After reading Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore’s book, “Starting Strength,” I now know more than ever why multi-joint exercises and functional movement reign supreme for conditioning the body.

Rippetoe and Kilgore say that “Physical strength, more than anything else we possess, still determines the quality and quantity of our time here in these bodies.” I know what they mean. As a health provider, I can think of a few categories that I could add to the list of important things to have for a long and healthy life, such as immune system, mental health, etc. But, we could easily miss the point. They are not saying that other things are not important. Rather, they are examining what is essential to “exist” in “this body” that we will inhabit for decades to come.

Take a walk through a hospital or nursing home, if you need some insight or motivation. Look at all the people who have lost their strength, are too weak to walk, sit up in bed, or even feed themselves.

That’s one of my biggest fears…

Being trapped in a mangled body!

It is the basis for living in the physical world.

The best news is that it is something we can all work on.

How many of us know how to get our immune system in shape? Hopefully you’ll learn by reading my blog, The Health Fixer, but working on our physical bodies is something we can all do.

How many hours per day or per week do you have available to commit to your physical health?

It’s a great question.

Because then you must ask yourself what kind of exercise is worth spending your time on.

My daughter Lily is doing cheerleading in high school, along with Lacrosse and Track.

He is required to do cartwheel runs consisting of a double backflip, followed by a backflip, and then picking up and pushing his teammates into the air.

All of these are functional movements, in other words, they require multiple joints working in unison under a load.

A bicep curl involves bending the elbow to lift the weight. A joint.

Again it looks good, but it is not very practical in everyday life. My wrestling coach used to tell us that training biceps as an isolated exercise was a waste of time unless you were maybe a gymnast. However, when you go to any gym, that’s what people spend a lot of time on… bicep curls!

My coach explained to me that most sports need shoulders, back, glutes, core, forearms, and grip, and the power that comes from the powerful hips and posterior chain of muscles that run along the back of our bodies. . The part we can’t see in the mirror!

A rapture involves multiple joints.

Multi-joint exercises train the body the way it is meant to move.

Rippetoe and Kilgore say that “The human body works as a complete system; it works that way and it likes to be trained that way. It doesn’t like to be broken down into its constituent components and then exercised separately, because that the force gained from training will not be used in this way. The general pattern of strength acquisition should be the same in which the force will be used.”

They go on to say, “Full range of motion barbell exercises performed correctly are essentially the functional expression of human muscular and skeletal anatomy under a load.”

Depends on what your goal is… If you want to look good, then single joint exercises will help you achieve your goals. If you want to live long and be able to jump, climb, drag, row, run, hop, push, reach, shove, pull, bounce, twist, skip, and roll throughout your life, then do exercises that challenge those movements. under a load, then start doing functional movements with a load! At this point you may think, why do I want to do those things anyway? But the inability to do those things defines your physical presence here on the planet. Imagine what it’s like not being able to bend down and pick up your grandchild off the rug (multi-joint movement). All those things (running, jumping, climbing, etc.) are ‘freedoms’ or ‘limitations’. It’s your choice.

That’s why I love crossfit!

The beauty of crossfit is its scalability. This means that the load and pace of the exercise can be varied to suit the age, size, gender and needs of the individual. So, if the exercise requires lifting a bar from the ground to an elevated position, then the person can lift a broomstick or Olympic bar with lots of plates on each end!