The Body's Guide to Functioning Efficiently and Achieving Fitness Goals

A bonfire burns most efficiently if its structural integrity is intact~KBS

Two keys here: surface area, and airflow. To catch a flame (and especially a spark) you need as much surface area as possible for your flame to catch (which is why newspaper works so well.) But you also need air to be able to circulate and get to where the flame is. If you need a reason, look up oxidation. In a fire, cool air has to come in from the bottom to replace the hot air escaping from the top. Keep that in mind when building any fire.

Thank you berZirker for your Instructables and insight on how to build a bonfire

Over the course of my Masters work and as I began to understand more about human movement science and exercise science, I immediately started brainstorming ideas on how I could bring that knowledge to my community to help people move better, move pain free and reach their fitness goals in a healthy sustainable way. I'm a firm believer in doing things right the first time, even if that means taking the longer path. Usually the longer paths are well established and are strengthened by the interconnecting routes, building strong established paths take time! There are no quick fixes that are made to stand the test of time after all.

What is it about a bonfire that will help you achieve your fitness goals? The bonfire is an analogy I came up whilst out on a run, pondering ways to present this at an upcoming wellness workshop at Empowered Wellness. After a season of building fall afternoon bonfires in the backyard, I thought of how a bonfire is constructed and how it burns, why if you build it right it takes off in a blaze of glory and if you don't pay attention to details you'll easily end up with a bonfire that smolders and peters out.

So here's the analogy, consider these two scenarios

1) You throw a heap of wood into your fire pit and light a match to it. What happens? It does nothing, maybe the few of the outer splinters ignite then quickly die off. You decide to stuff some newspaper into the mix, the paper ignites the smolders and goes out. You bring out the big guns-the jug of gasoline (what I like to think of as fad diets and quick fix synthetic miracle fat burning, muscle building, energy boosting powders, pills, bars etc). What happens? It lights off like a rocket, you see results, you get excited until it too eventually smolders and dies out.

2) You crumple up a ball of newspaper, gather up your tinder (twigs, shaved wood, dried leaves, paper, bark, grass, dried pine needles, broken up pine cones etc), then your small kindling (small dry sticks) and medium kindling (wrist sized sticks) and logs (your fuel source). With the tinder in the center, teepee the small and medium kindling around the tinder and longs on top for a larger teepee with enough airflow and surface area to oxygenate the fire. Light the match and watch your masterpiece blaze! How does this relate to your body's ability to function and burn fuel? 

Consider a body who's spinal alignment is out of whack from injury, overuse movements, prolonged sitting in front of a computer monitor...the list goes on. The malalignment of the spine is symbolic of the heap of logs thrown into the fire pit. When the spine is out of alignment, the muscles that support and move the spinal column become imbalanced (weak in areas where they are not being used or are being compensated for creating overactive/tight muscles). This is often combined with a weakened intrinsic core stabilization system (not talking the 6 pack abs, I'm talking the small muscles that stiffen your spine protecting the nervous system while the larger mobilizers work to move your trunk and limbs-think transverse abdominis, multifidus, transversospinalis, internal oblique and pelvic floor muscle). 

Without the structural integrity of the spinal column intact, the nervous system becomes inefficient. With decreased neural stimulation to the muscles, muscles become inhibited, weakened, prone to injury susceptible to altered force-coupled relationships between muscles that work synergistically to produce movement (ie, weak muscles become weak, and their supporting and/or opposing muscles pick up for the slack and become overactive) thus fueling the muscle imbalance and malalignment. 

Why is this important? Whether your fitness goal is to move without pain, lose that spare tire around your waist, run a marathon or increase your overall strength, if you're neuromuscular system isn't functioning efficiently (those nerves aren't efficiently and effectively reaching those muscles) your efforts may be hindered. For instance, more neural input to muscles, means more muscle fibers recruited, means more energy required to fuel those muscles (fuel means more calories), more calories burned means improved metabolic function resulting in decreased fat mass. 

Let your hard work and efforts mean more, get those imbalances in check (pay a visit to an NASM CPT and CES for Personal Training with a focus on corrective exercise), strengthen your core, work on realigning your spine through strength, stretching, breathing and posture, perhaps visit a chiropractor. Fuel YOUR fire, ACHIEVE your goals, LIVE your dreams!