Why do we have our bodies? Why are we blessed with such a magnificent machine? Why do we have approximately 700 muscles that move approximately 206 bones in three dimensions?
The answer to these questions gets to the center of why and how we should exercise our bodies. To answer these questions we must go way back into time and look at the course of evolution.
Every muscle in our body exists for a purpose. The human machine has been honed by the need for survival. Since the beginning of our species, certain things have always existed that have required adaptation by our species. Today we know many of these things as “laws” of physics; gravity, momentum, inertia, etc. We take many of these for granted through most of our lives. But if you want to see the awesome power of gravity, watch a newborn trying to stand up for the first time, or watch a 90 year old patient try to rise from a wheelchair. Gravity is incessant. We must face it everyday (unless you are an astronaut). So the human body has a sturdy system of bones, connective tissue, and muscle to counteract gravity. And along with that musculoskeletal system we have a complex nervous system connected to a central processing unit (brain) that helps to keep us balanced so we don’t teeter and eventually succumb to gravity.
Problem solved. Now we can move on with evolution, right?.
But wait. . .Evolution could not occur unless we reproduced. And we could not reproduce unless we lived to reproductive maturity. Most of us do nowadays. But a few thousand years ago (a blink of an eye in the course of evolution), we could easily be lunch for another animal if we could not use our muscles to move quickly. On top of this, we needed to use our bodies to procure food to sustain ourselves. So this meant hunting or gathering, fishing, or farming. All of these things required daily physical activity. It was not a choice. It was needed for survival.
Now fast forward to today in the United States. We no longer need to worry about being killed by other animals for lunch (at least most of us don’t). Food is abundant enough that we do not need to do physical activity to get food. In fact, I’ll probably expend more energy typing this article than it would take order all my groceries for the week online for home delivery. We do not need to use our muscles as much as we used to for our daily survival.
However, in a sense we still need physical activity to survive just as much as we needed it thousands of years ago. Body movement is engrained into our lives and our psyche. If we do not move we do not enjoy life fully. We do not enjoy walks with a loved one. We do not enjoy play with a child or grandchild. We do not enjoy playing golf or tennis with a friend. And when we don’t enjoy life, it affects our mental well-being. No wonder exercise is prescribed for people with many types of mental illness.
And if we do not exercise, we expose our bodies to the risk of many diseases that are caused by obesity and a sedentary lifestyle. The end result is the same as if we did not move when the saber-toothed tiger came after us a few thousand years ago; PREMATURE DEATH. It is still not a choice. We still NEED daily physical activity for survival.
So this answers the question of why we need exercise. But how do we need to exercise? Again, we need to look at evolution to answer the question. We need to look at the survival needs and functions of the human body to determine what a muscle does and how to exercise it effectively.
Walk into almost any health club and you will find several different machines to work all of the “major muscles” in the human body. Many of these machines and exercises require that you lie down or sit down. This approach is fine and dandy if you want to isolate a particular muscle to make it bigger. This is the bodybuilding approach, and has shaped much of the exercise equipment in today’s gyms.
But our glutes existed long before the Butt Blaster machine was invented, so we must need our glutes for something besides pushing a weighted platform up and down in a straight line. Our bodies are much more complicated and capable than any machine that we can create. So the best approach to train your body to prepare it for whatever your daily activities entail and to train it for survival is a functional approach based on the capabilities of the human body.
The human body has four basic functions; locomotion (walking, running, skipping, side shuffling, etc.), level changing (squat, lunging, jumping, stepping up or down), pushing or pulling, and rotating. All human movements consist of these functions. Furthermore, when we do most of these things we are standing and almost never completely balanced. So in order for exercise to be effective, we should include all four functions in a standing position in an unbalanced environment.
This is a shift from the way that we traditionally view fitness. It is a fitness revolution. Or actually I like to call it a re-evolution, because we are taking our bodies back to what our bodies are familiar with. Evolutionarily our bodies are not familiar with sitting 8-12 hours a day, then going to a gym to sit or lie for another 45 minutes to an hour to work specific muscles to the neglect of others. Our lifestyles and exercise styles are contributing to the injury and death of our magnificent bodies.
Look at exercise and physical activity as a necessary part of your existence and survival. Stand-up and do something everyday. Use your body’s capabilities to their fullest. Your body and your mind, and our species will thank you for it.
In Health,
The FitnessWise Team