Movement isn’t just about fitness it directly impacts brain health, mobility, and longevity. Engaging in full-range motion exercises enhances neuroplasticity, preventing stiffness and improving overall function. Poor posture and sedentary habits can lead to long-term issues, but simple adjustments and consistent movement can reverse these effects.

From deep squats to balance training, incorporating intentional movement into daily life helps maintain strength and flexibility as we age. Small, consistent efforts add up, ensuring better mobility, brain function, and overall well-being for years to come.

Highlights of the Podcast

00:04 – How Movement Shapes the Brain

01:15 – Why Full Range of Motion Matters

03:51 – Exercise and Posture Correction

06:13 – Training for Longevity

09:55 – The Importance of Staying Active

12:21 – Final Advice: Move More & Get Adjusted

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:00:04] All right. So I was originally going to call this movement in neuroplasticity, but then I realized that people are going to know what neuroplasticity means, so I’ll go through that. All right. Whenever you move your your body’s in signals to your brain, and the signals that are sent to your brain actually change your brain. You can look this up. There’s the. There’s something called the Omega sign. Einstein had a lot of violinists have it. And because of the dexterity of actually playing the violin, it changes. Like there’s a little fold in the brain that happens because of it. Every time you move that information that goes to your brain literally changes your brain, and the input that goes in your brain tells your brain where your body is in space, how it’s moving and how far it’s moving. And it creates a model of that over time. So the thing we the problem we get into with that is that if we only move a little bit over time, your brain thinks it can only move a little bit. And that is we see that over and over, over again. And older people, we see it in people with frozen shoulder issues. We see it with people who, you know, get stiff and tight because they don’t move, you know, these type of things. We see it all the time.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:01:15] This is one of the big reasons why when I talk about functional movement, when we talk about exercising and going to the full range of motion, that’s why that’s so critically important, because if you want to look at it from a like a like a long term function, which is why exercise is so hypercritical to anti-aging and to just generally aging properly. What we have to understand is that if we if we move with 60% of the range of motion we normally have, after a period of time, your body will lock itself down so that you basically only have that 60% range of motion for you to function. So when you start recognizing that, you need to start recognizing that the way that you move or the amount that you move has to it has to increase. So if you’re sitting down all day at a computer, then you get in your car and you see your car and you drive home and then you sit and you watch TV or you read or you play your iPad. So you’re always sitting in this position. And so what ends up happening is that you start to kind of conform to that position. Your head comes forward down a little bit, your shoulders roll forward, you kind of get this hunched in your upper back. That’s that old lady hump that everybody talks about. It also puts tremendous strain on your neck. And so the musculature has to kind of try to accommodate for that. So it tightens down decrease.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:02:31] So it puts more pressure on those discs, shortening the amount of distress you’ve got that that also starts messing with the musculature, the upper back and neck tightening it up. And so now lymphatic drainage is worse. And so we get more sinus infections, we get more tension headaches, we get more eyestrain, and we start to lose range of motion in that. And I see this literally every single day, multiple times a day. We’ve got so many people sitting in there staring at a computer when they come in to get work on it or adjusted and they’re like, it doesn’t really hurt. It’s just I can’t move my head a lot. Well, it’s not one of those things that can be fixed in a day because what’s been going on is for the past ten, 15, 20 years, you’ve been staring at a computer screen or a laptop, which is even worse. He would tell your brain, telling your body, stay like this, stay like this, Say like that’s where you stand up and you walk around. You’re like this and you’re like, I don’t understand why you’ve been teaching your body to stay there. So this is why it’s such a big deal. Like, I did a podcast with Laura from Lit Yoga the other day. That’s why exercises are a big deal. Yoga is such a big deal, you know, getting adjusted and starting exercising and making sure that you stand all the way up and get your full range of motion in your arms and back and head. It’s why it’s so hyper critical to a long term functional body.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:03:51] So when I design exercises for people, it’s always kind of funny because like people will comment and they’ll be like, I don’t understand why we’re doing everything one handed. I don’t understand why, you know, we’re doing what we’re doing, and they just do it for a little bit and we can talk about it because once you start doing it, you might start to figure it out. I had a conversation with a guy yesterday and he was like, Yes, hey, those those those back exercises where we do one arm across the body, it’s like I really feel it in here is like, is that, is that supposed to happen? Is like, yeah, that’s kind of the whole point of that exercise because what ends up happening is that you have to resist and hold your body still. So it’s a really good core function to across your body this way. And so we do both sides, but that’s that exercise is designed in to the way that’s supposed to happen. So you’re sitting up really tall and then you’re coming big, these big crossbody motions specifically to re-instill core functionality, stability, balance and this big range of motion across the rotational piece of the body, because it’s one of the things we lose as we sit at a desk every day. It’s one of the things that we lose as we slip on our side. It’s one of those things that it creates a lot of problems throughout.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:04:59] So we’ve got to make sure that we’re getting this full range of motion. So and I talk about this a lot, but I don’t think people really understand how big of a deal it is. The more you move a little bit of this fight, the less you move, the less your body thinks it can move. And so the less you’re going to be able to move as you get older. So if you care about being functional, playing with your grandkids, getting on the floor, getting off the floor, climbing big stairs, you know, going on hikes, you know, picking up kids, moving around and stuff like that, maybe even going to the grocery store and getting, you know, cases of water without hurting yourself. These are things that you have to kind of factor in and recognize. Okay, I have to do specific movements. You’re like, well, I don’t like to lift weights. Fantastic. Do yoga, do dance, do ballet stuff are three works. You know, all these functional stuff you can do CrossFit. People say you’re Doug on CrossFit. I don’t Doug on CrossFit. What I’m trying to say is that CrossFit is one of those ways that when you start leaning into it, oftentimes you’re going to end up injuring yourself if you’re not careful. With it. Cross It’s great usually to recognize you’re going to need a lot more maintenance if you’re going to stay functional. CrossFit Do jujitsu. Jiu jitsu is a great way to, you know, open things up and get moving around.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:06:13] So, you know, Pilates is great. Like there’s a lot of different ways you can do this. And so that’s one of those things where we have to recognize that if we want our bodies to function when we’re older, we have to maintain that function all the way throughout. This isn’t something that you’re like, Well, I’ll just get back in shape when I’m 60. That’s a horrible plan because first of all, you’ve got to live your life between 20 and 60, and the quality of your life is going to radically decrease if you’re not moving with a full range of motion, big movements. This is another reason I don’t like barbell squats. A lot of barbell squats are tight. Go down to parallel and then come back up. Well, it’s like half your range of motion, like you need to go, but all the way down that adds to grass that you need to make sure, my knees can only go so far, but because you’ve trained them like that for ten, 15, 20 years all the way down and all the way back up. Now, if you’re an Olympic athlete and you’re doing Olympic lifting, train for your sport. Having said that, if you’re not literally an Olympic lifter, you need to go past the grass all the way down. And then and this is going be crazy.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:07:19] And all the trainers, you can start having a hissy fit, but once you can go all the way down, then start training with your knees over your toes. Because guess what? That is a normal range of motion for your ankle. And so you’ve got to make sure that ankle has that stability, has that functionality. If you’ll do this as a single leg operation, you’re going to get a lot stronger, a lot more pliable, a lot more coordinated and balanced a lot faster because your body can’t compensate. So this is why I’m such a big fan of single leg squats. And if you’ve seen my video, which maybe you have, if you see my video, the way I teach it is I’m actually doing it on a bench, which is wobbly, but I have a boot. So ball on top of that or bosu ball, however we’re saying it so it’s even more destabilized. My foot sits there and wobbles back and forth. The reason I have it do that is because I’m trying to build stability, balance and coordination in the ankle all the way up to all the way up to my brain. And so it works. My ankle, my hip, my knee, my lower back all the way up. And so that’s why we’re trying to do so. Yeah, it works. My thighs works, my butt works, all of those things, you know? That’s great. We’re building muscle. Fantastic. But the more important thing is that I’m building long term stability function.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:08:26] So when I’m old. So however old you want to say old is, My kids seem to think that I’m old already. But, you know, my dad is 73 or 4 know my father in law’s 85. You know, they still you still have to be able to move around. And I will tell you, the difference is made father, who’s worked out with me for a long time and my 85 year old father in law, the amount of motion and stability they both they both functionally have is wildly different. So, yeah, my dad still works out. And so it’s one of those things where you he’s 70, like I said, 3 or 4, and he still has really good range of motion. He’s got great balance and coordination and he’ll go out and he’ll go fishing and stand up in his boat for six hours while he’s fishing. And he can. He’s just fine because he’s built and he’s retained that proprioceptive function that I’m sorry that knowing where his body is in space function and he can balance and he can coordinate because he’s been working out this entire time. So this is one of those things where you kind of have to look at yourself and be like, you know, where do I want to be when I’m 50, 60, 70, and start training for it today? So, you know, it’s just like investing. If you want to have money when you’re 70, you should start putting some away when you’re 20 or 30. I was kind of a common thing. However, when we start thinking about this way, where do I want my health to be when I’m 60 or 70? And this is the big thing because like I talk to people all the time who are retiring at 55 and 60 and they’re fat, they’re broken, they don’t move very well, and they’re just like, I’m just going to sit around and rest for a while. Really?

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:09:55] You’ve worked for all this time to accumulate this money, to do the things you’ve always wanted to do. And now your body’s so broken, you’ve let yourself get so broken that all you can do is sit around and watch TV. This is crazy. Like, it doesn’t take a year. I have to go to the gym for an hour and a half every day like I do. Like, just get out, move just a little bit. There’s. There’s some easy things you can do 20 minutes a day, 20 minutes, a couple of times a week. We’ll get you all the things you need to do. Bodyweight squats all over the ground, do step ups on a bench, that type of thing. You know, grab some rubber bands and get full range of motion, you know, exercise your back musculature so that you can open yourself up, get that monitor up a little bit higher. So you’re sitting up, you know, change the way that the forces are going in your body, change the way that you functionally move in in the world. And this will do massive amounts of good for you. So, you know, like I said, you don’t have to go to the gym and lose weight if that’s your thing, great. Go do it. You know, just make sure you’re doing a full range of motion as much as you can, as big a stretch as possible. Your form is good. So that’s the gym thing. If you want to go take a class with Vive we. That’s why we built by five. Have five is great for this. If you’re in a fresco area, you know, drop me a comment and I’ll get you two weeks for free. And you guys go try it out by five by five is it’s got yoga, a little bit of weights with cardio. We do those. We do that pyramid three times that cycle, three times.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:11:12] So it’s great for that. If you’re looking for plays, go do some plays. If you’re looking for yoga type of stuff, look up l y t yoga.com and check that out. She’s got some stuff for like five bucks a month. You can jump in there doing much stuff at home if you need classes. There’s yoga classes all over the place. Just get out and start moving. The more you move, the healthier you’re going to be. So this is one of those big things that you’re like, Well, I don’t like exercise. Find a way. You do. Like, it’s like I’ve talked to a bunch of like a bunch of women. I’m sure there’s a guys out there who fit in this category, too, but there’s just happen to be women I’ve talked to who don’t like lifting weights for whatever reason. Not going to get in the argument about how weights don’t make you bulky, but I’m like, Well, do you like dance like I love to dance? Like, well, there’s all sorts of dance exercise classes. Just Google that and, you know, go out and dance or take a dance class and like learn to do different dances like those movements that you’re doing for me. Really, really helpful. So find the thing that you’re willing to do that excites. You are like, that’s kind of a great idea. Or if you don’t like any of them, like it’s always fun to explore, like what you like to workout. I don’t necessarily like to work out. I like what happens when you work out, so that’s why I work out.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:12:21] So, you know, whatever your motivation is, find your motivation, find your thing and start moving. It’s going to radically increase your health. It’s going to radically increase your quality of life. It’s going to radically increase your that the how long you can live. And so, you know, it’s going to be beneficial all the way around. Now as you’re moving, your joints are going to get all messed up. You’re going to have to go find a good chiro to get those joints put back together. This is just one of those things. It’s going to happen. And you can come here like we do this all the time. I can help you with your motions if that’s what’s going on. You find a chiro that works with you, like who adjust you properly, who makes things move for you. Because if you don’t, when it’s happening to those joints, don’t move. They don’t send the information to the brain properly. When they don’t send the reflection of the brain properly, the body starts tightening the musculature around the joint, decreasing the amount of information from the nerves that can get up to the brain. So getting those joints adjusted is going to help the body basically continue to grow the way it’s supposed to. And you know, when your birth to that 20, the actual growth function is highly important. This is where we get a lot of our scoliosis issues, where we get a lot of knee issues, hip issues, things like that.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:13:27] So getting kids adjusted even when they don’t hurt as they’re growing up, really, really important for long term functional health and personal growth. But as an adult, as you sleep on your side, as you sleep on your back, as you sit in your chair, as you lift things and you do all the things you do, your body’s going to get all kind of pushed in the wrong direction, pushed out of shape. You got to get those joints reset so they’ll move with a full range of motion, move properly so the exercises you’re doing will have a bigger benefit all the way around. So that’s just kind of how those things work. You’re going to have to start moving and I don’t think anybody’s really arguing that, you know, movement, exercise is hypercritical to your long term health. But the thing people aren’t always tying in is if the joints aren’t moving properly, you’re not getting the musculature to move properly. You’re not getting the range of motion to function properly. You’re not getting the information we were trying to get to to the brain properly. So you’re going to have issues with this.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:14:21] So this is one of the big reasons why getting adjusted from a maintenance standpoint or getting adjusted for a standard health function is such an important piece of what you do. Like I get adjusted a roughly about twice a week. I try to get an hour of deep tissue massage every week because that’s how I keep myself not hurting. Like I don’t I don’t hurt. I work out every day. I don’t have anything that necessarily hurts. I don’t mean essentially overly sore. Everything feels great. I’ve got a really, really great range of motion. It’s always funny because we were like, You’re really flexible for a big guy. Because I value that. I work on it. So, you know, you guys can get more flexible. You can bend over and touch the floor whenever you want to, as long as you condition your body to do it. Like everybody can get there and they should get there. Just depends on how much work you put into it. But I’ll tell you, man, the work that you put into it is going to pay you back in giant, giant, giant amounts as you get older. So keep that in mind. Keep moving. Make sure your writing moves as well as it can. Ask me the biggest thing I can tell you for moving in health. So. All right, you guys, any questions? Drop [email protected] Or drop in the comments. Thanks for your time.

As always if you have any questions, please send them to [email protected]

Check out Chalmers Pillarsofwellness.com for Wellness updates! And ask me any questions you have at [email protected]. I answer all of them and look forward to hearing from you.

The Chalmers Wellness Stubstack just launched. Comment, Like, and Interact with other people on their wellness journey. Communities can make a difference.     DrChalmers.substack.com

Dr. Matt Chalmers

Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only. Before taking any action based on this information you should first consult with your physician or health care provider. This information is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health providers with any questions regarding a medical condition, your health, or wellness