Got Legs? Some Thoughts on Lower Body Function That You May Not Know About
Helio Gracie, father of Brazillian Jiu Jitsu, once said (paraphrased) that youth and vitality was in the legs. He was right. When we lose strength, endurance, balance and mobility in the lower body, we lose our independence. This is especially important as we get older and our naturally-aging body starts to decline in function.
Continuing with the discussion of lower body function for health–and expanding on Father Gracie’s declaration–the legs are essential to health for several reasons:
1) Easier Daily Movement. The legs contain the largest musculature in the entire body which are essential for activities of daily living such as picking things up off the ground, walking, getting in and out of cars, etc. (Duh!)
2) Strong legs=Less Back Pain. Leg strength and mobility is strongly correlated with reducing spinal injury and chronic back pain.
3) Fat Loss Benefits. For those interested in fat loss, because the legs are the largest muscles in the body, they have the greatest potential for burning the most calories, and also have more endurance to sustain longer bouts of exercise. Therefore, if you want to lose weight, call in the heavy artillery of the lower body to help blow torch fat. The best bang-for-your-buck lower body movements are squatting, lunging, step ups, jumping, and running.
4) Muscle Building Benefits. For those interested in muscle building, just doing bench presses and sit-ups is horribly ineffective (i’m looking at you frat guys). Because the legs are such a large portion of the body’s musculature, they also have the ability to produce more force, thus allowing for more weight to be lifted. The legs are much better suited for packing on size than just upper body exercise alone. Ask any strength coach worth their weight in protein powder, and they’ll tell you that one of the most time-tested ways to put on size is heavy squatting and eating everything you can find. Heavy back squatting, when one can perform safely, is tailor made to pack meat on one’s frame. It is one of the most biomechanically efficient ways to put load on the body, which elicits not only powerful effects on total body musculature, but also releases a cascade of anabolic hormones into the bloodstream. Free steroids, yay! And the best part is that you didn’t have to borrow your roommates car to go down to Tijuana and snag some homemade mexican steroids that were likely processed in a bathtub laboratory.
Hey bro, just a heads up: it doesn't matter how many popped collars you got, if you aint squattin', then forget about selling tickets to this gun show you keep talking about.
5) Leg training is the best laxative. Squatting movements act like a pump for the internal organs, which allow for peristalsis (wavelike contractions of the digestive tract that move food downward) to more efficiently take place. This aids in circulation, digestion and elimination of bodily waste. I’d be willing to bet that those who are chronically constipated also exhibit poor breathing patterns and a severe decrement in the ability to squat functionally.
This guy has no problem building muscle with heavy squatting, and i bet he aint constipated either.
6) The legs are the second heart of the body. Muscular contraction of the legs, along with the help of one way valves in the veins, bring blood and lymphatic fluids back up into the heart for re-circulation. Those that think the heart is a pump are only partially right. If you look at the size of the heart in relation to the rest of the body, as well as where the heart is placed (upper 1/3rd of the body), it isn’t strong enough to pump that much blood throughout the entire body. Therefore, when one has been diagnosed with heart problems, it would be amiss to just blame the heart for being weak and not looking at total body function. The entire musculature system of the body helps to aid in circulation and oxygenation of the body’s tissues. The body is a unit, so give your heart a break and start moving more!
One way valves act as a pumpjack to push blood back up the body against the oppositional force of gravity
7) Foot/ankle function helps Cankles: The rocking motion of the foot/ankle act similarly to an oil pumpjack to assist in this motion of muscular contractions that assist in pushing blood back up into circulation. Those with swollen ankles could benefit from having a more functional foot/ankle. Those with a “duck-footed” posture (feet turned out to the sides) lose the natural rocking motion of the ankle that initiates the pumping of fluids back into circulation. Activites like rebounding on a minitrampoline, along with some ankle mobility and foot strengthening/balance activites, are great for moving lymphatic fluid and blood back up the body. For those that can handle more impact, jump rope, skipping, hopping, jumping, and bounding activities are also excellent for the aforementioned benefits. Another side benefit of these forms of impact activity is increased bone density or prevention of bone loss.
Ankle rocking acts like a pumpjack to push fluids back into circulation.
If you haven’t distilled the take-home point from this blog post, don’t forget to work and train the legs in your movement practice!
Nice article–I like the idea of legs and heart being pumping forces in the body getting more attention….along with the factual basis for the idea.
Killer summary, Charlie. This one goes up on the wall.