Extend Yourself

February 12, 2017 –

Many of you have heard me talk about posture, retraction, stabilization, and extension.  All of these truly are synonymous for the opening of your body.  We were all born in a closed body, or in fetal position.  That happens to be the safest position to be in coming into this life because your reproductive organs are completely protected, your body temperature is at peak temperature, and the skeleton is thoroughly stable and designed for self-preservation.  LIFE however is about extension of ones self!  Think about it, fetal position and at birth the first thing a baby gets to enjoy is extension by hanging from the feet (the Dr. method) or held along the spine, and the baby rejoices as it extends its joints!  It is alive!

With life, along comes Father time and the aging process; the effects of gravity, muscular weakness.  Our physiology actually pulls the body back into fetal position, our origin.  Think quickly of your Grandparents, if they were not working on extension of their joints in life … many of them end up hunched over, taking small steps with very rounded shoulders, bent elbows and wrists with a head looking down.  So the skull pulls the neck (forward and down), the shoulders are pulled by the musculature of the arms and chest (foreword and down), the spine with gravity moves forward and down, hips and knees begin to weaken  and the load on top of them starts making the process of bending or sitting difficult.

Extend yourself!!!

Nearly all of the activities we practice here at F.I.T. are working in some form of extension.  Calisthenics, dumbbells, barbells, machine loaded, tubing, TRX, or combinations of all different modes of exercise, we work on posture and balance, extending our bodies.

As the old saying goes, ‘use it or lose it.’

In good health,

Bob

“Movement is the song of the body” – Vanda Scaravelli