How To Maintain A Healthy Weight

There can be many possibilities as to why we as a society continue struggle with our health and maintaining a healthy weight. One of the first things people do is cut back their calories or even start an exercise program; these are great starting points.

One common over-looked aspect of our health is, the quality of our movement (or lack there of) and how often we actually move.

The Cascading Effect

➣ If we move poorly

➣ We will not use energy efficiently

➣ If we do move efficiently, we cannot become stronger.

➣ If we are not getting stronger, we are not able to burn calories.

➣ The less calories we burn, the harder it will be maintaining a healthy weight.

Strength vs. Mobility

I'm part of a company that educates the world on strength, and that strength is the mother quality. This company is called StrongFirst. Many fitness pros. have a hard time with the name.

I've heard things like, what about mobility and flexibility? If you're not mobile or flexible how can you even use your strength? These are very good points. But, keep in mind the company is named StrongFirst not StongOnly.  Of course mobility and movement quality is important! It would be reckless to think otherwise.
But here's the thing...

Strength and mobility are not mutually exclusive. You must be mobile enough to express your true strength; and to express your true mobility and flexibility, you must use your strength.

It's kinda like this: 

Imagine a 9 month old baby; it comes into the world with mobility right? What's the first movement is has besides it's first breath? It begins to move it's head, only it's too weak to lift it.

To a newborn baby it's head is roughly 2/3 of it's body weight; that would  be the equivalent of you and I walking around with a 50 pound football helmet on our head daily. This is the baby's first form of strength training.

Once the baby gets stronger [from it's neck] it learns to roll over, posterior rock and eventually, crawl. In time it will make it's way to some sort of chair or table. Here is where little Hec (my son) will attempt his first squat; as he pushes down with his hands and stands up (first squat), what do you think got him to that moment of standing? If you said, strength, give yourself a pat on the back.

Movement/mobility isn't what helped him achieve the squat, it was strength that made this possible. So, if health is not a issue, then strength MUST always be our first priority.  At the end of the you can't have one without the other.

Exercises Is Only A Bandaid 

I mentioned earlier about our lack of movement throughout the day. Now, when I say movement, I'm not just talking about getting up and going to work; I'm also not even talking about working out.

Did you know that working out/exercises is only treating a symptom? Yep, it's simply putting a bandaid on a bigger issuer.

You see, as a society, we no longer play (for fun) anymore.
Things like: 

• Running, skipping, and sprinting
• Crawling, climbing and hanging
• Playing games
• Riding bikes (remember riding bikes in the summer till night? Ah!)

Since we are no longer partaking in playful things like this, our body is starved for it, so to feed that hunger, we exercise.

I get it, we're all busy now since we are grown ups. But, have you ever seen the joy on a kids face when their running around like crazy, skipping, and crawling under things? This was exercise 50+ years ago. 

Movement is innate, it's always been there. So...

For the 3  people that read this far, I have a little movement snack for you 🙂

This little movement snack will not only help you improve your quality of movement, it will also improve your strength and ability to maintain a healthy weight.

This can be used as a warm up prior to exercise, a cool down after exercise, or a stand alone practice for the day.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes.

-Hec

P.P.S. – If you liked this post and enjoyed today's episode, they you're gonna love...