Action Steps to Improve How You Move

Now that you’ve got all the junk food cleaned out of your house and re-stocked with whole, natural, live foods, it’s time to clean up your physical health.

Here are 7 action steps to breathe some life back in to your step:

1. Invest more energy. Movement is a vital nutrient to your body just as much as food, water, nerve supply, or oxygen.  Your genes and every cell in your body expect energy expenditure because our ancestors were extremely active.  If they didn’t stay active and functional then they did not survive, plain and simple

• Action: Add activity everywhere in your life, everyday.

2. Time for spring training. This is not a choice!  There is no pill, shot, or magic bullet that can replace a little sweat equity.  If you don’t like it then you can blame your ancestors who were forced to perform daily physical activities just to ensure their survival.  Exercise is a supplement to your already active life and it is not used as a treatment for being out of shape or sick.

• Action: Exercise daily for 30+ minutes. 

3. Ramp-up your intensity.  Intensity is the key to gaining maximal health benefits and energy expenditure.  Here's one case where efficiency is not a good thing. More steps and more movements are what you're after. If you don’t have a sweat-on when you’re cleaning the bathroom you’re slacking. When you ramp the intensity of your activity you boost the set-point of your thermostat (AKA your metabolism) and your body torches calories even hours after you cool-off.

• Action: Pick up the pace. 

4. Move like your ancestors did.  There are movements that mimic motor recruitment patterns that are found in everyday life. Others are somewhat unique to the gym. Squatting is standing from a seated position; deadlifting is picking any object off the ground. These are both functional movements. Natural movement typically involves the movement of multiple joints for every activity.

• Action: Use functional movements in your daily exercise routine

5. Get your spine nervous system checked regularly. Once you add more activity to your life, exercise daily with more intensity, and include functional movements, your spine and nervous system will rejoice. You will experience a whole myriad of spinal and neurological health benefits but some of the most important are the activation of your neuroendocrine response, stimulation of proprioception, and keeping your spinal discs healthy with micro-movements of the spine called imbibition. But none of these health benefits are possible without proper joint mechanics and nerve function.  Subluxations, or vertebrae jarred out of their healthy position, must be removed regularly to attain overall body health and optimal function.

• Action: Get adjusted regularly and get your friends and family checked so they can experience 100% health and function too!

6. Watch your posture.  Stand up straight, pull your shoulders back, stand on both feet, suck your gut in, don’t slouch! Yeah, yeah, you’ve heard this a hundred times from your mom and your chiropractor.  But do you listen? Maybe it’s time to own the consequences of what happens if you sit there with forward head posture sniffing the computer screen all day, or sit in your car with a toxic posture for two hours straight without a break.  Your spine deteriorates, your nervous system becomes stressed, your body breaks down, and you get sick suffering.

• Action:  Audit your work station.
• Action: Sit with perfect posture in your car.

7. Rest and repair.  One thing piles on the next, the stress mounts, you’re on over-drive and lack of sleep for too long and BAM you’re down for the count for a few days.  This is your body’s way of telling you that you’ve pushed past your limits and it forces you to shut down for a while.  You should never wait for your body to force you to take a break.  Rest and repair is NOT a luxury it is a NECESSITY.

• Action: Get to bed before midnight and get the sleep you need.
• Action: Take 15 minute naps during the day. 
• Action: Schedule a vacation. 

Visit our website to learn more about Franson Family Chiropractic and the BonfireHealth program.