The whole body feels stiff, pain in the body

You’ve probably heard the saying “no pain, no gain”. Maybe you’ve thought about this and found it relatable, even if you’re not a professional athlete. The whole body feels stiff, and there are different types of aches and pains. You might even think that this is normal. We shouldn’t, however, have to struggle with a stiff body and pain in our daily life. It’s not a normal state for the body. Exercise shouldn’t be bad for your health when done right. What is it then, that causes the body to react in this way and gives rise to these aches and pains?

One reason is training too hard. Often people think that training hard gives you more energy. It’s true, but only if you can recover from the training that leaves you feeling beat up. Today, most people have poor recovery and training too hard leads to pain and injuries; as much as 80% of people suffer from some kind of musculoskeletal disorder or disease. If you want to relax, sleep better, have more energy, and explosiveness, overtraining is not the right way to reach this goal.

We must take into account the overall stress levels experienced in life, summing up all the stress caused by exercise, work stress and the psychological stress caused by a busy life. When the sympathetic nervous system is overactive, we don’t recover well. When you add training at over 70% of full capacity, for example traditional group exercise classes or gym training programs, we will eventually run into problems, and the body starts to show symptoms.

Another reason can also be found in our mobility and stabilizer muscles. Very often we would prefer to include only “real training” which gets the heart pumping and includes heavy weights in the training program. If you don’t sweat, what kind of training is that? This leads to imbalances in your fitness pyramid; it creates more strength than the body can handle in terms of mobility and support. Health has been compromised for results.

The pyramid should be based on mobility and stability, which form the basis for our ability to perform. You could think of this like building a house: if the base the house is built on (base of the pyramid) is weaker than the house built on it (performance), the structure won’t be durable or permanent. There is another thing that is closely related to mobility and stability: the fascia. When the fasciae are tense due to lack of movement and hydration, functions of the nervous system and our ability to move are reduced. Because of this, we aren’t able to activate the right stabilizing muscles, and the timely activation of the strength muscles is impaired. This results in chronic pain and sprains.

You don’t have to throw in the towel, even if you recognize yourself from this description. We can positively enhance the body’s ability to move safely through active movement which targets the nervous system and fascial system. First, we should fix problems with mobility. Then it will be possible to activate the stabilizing muscles in the right order and achieve movement control. Mobility means being able to complete a movement and control, on the other hand, is the ability to complete that movement correctly.

How does Anatomic Functional Training help in all this? 
No torturous workouts

In AFT we want to put health first. When we talk about health-enhancing physical activity, we don’t just mean less intense exercise. We must pay attention to exercises that focus on stability and mobility. Yoga and pilates are good examples of these. AFT contains elements from both, and the focus of these exercises is on completing the movements with mobility and control in mind.

Fitness and being healthy are not mutually exclusive. You can be in great shape and healthy at the same time! When we train mobility and stability, we also create the basis for being in great shape. One good example of this is a group our head coach Jukka Harju coached ten years ago and their laboratory results. The group trained for 12 weeks. During this time they took fitness tests on mobility, muscle fitness, and endurance.

As you would expect, everyone’s results improved, but laboratory tests showed a surprising number of participants suffered from an overload of the lymphatic system and the adrenal gland, even after the training. The purpose of the training had been to energize the body, not to stress it. After seeing these results, Jukka changed the training program making the parts in the beginning and end of the training longer. Dynamic stretches and foam rolling were added.

The training was divided better by adding mini-pauses, and the intensive sections were limited to a maximum of three minutes at a time. These changes not only resulted in better physical results, but the body was also healthier on the inside.

Now Anatomic Functional Training is also available as an online training, and many people who have taken part have experienced positive changes in their body in terms of mobility, posture, recovery and in reduced pains and aches. Check Free Programs

In order to stay healthy and energetic, we must define the intensity of training in a way that allows for real recovery. In practice, this means combining light exercises with high-intensity training.