictive movements in the soft tissue can often be from overuse and old injuries that never healed well.
Agility is the ability to move freely with less friction within the muscle fibers. Flexibility training often transcends the physical so that you adapt more easily to cope with life’s variable issues. Withstanding stress without excessive effort is the objective.
Body flexibility creates a more positive psychological and more open and expansive mindset.
Anyone can learn to improve their ability to move better.
Movement improvement is the ultimate challenge as we get older, the purpose of which is to attain a better life purpose and draw-back time. Posture improvement allows us to optimize our golf swing, tennis serve, or running stride. It just gets easier to perform any activities at higher levels. You will incur less soft tissue stress as a result of being more pliable and mobile.
Your active end of the range for each of the 360 joints will improve and you move with less effort.
Flexibility training is joint-specific so you can be perfectly mobile on one side of the body and totally hypermobile on the other. It’s like putting high octane fuel back into your car, you move faster, stronger, and with greater efficiency.
Once you begin the road to optimal flexibility you will learn that you can age gracefully and stay active much longer optimizing the way you look, feel and move.
Flexibility training is as much about how you think and perceive life and how you deal with the daily challenges. Flexibility also allows you to go out and try new sports and activities and learn new skills, it gets you out of your comfort zone and ultimately sets you up for a more extraordinary life. As the American slogan goes:” This is the first day of the rest of your life.” So, let’s start to make it better right now.
Flexibility training done well is actually easy and it requires a skill set to get you on the right track. The 2-second Active Isolated Stretching system of dynamic movements focusing on the contracting muscle on one side of the limb to release and relax the target muscles on the opposite side is the safest and most sure-fired approach to achieving quick and long-lasting results. In fitness training the first thing you start to lose is cardio-vascular efficiency, the second is strength and the last is flexibility.
Once this is attained the body will accept the new norm and adapt.
In lifestyle fitness, the first real goal is to boost energy levels. Energy output is my personal goal in all the fitness programs I do. As you get older you really want to focus on more metabolic improvements like some HIIT and some specific cardiovascular workouts with as much variety as you can possibly work with.
Speed variation is one of my big training philosophies, in general as we approach older age we tend to slow down. I am the opposite as I want people to train their neuromuscular and fascial systems to move quicker and with more agility too. Physicality is all about purpose to want to do more and go further and have lots of fun doing it too.
To do this you need to create a more efficient neuromuscular pathway or as we say in our lingo “feed” into the soft tissue removing adhesions and restrictions and allowing the oxygen-rich, alkaline fluids to travel the path of the least resistance. Performance training for your favorite sport is all about creating a more physically efficient you.
Upregulating Oxygen more efficiently and more directly into the 30 trillion cells where energy levels are determined and ultimately converted into action potential is the key thinking when performing at a higher level.
SEDENTARY LIFESTYLES
Sitting here right now writing this article I am acutely aware that I must not sit for any longer than 40 to 45 minutes as I am drying out my intervertebral, cartilaginous disks that act as a cushion for my joints. I am also compressing them as I sit. When we sit, we place 6-8 times more force on our lower lumbar disks than when we stand.
The disk is the only part of our anatomy that has no independent blood supply. It is filled with water and hyaluronic acid as well as a thick collagen matrix. Protecting one’s disks is one of the most important aspects of physical awareness that we can share with our clients as it will prevent so much hardship in the latter years when the disks begin to start their natural degeneration process. Protect your disks as a priority. This is why we spend so much time correcting poor postural patterns as the disks do not like tilts torques and rotations throughout the pelvic girdle. It grinds down the disks and weakens them to eventually lose their integrity and start to bulge and herniate.
Research also tells us that sedentary workers have a 112% increase in onset of Diabetes, Heart and cardiovascular diseases rise by 147% and back pain goes up by over 200%.
This so-called “Sitting disease” is one of the greatest problems of our modern age. Low energy output, little or no physical expenditure, low metabolic activity, less muscle mass, and poor vascularization.
The Goal: Sit less move more.
- Motion Dynamics invites you to discover the “Friction Free” movement.
- Book a complimentary 30-minute “Stretch and Align” session by appointment only.
- Call 28823397 to make an appointment or email us at: info@motiondynamics.hk