Movement - Another way to adjust our neurons and optomize just about any aspect of our lives is to ensure proper and adequate movement.

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For optimizing athletic performance the body requires certain stressors to the body which are not exactly good for optimizing health. For example long distance runners may have great endurance but usually suffer muscle and joint problems.

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Optimizing health (and whatever you came to this website for) is really quite simple: put your body through occasional but regular multi functional exercises.

 

Multi-functional exercises means such things as using my body for the many functions for which it was designed and intended, such as pushing, pulling, running, walking, climbing, squatting, twisting, lifting, throwing, and so on. 

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 If you have a physical job like farming or construction, you most likely do all these things already. If you have a sedentary profession, then exercising with these motions in mind will keep your body fit

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 Both too much and too little exercise will have a negative effect on the body. Over-exercising can wear out your joints, break down muscle, weaken the immune system, and leave you tired. Too little exercise speaks for itself—use it or lose it! Not only will sufficient exercise keep your muscles intact, it will also increase your energy, aid in digestion, and move fluids through your system.

 

When you feel the urge to indulge in an Unhealthyolic behavior, get up and get moving. Go for a walk, a bike ride, a run, a swim, climb a hill, climb a tree (be careful!), lift weights, plant a garden, build something with wood, or do anything else that gets your blood flowing. Using your body will send natural endorphins into your bloodstream that will give you a euphoric feeling and may alleviate the craving. 

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Remember that too much exercise wears the muscles and joints down; not enough body-use makes the body weak and unhealthy. Having operated numerous injury rehab clinics, I’ve seen my share of manual laborers whose hands or wrists are injured from the repetitive or jarring use of a particular tool. I’ve seen hard-core athletes whose bodies are just broken from overuse: marathon runners with bad knees or hips; dancers with broken feet; and baseball pitchers with messed-up elbows or shoulders. 

To get the most mileage out of our body-vehicle is to engage all body parts on a regular basis, but not too much. Our bodies were biologically designed to occasionally, over the course of a day, a week, or a season, gather food, hunt, run from being hunted, roam long distances, climb, build shelters, and so on. In doing just enough of all of these actions on a regular basis, we were able to provide all the necessities of life, which in turn had good effects on our bodies that allowed them to remain strong and healthy so they could do it all again the next time.
In knowing that, I work all parts of my body in their designed ways at least once a week, usually twice. This means that over the course of my 2-3 workouts per week, I make sure that I exercise all of my body parts in the many ways they were designed for or are capable of doing: pushing, pulling, lifting, squatting, walking, short bursts of running (since the body was designed for chasing prey or for running from predators), twisting, stretching, kicking, punching, throwing, catching, climbing, skipping, jumping, swimming, and so on. If I am being active, whether I’m playing a sport, engaging in vigorous gardening or intense landscaping, moving lumber and tools around while building something, hiking, playing with the kids, or exercising with clients, I will count that as a workout. 

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Workouts
I teach a fusion fitness class twice a week in which I fully participate. Fusion fitness means that during the course of the class, I incorporate many different fitness exercises from different disciplines, simulating the actions of various body movements used in yoga, martial arts, farming, Pilates, various sports, and traditional exercises. For example, after a good warm-up and stretch, a typical workout might look like this:
With a dumbbell in each hand do things like -
•  picking up a bale of hay with a proper lift, twisting, and “throwing” the bale up to the loft (20 reps in each direction) 
•  pause to stretch and recover
•  slow motion tennis serves (20 reps each on left- and right-hand serves)
•  pause to stretch and recover
•  one-legged squats
•  plain bicep curls, but on one foot with a slight twist
•  pause to stretch and recover
Exercises with no weights:
•  martial arts kicking and punching (a few intense minutes)
•  five-inch push-ups (40 reps)
•  pause to stretch and recover

•  various yoga postures, holding position and focusing on the breathing to slow the heart rate (30–60 seconds)
•  one-handed push-ups (hold each for 20 seconds, then switch hands)
•  pause to stretch and recover

Cool down:
•  stretching
•  yoga postures
•  regeneration meditation (5–10 minutes)

The plan going into any of these fusion classes is to use the whole body in varying movements and intensities; by the time we are done we are soaked from head to toe but feeling great, feeling euphoric.
 

When working with weights, I mix up the intensity of the workout by sometimes using extremely heavy weight and sometimes using a weight just heavy enough to do 10 reps or so. The human body has basically three different muscle fibers that are capable of a wide range of activities, from simply maintaining posture to running fast to lifting something heavy. In some workouts, I move through a wide range of motions to incorporate all muscles, and once every week or two I team up with a buddy to lift or push super-heavy weights.

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If you are new to working out, start slowly! Begin with 2-5 lb weights, and increase a little over time. Transition is the key to anything new we do!!