Kids will be kids.

                Recently within fitness there is a return to our roots so to speak. Things like MovNat and Primal Flow have become very popular. In general these methods go deeper than just exercise the philosophy it is about getting about to nature, to our roots.  Ido Portal to paraphrase once said that exercise is just a small part of movement. All of these have in common, movement the way the body was intended to move and often doing things we did as a child. 

                Do you remember what you used to do as a child? Though the answers will be different common themes emerge. Playing outside, climbing things in different ways, crawling, getting off the ground, throwing and catching, riding bikes and running around. What about cartwheels, rolling carrying friends and stuff. 

                There is no doubt we are largely movement opportunity deprived as adults. Movement is an opportunity, this mindset alone could change your life. Getting back to basics proved to be great for my programming and getting people back to a healthier body and mind. Things like get ups and crawling has really improved many peoples quality of life. Yes I have some client’s dislike it because crawling requires us to get a little bit uncomfortable and get ups requires people to get creative as I like them to try different methods to get off the ground. The best part is even those that at first don’t like it get the benefits. Having clients tell me I hated doing those but the other day I had to get down and pick up my phone from under the bed which in the past was hard makes it all worthwhile. 

                Getting up from the ground can be hard for those that don’t do it but what about kids? Easy? Seems like it but recently a school locally banned cartwheels and other potential activities that a child could be hurt. My theory is that if we can get kids and the elderly moving well and enjoying it those in the middle of those ages will follow suit. You see if our elders lead by example it is more likely others will follow. This could prove to be infectious for kids and if kids enjoy movement it may get adults involved. It is a cycle but in order for that cycle to grow opportunities need to be offered. Let me make this clear opportunities come with risk, yes a kid could hurt themselves doing a cartwheel or fall out of a tree and break a bone. If we have a narrowing amount of opportunities as adults to move and we limit kids movement opportunities what will their future outlook be? 

                The world is full of risks and rewards, movement is one of them and to be frank if we limit the kids of the world the future risks will be even greater then a broken bone or a scraped knee. The risk we take as the generations before them is that kids may not have the quality of life or lifespan for that matter when they get into our position. What would your life be like if you weren’t active as a child? Did you have someone older then you instil a passion to move into you? What would/is life like without movement as a child?

What should I do?

This is a question that is often finished with “to lose weight”, “to get bigger” or insert your health related phrase here? Recently whilst on Reddit which I do frequent from time to time I responded to a post asking “I want to lose weight but I hate the gym. What can I do?” Now I could have posted a link to thousands of articles written by myself and many other very experienced and intelligent people. But instead I posted “The Question is not what we recommend, the question is what do you like?”

This is really the crucial question for everyone. I could go on and on about recommendations and science and some may take the advice at least for a little while. But the only things the keeps anyone and everyone coming back is finding something that they enjoy rather than doing something they think they should. You don`t need to do any research to know that people will more likely do what they enjoy rather then what they don’t enjoy. This poster hit the nail on the head “I hate the gym”. I find that so often with patients and people I speak with. They don`t like the gym and think exercise requires mandatory gym attendance. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) defines aerobic exercise as "any activity that uses large muscle groups, can be maintained continuously, and is rhythmic in nature." Most people often equate exercise to the above definition and think boring running or walking on a treadmill for ages. It certainly bores me thinking about it. But the thing to note about that definition is that it is very broad. This gives you and I a lot of room to play and be creative. 

I want to let you in on little secret often in education and motivational interviewing the teacher or interviewer will ask open ended questions and may do this “what do you think the answer is?”  We do this when interviewing someone for lifestyle changes and it works. The aim of this questioning is to force the person to give themselves answers and convince themselves of the change. Sales people will do it, they ask “on a scale of one to ten how much do you want this product?” The interviewer will then follow it up with “why wasn`t it a lower number?” They use it to get to the core of any problems and get you to convince yourself that you need this product. Have you ever had this happen? We use this to expose ambivalence. Now you may begin to see the connection to the previous paragraph. The definition of physical activity might be very broad but encompasses a lot of easy to do activities that most don’t consider. Like for example increasing your N.E.A.T (non exercise activity time) I recommend it in my weight loss activity checklist. For instance walking further to work or climbing extra stairs instead of taking the lift. Kicking the footy with friends, doing gardening all ways to improve your N.E.A.T. 

When asking “what should I do to achieve something?” often it is best to ask yourself first. You may not know what you need to do but you do know what you like. That first and biggest step to taking responsibility to find what YOU like. This will increase the likelihood of adhering to your goal.  

Now as a little addition you may have read this article and said I hate any physical activity. Really? Do you like video games? They can be used to create physical activity. Find out what you really like and use it to get physical, there is always something. The one thing I have found through all ages is that exercise that`s disguised as a game and is fun will turn everyone into an exercise lover without them knowing it.

Pop a squat

You may have heard this phrase but how often do you do it? Seriously when was the last time you popped a squat. Here comes another question at you, can you pop a squat? The other day whilst lifting with my brother who is a bit of a newbie back to the lifting world, we were speaking about squat depth and he was telling me about his numbers and he was proud and good on him. We began to squat and I noticed that he would just get to parallel.  I come from the Olympic weightlifting school of arse to grass. Science is now backing that depth is not some knee destroying bogey man so we should do it for many reasons. As we got further into the session we were talking about depth and he tells me at the gym he trains at no body he has seen and he`s been there a few months now, nobody goes beyond parallel and trainers at the gym teach people and tell people parallel is the depth they should squat to. I said,”Well we do big boy squats”. We can, we are both fairly mobile (not perfect) and we can get below parallel so we should. This meant he had to take some weight of the bar and he did and we squatted and I cued him as he did to improve some things. He remarked several times the difference between the two depths.

 It really does require more muscle activation to go deeper and get out and it requires better mobility and it requires better technique. You could make the argument against depth and for people that are restricted, injured or need to improve the technique/strength I get it and we have  many tools to deal with that. Now this could become another article about what to do to fix your squat but there`re so many articles and videos on this subject. My argument though is more than lifting weight or working out. The statement “pop a squat”, is just that, get into the bottom position of the squat and sit there. Kelly Starret of Crossfit fame (mobility wod) talks about the 10mins in the pain cave. Popping a squat and sitting there for 10 mins working the odds and ends of position and mobility and listening to your body. That is great I think and we need to make it more a part of our lives. In Asia many people squat into old age, they use it and don`t lose it. They squat from children into old age. The benefits are many, less loss of ROM (range of motion), improved strength which in old age is linked to falls and many more that can be found here http://www.naturesplatform.com/health_benefits.html

 

I pose this to you why don`t you from time to time squat and sit in the bottom position and just hang out? Not just because it`s to improve the squat but to improve your health and life. I do it regularly in fact some people know me because I do it. I have been at work and just pop a squat and sit down. It turns out my grandfather who`s in his 70`s the one I wrote about here http://therandomandthefit.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/do-you-want-to-get-fitripped-and-in.html he regularly pops a squat and just sits. Before you say “oh that’s you” and make excuses, try it after all if you begin to use it you can often get it back.