Moving Will Save Your Life

Movement. We do it on a daily basis and many of us hardly find ourselves considering the intricacies of it. Why would you? People like me who obsess over it are destined to own gyms, become physical therapists or fields of the like. My stance here today isn’t to stand upon my box or chastise but to provide an idea towards fitness involving movement.

When you move, take walking for example, it requires muscle contractions that keep things flowing throughout the body. When you sit for extended periods of time, things become backed up. On a different scale this is applied to your joints, ligaments, bones and those parts of our body we blame for our chronic pain. The thing with these structures is they are supported by muscle and not the other way around as we like to think. You don’t lean on your knee for support but rather you use the musculature surrounding the knee to support it and in return it works as it is supposed to.

This is why movement is such an important aspect to your health; mentally and physically. Muscle is one of the most abundant tissues within your body and inherently the most active. Muscle is constantly breaking down and rebuilding, creating ATP, learning about your movement, adapting to your positions and so much more. When we misuse or don’t use our muscle at all it is like shutting down the very greatest resource you have to promote your health. Without healthy muscle, you can’t move. If you can’t move, you can’t train and if you can’t train, how do you overcome your diabetes, high blood pressure or high BMI?

By training the body in various manners functional to it’s makeup we increase the activity within our muscles. We break down and rebuild bigger and stronger muscles. We become more coordinated, healthier and stronger. Because of a stronger pull on our bones, ligaments and joints, they too become stronger and prepare us for our golden years. Because we are moving and pumping high-octane blood throughout our system, we keep things moving throughout our circulatory system and at the end of it all, our heart becomes a reliable, strong supporter of everything we do. There is more to training than numbers and six-packs. Muscle, whether it shows or not, is important.