Use it or lose it
Movement Is King
What is movement?
Movement is essential to life. It is involved in everything we do, yet we take it for granted as we go through our day in autopilot. Gaining an understanding of how our bodies move and how we could move better will improve our quality of life by minimizing pain and injuries. Growing older doesn’t have to be a painful experience, yet many people believe it to be so.
Why Should We Move?
You’re Not Alone. And Kai’s Here to Help!
Our body is a highly intelligent system that is continuously adapting to the situations it is exposed to. As we age, we tend to become more sedentary, and this problem is beginning at an earlier age with the increased number of desk jobs in the workforce.
Falling into this sedentary lifestyle forces the nervous system to adapt accordingly, tightening the muscles and limiting movement to become more efficient for sitting.
For example, if you slouch while you sit, the muscles in the back will begin pulling more, increasing its passive tension, and if left unresolved, can lead to back pain. Most people will think that as they get tighter and their posture worsens over time, that there’s no going back, but the reality is far less bleak.
We simply need to use this constant adaptation to our advantage. Move whenever we have time, try new things, letting the muscles in your body twist and turn, keeping them loose and relaxed. If done intelligently, it is not even necessary to do this for so many hours a day.
This is where Kai is able to guide you.
The long term consequence of ignoring your body
Maybe you’ve experienced an injury such as a pulled back or a frozen shoulder and believe it was the result of a singular event, such as lifting a heavy box or hitting a PR on a bench press, when in reality, it was many factors over time that went unnoticed because you were not sensitive to your body’s own signals.
Were you letting all the force go through the lumbar spine instead of letting the entire spine take the load? Were you neglecting locking your shoulders into the joint as you performed your bench press?
These questions often go ignored, hindering the solving of the problem at the root cause. Far too often, instead of changing these habits, it perpetuates to a point where people are forced to look to doctors to get hip replacements or spinal fusions.
While these may be temporary solutions, it doesn’t solve the core issue: ignorance of your body’s own warnings.
The issue of a predictable routine
Every morning we get out of bed and go about our day in autopilot. The more we fall into routine, the less we pay attention to what we are doing. Simply beginning to look inward and asking questions: “What am I doing now? How am I doing it? Could it be done better?” Will create a habit of paying attention to yourself, improving your awareness.
Getting started is simple; find new things — martial arts, dance, athletics — explore as many as you can. As you pay close attention, avoiding the autopilot while learning these new things, you start to become more aware of yourself — your body — and gain a better understanding of what is good and what is bad for your body.
What Kai is proficient in
Feldenkrais Method
Calisthenics
Breaking
Acrobatics
Workout
Kai’s Philosophy:
Movement Is Life
It’s simple. We need movement for our bodies to function. Breathing, eating, drinking, and talking is all instigated by movement, and without it there is no life.
As joint moves, it is able to spread the synovial fluid around its surface to keep itself lubricated, allowing for smooth movement to be maintained. As we stop moving our joints, they dry out and get rough. As the dried joints rub against each other, they begin to grind and create unnecessary friction and damage, leading to inflammation and pain. We have many joints, and these joints have so many ways in which they can move. Simply exploring these movements are going to lubricate them, keeping them healthy.
