The Human Body is Not Fragile

I don’t know where the idea came from that it is.

One of the main objections to Rucking that I hear goes something like this:

“Isn’t carrying weight bad for your knees?”

“Isn’t carrying weight bad for your back?”

“Isn’t that bad for you?”

The amount of propaganda it has taken to make people believe that exercise is only “safe” inside a gym is astounding.

It’s as if the only acceptable form of exercise must take place on rubber floor mats, under fluorescent lights, with a never-ending pop music playlist in the background.

This is exactly what we were rebelling against when we made our remake of the ominous 1984 Apple commercial.

Movement is human.

It’s not something that requires special clothes, perfect conditions, or a gym membership.

You can just move.

And I reject the idea that the human body is weak.

Lifting, moving, and carrying heavy things makes you stronger.

In fact, the supercompensation effect of exercise means your body does not just recover back to baseline.

It adapts.

You become stronger than you were before, so the next time you encounter that same stress, it’s easier.

This is why it’s important to regularly change the exercise stimulus. Your body needs a reason to keep adapting.

What actually makes our bodies fragile is not moving.

If we do not consistently give the body signals that tell it to get strong and stay strong, it simply will not.

 

Our ability to move is use it or lose it.

Movement is also how our joints receive nutrition.

Cartilage doesn’t have a great blood supply, so it can’t just sit there and get fed like a muscle.

It needs compression and decompression.

Every time you squat, walk, Ruck, hang, crawl, or move through a deeper range of motion, you are essentially pumping fluid through the joint.

That fluid brings nutrients in and helps move waste out.

So when you stop moving, your joints don’t just get “tight.”

They get underfed.

 

This is why I’m focusing more on mobility.

But when I say mobility, I don’t just mean stretching.

I mean putting my joints through a broad range of motion and, in many cases, adding external load to help me go further and get stronger there.

It’s Mobility-Strength training.

I’m still lifting weights, but I’m doing it in a way that doesn’t just target my muscles.

My joints and connective tissues are getting stronger and more capable too.

I’ve been doing this for several months now, and the biggest benefit — besides an overall improvement in my range of motion — is that I have more energy and several nagging injuries are now mostly pain-free.

Strength is great.

Mobility-Strength is how you stay adventure ready for decades.

Live wild or die,
-Dan, Wild Gym Founder