And other quick fix systems fall short
Across the last ten years the number of methods and programs available for self-help and personal improvement has increased exponentially, with each proclaiming its superiority over all others.
In today’s ‘quick fix’ society, where almost every need can be met by a tap on a screen, most people have come to expect simple solutions to even the most complicated problems, both mental and physical. This desire for quick solutions to physical problems shows up in every fitness class, every diet structure, and every appointment made with a GP, physical therapist, massage therapist, etc. What we forget is that any health issues present have occurred over decades of repeated (and usually unintended) mistreatment of our bodies and minds.
Body Fit takes the LONG TERM solution approach
At Body Fit Solutions, our health, fitness, and movement professionals consistently work with people living with postural imbalances created by years of poor movement patterns, sedentary lifestyles, injuries, and high stress levels. Many individuals believe their poor health is irreversible or that it is a result of aging; this mindset can lead to a feeling of hopelessness.
There are two things that could happen:
- They seek professional help to reduce their pain
- They give up
Bodyfit Solutions has a blueprint for reducing and correcting these dysfunctions and to help people improve their physical and mental health and their relationship with their body, but it isn’t a quick fix…..
It needs to be a lifestyle change that will better your relationship with your body and how it works. You will have to take time to do your homework….yes. I bet you are thinking, since when do I go to an exercise class and get homework…..yuck. Well this is the problem. There is culture of people turning up to fitness/bootcamp/HIIT classes with no clue of their bodies condition, with instructors with no clue about how the body really works and damaging and amplifying their dysfunctional movements further. There is a mindset of disconnect from the body, a lack of body awareness, of ignoring the signs from your muscles or joints that they are not happy, and suffering in pain in silence.
Guess what….pain ISNT normal.
No pain no gain is bullshit.
People in pain do NOT make any gains. They lose function.
When functional training is done right it involves re-educating the body. If you are moving badly, working harder and pushing further will not fix it. You have to strip it back, identify the areas of tightness and weakness and slowly put the groundwork in to bring it back to a more level state.
Only then can you rebuild, retension and rewire the correct muscle activation to produce better movements. And that doesn’t involve press ups, burpees and deadlifts. It has to involve activities that are designed for our evolutionary blueprint. The thing that makes us unique to every other animal is that we walk on two feet and our legs move in opposition to each other and in relation to our upper body. When we do isolated movements or things with two legs moving together this doesn’t help our function. You can sweat your brains off doing loads of dysfunctional cardio but your ankle, knee and hip will be confused. Your muscles will start adapting to this foreign action and rewire to be tight when they should be fluid or be fluid when they should be tight. We shift the wiring of our system and over time this will lead to pain and injury.
The surge of joint problems at the moment is down to our current social and cultural behaviors
I believe that the surge of knee and hip replacements and overall joint pathologies like slipped disks and arthritis in our society is partly due to our new highly sedentary, seated lifestyles. According to the British Heart Foundation the average person in the UK sits 9.5 hours a day.
Many people understand this and aim to be more active and healthy but unfortunately resort to NON-FUNCTIONAL training that leaves them really hypermobile or very tight and restricted. When our ancestors had to go hunting for food, grow their own crops, build their own shelters and walk for miles every day they didn’t need to worry about going to the gym or doing cross fit or yoga. They just lived. In our current society, where we don’t have to get off our seats to do much any more, there has been a big push for everyone to count their steps, use Fit Bits and start doing Couch to 5km type incentives. This is great in theory but these people, who sometimes have done no structured exercise, are getting into restrictive trainers and going for shuffles around the neighborhood with no clue of their own faulty patterns and the negative impact they are causing. The sad things is that they are doing it for really good reasons, but the result is not so positive.
How does Body Fit do things differently
We help you recognize faulty bio mechanics in your body and teach you how to exchange those patterns for efficient and healthy ways of moving. Change is never easy; it may take a few months or even years. In our forty years’ combined experience, we have learned that ‘quick fix’ solutions do not serve your body well and generally contribute to, not reduce, problems. Are you prepared to put in the long-term work to correct the imbalances in your body? If you are, please come and see us. In changing your mindset regarding the more traditional exercise methods (e.g. unhelpful stretches, lifting heavy weights, high-impact training) as well as poor eating habits, you will find that your relationship with your body and mind improves.
But how? People juggle between diets, stretches, manual therapists, exercises, and painkillers in hopes of finding balance in their bodies. Balance comes from aligning our bodies in relation to how we were designed to move as humans…..walking, running and throwing movements best follow our human evolution. Strength is only relative to the task at hand. Because most of us are not elite athletes, overtraining in any area provides no benefit to our health and wellbeing. Instead, we should consider that walking is our primary movement activity, and aim to make this, and our other daily movements, as efficient, functional, and effortless as possible.
Human biology is resilient, but not invincible!
Functional training is exercise related to the way we (should!) live. Bodyfit Solutions training methods are designed to help you regain correct posture, stability, core strength, and efficient movement patterns. All training must respect walking, running and throwing pattern and develop the right wiring of the muscles, bones and joints to do so. If you want to be mentally and physically balanced as a human, avoid joint pain and trauma, feel that everyday movements become easier, sleep better and live longer….then take time to listen to your body, be kind to it and service it so that it can perform to its optimum. Aim to get good at human movement and the world of mental and physical balance will be yours.
Book our FULL BODY MOT sessions to discover how your body is functioning and how you can make it work better long term. Or join our 8 Week Fitness program and build a routine of good quality exercise and natural nutrition for long term health.