How many times have you been to the beach, local pool or gym and seen someone with six pack abs, or watched the Olympics and seen the lean and slender swimmers, or even body builders and thought “WOW” they must be super healthy and fit!
Pheidippides was a Greek runner. He ran ~ 145 miles from Athens to Sparta in 24 hours. ……but he also ran an additional 26 miles from Marathon to Athens (this is where the concept of a marathon comes from) and shouted “Nike!” when he he arrived….pretty impressive right!
You would assume Pheidippides must have been crazy healthy to have have accomplished this…. But did you know that shortly after this this run Pheidippides fell to the ground and died…Yikes!
Ironic that now a major shoe company decided to name themselves after a tragedy!
Health is defined as a state in which there is no disease or pathology and that the body maintains a harmonious balance between cellular breakdown (or catabolic activity) and cellular repair/building (anabolic activity).
Fitness is defined as a state in which the body can handle challenges that occur above the normal resting activity threshold.
It’s a popular assumption that ones fitness level is linked to how healthy someone is. However your fitness level does not determine the health of your body. The human body is changing every second of the day. The body is dynamic and ever changing. Cells are constantly breaking down and building back up….. constantly repairing itself. Your body faces challenges everyday that it must react and maintain balance in order to maintain equilibrium and harmony. This is true for everything from your hormones to your muscles to your pH levels. A healthy body is one that can maintain a balance between this catabolic and anabolic activity.
Exercising and working out can be very healthy in the right capacity, proportion and balance. A balanced program is where a healthy amount of muscle is breaking down so that they can build back up and become stronger. Too much breaking down of muscle tissue, as seen with over exercise, imbalanced training and excessive stress will just cause joints, muscles and fascia to breakdown and function incorrectly leading to suboptimal musculoskeletal health.
At Rebalance, we see this everyday. People who do things in excess, outside of their bodies normal equilibrium. From super athletes to those under high stress…this pays a toll on the body and disturbs this harmonious balance that goes on. Whether we are seeing someone for low back pain, knee pain or pelvic floor pain, there has been an imbalance in the body that often has been taking place over an extended period of time. Most people don’t even recognize that there is a problem…. Then all of a sudden they do something simple or something minor happens that triggers off a chain reaction of symptoms.
Athletes that train hard, but are using their bodies insufficiently, keep running or playing and find that they all of a sudden start having knee or hamstring pain. Pelvic floor clients that have poor pelvic symmetry or are not breathing correctly, find that a common yeast infection triggers off pelvic pain, and last but not at all least…. all the clients with a history of episodic mild low back pain, one day bend over and experience pretty intense pain and can’t get off the floor…these one time trigger “events” were just the straw that broke the camels back. Many of these imbalances have been brewing in the background and it’s just manifesting now.
So maintaining a healthy musculoskeletal system is super important to your overall health. Over exercising or training does not necessarily limit future injuries and yes research has shown that stress does affect low back pain and general musculoskeletal pains. Maintaining optimal musculoskeletal balance inlucing adequate muscles, joint and fascia mobility and strength is what will keep your body aging beautifully to keep you going well into your golden years! So here’s to your HEALTH!
