How does pain free movement make you smarter?
Hello ABT Enthusiasts,
I'm turning 49 in a few short (getting shorter as I age) months.
That means I'm no longer competitive in Judo or Soccer, though I still play recreationaly with old guys :) and maybe you can consider "competitively" with my kids, but increasingly they're beating me more and more too.
One thing I am not in, is pain.
Obviously dedicating my professional career to strategies, both manually and movement wise, that mitigate pain for good has helped.
And it is a daily practice, and doesn't take long. I remember I attended a talk by Tom Myers once where he said “whenever I feel the urge to exercise intensely, I lie down till it passes!” I laughed then. I get it more now. The point here is that you don’t have to do a P90X or Insanity Exercise routine to stay in good physical and mental health.
Walking daily is one of the best strategies even invented, and it’s built in! Who knew, right?
Below I'm going to go through a few strategies that you can use every day to implement this principle in your life too.
Tomorrow we're going to release a video of an 8-point movement/strech using a simple strap you can get from Amazon for $6 or even a belt from home.
Did you know that improvements in comprehending written and spoken word, as well as improvements in test scores from math to science increases when you MOVE BETTER?
Increasingly in the news and other media we hear about how movement and brain function are intertwined in ways that not only make us navigate our terrain better, but also improves IQ.
In his book, "Soft-Wired: How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Can Change Your Life", Michael Merzenich discusses the science on how improving the ability to refine movements through range helps improve the perception of the brain in keeping time also known as temporal processing. This improvement vastly helps in processing many other skills in visual, auditory and motor skill processing.
Basically our ability to refine movements improves our ability to perceive time and that in turn makes all our other senses more heightened.
Cool Huh?
If you’re inclined to try Michael’s programs you can do it for free:
https://v4.brainhq.com
Improvements in IQ with sharper sensory processing is a given too! Processing times decrease and accuracy increases through the temporal processing of spatial recognition and refinement of motor control. It’s all intertwined really.
Essentially good and consistent movement improve mental processing due to impacting our sense of time which translates into better timing of the entire brain…recall…recognition…differentiation….all of it…
Michael explains it much better than I can in his Ted Talk
https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_merzenich_growing_evidence_of_brain_plasticity
So how do we make this practical? Go for a run? Ride the treadmill with our favorite music playing through our ear buds? Jumping jacks?
Sure why not?
But how about intentional movement processing? How about moving and breathing in coordination?
Here’s a simple exercise to try using a squat and pushup.
Standing with our arms in front of us we’re going to descend into a squat as far as we can within a pain free range, on the way down because we are compressing through the hips we will exhale without force. One the way up we’ll inhale as we expand upwards. Do this 10 times, then come back and read the rest.
Feels differnt right?
Now try this, be it on toes or on knees:
2. Pushup with an exhale on descent and inhale on return. Do this 10x as well
These two simple movements, coordinated with a breathing strategy integrates our movement and breathing in a very simple but can also be a very profound way.
Michael explains that improved timing improves our reading comprehension, our ability to listen without internal dialogue and in turn eye hand coordination, eye tracking, auditory processing and overall scholastic ability.
In short, if you have kids…less time on the mobile devices and more time climbing trees and jumping over rocks!
John Ratey a Harvard Medical School Clinical Psychologist talks about simple movement strategies, be it stretching, or even doing a series of movements as described above with coordinated brathing the hour before taking tests improves scores dramatically.
Think about how those who have been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD and other “learning disabilities” can put simple strategies like this to work in improving their ability to learn in school.
Recently the trend to make physical education in school an option has negatively impacted student scores across the board. Why did they do this? Do you know that physical culture was initially introduced to help university students focus. Before the 1900’s BIG MONEY sports, today, like Soccer and Rugby were invented to help boys get out physical stress so they could focus more. Even Yoga was designed to “yolk” the body so practitioners could meditate more effectively.
So who had the bright idea to remove Phys Ed, or make it “optional” from school curriculums?
Those of us with “normal brains” that may not experience deficits may not consider how important regular movement can be in maintaining and increasing cognitive performance.
Neuroscience is bringing developments to the lay person that can augment what we have, keep it for longer and even (especially) improve it! Our brain colocates many function. It’s no surprise that movement and learning go hand in hand (pun intended) haha.
How do we make this practical?
It’s a simple formula.
Find a way to move all your joints daily. Do this for 10 minutes, 3x a day. Upon waking, mid afternoon and evening.
Try to make these movements increasingly more complex.
Then perform some sort of exercise that challenges you to breathe hard. The squat exercise above is a perfect example. I do 100 every morning, followed by 20 pushups using the same strategy; breathing out on the descent and in on the return. I try to do them very slowly.
In the next couple of weeks we’ll be releasing a scientifically validated breathing protocol that will help you increase nitric oxide in your blood vessels and muscle. You know how important this can be, right?
Tomorrow we’re going to post an 8 step stretching/movement routine using a simple strap that will decompress your spine, mobilize your hips and help you move more freely without pain.
Looking forward to it.
John and Marina