5 Minute Flood Your Brain Challenge

Categories: Blog, blog Oct 04, 2020


The secret to health and strength is movement.

 

Well, really, it’s engaging in movement on a regular basis, especially movement that floods your nervous system with information.

 

The brain is an information sponge. It takes the information it receives and decides how to interpret it and  what to do with it. For example, if you touch a hot stove, your brain may interpret that as a threat to your safety and then it will move you rather rapidly to keep you from getting hurt.

 

This happens in every single moment of your existence. Your brain is always taking in information. The more information it receives, the more options it has to interpret and respond. Options are good to have. When we don’t give our brain much information, when we don’t move a lot or do much, we give it little to go off of and our brain may interpret that we don’t need to move much and it may decide to remove the previous options we once had.

 

The nervous system operates on a “use it or lose it” principle. This could also be seen as “inform to express” principle. If you consistently provide your nervous system with information by moving, you are constantly securing your ability to express yourself freely through movement, emotion and thought.

 

Basically, not moving often starves your brain of valuable information and this ends up greatly limiting your body’s ability to move and express it self, you reduce your movement options when you become sedentary. This leads to a much lower enjoyment of life. If you can’t move well, it’s harder to engage in the joys of life and easier to become bitter, apathetic, angry and depressed.

 

One very simple movement you can do, one “movement” that floods your brain with tons of information is the crawl dance. The crawl dance is simply getting on all fours, on your hands and feet, and transitioning your body in as many ways as you can while moving from “belly down” to “belly up.” That is, you move back and forth from your belly pointing at the floor to your belly pointing at the sky. There is no one way or wrong way to do this. You simply investigate how you transition from one position to the next with as much control as you can muster. You can do this for repetitions or time.

 

You can see how it’s done here:

 

Done a little every day, the crawl dance can keep your nervous system informed, keeping it feeling safe and free to express itself. In other words, the crawl dance gives you plenty of movement options!

 

Not only that, but it makes your body S-T-R-O-N-G. Really strong.

 

Can something so simply really keep your nervous system healthy and improve your ability to enjoy your life better? Yes. Absolutely. But don’t believe me. Do it and decide or discover this for yourself.

 

Accumulate 5 minutes of crawl dancing every day for 21 days and see how you feel. This is how you become informed!  This is how you flood your brain and build or maintain your movement options.

 

So the question is, “Would you care to dance?”

 

It’s your option.

 

 

 


Comments (7)

  1. Jon:
    Oct 06, 2020 at 08:54 PM

    You did a YouTube video on getting strong through play. In the video you demonstrated going from the crawl position to the crab position to the elevated roll. I absolutely love this combination and it seems to be similar to the crawl dance you describe. Doing this for 10 or 15 minutes SLOW makes me feel amazing all day.
    It’s my go to when my mind is in a funk and I need to get myself focused for a long day

    Reply

    1. Tim Anderson:
      Oct 06, 2020 at 09:40 PM

      That’s fantastic Jon! Such a great way to get out of a funk. Thanks for sharing this with us!

      Reply

    2. Greg Cerveny:
      Oct 07, 2020 at 06:46 PM

      Do you happen to know the video you are referencing? Would love to check it out.

      Reply

      1. Tim Anderson:
        Oct 16, 2020 at 01:19 PM

        I think it’s this one: https://youtu.be/OWf9Yds7uaw

        Reply

  2. rene:
    Oct 15, 2020 at 09:09 AM

    hi john, can you provide the link of the video mentioned? thanks!

    Reply

    1. Tim Anderson:
      Oct 16, 2020 at 01:19 PM

      Hey! I think it’s this one: https://youtu.be/OWf9Yds7uaw

      Reply

  3. Jill Greene:
    Oct 15, 2020 at 02:44 PM

    Here a couple of links to one of Tim's videos about playing.
    https://originalstrength.net/blog/remember-to-play/
    And another by OS Certified Instructor, Matt Myers.
    https://originalstrength.net/blog/3847/

    Reply


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