The De-volution of Humans

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I have come to realize that the culture/society of today creates severe consequences for health and disease, physical fitness, and it is especially prevelent in athletics. Humans are made to move, this is why we have muscles; to move through space and gravity. However somewhere along the line, we started move less and less. My previous article, The Present State of Fitness, detailed some of the history of physical fitness and why you need to get out more often and move around. As Eric Cressey says, “the best posture is one that is always moving.” If you don’t pay for it now, you pay for it later. Maybe not with money, but with health related diseases, like arthritis, heart disease, knee replacements, disc herniations, obesity, depression, etc. the list could go on and on. We have become a society that sits way too much, and as depicted de-volved into a lessor organism of physical uselessness.

Lets do some math of a typical American….

Sleep – 5-7 hours (~6  hrs inactive)

Work – 8 hours (14 hrs of light activity)

Driving – 1 hour (15)

TV – 2 hours (17)

Reading – 1 hour (18)

Eating – 1 hour (19)

Misc – 5 hours (24)

I calculated about 19 hours a day of sitting, slouching, crouching, hunching, and sleeping. Muscles “turn off”with all this sitting, and tend to atrophy with little activity. Muscle mass starts to decline the older you get, as well as bone mass. Considering most people’s miscellaneous extra curricular activity does not include anything athletic, calorie burning, or muscle building you can see why we have such a health crisis in this Country. Muscle is responsible for elevating metabolism and burns calories all day. Yes, I realize not everyone has a day like this or a job that is sitting, but many do. Even if you do have a job where your standing or doing labor, I still can see about more than half the day being in an inactive state with poor posture. And again, it is not like those jobs are putting people through large ranges of motion. Joints and muscles will adapt to whatever ranges they are put though. The result from poor movement is stiff, tight, and very weak muscles moving very restricted joints. This leads to pain and injury. Over doing any movement pattern will result in injury which is why it is so important to move in all directions.

I have started to incorporate and prescribe more calisthenics, yoga, martial arts, gymnastics, dance, and dynamic movements in my workouts more than anything else. Weights usually compromise about 10% of workouts and is usually just a squat, deadlift or pullup/row. I am beginning to think that is all you really need in the form or traditional weight training, along with certain assistance/corrective exercises. Learning how to master your body and move though space should be the goal. All great athletes are masters of their own bodyweight, and it is different to be weight room strong vs athletically strong. One quote that clicked for me today is from Irving “Boo” Shexnayder, LSU Track & Field Coach…

“Get out of the weight-room boys.  I don’t need you weight-room strong . . . I need you farm-strong.”

The weight room is great, but the weight room by itself can be deadly. You must be able to move your body in space and be able to accelerate, stop, rotate and re-acclerate in all different directions. For the everyday person you must be able to sit, stand, turn, bend, hop, and run.

One of the biggest things I have started embrace is all forms of crawling and walking. Humans as an organism learn how to crawl long before we learn how to walk. Babies learn how to walk before we can run. These are called primitive movement patterns. When you take the most ordinary person and ask them to run or sprint, it looks awful and is an injury waiting to happen. This is why I find it so important to re- educate the body on how to crawl in all planes of motion before incorporating such exercises. Once crawling has been mastered I love walking exercises to re educated the body how to walk and control different body positions with varying centers of gravity. Once these have been mastered along with a base of weight training, I like to start incorporating sprints, running, hops, jumps, etc to re-educated the body to jump and land. Remember you need to be fit to run, not run to be fit!

For crawling exercises, I love crab, bear, plank, lizard, crawls in all directions to engage the core and work muscles in a different way. Remember gravity exerts force in ONE direction…DOWN. We want to work the muscles of body in all different directions and vectors to develop body control and overall body strength. Changing the position of the body from standing to crawling challenges muscles in extraordinary ways, and the results are unique to say the least. For most people holding their own body weight up in these positions is exhausting and illustrates how important it is to master these movements before beginning weight training. You also tend to get a phenomenal cardiovascular effect by mixing these movements together which develops fluidity, grace, rhythm, balance, coordination, and strength all in one!

Here is a series of crawls that I have started to incorporate…

Try these crawls for 10 yards down and back….

1. Baby crawls
2. Plank crawl
3. Crab crawl
4. Bear crawl
5. Backward crawl
6. Lizard crawl

There are many many more, I would pick a few and try to master it. I find that many crawls are hip flexor dominant and try to incorporate the glute as much as possible to even things out. Along the same lines as crawling, is mastering walking. Now I know these are boring and stupid but it is interesting that when you try to walk differently how hard it actually is. Strength Coach Joe Kenn emphasizes a great deal the importance of athletic stance for athletes. Just look at these sports…

Standing and walking progression naturally follow crawling. When you look at sports, they all utilize a very similar athletic stance. These are fundamental positions, but extremely important. No matter what sport/activity you play you will benefit from these movements. If your clients cannot squat and hold this position for any extended period of time, how to you expect them to do it with weight on their back? I have been at fault for this many times, and still think coaches like to load up the bar far too soon. Master these walks and your body weight before even attempting a squat with weight. It is interesting because, weight room numbers may shoot way up after mastering these movements.

Try these walks for 10 yards down and back….

1. Backward walk
2. Penguin walk
3. Side squat walk
4. Horse walk
5. Side Kick walk
6. Cartwheel walk

Again I find many walks to be hip flexor dominant and try to incorporate the glute as much as possible. I would pick a couple crawls and a couple walks and mix them together in a normal routine for a full body workout. You may find yourself getting dizzy because your inner ear and balance/vestibular system is not used to being in these positions. Also, I’m sure you will feel very uncoordinated at first but keep at it! I would do these movements as an extended warm up or mixed in with a normal workout. Try to master your body and develop efficient movement. Here are some resources to check out where I got inspiration from…

Locomotion Conditioning

Don’t Assume the Athletic Position

Gym Class Core

Extreme Tricking