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If you are active, but your body is not balanced, you are making the situation worse. Here is an easy to follow example: You go out for a walk to get your movement in, but unbeknownst to you, your glute med (hip muscle) on one side is not strong enough. So when you walk, your pelvis is unstable, and you have a trendelenburg ( your hip pushes to the side when you step). When you walk, you will end up on one leg for a bit, and for easy math, each step produces 5 pounds of pressure. Let’s say you weigh 100 pounds. Then each step produces 500 pounds of force on EACH LEG for each step.

And let’s say you have a fit bit and you are getting your 10,000 steps in. You are now producing 5 million, with six zeros, pounds of pressure again on EACH leg. That is 2,500 TONS of force going through your body during that walk. But because your glute med was weak, that pressure didn’t go through your body nicely; it now pushes more into your hip, or your lower back or pelvic organs. Wherever your physiological weakest link is, is where that unbalanced force will go, and your will end up paying. And that is just walking weighing 100lbs. Not running, hiking, or being overweight or dehydrated.

And here is the kicker. You think you are all on the ball by continuing to move. But it would be best if you ALSO did specific exercises to make sure you continually educate your body to keep it balanced and robust. If you don’t, you will slowly get worse in your movements, have less range of motion, and dramatically increase your likelihood of pain, injury, and surgery.

The body has an optimal way of being balanced and how it moves, but it will function when it is suboptimal because you need to move to stay alive. And so you can continue to operate at a suboptimal range and pull yourself further down that road, or you can work with the body and give it specific exercises to keep it as close to optimal as possible. Luckily for you, there have been many brilliant people over the years who have done scientific research on the body or on topics that relate to the body, and you can use and respect these “rules” while you are working out to your advantage.

Finding a healthy mix of activities that you enjoy in conjunction with a program that scientifically strengthens and balances your body for sustainability and longevity is the magic sauce to having a fulfilling life.