Author: Emma Hill
Activity is NOT exercise and Exercise is NOT Activity. These two are not to be confused.
Exercise is a universal need for every living person on the planet and outside (if such a world exists). Anyone with a functioning heart and has a vital need to live longer and live life to its fullest potential must accept the idea that exercise is like brushing your teeth–it’s a need, not a want, and not a luxury.
Anytime you see someone walking or running their legs off all for the sake of exercise please politely disregard these as activities and not exercise and move about your day. After all if you just told someone who ran 4 miles and they’re in a sweat and their legs are weak that what they just did is not exercise–you might need to run yourself!
Exercise is not hard to understand, just hard to do. Like any task or choice before us, we make it hard or easy by how we set ourselves up either for success in the long term. (Something we here at RyseUP Rehab are all about) or failure in the short term.
Here is the key to exercise as well as life–you need to fail to exercise your muscles efficiently, effectively, and above all safely. Let me say that again you absolutely have to cause your muscles to fail to exercise correctly. Don’t be afraid to fail in life or in exercise.
When we fail in life we learn from that unpleasant experience. When we fail as a human being engaged in the process we like to call Exercise or SITx we teach our bodies to remove outroading behaviors, focus, and learn to know what it means to work hard not on every rep but in every exercise that is done through our total body strengthening approach called SITx.
So what exactly is Exercise, if it’s not running, lifting weights, swimming, or…?
Exercise is a universal need for every person. Regardless of who you are, where you live, or how old you are, your body needs exercise (to survive the daily grind). We call this “insurance for your body.” Of course, we each have varying strength levels, some of us may have injuries we are treating, some of us may just want to stay active, and some of us need it to be able to keep our body functioning.
RyseUP Rehab defines the word Exercise as:
“A process whereby the body performs work of a demanding nature, in accordance with muscle and joint function, in a clinically-controlled environment, within the constraints of safety, meaningfully loading the muscular structures to inroad their strength levels to stimulate a growth mechanism within minimum time.”
We have mentioned this definition previously in our discussion of the mental challenge presented by SITx. However, it may still feel like a confusing explanation. So this article will help to clarify what we mean. First off, RyseUP Rehab sees that exercise, if it is to serve its purpose in the most efficient way, must fit the description above.
What do we mean by a meaningful load on the muscles?
To explain, let’s break it down. In essence, we have to put a load on your muscles. This may immediately cause you to think of weight lifting. But, holding to natural muscle and joint function bans activities that place an unnatural strain on the body such as weight lifting.
Weight lifting is a whole lot different from weight training. Weight lifting is lifting weight incorporating skill-based movements to lift a maximal load over a very long duration.
Weight Training is training with weights using some form of load placed on the muscles but is still rarely done in its strictest form and there are a host of principles regarding outroading and other issues that over time will lead to injury if not supervised by a certified RyseUP Rehab Specialist. in the traditional sense, Exercise does not lead to consistent and efficient inroading since
During a session, we use your body, along with a RyseUP Rehab machine, to create resistance and a load that doesn’t put an unnatural strain on your body. Each exercise also utilizes gravity as a natural force on the body for your body’s benefit. For example, in this image, someone is pushing their hands towards the machine, creating resistance in a natural way.
What is a clinically controlled environment?
A clinically controlled environment requires that you have an exercise fitness instructor. They are there to guide you and allow for the exercise to reach a high level of intensity while maintaining your safety. (by carefully watching you at all times to ensure you are not doing any of the aforementioned outroading behaviors and that you are using proper form setup in each exercise prescribed.
This environment also includes no distractions, no loud music, no mirrors, plants, artwork, or other people around you to distract from what you are there to do, which is to help you focus to allow you to strengthen the muscles in a minimum amount of time. You will also find that we keep the room very cool, and ventilated so that we can help keep you comfortable while you exercise and due to heat dissipation.
Typically, each exercise takes under 3 minutes, as you get stronger this is changes to match your intensity levels. And we move from one exercise to the next in a session so you get the most effective training session.
Finally, as we explained in our article on SITx, there are very few activities that can inroad your muscles quickly and deeply, and there are no activities that do so safely that we have found in over 20 years of searching. Any activity in fact that is performed to failure will cause additional trauma on your body and will lead to further pain and a higher chance of injuries.
SITx utilizes a principle that activities simply can’t and don’t. Inroading is important because if we do not work our muscles hard enough, inroad them deep enough, we receive no benefit.
Don’t Confuse Activities with Exercise
When we apply our definition of exercise to all of the fitness options and activities out there, all that is left is SITx. At this point in time, it is the only thing that counts as exercise, because nothing else can give you the benefits you want in an effective amount of time. Although this definition of exercise does not include some of your favorite hobbies, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t participate in those activities. They just don’t fulfill your body’s need for exercise.
What eliminates many of these activities from qualifying as “exercise” is that they are built on the idea of a steady state. These are those activities that are often referred to as aerobic exercises that encourage you to maintain an elevated heart rate for a certain duration. These steady-state activities do not lead to efficient inroading and your Momentary Muscular Failure (MMF) is minimal unless you participate for long amounts of time. This includes treadmills, stair climbers, traditional running, swimming, etc.
We refer to these other fitness options as recreational activities, or simply activities. These are things that you should absolutely include in your life. They bring joy and excitement to many stages of life, but exercising using the SITx techniques will only increase your ability to participate in all of your activities.
You should not try to turn activities into exercise. Playing basketball will only increase your skill to play basketball, it will not increase your overall ability to perform tasks and do daily things like lifting a box, or carrying your child up a hill. This also contributes to why it is an activity and not considered exercise. And why the functional training methods out there are bogus.
Activities like running, sports, dancing, “aerobics”, and walking can all be reserved for your enjoyment as part of an active lifestyle.
SITx the foundation of Exercise can strengthen your body so that you can continue to enjoy these activities and many more for years to come.
True Exercise is Universal & Doesn’t Put You at Risk for Further Injury
While exercise is universal, these recreational activities are often very personal. They require certain abilities and a level of agility. Skateboarding, for example, can involve crazy tricks that introduce a large risk of injury each time you ride. You may reach failure in some areas of your body, but how long can you continue to do the tricks, and at what cost? True exercise should not come at the price of your safety ever.
Millions of injuries are sustained each year from recreational activities according to the CDC and the National Safety Council. While this may be worth it to you to enjoy your favorite hobbies, it shouldn’t be the only exposure your body gets to be active. While running can be something that makes you feel healthier, even good running shoes cannot prevent the damage this activity will cause to your joints over time. True exercise should build up the body, not wear it down.
Again, we caution you to not confuse exercise with activity. This is a major downfall that currently exists in the fitness and health industry that we are out to create a movement from.. We care about your ability to do the things you love and to have your body perform at the level you need it to for as long as possible.
We know life is short, which means exercise needs to be effective and productive, rather than becoming something that you “have” to do that doesn’t actually meet the criteria and purpose of exercising, to begin with.
RyseUP Rehab exists so people can get their life back. For us, this means that you get your body function and ability, you get your time back, and over time the amount of money you need to invest in your health decreases. All of these components contribute to your ability to live and enjoy life to its fullest potential.
Come and see what it feels like to give your body what it really needs. You can book a session online here or contact us at 801-449-0253 to get started.
Emma is currently a student studying editing and publishing with a minor in creative writing. She joined the team at RyseUP Rehab after participating in the program herself to treat injuries she received in a car accident. The exercises made a big difference in her life and have helped her to live the active life she wants to with less pain. Emma enjoys rock climbing, running, and spending time with her family.