Quality of life far outweighs quantity of life

Generally speaking, I seem to be reading more and more about longevity these days. It would seem that people are obsessed with the idea of living forever. And granted, medical science is doing a wonderful job of allowing us to live longer and longer. However, as a whole, we are also experiencing more and more ailments as a result of decrepitude, poor physical fitness and lack of mobility as we age. It is about time for an intervention and a call to help people get back to basics.

Functional movements for a functioning future

Envision this. One day you find yourself suddenly unable to lift a bag of groceries from the floor to your counter. You cannot seem to find the strength to lift yourself out of your favorite chair. Or you have tripped at the bottom of your staircase, twisted your ankle and cannot pick yourself up. These sound like simple tasks, but how would it affect you if you lost the ability to complete them?

Losing the ability to handle basic, functional movements means losing the ability to care for yourself.

Functional movements are required for all our normal activities of daily living, yet these are the tasks we typically take for granted. If you lose your body's natural ability to complete basic tasks, your quality of life will radically change. When considering your body's ability to handle functional movements, the three essential areas to consider include core strength and stability, flexibility, and balance.

Core strength and stability

Core strength and abdominal muscles are often considered synonymous, but the core consists of many different muscles that run the length of the trunk and torso. When these muscles contract, they stabilize the spine, pelvis and shoulder girdle and create a solid base of support. If your core muscles are weak, you are more likely to develop conditions such as lower back pain, rotator cuff tendinitis or chronic headaches. People with weak core muscles often have poor lumbar curves and unnatural swayback of the spine, causing a great deal of stress on the lower back region. The inability to stabilize the trunk can also lead to impairments in the body's ability to transfer movements effectively between the legs and arms.

Remember the simple act of picking up a bag of groceries? Next time you perform this action, take note of what your body does. You start to bend at the torso and legs, which automatically engages your core stabilizers. While engaged, you make micro-adjustments to your balance to ensure you do not topple over, then you start the squat motion to lift the groceries from the floor. Once you have started the movement, you further engage the muscles that line your back and front torso while placing those groceries on the counter. You have just done a full body workout.

Flexibility and balance

When considering functional movements, flexibility and balance cannot be separated. But to understand how they relate to your everyday life, you should first understand the concept of proprioception, or the mind-body connection. Proprioception is the ability to sense the position, location, orientation and movement of the body and its parts.

It may sound like a very basic concept, but think about the last time you tripped and stumbled, then regained your composure instead of falling flat on your nose. Or pay close attention when you stand up out of your chair after reading this article. Your ability to sense where your limbs and body are spatially is remarkable. It is automatic and second nature. However, if you do not challenge your body and mind by working on your balance and flexibility, proprioception becomes weakened. Your body's flexibility and balance are the keys to your quality of life.

Implementing balance training into your fitness program is essential. With proper balance training, you will both improve core strength and increase joint stability and mobility. Joint stability and mobility mean the amount of resistance offered by the muscles, tendons, and tissues that surround a joint. If this resistance is fast and strong, your body can react to the dynamic or unexpected. However, if the muscles, ligaments and supporting structures are weak and slow to activate, joints will move into unnatural positions, resulting in pain and dysfunction.

Functional training for optimal health

Functional training involves movements that mimic the way our bodies work, in multiple planes and with multiple joint actions that require sufficient muscle strength, stabilization, and coordination. Equipment that can help with functional training includes stability balls, balance boards and pads, kettlebells, and medicine balls. Body weight exercises are also very effective for developing your functional fitness, including sit-ups, front and side plank exercises, V-sits, squats, back bridges, hip lifts, balancing on one leg at a time, and oblique twists.

The adage use it or lose it rings all the truer as we age. Start implementing functional fitness into your lifestyle today to ensure a capable, pain-free future.