What are the 3 essential keys to longevity to add to your training? (spine, grip, foot)

A question was asked to me by one of the podcast's loyal listeners, during my FAQ°18:

“I am currently listening to the podcast with Jérémie Fiset, the art of agility, on the principle of strengthening the spine, grip, and feet .”

This is a section in the exchange where we talk about the keys to longevity, and the exercises that would be interesting to promote more, such as strengthening and mobilizing the spine , strengthening or developing the grip , and strengthening the foot.

“I would like to know examples and exercises to strengthen this trio , I don't think I saw anything at the Dojo concerning this subject, I'm thinking in particular of the waves that Clément was talking about.

Thank you Slim!”

The Netflix of Movement: The Dojo

Regarding the part about waves, no I don't have a video on YouTube, but these exercises are all explained and detailed in my training courses, notably the “Never on your back” training course in which there is a module dedicated to movement.

We look at spinal waves, spirals, and quite a few other fairly complex movements,

Which come after having done a part on the isolation and segmentation of the different parts of your spine, to understand each of the major movements.

We try to combine and articulate all of this, to create waves and other things.

For the foot strengthening part, there is a video on the Dojo des Mouvers , our video on demand platform, the Netflix of movement !

On this platform you will be able to find physical preparation exercises for the foot, in which you will develop the muscles in front of the shin, the calves and work on extensions, flexions on the side, rotations for the ankles, etc.

There will be Kinstretch-inspired exercises for controlled joint rotations, and then there are quite a few things for toe strengthening.

You will be able to find all of this on the Dojo des Mouvers !

How to have a healthy spine?

Next, let's come to the magic trio.

First the spine, so there is the famous Chinese proverb that we all repeat in the movement industry:

“ You are as old as your spine .”

So to understand this, we will try to visualize the body in the following way:

The head, spine and pelvis represent the trunk , it is the chassis of the vehicle.

Then there is the 4-wheel drive so to speak, two shoulders and two hips which allow us access to all movements .

And to follow up on the previous question about fundamental movements, pushing, pulling, locomotion, squatting, lunging…

All this is possible thanks to these 4-wheel drives.

The column, in this sense, is important to see, not as a solution of last resort.

But to keep it healthy over the long term, we must not overuse it , not overexploit it, and not make it work when we fundamentally do not need it.

If you tell me that you have to squat, that you have to compress your body, that you have to bring your body together as efficiently as possible, that is to say, consuming the least energy,

Well, if you have access to all the mobility in your hips, ankles, and knees, you're going to be able to do that without compromising the integrity of your spine, without misusing it.

When I say wrongly, it's not that there is a right or wrong way to do it.

But there is a notion of, if I am going to squat 1000 times a day for the next 50 years and I am constantly using flexion in my lower back in addition to some of my hips, ankles and knees,

Well the problem is that my hips, my ankles, and my knees, I'm always going to ask them to do this work where I'm going to distribute this workload on my lower back,

Except that my lower back, which I'm going to be asking for this work constantly, well, they're going to get tired, and they're going to tell me that we're using this part of the spine too much and therefore we're going to damage them.

When you have pain, stiffness in your back, or a blockage in your back, it's over, the whole vehicle is damaged, you can't do anything.

So it is in this sense that the spine is the key to longevity , the more flexible it is, the more malleable it is, the more flexible it is, the more resilient it is, the longer you will live .

Because the four-wheel drive is supposed to take the workload , or most of the workload, when you're going to do these pushing, pulling, squatting, lunging, etc. movements.

But since we have a bad use of the body, or in any case we are not taught to use it, we will unfortunately make all these compensation mechanisms to compensate for the fact that we have stiff joints, and in particular on these four motors.

So if your hip can't bend more than 90 degrees, every time you want to bend down, pick up a shopping bag, get closer to the ground, take an object that is on the lower shelves, pick up your baby from the ground,

You will ask your back to compensate and therefore you will overuse the machine.

It's like machines in factories that have a predefined number of revolutions, there is planned obsolescence, it will work 10,000 rotations and then it will no longer work.

If you use it every day without following the manual, it might last 2 years.

Whereas if you had followed the user manual and run it 2,000 times a year, well you could have kept it for 5 years.

It works the same way for the spine.

In the Podcast with Jérémie Fiset we mentioned this idea that it is interesting to have a physical practice in which we put the emphasis on the mobility of the spine, the control of the spine, because it is the best way to have body awareness .

So this little scenario that I'm presenting to you on the idea of ​​squatting, in the end you can correct it, not necessarily by doing joint mobility work, even if that can help, but simply by having more body awareness .

Presence will give you some indications ...

You may realize that you are not using your body to the best of your ability, perhaps the way you are using it is not the most optimal way, perhaps you do not realize that you are going to do actions that will damage your body later on ,

Maybe you don't even realize there is a "later."

Maybe you don't care, you tell yourself that you're going to die at 25 and so you go for it full speed!

And again there is no miracle solution.

Doing spinal waves is not a solution in itself!

But a complete mobility work on your hips, your shoulders, your spine, would be more useful.

And even just having a general mobilization every morning, as I offer for free with my detailed mobility routine , to simply loosen the joints,

It's more of a mobilization to just move those joints, rather than very specific joint work where you're going to gain strength through a range of motion.

That alone is an excuse to have a kind of meditation through movement , to be able to adapt your positions during your working day for example .

You're going to tell yourself that today if you have 8 hours of work at the office, well it would be interesting to remind you that you're going to have to behave correctly,

And even if that happens, you have an alarm system that will allow you to get up, do a few movements, a few spinal waves, and then you can return to your sitting position.

The goal is not to change your daily life completely, there are no better positions, you just navigate in your environment.

If you pick up an object and bend your back, it's not a problem. There are plenty of situations where it's easier to bend your back than to do a flexion.

But once again, think about this idea, we have 4-wheel drive, so the idea is not to move well, it's to move BETTER .

It's about moving up a gear, making a qualitative leap, and improving the execution of these movements, even after 60 years.

How to develop your grip?

Then the grip and the foot.

It is important to know that one of the causes of death among the elderly is falling .

So the connection with the grip is that when you fall, you generally try to catch yourself on an object, a table, a chair, etc.

When you no longer have the strength to hold, to grip, when you don't have the grip strength, to tighten the points around an object , well falls will happen , you won't be able to catch yourself.

Even just putting your hand on the ground to break the fall.

It was in this context, in the episode of the podcast with Jérémie, that we talked about the importance of the grip.

There are obviously other reasons, with studies that have been done more recently showing a correlation, and perhaps even a causation, between the development of grip and the development of strength throughout the body .

And since we know that muscle mass and strength are essential elements for longevity and for aging better, having a physical practice, or at least a moment in your physical practice that you dedicate to working on your grip,

Whether it's through pulling work, whether it's through work on the hands, whether it's with climbing-type exercises, these will be longevity boosters.

How to stop foot pain?

And the last point, just as we need our hands to be able to grip, we need feet and toes that are able to grip the ground .

We talk about the foot as being the first line of defense for the body, that is to say that if you run, what is first in contact with the ground is your foot , and we never think about it!

If we want to improve an athlete's performance, if we want to develop their vertical jump, their running technique, etc.

But we don't spend any time strengthening our feet, strengthening our shins, our toes, we're missing out on something important!

The first point of contact with the ground, where the impact occurs, is the foot.

But since we are always locked in sneakers where there are lots of cushions to absorb shocks , well we no longer realize it, we are completely disconnected and desensitized .

Conversely, martial arts practitioners, I'm thinking in particular of Muay Thai, have a little more of this awareness and we realize it quite quickly.

There are a lot of practitioners who arrive, and from the first session, just standing and moving around the ring hurts, because their feet actually hurt,

Because the feet are permanently confined in sneakers, sneakers that do not fit the natural shape of the foot, and therefore they will force the toes to squeeze against each other ,

You can end up with toes that are climbing on top of each other, and have pain related to that.

One thing that might be interesting to do is to rehabilitate your foot, let it breathe.

For example, if you work from home, you can stay barefoot,

Also have a time where you are reconnected to the ground and the earth, put your foot in your earth.

Make movements that allow you to bend your toes.

Jumping to absorb the shock, all barefoot.

If you go to the gym, you go barefoot or in socks if you get any comments.

You have to let your toes open , shift, and let them be the way they're supposed to be.

If you go on Google and look for pictures of native people, wherever you go to countries where people walk around in flip-flops all the time, like the Indonesians, you'll see that their feet aren't like ours.

And especially those of Western women who wear heels, their feet are completely anesthetized.

But the first function, the first shield against shocks, is the foot.

If in your practice you have to move, jump, run, change direction, cushion your jumps like in basketball for example, you really need your feet to be functional!

You should therefore practice strengthening the foot, restoring it to its natural state, with the spreading of the toes, being able to push, to grip the ground with your toes, being able to put all your body weight on these toes, bending them at 90°.

There is an exercise in my Free Mobility Routine, a kind of Seiza in which you sit with your knees in maximum compression bent, and your buttocks resting on your heels.

This position is the position that causes the most problems for people, because you are not able to put your weight on your toes,

These are also small things that we can do to improve the health of our feet and develop our barefoot practice.

We can mention natural running that we can see at MovNat , or pose running.

There are several ways to improve your mechanics and your foot placement.

Then you will have to be able to go back up this muscular and articular chain , and be able to say to yourself when you fix your foot, when you fix your ankle, your knee, your hip.

Everything is at stake, it's a kind of harmonious broom.

But we cannot afford to forget the fundamental elements that are the feet and hands.

We must also not forget that we are tool makers , we have to handle things, we are supposed to have hands that can move, throw, pull, push ...

And so it's important to be able to regain this fluidity in the hands, but also to make fine, meticulous movements, like threading a needle.

This is also a sign of longevity.

In the fingers there are a lot of nerves, a lot of possible movements , there would be so much to say!

That's it for my wisdom sharing on this, I hope you like this answer!

Thank you for your attention, my Mouver!

Nomad Slim
Founder of MOUVERS