fitness

Movement is one of the key fundamentals to maintaining a strong healthy physical body but not only that but maintain a healthy mind and emotional state of being. It is important that we address the type of movement we require and how much and get the right balance of this as too much will burn us out and inflame our body and too little will leave us weak, brittle and toxic. 

Movement is a requirement of the body for detoxification, our bodies don’t detoxify themselves we have to assist our lymphatic system to function, one way is by movement, a simple lack of movement will lead to a heavily toxic physical body and one that is extremely immune compromised. Leaving the individual vulnerable to an infinite number of infections and diseases. However certain movement and exercise typically above the level of the talk test (cannot perform the exercise without being able to hold a conversation comfortably) will yield an inflammatory response within the body and failure to adequately recover properly with proper nutrition,  hydration and rest will leave in the long run likely cause serious chronic inflammation, joint ache, pain and illness and disease.

Each of us will have our own individual requirements at a given time to how much we should be moving and what type of movement we should be doing. We have to take into account a lot of different factors when prescribing an individual exercise program, including the level of conditioning an individual has in order for it to be a recipe for to improve overall health. It is extremely common to see people training at extremely high intensity’s and performing complex movements that their bodies are just not strong enough, co-ordinated enough, skilled or do not even have the neuromuscular connection to perform this type of activity safely and effectively. So this unfortunately means they are doing their body more harm than good! 

We also need to look at one’s posture and how their own body has adapted to their environment, their activities, emotional holding patterns, hobbies, sitting and sleeping positions. These are all factors that could have an affect on ones posture, if movement is incorrectly prescribed as so often is the case, that will facilitate a problem and will likely lead to pain, dysfunction, faulty motor patterns and injury with that bringing a lot of stress. Posture never lies and failure to train towards that leads to poor function, weakness and ultimately poor health sometimes even chronic levels of stress that can manifest into disease. 

We also have to look at overall stress levels of the individual, movement and exercise regimes are too often prescribed to beat up and leave people in a pool of blood, sweat and tears. This for most people is completely unnecessary and will only contribute to stress and damage to the body and to a point they are unable to recover from. The nervous system will get tripped into its sympathetic state, fight or flight mode and too much of this will quickly burn someone out and contribute to high levels of inflammation in the body and that’ll do no good for the better body they ultimately were seeking. Only It will contribute to poor health, pain and a lower level of performance if poorly managed.

What bio motor abilities do you need for your dream vision in body and movement. If you are training for a specific purpose, sport or leisure activity it is important to address what requirements that activity has and where your weaknesses lie. Do you need for instance to be more agile, well coordinated, strong or powerful for example. All of what you do has to be in line with what you want to be become but balanced with posture and energy expended to energy bought back in through recovery otherwise this will lead ultimately to worse performance, frustration, confusion and be damaging to your health. 

So movement plays a critical role and is a key aspect of our overall health, balance is key though, individualised programs based on posture, lifestyle, aspirations, stress levels, musculoskeletal function and level of conditioning all need to be taken into account. This is something that I think is extremely undervalued, movement and exercise is often prescribed with Littleton no thought or intent behind it and leads to further imbalance and health issues. 

This is why I created the JCritchlow Performance core foundation program. For movement is medicine, we need the right sort of movement for us and to execute that movement well and with purpose otherwise we are potentially causing ourselves more harm than good. A basic understanding of key principles of movement and integration is necessary for a healthy body that moves well. Bringing awareness to how our body and connection to ourselves. If you’d be interested in beginning an exercise program and along the way learn how to train in line with your body and its needs. Please email jamie_critchlow@hotmail.com for more details and I look forward to hearing from you. 

In this article I wish to discuss the prevalent topic of debate which has occurred in the media in the last year or so and that is the debate of having grossly obese individuals on the cover of top selling magazine covers and starring roles in highly viewed music videos. There are some who sit on the fence of positive body image and say that it doesn’t matter what shape or size you are, you should be proud of your body and put yourself out there. Against those that say celebrating a overly large individual is extremely dangerous and sends the complete wrong message to people creating confusion. 

Now I wish to start by explaining what the meaning of obese is and how is obesity calculated. So currently medical practitioners will use a BMI scale to determine where an individual will fit. Your BMI is your Body Mass Index and can be calculated by this formula BMI=KG/m² . Your figure will see you fall into one of the following categories: 18.5 and below underweight, 18.5-24.9 normal, 25-29.9 overweight, 30-39.9 obese and anything above morbidly obese 40 or more. This scale is quite often flawed in the athletic community as someone with a decent amount of lean muscle mass could be determined overweight or even obese but these are exceptions to the rule. For the general population this actually makes quite a good, reliable easy to use examination to access ones health. 

In the instances of these cover photos it is clear that these individuals were off the charts in terms of there BMI well above what is classed as morbid obesity. Not even close to what we would call normal, so this is a blatant attempt by these publishers and music production workers to ‘glorify or celebrate obesity’. 

This in my opinion is a massive problem and one that these magazines should be ashamed of. Some of the poor overly sized individuals on these covers have come out and spoken and justified their presence and said that they are happy with their weight and not worried about their state of health. 

This is extremely worrying and I believe the blame lies with the publishers and production teams for allowing this to come to roost. 

I do not wish to rant too much about such hedonistic propaganda, but rather highlight some of the dangers that being far too overweight or even morbidly obese has on our health as that is what here at JCRITCHLOW Performance we are all about, being fit and healthy. 

First off and probably the most important of all is the relationship of obesity and breathing difficulties, for there is a clear correlation between the two. I have written in more detail about how poor breathing in itself can lead to a whole host of issues, so be sure to check that out. However for those who are obese it is extremely common to have a very shallow, short breath with extreme difficulty to breathe diaphragmatically through the nose and commonly experience feeling of shortness of air. This will lead to issues like sleep apnea, high blood pressure, metabolic dysfunction, decreased heart rate variability and hormonal issues. With that comes a highly stressed body, one that lives in fight or flight mode              

and will seek quick fixes of energy through namely sugar, caffeine and other stimulants to combat the feeling of fatigue creating this vicious cycle that is extremely damaging for our health. 

It is also worth mentioning that  individuals with high amounts of excess body fat or adipose tissue and especially visceral fat which is fat stored around the belly and vital organs, will have much higher levels of free fatty acids in the bloodstream and thus will be more susceptible to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. This is where your bodies cells no longer respond to the hormone insulin and leads to even more insulin being produced and higher blood sugar levels. 

This leads me into talking briefly about another of my five key pillars to health and that is movement. Movement is life, an obese person will be limited in their capacity to move and will likely have high levels of inflammation as a result and perhaps be more susceptible to conditions such as arthritis and other autoimmune issues. A simple lack of movement may have even been the cause of such weight gain in the first place and lead to the infinite issues that comes with being morbidly obese. Worst of all a lack of movement has strongly been linked to lower life expectancy! 

It is important to mention also that obesity is not the only issue that is related to food and there is often a mental or emotional attachment that brings about the problem. This could be for example be as a result of a childhood soothing tactics by parents or guardians, like when a parent gives a child a lollipop to comfort the child’s sore grazed knee after falling over. This is an attachment theory and one that could subconsciously be ingrained in an individuals mind leading to obesity. So as a result we should be taking note and  realise that we consume foods for different reasons, physiologically, psychologically and socially. In the case of an obese individual, highly likely the food choices made are based on emotion and aren’t based on what food should be looked at and that is nutrition for the body or fuel for the machine. 

It is my wish that these companies who feature obese people on front covers come to their senses and not encourage a person to be that way but to maybe show some motivational transformation instead. Everyone knows being that overweight is unhealthy but maybe they just don’t quite know how damaging it is otherwise I’d like to think they wouldn’t have promoted this. 

At JCritchlow Performance I have the know how to help people looking to lose fat from the frame, build strength and become overall a fitter more healthy individual. If you’d like to get in touch and get started please visit my website and send me a message. 

I’ve been working on my YouTube channel, posting videos on various aspects holistic health and fitness.

I’ll be dropping them on my website too.

You can see them on the Videos button.

One of my favourite holistic lifestyle coaches out there and probably the most famous amongst the health and fitness community is Paul Check and in one of his recent podcasts referenced that today unfortunately the new normal is to be unhealthy and disembodied. A very harsh statement but when we look at the world today it is absolutely true, obesity is on the increase, most of the population is overweight, on prescribed medication of some description, consuming toxic foods, alcohol or smoke.

 This got me thinking, these words disembodied and unhealthy they go hand in hand and I believe living an unhealthy lifestyle is a recipe for disembodiment and disembodiment leads to unhealthy lifestyle choices. 

So what is the meaning of disembodiment, well the dictionary states that to be disembodied means, ‘separated from or existing without the body’. What this meaning suggests is that to be disembodied is to be ghost like. This to me means a body, mind and spirit that has lost connection with itself and this ultimately means a loss of life force, vitality, energy and one that is programmed for self destruction. It is from this disconnection that I believe further facilitates unhealthy habits, lifestyle choices etc, which leads to a deeper disconnection with ones self. Being disconnected means that you have lost your awareness to your physical body, mind and spirit much like one who is disembodied. So how do we regain connection and piece ourselves back together, well like I said at the start we can work on our physical body by bringing ourselves back into balance through healthier lifestyle choices. Take part in a form of movement practice or physical activity that teaches you to become more aware of your body in space, move with greater freedom and ease, without pain. A practice that will improve your mind body connection without the detriment of your health. 

However that is one side of this relationship between ill health and disembodiment, we need to work on ourselves not just physically but restore our connection and balance in line with the earth and work on our energies. In todays modern world with technology at the forefront of just about everything we do in our lives this has unfortunately come at huge cost for ourselves and has left our world in a complete health crisis. Cell phones, computers, satellites etc all carry EMF waves and these frequencies leak into our food, water and into our bodies that leads to high levels of inflammation and a host of illness and disease. Not only this but it can also unground us, which leaves us vulnerable and open to huge levels of stress and mental and emotional issues. We need to fight against this, we need to protect ourselves from society that has made the world a toxic nightmare, one way that we can do that is physically connecting with Mother Earth herself and ground ourselves. I am fortunate enough to have a friend, coach, therapist who teaches the art of grounding, Mindfulness and mediation and practising these skills has been a game changer for me in improving my health and repairing my damaged disconnected body myself. I will reference his Workshop below if you are interested in attending, I would highly recommend. Grounding or earthing as its sometimes known, is arguably the biggest thing we as humans have lost the most, the best way to heal ourselves is to physically get back in contact with the earth. This could be walking barefoot on grass, wet sand, swimming in the sea, touching a tree with your hands. Feel the free energy the world offers you, the free electrons run through your body and clears your mind and spirit. Stress levels drop, and best of all it costs us nothing. Socks, shoes, artificial surfaces, artificial materials and electronic equipment are all blockages that prevent us from connecting in balance with the earth and so we must practice grounding through visualisations and physically connecting to it. 

There are numerous lifestyle habits that could lead to health issues, the main one everyone is familiar with is nutrition, we all have our own diets that are individual to us. Unfortunately a lot of what is on the shelves nowadays is total garbage, it is what you would call dead food. A lot of peoples diets now are almost completely artificial and contain zero nutritional value. These diets feed harmful bacteria, parasites and other nasties in our gut. This over the course of time affects the entire body physically, the gut has direct control of the brain and can change peoples thoughts and feelings, therefore emotions as well. As our thoughts and feelings drive our emotions, this means we have lost control of ourselves and therefore become disembodied by an unhealthy lifestyle choice.This is one of an endless number of lifestyle choices that can affect us in this way.

So in summary, we have created a world that is a toxic environment for we as humans to live and it is so easy to fall victim to society and become an unhealthy disembodied individual. There are things we can’t help, but we should concentrate on the things we can do in order to protect ourselves by making healthier lifestyle choices and practise the art of grounding, mindfulness and meditation.

I’ll be adding new pages to the J Critchlow Performance website.

My first one is about Breathing.