Muscles in Motion
Muscles, use it or lose it. Muscles are like motion sponges, they soak up motion and expand, or in a motionless drought, they dry up. They consume oxygen-laden blood to support increased activity levels. No work no food. However the simple act of flexing and relaxing the shoulder muscle provides enough motion to activate and strengthen the muscle.
Muscles are simple, they contract or twitch, when zapped by bioelectrical energy, a bundle of muscle fiber shortens in length. One end is anchored to a relatively stationary bone and the other end to a more mobile bone. The shortening nature draws bones closer together. The overall design length remains roughly constant.
Our muscles work in
pairs, flexion pulls bones closer and extension pulls them
apart.
Its a tug of war between hopefully equal strength muscles. Some
muscles main job is to stabilize joints to allow them to open
and close smoothly.
Nerves
Muscular Pain is nothing more than a message sent by the nerves. We need to learn how to decode it!
Moving the Body
Moving the human body requires coordination and teamwork. All load bearing joints, shoulders, hips, knees and ankles and there attendant muscles are involved in walking. Moving the body requires the teamwork of each team member to have strength and be functionally able to do its assigned role.
Misalignment is the cause of dysfunctional muscles not doing their job, because lack of stimulus has made them bilaterally to strong, weak, loose or tight. This is what a postural alignment specialist sees in your alignment. Get a mirror and you can see it too.
Our Central Nervous System
The
muscle is an organized collection of fibers with spindles and
receptors strategically placed among them. These spindles
and receptors relay information to the central nervous system
about our movement. If we have regular movement in a variety of
motions the body can easily accommodate whatever the physical
demands we placed on it.
However if our movement is constantly
restricted by sitting, driving etc, when our muscles are asked
to move in a position that is not normal, the spindles and
receptors are caught by surprised and do not know how to
make the movement. So the Central Nervous systems warns
the body to be careful. If the motion is too sudden or violent
like a fall they trigger a stretch reflex, which orders the
muscles to contract to protect itself. Its like touching a hot
stove.
Stiffness is not because of our Poor Design
If we sit at
a desk all year and suddenly decide to get active, we get stiff.
The body doesn't understand that you have suddenly decide to get
in shape. It still is trying to protect itself. The spindles and
receptors have concluded that normal means sitting at a desk and
it is now being push beyond its safe limits.
Body's Design Restored by functional
Exercises
The body
always remembers its design memory, so when you start changing
the stimulus with exercises the body has no choice, it changes.
The goal is to allow the body to return to its birthright, its
design template, and it can because it never forgets the memory.
All we're doing is providing the necessary stimulus by doing the
simple exercises.
