Easing Into Fitness: What Doctors Don't Tell You | Anat Baniel Method NeuroMovement

Easing Into Fitness: What Doctors Don’t Tell You

First Article in a Whole Body Fitness Series by Anat Baniel

I recently wrote an article for What Doctors Don’t Tell You, which was published in the May 2016 issue in the UK.

Below are some highlights and a link to the full article.

If you want to improve your fitness, you need to use your brain, not just your body.

Easing into Fitness by Anat Baniel Conventional wisdom maintains that if you want to improve your fitness, you must exercise more by carrying out stretches or lifting weights. You’re told to turn all your attention to your muscles: stretch ’em, pump ’em, warm ’em up, and do tedious repetitions.

Above all, you’re supposed to constantly try harder and go longer—push through the pain and the burn.

However, if these are the best ways to increase your fitness level, vitality, health, and wellness, why do so many people fail to achieve greater fitness through them?

The critical ingredient missing from most fitness regimes is an understanding of the role of the brain in making every movement of our body possible.

Beginning in the womb, and continuing during the infant’s early movements and through the increasingly more complex movements we learn, the body is getting mapped into the brain. Think about it: at birth, the child doesn’t know she has arms, legs, back or belly. It takes years before there is enough connectivity between the body and brain so that she can walk, skip, catch a ball, sing a song or write a letter.

This realization—that the brain organizes all movement—has everything to do with your ability to become more fit, even into your 90’s. It is the brain that needs to get new information and create new patterns of movement in order to move us past limitations to new levels of fitness.

Exercising over and over again without providing the brain the opportunity to create the new simply grooves in more deeply not only what we already do well, but also that which limits us and brings about injury and pain.

The good news is that there are some safe and easy ways for us to provide the brain with the new information it needs. Some of these tips, which I call the Nine Essentials, seem counterintuitive, but they’re fully supported by current neuroscience research.

Click here to read the full article Easing Into Fitness in What Doctors Don’t Tell You.

What Doctors Don’t Tell You

What Doctors Don’t Tell You (WDDTY) is a monthly magazine which publishes the latest healthcare news, alongside information on complementary therapies and alternative medicines, with a host of features and stories written by leading experts and our highly-respected regular contributors.

WDDTY began as a newsletter, with the first issue being published at the end of 1989 by best-selling author Lynne McTaggart and her husband, former Financial Times journalist Bryan Hubbard. Since then, it has gone from strength-to-strength thanks to our ever-growing number of passionate fans, and is now the largest magazine of its kind in the UK, sold in 14 countries worldwide (including the US).