The brain controls all your movements, both conscious and unconscious.
Did you know that ninety five percent of your daily movement is unconscious? When you pick up a cup of coffee or drive a car, you don’t have to think HOW, you just do. When you are under anesthesia, did you know that the doctors who are operating on you can move your bones to do the Chinese splits? That is because your brain is turned off. You awake and your brain won’t let YOU do the Chinese splits.
This is the system I will be discussing in this total fitness first for women in this health and fitness blog. I will tell you all about the automatic, unconscious, involuntary system, the nervous system and how it all relates to your optimal human function while getting fit.
I used to be a workout fanatic. I taught up to 20 aerobic and step classes a week. I was a runner, skier, weightlifter, boxer and I loved bodybuilding. I even won aerobic and bodybuilding competitions. My clients also had excellent results. I thought I had arrived at my peak potential. Yet, it seemed like there was something missing. I couldn’t put my finger on it. But then again, you can’t put ‘your finger on the ‘missing piece’ which is your pelvic floor!
This amazing and invisible pelvic floor muscle is located inside of you at the hip bone level and is the floor of the true core. It is the main support muscle for your bladder, bowel and uterus. It is also the precursor of all movement, the trigger.
It connects your inner core to your outer core; it is the most important component of truly putting your fitness first and actually getting fit. THIS was the missing piece I needed to feel complete and empowered.
I was also in an emotional state of distress. From men to menopause!
So I went on my own Eat, Pray, Love, adventure. Though it was more like Eat, Pray, Pray more and hope for the best sort of experience.
While in the midst of searching for my authentic self in mind and body as I knew it, I met a woman who changed my life. An OBGYN, she was teaching a pelvic floor workshop. What is a pelvic floor, I wondered. I went anyway.
LOSE WEIGHT NOW
The journey to the center of my being, my core, my authentic womanhood began. The place where correct movement begins.
After a few years of mentoring privately with Dr. Theresa Nesbitt, an expert in the fitness world, I noticed changes with my body that I literally had no conscious control over. My unconscious brain started to change. I didn’t ask questions. I trusted her with my fitness first, and my health and wellbeing. Nothing was going to stand in the way of my emotions.
When I learned that the automatic part of the brain was responsible for accessing the pelvic floor muscle, or rather, the strongest of the 3 layers, I became more intrigued. My brain started to change even more. In the scientific world this is called Neuroplasticity.
Even at 90 years old your brain can change! It is not hardwired. When your brain changes; so does your body, your movement your actions, reactions, thoughts, plans and everything else in between. Clearly it is the forefront of all movement in thought and action.
“Studies have shown, even when children are born with mental disabilities, the damaged brain can often reorganize itself so that when one part fails, another can often substitute. That if brain cells die, they can at times be replaced; that many ‘circuits’ and even basic reflexes that we think are hardwired are not.” The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge.
I am still on this journey into a new frontier. I hope you will join me when YOU are ready. Until then, here’s a brain exercise for you.
Practice a perpetuation of high quality, purposeful movements with a clear focus with a happy disposition. This practice will soon disengage the old neuropath ways which no longer serve you. Soon the new connections will cement and lead you straight towards your hearts desires.
~Kathleen Pagnini
Fitness Expert and Core Specialist
