The Human Body

The human body is both a magical and mechanical work of art. Due to its unique pattern of design, it is capable of abundant amounts of movement. The ability to walk, crawl, jump, run, and climb are all part of a unique system of movement. Ever heard the saying “Move it or lose it” ? Well, that ties into what I’m about to tell you now. One of the reasons our bodies are so special, is because they have the ability to heal themselves. Within your fascial tissue are cells that create fascial adhesions. They do this to provide extra stability and restrict painful movement whilst the damaged, injured, and/or sprained tissue is being repaired. Fascia is a continuous web of connective tissue that exists throughout your body. Your ligaments, tendons, bones, organs, and muscles are connected through this web. It consists of several layers: a deep fascia, a superficial fascia, and a subserous fascia. The restricted movement works out in the injured party’s favor, because it allows the healing process while still granting your body some freedom to move.

 

Now, back to the idiom. You see, when you do not get sufficient adequate functional movement, you no longer put your mechanical “engine” to use. This causes a gradual cessation in the healing process because restrictive adhesions don’t get broken down. Restrictive adhesions are the cells in tissue that build up and restrict any harmful or painful movement to protect the injured or damaged tissue. Instead, lack of movement communicates to your body that you continue to be injured and so it continues to build up even more adhesions to further stabilize and restrict motion around the injured areas. Eventually, these fascial adhesions become so thick and strong that you permanently lose your full range of function and motion. Examples of this include: losing the ability to fully turn your head in one or both directions, the ability to raise your arms fully over your head while maintaining a stable spine and scapula, the ability to perform a deep squat with both feet flat on the floor; the ability to walk, run or sprint without experiencing any sort of pain. Without enough functional movement, your body automatically assumes that you are in a continual state of injury, and over time this becomes a full-time reality.

 

I believe it is safe to say that the intensity of our daily movement has softned immensly. Nowadays, if we have to travel a block or two, we drive or take the bus as opposed to walking there or doing so much as to ride a bike. We, as human beings do not use our bodies on a daily basis the way it has been designed to be utilized. Our body needs functional movement. It needs to move the way it was built to move. Now, before you say that you work out, you must recognize and understand that doing things like running and/or weight training are only a small slice of the functional training cake. They do not utilize the postural stability and functional movement patterns that our body longs for. Even if you run or lift weights 7 days a week, if you don’t lift your arm over your head, over time you will lose the ability to do so. Basically, when our body realizes that no functional movement pattern is being used, it feels that its almost the same as not moving at all. And as I said earlier, if you don’t use it, you lose it.