Movement is Life

Movement is life.  Without movement everything about you starts to deteriorate; your mentality, muscle tone and health.  We are talking about exercise, but more importantly we are speaking about your spine.  Your spine is designed to protect the spinal cord but also serve as the starting point for just about every body movement you can make.  The reality is that your spine is the epicenter of your health as the spinal cord tucked inside is the conduit of communication between the brain and every cell and tissue in your body.  If your spine isn’t moving the way it is supposed to from weakness or damage this can lead to decreasing nerve supply from the brain through the corresponding nerve root into the body.  This of course can lead to a magnitude of ill health and not only pain.  The possibilities are endless.  Any disease of the body can have a root in poor nerve supply resultant from poor spinal structure and motion.  How do we know if this is happening to us?  A lot of times we don’t.  As an example, when is the last time you felt your liver hurt?  That is just it, a lot of times we define our health on how we feel, but most of our body tissues don’t even have pain receptors.  It is estimated that only ten percent of our nerve system is for sensory and the rest is for function.  However, if you are experiencing neck pain, lower back pain, head aches or any number of obvious symptoms these can indicate damage or deficient spinal motion and need to be checked further.  Symptoms are not signs of age but signs of damage and disease.

We all know that an active lifestyle is a healthier one.  As we age it is common to become increasingly sedentary and what is the picture of health like as this happens?  You got it, as activity goes down, usually health is drug down with it.  It is imperative to create an active lifestyle that incorporates exercise.  The challenges that sometimes keep us from an active life have to be addressed, whether it is our limited beliefs or physical challenges.  Address them and then find an activity that you love to do with a person you love to do it with.  You may love to walk, swim, bike, run, lift weights, surge training, hike, or do yoga.  Just do something.  Oh, and get real, while moving around is great and a whole lot better than sitting and watching television, it isn’t exercise.  Exercise is an activity designed to help increase your physiological function and health.  Put a plan together and have someone hold you accountable.  Exercise and a properly functioning spine are essential for your health.