Symposium Update

I’ve been out of town for a week, attending two professional conferences in Boston. First, the Fascia Research Congress held at the Harvard Medical School Conference Center included researchers from around the world who shared their findings about the body’s connective tissue. Next was the International Association of Structural Integrators Symposium where leading structural integrators (www.theiasi.org) taught their specialties and latest discoveries.

Needless to say, my head is swimming with many ideas, and I’ve been inspired for the possibilities of manipulating connective tissue to improve the body’s function and health. I also have a multitude of topics for future blog articles, so stay tuned.

For today, I’ll leave you with a big picture idea. Mechanical stresses on the body affect the function of cells, individually and collectively. Cells are built to stick to each other—in places, temporarily—to be most effective. Movement facilitates the interchange of chemicals and information.

But too much movement can create injury. (I have much to tell you about ligaments in a later article.) So the best approach is to move frequently, but not too much—in terms of load bearing, repetitive motion, or speed—at any one time. This is what I call “Goldilocks movement,” not too much and not too little.

Give yourself a plan for staying active. Every day. Every hour.

Give yourself permission to stop when it’s too much. Every minute.