The Interns at Egoscue are at it again and we have just started a blog! If you have any questions about what we do or who we are check out our website at egoscuefoundation.org or check out our facebook and twitter sites. We are so excited about out Patch Fitness Program and can’t wait to receive more donation requests and fulfill them!
For those of you who are not quite sure what Patch Fitness is here is a short explanation of it and how it can transform your notions about working out and exercise:
The Patch Obstacle Course was designed by Pete Egoscue, creator and developer of the Egoscue Method and Pain Free Methods. The concept behind the patch is that “our environment is our bodies’ playground”. Our bodies were developed to perform many different tasks that we no longer perform during this day in age. With the use of a Patch workout we are able to teach our bodies to use to muscles we long thought we could use, or even existed! The key is to re-teach our bodies functional fitness, to use our muscles and joints in the ways they were intended to be used.
The big looming question now, is…Why do we no longer move our bodies in the way they are intended to be used?
This is a two-fold answer. 1st is the most obvious, the lifestyle of our society has evolved to be the most sedentary lifestyle that has every existed in the course of history, our typical day does not require much physical strain. Because our daily lives no longer provide many physical challenges, and unlike children, we have important things to do, such as pay the bills, and clean the house. As adults, we must CREATE physical activity and challenges. For most of us, we solve this problem by going to the gym.
Now, the gym is great, and provides great results for many people, and any physical activity is good activity. But, there is one thing the gym tends to lack, and that is the tangible challenges and successes. We forget how we used to physically challenge ourselves as we did as children. For example, when I was a kid we used to make up all sorts of games in particular we would stand on the monkey bars at recess and jump and see how far we could land. Children are fearless when it comes to their physical limitations. When they see a challange instead of saying, “Oh, I can’t jump that far”, they say “Lets see how far I can jump.” We have to learn to think like a child, we have to learn how to play again. So as for the 2nd part of this answer which I have already touched on it a bit, is FEAR. Most of the time we let fear get in the way of us overcoming a physical challenge. As we grow older, and we haven’t done a particular task in a long time, we become scared. We have to learn to over come our fears of physical activity.
I have a great example of this too! We as interns at the Egoscue Foundation had the privilege of learning all of the Patch exercises with the wonderful Courtney at Egoscue University. One of the tasks she asked us to complete was to do a hand stand against the wall. I was thinking, “You’ve got to be kidding me, there is absolulty no way I can do that…I haven’t done one since I was about 10 years old!” Physically, there was nothing standing in my way of completing a hand stand against the wall, I had the ability to do it…I mean I was going to do it against the wall for heaven’s sake, it is going to hold me up. But for some reason I was scared. I hadn’t done one in forever, I was scared of failure. Anyway, I finally got the courage to give it a try, and I actually did it…twice! I was so excited! I can’t even begin to describe the excitement I had after I had overcame this challenge. It was almost better than endorphins! I couldn’t stop smiling, and I had a blast. This is what exercising is supposed to be about. Its about pushing yourself to the limit, knowing your body, its strengths and weakness, and learning how to improve upon them, and to have fun!
If you only get one thing out of this entire blog post, please let it be the idea that working out should be fun, and a great way to challenge and push yourself!
Don’t forget, to check us out on facebook and twitter. If you have a question, you can ask it under the comments of each blog or email us at interns@egoscue.com and we will get back to you as soon as we can!
Have a great week everybody!
