Wellness & Beyond Health and Fitness Site
The scholars of the early modern era, from the 15th century to today’s scientists, universally agreed that the mechanical properties of the human body influence the structure, function and performance of the musculoskeletal system. The research efforts of Aristotle, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton to study mechanical effects on biological systems and organisms have contributed to formalizing a framework of the science of biomechanics. Rene Descartes, a French mathematician and scientist, surmised in the 17th century that the human body is a machine governed by mechanical principles.
However, conventional health and fitness interventions guided by the concepts of gross anatomy do not provide considerations related to mechanical interactions within the human body. They are limited to targeting predominantly muscular movements by focusing on body parts only visible to the naked eye.
The skeletal system is the largest organ system distinctly absent from current fitness and health protocols despite its crucial role in supporting mechanical properties of the human body and sustaining optimal joint movement.
To date, human movement mechanics related to skeletal joint movement have been largely ignored. While it is generally recognized that fitness enthusiasts and patients’ outcomes have lagged for decades, comprehensive efforts have not been undertaken to incorporate joint movement into existing fitness and clinical protocols.
Is
Any Physical Activity Better Than None?
Many people mistakenly believe that exercising regularly is sufficient to stay
healthy and fit. The prevailing notion is that a fitness regimen comprising of
“weights”, “cardio” and stretching addresses all of the body’s needs and any
physical activity is better than none. These are common misconceptions can lead
to your body becoming dysfunctional in the long-term.
A typical training program does not provide a rate of progression resulting in little or no fitness improvements. Unfortunately, it is widely accepted that if one exercises regularly it will be sufficient to stay fit and lack of training results has no consequences.
However, by using a workout “routine” you might assume that you keep your body conditioned while you drive your body consistently into plateau. As a result, when a plateau is reached the physical and mental condition will level off and the body will start deteriorating. This means that the body has to be constantly and properly stimulated. What makes this problem challenging is that existing approaches such as cross-training and changing a daily workout all the time or periodically have not proven to be effective.
What You Want From Your Body And What Your Body Really Needs
You might set a personal goal of running 5K, completing a triathlon and or improve your overall fitness. However, you need to learn how the body is built to move to prevent injuries and boost your performance, rather than training in a random and chaotic way.
If your workout program is focused by practicing the “correct” posture or “form” and training “hips”, “legs” or “arms” without a proper understanding of human anatomy from mechanical prospetive you will not achieve any meaningful results. For instance, conventional resistance training is intended to isolate specific muscles to build strength and it can make your body dysfunctional. Strength training discussed here aims to focus on proper movement mechanics and incorporate joint motions in all body movement to be performed.
Currently, active lifestyle and regular workouts are heavily promoted. However, most workout programs will make you reaching a plateau quickly. In addition, a sufficient attention how to move properly to avoid putting undue stress on the body is largely overlooked.
A workout-based fitness program will contribute to the loss of overall mobility and attributing the overall decline to aging exclusively is a misconception. You can certainly include workouts in your exercise program. However, your training need to devote a sufficient time to restoring, developing and maintaining a proper body movement.
Connecting Fitness Activities with Daily Life
Functional movement training can help to connect your fitness activities with daily life. For example, you will be learning how to squat properly as you stand up and take a sit every day.
Also, if you make your body more functional will develop inner desire and vitality to exercise. Training movements not muscles will help you to understand how the body is supposed to function and it will improve your body awareness.
Connecting training with your daily life activities will help you stay healthy and avoid degeneration with age. For example, learning how to bend, carry and balance will help you completing daily tasks and avoid injuries. Also, improving your walking stride will improve your functional capacity and prevent losing the ability to walk with age.
On one hand, training and medical organizations are making a significant effort to improve health and fitness across all populations. On the other hand, the current concepts of active fitness and exercise methodology in the present form are failing short of keeping human body fit and healthy. This fitness training offers a comprehensive approach by incorporating the scientific principles of the human movement and human anatomy to create effective fitness programs for keeping the human body functional, healthy and fit in the long-term.
Lenny Levin founded Wellness and Beyond and he started this business with the mission to rethink the current concepts to address the gaps and improve results related to fitness, health and wellness.