Designed to Move

photo credit: rxl photographics fotostream

The body is designed to move.

Every aspect of our complex human physiology is dependent on this requirement:  movement.

A brief primer in Physiology and Movement
The heart, the "master pump" is the most important muscle in the body, pumping blood throughout the body, nourishing all major vessels and organs. Muscles (including the heart) have to be used (challenge-rest activity) to function; if left underused, muscles atrophy and don't operate optimally.  This less-than-three-quarters of a pound organ, contracts and releases approximately 72 times per minute, circulating life-giving blood and oxygen throughout our organism.  Hence, to keep the heart's muscle healthy, challenging it through movement is imperative.

Lymph nodes are scattered throughout our bodies (in gorgeous groups and related patterns), from our cranium to our feet.  Lymph nodes are the garrisons of our immune cells; proper flow of lymph through the body protects our disease fighting capacity.  Unlike blood, which is pumped through arteries and veins via the contraction and release of the heart muscle, lymph is completely dependent on movement to keep it flowing, flooding the bloodstream with its wondrous immune properties. Only movement moves lymph.  Stagnant lymph, prevents white blood cells and their incredible immunity properties from doing their job, protecting us from infection and disease.  The body is designed to move.

Pneumonia is the frequent last illness of the elderly.  Pneumonia develops when the lung's respiratory mechanism is diminished or compromised.  The lung's exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen is a movement.  This movement's capacity is impacted by the muscular-skeletal system's wellness (ie: spinal stenosis, negatively impacts respiration, by limiting movement, sometimes even the organ's natural movement). Movement of the body forces oxygen into the lungs, expanding the lobes so they can counter the action by expelling carbon dioxide.  The body is designed to move.

These are just a few illustrations as to how movement impacts our bodies.  This post would turn into a small book if I were to include the bones, joints, muscles, mood/psych and endocrine relationship to movement.  We all have experienced the stiffness and muscle weakness, the irritability and fatigue of sitting around too much or for too long.  Suffice it to say, the body is designed to move.  Move we must.

The question
Why as a culture, having all this information as to the benefits and absolute need to move the body often, challenging the cardiac threshold frequently, bending, turning, squatting and reaching to maintain range of motion and balance, how is it we resist practicing what we know? We take the car instead of the bike, the elevator instead of the stairs. We design appliances and technology so no bending is required.  Daily walk constitutionals are a thing of the Victorian/Edwardian era. Backyards and blocks are no longer a buzz of activity with kids running and playing outdoor games; replaced by sedentary electronic activities.

In relation to movement the adage, "information is power", doesn't seem to apply.  We know all this stuff (for the most part) but our passivity dominates.  The path of least resistance.....  It's almost as if we don't want to know our own physicality, to own these bodies we live in, to fulfill the being obligation of taking care of them every which way.  Where is the honoring of the vessel, the "temple"?

photo credit:  Haroon Sadiq

Where is the joy?  The innate joy we all knew as babies rolling around the crib, toddlers challenging their movement capacities, youngsters exploring sports, dance, the heart pounding thrill of sprinting for a bus, a long tennis volley?  Even non-athletes crawled and courageously learned to walk through delightful trial and error; we have all been enthralled at one time or another with our body's movement capacity, moving through space. Our bodies remember this; it's there in our cells, embedded in our central nervous systems.  How can we reclaim for ourselves the pure pleasure of moving?

There will always be the excuse of age:  "My knees and hips don't bounce like they used to .... my arthritis keeps me indoors... I have stenosis, sciatica, chronic fatigue...".  Yes, the excuses are endless, especially if associated to pain (which always trumps that endorphined-feel-good memory of old).  I believe the body calls for a relationship to self in it's discomforts.  It calls for an attention in relationship to movement.  Movement and pain are not exclusive.  They co-habitate, right here, in me.  I can't turn away from one to oblige the other.  It's a package deal.

The satisfaction of movement is our birthright, at any age in any health condition.  It may not be the leaping youngster-of-old's movement and in fact might be a yet-undiscovered way of moving, that is just as delightful and delicious in the bodies we now inhabit.  Remembering the organic pleasure of my body in motion leads me to the inquiry and the subsequent exploration of my relationship with this organism, and a sensitivity to the subtle cues it gives me as to its needs.  The curiosity, the interest and the memory ultimately have to be rebirthed.  Knowing my physicality, having a pulse on the body's innate need and desire to move is essential sometimes before the right movement form (ie: Yoga, QiGong, TaiChi, swimming) for one's Now comes into being.  In a way, it starts with love for oneself, the appreciation of this vehicle that faithfully takes us through this life, the curiosity and awareness of who I am in movement.