Three Things that Lead to Strength

Categories: Blog Apr 24, 2016

In OS we have three principles, three guidelines, or three rules one must follow to Press RESET and become strong. These three principles are at the core of everything we do inside of OS when it comes to teaching others how to restore their strength and mobility. If a human being engages in these three things consistently, day in and day out, they will have a strong, healthy body prepared to live life to the fullest.

These are the three most foundational principles you need to follow in order to optimize your physical health and performance. We teach how to do these in detail at our workshops, but here is a brief overview:

1. Breathe with your diaphragm. Breathing with the diaphragm is crux of the whole matter. This is the simplest, yet perhaps most elusive, movement, action, or reflex we can engage in that yields a life of health and strength. It reflexively prepares and coordinates our inner core unit for life and movement, truly solidifying our center. And, BREATHING with our diaphragm helps to keeps our hormones, digestive system, immune system and nervous system, working optimally. If you want to have real world strength and be as strong as your imagination begs you, breathe with your diaphragm. If you want to have health and all it entails (think free from disease and stress), breathe with your diaphragm. Breathing is truly the epicenter of having your original strength.

2. Activate your vestibular system. You have to use your head. Really, you have to move your head allow it rest where it was designed to rest - level with the horizon. Without owning control of your head and its movements, you cannot own control of your body and its movements. Every muscle in your body, and all your sensory systems (minus your sense of smell) are connected to your vestibular system. This is the system that was created to interpret all movement - the ones you make and the ones that affect you. This is also the system that relays this information to your brain and then in turn coordinates the appropriate reflexive response and actions based off the brain’s interpretation.

The vestibular system is the most sensitive movement detection system on the planet and keeping it “sharp” allows your body to have optimal reflexive control - outstanding balance, posture and coordination. In other words, using your head (physically) allows you to become fully capable of expressing your body’s movement full potential - throughout life, even as you age.

This means you should learn how to move your head. How to hold it level with the horizon. Or it could simply mean quit looking down all the time at your feet, your phone, the ground, or wherever you look that keeps you from looking up on the horizon. It may also mean actually turning your head over your own shoulders instead of turning with your feet or however else you do it.

The bottom line here is this: Your vestibular system is what keeps you awesome. You may want to think of it as your Vitality System. Vitality system is also easier to pronounce than vestibular system….

3. Engage in your gait pattern and/or cross mid-line. Ok, funnily enough, your ultimate designed pattern to keep you resilient and strong is walking. Breathing with the diaphragm and activating your Vitality System are supposed to be “givens”, or automatics. Walking is too, however the way you walk may not be the way you were designed to walk. ESPECIALLY if you haven’t been breathing well and using your head. Anyway, walking is really the glue of strength. Or is should be. Engaging in our gait pattern, or our contra-lateral pattern is what keeps your nervous system and your mind running smoothly and it is what keeps you reflexively tied together - on top of a sharp vestibular system which is also sharpened by breathing with the diaphragm. Basically, all three of these principles, or these three things, were designed to dance together in harmony.

But again, many of us don't walk the way we were designed. It may be necessary to prime the program or reset the movement by visiting earlier forms of the gait pattern like rolling and crawling. Yes, rolling is an early version of walking. That may be another article, but rolling is where we cross midline and connect opposite hips to shoulders. Lots of good things happen here and it prepares us to crawl which prepares us to walk. Walking should be an extension to crawling, four limbs working together in order to propel us efficiently and gracefully from one place to another. Every step, sharpening our nervous system and optimizing our strength and performance. It sounds crazy, but it is crazy enough to work…

Breathing with the diaphragm, activating the vestibular system (the vitality system) and engaging the designed locomotive pattern - these are the three principles that combine together to create what we call “Pressing RESET”. But really, these are the three things designed to dance together in harmony throughout your entire life, enabling you to have and retain your original strength.

Do these three things. Engaging in one of these is good, two would be better, and three would be best. It takes Three to Be.

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