The
Danger Of Repetitive Exercise
What
it is
One-sided repetitive exercise is an isolated movement of the
skeleton, using a very limited number of muscles (to the exclusion
of all others), repeated dozens, hundreds, thousands, and
ultimately, millions of times over and over again in the hopes
of achieving health and fitness. "One-sided" refers
to the one-dimensional linear aspect of the movements.
As mentioned above, examples include:
running, cycling, and the myriad strength-training machines
filling every gym across the country. Each of these activities
work only a few muscles, of the many, crossing joints and
hinges. Even golf falls into this category; the literal one-sided
nature of this activity is obvious. Over time, as a result
of always using the body turned and twisted to one side, there
are subtle to gross shifts in the structure which make themselves
known as neck, shoulder, arm, SI Joint, low, middle, or upper
back, hip, etc…pain.
The
Danger
The
danger of one-sided repetitive exercise is understood by first
conceptualizing what happens to the muscles and the skeleton
when you work out.
All muscles (I'm using muscles generically here when it's
really any soft tissue), all muscles cross joints, attaching
bone to bone. When a muscle is used under load it becomes
stronger. In the course of becoming stronger it contracts
and bulks up, becoming shorter and dense. Hence, we can observe
the rounded, well-defined muscles of a bodybuilder. Those
shortened, bulked-up, dense muscles now pull the 2 (or more)
bones they connect closer together. Because there is always
more than one muscle crossing any given joint, the joint gets
compressed, never symmetrically, always asymmetrically.
It's
this asymmetrical compression of the joints and hinges of
the skeleton that causes all the ensuing trouble and symptoms
of structural aging (distortion). This includes, but isn't
limited to: general stiffness and soreness, lack of mobility,
diminished performance / it's harder to move, stress/ strains/
tears in the soft tissue, cartilage deterioration, damage
to disks, and all other structural injuries.
One-sided
repetitive exercise creates tight muscles, but they are only
a symptom of the real problem. When the skeleton is pulled
out of alignment, out of whack, the quality of movement changes
and the options of movement diminishes in kind. The harder
one trains, or works out, the faster this process is speeded
along; a wonderful example of a vicious circle, or taking
one step forward and two steps back.
This
phenomenon can be observed in a runner's legs. Running is
a one-sided repetitive exercise that over time will twist
the legs out of alignment, asymmetrically compressing the
feet, ankles, knees, hip joint, and low back for starters.
Even with an untrained eye you can look at the legs of any
die-hard runner and you will see this obvious distortion at
work.
Try
this with a runner or cyclist: Place the medial arches of
the feet into a hip width (not too wide) and parallel (with
each other) position. Bend slowly at the knees, and watch
where the knees go. Each knee will point toward the opposite
foot. This clearly demonstrates the degree of distortion which
will get pronouncedly worse with each step taken, twisting
the leg more out of shape and directly affecting and putting
strain on the low back and sacroiliac joints. It doesn't stop
there, cannot stop there, because you can't pull one part
of the structure (or more accurately, the Fascial Web) out
of place without disrupting the rest of it.
Try
this: Wrap a piece of your shirt around your finger and observe
what happens through the rest of the fabric; imagine you could
watch the whole shirt under a microscope when you do this.
This is happening throughout the entire body, in every direction
imaginable, moment to moment, magnified and compounded by
all exercise, and especially, repetitive exercises.
We
like to believe, to relieve ourselves of any responsibility,
that injury incurred, like disease, is something that just
happens to us. That we're just fine, cruising along, doing
nothing wrong, and then we just get injured, like winning
an anti-lottery. We don't "get" an injury any more
than we "get" a disease; we create them by concentrated
neglect and abuse of our bodies. They are the culminating
symptoms bearing witness to the natural laws we blatantly
transgressed, either in our ignorance or our naiveté.
When
I speak of injury here, I'm not referring to impact injuries,
I'm referring to injury stemming from structural distortions
causing chronic muscle strains and pulls, and degenerating
joints and the tissue around them. These are the constant
companions of the athlete who persists in strenuous (usually,
but not limited to, repetitive) exercise and who has never
realized functional flexibility in his (her) own body. Treating
these symptoms with surgery, drugs, or more strengthening
(shortening) exercises is a quick fix at best, with questionable
results, and will ultimately only compound the original problem.
The
missing link in all the activities rampant in our culture
is Flexibility. Flexibility is not just the ability of the
body to move in strange, rubbery ways. The main reason you
want to achieve, and maintain flexibility is because it reverses
the distortion to the skeleton caused by over-shortening muscles
and decompresses the poor, thrashed joints.
Done
properly true flexibility work aligns the distorted skeleton,
decompresses asymmetrically compressed joints, and takes the
stress and strain out of the soft tissue. It re-hydrates abused
cartilage, flushing it out and fluffing it up. It opens blocked
pathways of fluid and energy flows. It synchronizes all aspects
of your being, allowing healing to take place on every level,
effortlessly.
Does
this sound like conventional stretching to you? Well, it's
not. Some other way of working with the body is called for,
something which will do all of the above, and more. That's
where Flextasy! the Functional Flexibility System® comes
in.
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