10/27/2025
The leaves are changing and pheasant hunting opener this last weekend makes me think of fall clean up.
Fall Clean up: It is time to get all the junk food cleaned out of your house and re-stocked your kitchen with whole, natural, live foods, and it’s time to clean up your physical health. Here are 7 action steps to incorporate now to increase your bodies potential for optimal health and wellness.
1. Invest more energy. Movement is a vital nutrient to your body, just as much as food, water, nerve supply or oxygen. Your genes and every cell in your body expect energy expenditure because our ancestors were extremely active. If they didn’t stay active and functional, then they did not survive – plain and simple. Your ancestors would have laughed hysterically at the concept of running on a treadmill to burn calories. Unfortunately, times are very different and most people are relatively motionless for the majority of the day. In order to adapt you need to spend more energy to maintain health.
• Action: Add activity everywhere in your life, everyday. It’s now fall, and the excuse of “it’s too hot outside” doesn’t work anymore. Park your car farther away. Take the stairs. Walk every chance you get. Trim up the old landscaping or fallin’ leaves in your yard, clean the gutters, rake the grass, etc.
2. Time for fall training. This is not a choice! There is no pill, shot, or magic bullet that can replace a little sweat equity. If you don’t like it, then you can blame your ancestors who were forced to perform daily physical activities just to ensure their survival. Exercise is a supplement to your already active life, and it is not used as a treatment for being out of shape or sick. You can either be in the pain of investing in some exercise or you can be in the pain of getting weak, sick, and broken down. The choice is yours.
• Action: Exercise daily for 30+ minutes. Make the time to walk, run, bike, join a fitness club, check out ultimate fitness program, do some yoga at the YMCA, etc. Do whatever moves you. This is also a great way to meet new people and revisit something that you used to love doing.
3. Ramp-up your intensity. Intensity is the key to gaining maximal health benefits and energy expenditure. Here’s one case where efficiency is not a good thing. More steps and more movements are what you’re after. If you don’t have a sweat on when you’re cleaning the bathroom, you’re slacking! Whether you’re cleaning your bathroom or simply walking the dog, if you are not breaking a sweat, then you are not getting the maximized benefits you can achieve from your efforts. If you can carry on a conversation comfortably while running or working out, your heart is probably not working any harder than it did when you watched Mahomes throw the last minute touchdown from the comfort of your couch. Obviously, if you are putting the effort in, why not get the most out of it by going outside with a friend and picking up a ball yourself? When you ramp up the intensity of your activity, you boost the set-point of your thermostat (AKA your metabolism), and your body torches calories even hours after you cool off.
• Action: Pick up the pace. We atrophy without stress, so make the half-hour that you dedicate to moving your body a sweaty one. Do some of your fall cleaning chores for time (as fast as you can). It’s in the stretch zone where the good stuff in life comes from – including exercise. 3-2-1-go!
4. Move like your ancestors did. There are movements that mimic motor recruitment patterns that are found in everyday life. Others are somewhat unique to the gym. Squatting is standing from a seated position; deadlifting is picking any object off the ground. These are both functional movements. The bulk of isolation movements are non-functional (like calf-raises or pec-flies). Natural movement typically involves the movement of multiple joints for every activity. The importance of functional movements is two-fold. First, the functional movements are mechanically sound and therefore safe, and second, they are the movements that elicit a high neuroendocrine response for building strength and improved fitness. Consider the loss of strength and functional movement is what puts people in nursing homes. Everyone is an athlete, so nobody is exempt.
• Action: Use functional movements in your daily exercise routine. Chop wood, fetch water, get on the floor and scrub, or go do some lunges in the backyard. Your neighbors will think you’re nuts, but after seeing your new muscles and energy, they’ll soon join you.
5. Get your spine and nervous system checked regularly. Once you add more activity to your life, exercise daily with more intensity, and include functional movements, your spine and nervous system will rejoice. You will experience a whole myriad of spinal and neurological health benefits, but some of the most important are the activation of your neuroendocrine response, stimulation of proprioception, and keeping your spinal discs healthy with micro-movements of the spine called imbibition. Here’s why each are important to you: i) When you activate the neuroendocrine response through physical stress, there is a release of natural hormones in the body. Some side effects are increased muscle mass, bone density, better vascular health, improved immune function, as well as hundreds of others. ii) The stimulation of tiny movement receptors in the spinal joints, called mechanoreceptors, sends positive body signals called proprioception to your brain and charges it like a battery. As a result you have improved memory, mood, energy, balance, s*x drive, and all kinds of other health bonuses. Have you ever noticed that you feel great after exercising? This is part of the reason. iii) Your spinal discs have no blood supply of their own, so the only way that they stay healthy is by receiving oxygen and discarding toxins. This happens through the pumping action of the discs from movement and exercise called imbibition. But guess what? None of these health benefits are possible without proper joint mechanics and nerve function. Subluxations, or vertebrae jarred out of their healthy position, must be removed regularly to attain overall body health and optimal function.
• Action: Get adjusted regularly, and get your friends and family checked so they can experience 100% health and function, too! Tell them Addy is waiting for their phone call. 270-2111
6. Watch your posture. Stand up straight, pull your shoulders back, stand on both feet, suck your gut in, and don’t slouch! Yeah, yeah, you’ve heard this a hundred times from your mom and your chiropractor. But do you listen? Maybe it’s time to own the consequences of what happens if you sit there with forward head posture sniffing the computer screen all day, or sit in your car with a toxic posture for two hours straight without a break. Your spine deteriorates, your nervous system becomes stressed, your body breaks down, and you get sick suffering.
• Action: Audit your work station: Keep your computer screen at eye level, sit with your butt to the back of your chair, and use a firm chair or a body ball to sit on. Think about your ears over your shoulders and your shoulders over your hips. Sit tall.
• Action: Sit with perfect posture in your car and adjust the mirrors accordingly that way you’ll need perfect posture to navigate the road.
• Action: 50:10 rule – for every 50 minutes of sitting you need 10 minutes of motion. Follow the rule.
7. Rest and repair. One thing piles on the next, the stress mounts, you’re on over-drive and lack of sleep for too long, and BAM – you’re down for the count for a few days. This is your body’s way of telling you that you’ve pushed past your limits, and it forces you to shut down for a while. You should never wait for your body to force you to take a break. Rest and repair is NOT a luxury – it is a NECESSITY.
• Action: Get to bed before midnight and get the sleep you need. You should never have to wake up to an alarm clock. If you need an alarm to wake up, chances are that your body isn’t getting enough sleep.
• Action: Schedule a vacation. Vacations are healthy… take one before your body forces you to. : )
Let me know how your fall clean up goes,
Dr. Vince
Chiropractor Clive | At Hassel Family Chiropractic, we provide the individualized care you need to restore your well-being.
