Some More Training Philosophy

So congratulations you are an adaptive organism that is in a constant state of change based on the stimulus it receives. A few more points on this because understanding this is the key to finding success when you are looking to improve your health. Go out in the sun and you will get burnt. Ok I will get burnt, you may get tan. Eat far more calories than you burn, you will gain body fat. Two very simply examples of how you adapt to change in stimulus. For this particular post lets just focus on the muscular system and how it responds to stimulus.

“If you don’t use it you’ll lose it.” This old saying is true when it comes to your muscular system. Don’t believe it, put your arm in a cast from the mid upper arm to the wrist. Leave it on for a few weeks, then take it off. Not only will it be half the size of the other arm, you also will have lost the ability to completely move your elbow. Your muscles rely on constant stimulus to maintain the neurological impulse from your brain to each of the muscle fibers in your body.

There are well over 600 muscles in the body and each of them requires the same constant stimulus to remain in an active state. What does it mean for a muscle to be in an active state? Well lets keep it very simple and say that your muscles have 2 primary functions. The first is obvious, they are responsible for the movement of the skeletal system. Second, they are responsible for the alignment of the skeletal system. I know there are many other functions of the muscular system but for the sake of this blog I want to focus on how to keep you healthy by keeping you moving. 

So lets revisit the earlier post regarding the progression we go through from infancy through the toddler stages, and into childhood. The adorable little infant lying there wigging its arms and legs in an effort to roll over onto its stomach some day is simply doing the most fundamental of all exercises, just move. They continue this phase as we talked about earlier until they are capable of doing just about anything physically. Watching my develop over the last 7 years has proven to be the best education in how to train the human body I could ever have hoped for. I have learned some great tips for parents of young children and tomorrow I will share several of these with you. For now, enjoy your Thanksgiving!