Use It or Lose It

Skiing is a sport that I was introduced to as a child, back when skis were made of wood and boots came just above the ankles and laced up.  As a young teen, my Dad, my sister and I would drive from the San Francisco Bay area where we lived to Sierra Mountain Resorts to ski for the day, several times a year.  After I graduated from college, I moved to Lake Tahoe with the intention of staying for a ski season and ended up staying for 3 years.  I waited tables (so much for a college education) and had a weekday ski pass for Alpine Meadows Ski Resort.  Life was good!  Then I moved to Southern California, got married, had kids, and skied a lot less frequently.  But like riding a bike, once your body has developed the muscle memory, your ability to pick up where you left off stays with you for life—if you stay functional.

Recently, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to do some downhill skiing in Colorado.  I hadn’t been skiing in 17 years!  In my mind’s eye I knew I would remember how to ski, but I was very nervous about how well I would ski, how much endurance I would have, and how badly I would hurt the next day.  After all, I am 58 years old now!  Well, I have to report that I may not have pushed it as hard as I did when I was 25, but my form was as good as it had ever been, my stamina at least as good as it was 17 years ago, and recovery time wasn't even an issue. It was truly amazing to me how well my body engaged, endured, and renewed itself, and testimony to the way I have taken care of myself over the last 12 years.  The same could not be said for my equipment—the plastic heel plate on one of my boots (which were relatively new when I wore them last) broke in the ski shop as they were being fitted to a pair of skis and the elastic strap on my goggles broke as I tried to stretch it over the ski helmet I was renting!

The Egoscue Method® gets most of the credit for my ability to return to skiing with a functional body, although I do not want to minimize the contributions of The Blood Type Diet® or the mental and spiritual advances I have made toward personal serenity and Whole Body Wellness.  I have been a daily devotee to my Egoscue exercise routines for 5 years now.  As I have discussed in several of my earlier blogs, “Dysfunction” is the new “normal” in a culture that views motion as something to eliminate whenever possible.  The latest and greatest laborsaving devices are everywhere.  The only problem is we require motion to continue to live and grow, without it we decline and die. 

  Our bodies were designed with perfect vertical and horizontal alignment of all load-bearing joints to provide strength, resiliency, and minimal wear and tear.  Our “dysfunctions” show up as heads forward, misaligned shoulders, hips tipped too far forward or back, bowed or knock knees, everted (duck) feet, and other deviations from our design form with its perfect vertical and horizontal alignment of all load-bearing joints.  The cause of the dysfunctions—lack of adequate motion to maintain muscular balance.  Without the physical demands faced by our Hunter/Gatherer ancestors or even those who lived 100 years ago, very few of us get enough balanced exercise from our normal daily activities to maintain our design form.

While on the slopes, I saw several injured skiers being tended by ski patrolmen and carried down the mountain on sleds designed for this purpose.  It was a reminder that such events are commonplace; in fact, it would be rare to spend the day skiing and not see someone injured.  Is skiing just a dangerous sport, or did these individuals hurt themselves because a dysfunctional hip prevented them from turning when needed, or their skis separated because their leg muscles were unaccustomed to keeping their knees and feet pointed straight ahead?  One look at the skier’s posture would give you the answer, and I’m betting that the danger lies not with the sport, but with the dysfunction the athlete brings to it.

For more information on The Egoscue Method®, The Blood Type Diet®, or other aspects of Whole Body Wellness, visit my website at http://loveinmotion.me/, or leave me a Comment on the link below and I will get back to you.

Your Health is in Your Hands!

Suzanne