I have worked in the fitness industry for over a decade now and have a variety of different certifications, which I will list below. Growing up I had very little knowledge about fitness, but was fascinated by the complexity of the human body. We are in control of this amazingly complex organism that has multiple systems all working together at the same time. I worry that we have created a society that does not require our bodies to work in an optimum state, and have lost appreciation for how complex and beautiful our bodies are. We are so good at moving that after we learn how to perform an action it becomes automatic and subconscious. We have so much control and potential with our bodies, we are capable of such extraordinary movements, we can change the shape of our body, we can increase our strength, we can become more aware, we can train to jump higher or run faster, we can teach our bodies to use oxygen more efficiently, and you can see this in how much better our athletes are today compared to 50 years ago.
We are creating a society that requires less and less movement, and we are quickly seeing the results . Medications are enabling us to live a longer life, but they are also making us lazier and less proactive. I worry that we have forgotten the basics, and no longer appreciate what we have. We don't breathe well, we allow stress to eat away at our body, we have lost the flexibility and strength we once had.
I remember a time when I was 7 years old and playing outside my grandfathers house, I would run around jump, slide, and wrestle all day. Not once did I feel like my joints were going to give out or I was going to strain a muscle. I believe I was operating at my most optimum levels at that time and as I became more sedentary I not only lost some of those abilities but also forgot about them and didn't even realize that I had lost them. It was not until I started studying movement that I realized how much my body had suffered.
I have made it my personal mission to try and get back to that feeling of freedom and unrestricted movement I once had as a child. I want my muscles to be flexible yet strong, my joints to have mobility and stability, my respiratory system capable of sprints as well as endurance, I want to be able to add on muscle as well as decrease body fat. I work towards optimizing my body's capabilities and making the best use of this system, because it's only a matter of time before that is no longer an option.
I have begun to experience my quality of life improve as I have trained and would like to share that feeling with as many people as possible. When my body is operating well, my mind is also operating well. When I am helping other people improve their quality of life using the techniques that have worked for me, I am doing my job. The feeling I get when helping another person become more in control of their life, happier and more aware is a feeling that I have been unable to find anywhere else in life.
Grant Kennedy NASM-CPT, NASM-CES, NESTA, NCSF, CAFS, TRX
