Movement
Movement, specifically, strength training, mobility work and cardio, are SO good for the brain and body. These are what I’d call “high yield” movements. Strength training strengthens the mind-body connection, what this means, among other things, is that it increases what’s called “neural drive” the capacity for your brain to tell your muscles to contract. The more neural drive you have, the stronger you are able to contract your muscles. For whatever reason, weak grip strength is strongly correlated with early death. It’s important to be able to SQUEEZE. (Source: Various Grip Strength Studies located in the “references & recommended section” at the end of this course)
Mobility training also increases neural drive and allows you to simply move better. Mobility is different from flexibility. Mobility =/= Flexibility.
Flexibility is the ability of a person to get INTO and OUT OF their end range of motion (I.E. moving as far into a stretch as they can) WITH assistance from either an external object, OR with a limb that doesn’t need to be involved.
Whereas MOBILITY is the ability of a person to get INTO and OUT OF their end range of motion using only the muscles of the limbs that are involved!
In the first case, your muscles are doing little to no work, thus you are exhibiting flexibility, a PASSIVE endeavor. Whereas in the second case your muscles are taking on 100% of the work, thus you are exhibiting mobility an ACTIVE endeavor.
An inability to get up and down from the floor without your hands is also strongly correlated with early death. In other words, the more easily you can get up from the floor, the less likely you are to die early. (Source – Barreto de Brito, L., Ricardo, D., Soares de Araújo, D., Ramos, P., Myers, J., and Soares de Araújo, C. (2012). Ability to sit and rise from the floor as a predictor of all-cause mortality. European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, 21(7), 892-898.)
Want to learn more? I recommend taking the PropDancePhilosophy Specialist course which discusses extensively how you can improve your mobility and WHY it’s so important for your prop spinning/movement and longevity of your practice. (Hint: Helps you prevent injury and helps you learn all tricks/movements faster), Here’s the link: https://www.propdanceculture.com/product/propdancephilosophy-specialist-pdps-course/
Additionally, I recommend that you read Katy Bowman’s book “Move your D.N.A.” as an amazing entry into the world of movement!
Here’s the link: https://amzn.to/2uX2R5I
Cardio, specifically getting your heart rate up to about 80-90% of its max speed, releases a cocktail of some of our favorite FLOW chemicals. Endorphins, the body’s natural heroin, anandamide, the body’s natural marijuana, norepinephrine, your body’s natural Ritalin and after your run, Serotonin! Your body’s natural Prozac! As an added benefit, long distance running brings your brain into a high theta/low alpha state! Besides these feel good chemicals. Your body releases “BDNF”, or Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor, which acts Dr. John Ratey calls “Miracle Gro” for the brain. Without BDNF you cannot learn! BDNF supports the growth of and connection between neurons.
Whether you want to call it learning, adapting or habit forming, these are all the same thing. BDNF helps your brain get better at what it’s already doing, so whatever you want to get good at, make sure you’re pairing cardio with it as well! Let’s get that heart rate up!
For further information on this, I recommend that you read “Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain” by John Ratey
Here’s the link: https://amzn.to/2O8gX9V
