Some basics of Fitness philosophy

So do you have an answer? How is it that we are at our best when we are young children when there is not a extremely overpriced piece of equipment we sit down on or we are not paying a trainer to make us do exercises that may or may not be what our body needs to be healthy? Common Guesses I hear are, "well your still growing so your body is more limber" or I love this one, "our muscles and joints are just healthier when we are young". Here is the real reason we are at our best when we are young. You can try to argue this if you want but I think it is so basic that there is not much of a valid argument against it.

When we are born, or created, or evolved, or whatever else you may believe in, we have a very instinctive mechanism that our body works with. When we are born or in most opinions, even in the womb our body begins to respond to stimulus. There is literally tons of research my wife would read to me from her 50 pregnancy books about how while in the womb your child is reacting to light, sounds, the foods the mother eats, the stress levels she may have, and many other sources. The same is true upon our birth. we spend the first few weeks or even months of life simply responding to stimulus. We learn hot from cold, hungry from full, loved from abandoned and thousands of other forms of stimulus. We are also unconsciously doing some very specific things that I feel are completely instinctive. I truly believe that our bodies are wanting to be challenged and moved at all times.

It was such a blessing to watch my kids develop because I was able to witness all of this first hand. I have a son who is 7, and two daughters, 4, and 2. I can remember them laying on their backs kicking and wiggling and waving their arms. I thought it was cute but really they were exercising. They knew that in order for their little bodies to become more efficient they needed to supply stimulus to their muscular system. I will not bother you with the intricacies of how the body really does this from the creation of a neurological signal to the various components and chemical reactions of a muscle contraction. Just trust me it is extremely complex and ultimately is a perfect system.

To keep this short we spend the first 3- 4 years of our life in a constant state of challenging our bodies to become more efficient to allow for proper movement of the skeletal system. Brian Cassidy from ADAPT Training called this "Natures Strength Progression".He realized that our bodies followed a specific pattern of development. A baby starts Supine or on its back, then its first major accomplishment is to be able to roll over onto its stomach, otherwise known as a prone position. From there we develop the ability to get up onto our hands and knees, then eventually stand and walk and run.  

We can get more in depth into this concept later but the key I want you to understand is that for our bodies to be able to perform the way we want we must be able to supply the right type of stimulus to our muscular system. Next post we will get into how this pertains to exercise and how many trainers are completely missing the boat on this one. Remember an exercise is simply a form of stimulus, the key is how do you determine what type of stimulus is right for your body. I'll do my best to teach you that very thing.