Building a fit house

You may or may not have gazed over our “defining fitness” read we shared a little while ago… Well this is a little more detail beyond actually defining.

One of our favourite examples to put individual “perspective” into being fitter is using the building of a house.

Before we dive into it, you must know that if you are injured or in pain, you probably shouldn’t consider yourself at your “fittest”.

Back to the building analogy.

One of the inaugural parts of building a house is the laying of the foundations. Regardless of what is built on the foundations, it is an imperative part of a building and will ultimately determine the success or failure of the project.

Well your body is much the same.

To achieve decent feats in fitness, you MUST have a solid foundation (movement patterns) to do so. Or else life will simply catch up with you and your building (body) will give way and come crashing down on you (injured).

So, how do you know if you have a solid foundation to build your fit house?

Well, there is a good chance you don’t.

Once we are born, we spend the first few years of our life learning sh*t loads, movement being one of them - it goes something like this:

• We very quickly learn to breathe.

• We wriggle around on the floor for a while.

• We start tummy time.

• We crawl.

• We stand and squat.

• We walk.

• We fall.

• We walk faster.

• We run.

• We jump.

AND THEN WE GO TO SCHOOL AND GET SHOVED INTO A CHAIR AND SLAM THE BRAKES ON THE BEAUTIFUL MOVEMENT LEARNING JOURNEY WE’VE BEEN ON FOR THE LAST 4/5 YEARS.

The bit of sport and phys ed hardly counts – just look at the stats on obesity in Australia.

We hit somewhere between 20 and 50 and suddenly decide “I better do something about my fitness”. But by now, the once freely moving body has no idea how to recruit the right muscle to generate the necessary force required to jump on a box.

No idea how to recruit the abdominals to support the spine during a burpee…

The list goes on.

It’s like asking yourself to play and sing Wonderwall in front of 50 people and you’ve never picked up a guitar – madness.

Yet there you are, trying our hardest at HIIT classes thinking all will be fine.

HOWEVER!

The solution is a little more simple than you may think.

Go back to where it all started when you were born…

• Learn to breathe (yes you’re probably breathing wrong – yoga helps).

• Learn to lay on the floor and recruit your muscles (Pilates for those that have never experienced it).

• Learn to apply your newly recruited muscles into large movement patterns (squatting, jumping, running).

• MAKE TIME to constantly work on maintaining these skills.

• Strive to develop these skills beyond your perceived capacity (yes, learn to do handstands no matter how old you are - they are fun as!).

SO, before you jump into your next HIIT class, or quit your next gym membership because your injured, take a moment to consider if you have even laid a solid movement foundation.

And if you’re desperate to do so and have no where to look, get in touch with us - it’s our speciality.

#teamSOF