In order to become a chiropractor, you have to go through a lot of training over 5 years, essentially the same amount of time as a medical student with more emphasis on the nervous system and less on drugs.
What surprised me about this was the detail and depth so we had to go into in order to be able to understand about how the body works and how to help people function better.
Having come from a personal training bright background it seems to me that lots of the people we have coming to see us with problems. Most, if not all of them had one thing in common.
Weakness.
Whether it be the lack of strength to stand up straight, walk properly, lift their children or even breathe properly.
Research shows that as we age we lose strength, balance and power considerably.
So everyone just needs to lift weights right? Well read on.
One of my lecturers was a very smart man and (kind of smart that you’re worried about everything you say in case they tell you to pieces with some brilliant bit of observational intelligence).
I used to have a view that strong people were big, with no neck and the need to wear MC hammer trousers as their legs wouldn’t fit normal trousers. That’s until my wirey 60 years + old professor at university put one of our friends on his back and proceeded to do squats with a person at last 1.5x his bodyweight. Jaw on the floor.
Strength is in my opinion one of the most underrated markers of human health. Stronger people are, in general, healthier, more flexible, more focused and harder to kill.
Strength as exercise is rarely promoted outside of lifting weights in a gym and lots of people would rather let themselves waste away than go to one.
The key to strength is control.
Control of your posture (both while standing and moving)
Control of your joints (can you reach up to get something from a high shelf or lift your leg to step over a gate on a walk?)
Control of load (can you lift heavy things and carry them).
Practically this means (and we have certain standards that we promote people to be able to do as a measure of health within the clinic) are you for for your life strength wise?
Can you pick up and carry your kids (or partner depending how difficult lockdown has been!) when needed.
Could you pull yourself up from a hanging ledge?
Could you sprint away from danger?
Could you climb a tree to escape a bear (bit of a stretch and bears are good at climbing so poor example).
Most people are not strong because they do not practice strength and they have a nervous system that is over-stimulated and under recovered.
A high number of our population have poor posture (so poor foundations to start with), are inflexible and overweight.
All these factors mean they have a brain and nervous system that is constantly feeling like that bear is chasing them.
Wound up into a fight/flight state everyday.
Think about when you first wake up after poor nights sleep, trying to open jars or even squeeze out the toothpaste feels difficult.
When your brain feels vulnerable or overloaded it won’t let you ‘output’ your strength.
Check out our YouTube and website fo some more sources on how to get strong and how we build strong adaptable humans in the clinic
As always take care.
Dr Gareth Ward DC MChiro
