Spring Qi Chats | Week 10
Crawling + Creating
This week we are reminded that getting down on the floor can have its benefits. Learn why crawling can help stay agile well into your 90’s.
Our Brain Gets Good at What We Practice …
Our brain gets good at whatever we do consistently. That includes the habits we’re proud of and the ones we don’t even realize we’ve built. The way you sit, the way you walk, the way you reach for things, and even the way you hesitate before moving all become patterns the brain reinforces over time. As the years go on, these patterns tend to narrow. Movement becomes more predictable, more cautious, and often smaller. That narrowing is not just happening in the body. It is happening in the brain’s ability to adapt.
This is where Age Training shifts the conversation. Instead of focusing only on maintaining strength or flexibility, we begin to consider how to keep the brain engaged in the process of movement. The goal is to stay adaptable. When the brain continues to experience new and varied input, it maintains its ability to respond, adjust, and support the body in a more dynamic way. This is what allows movement to feel more natural, more confident, and less effortful as we age.
CREATING PATTERNS
Crawling may seem like a developmental movement that belongs in early life, but it carries qualities that are incredibly useful later on. It asks the body to coordinate opposite sides, to stabilize through the core, and to stay aware of position in space. These are the same qualities that support balance, coordination, and confident movement in everyday life. Remember the adage: if you don’t use it, you lose it. However when we reintroduce them, the system begins to wake back up.
The deeper lesson here is not about crawling alone. It is about how the brain responds to novelty and repetition. When movement becomes repetitive and limited, the brain becomes efficient at those patterns and less capable outside of them. When new patterns are introduced, especially ones that challenge coordination and awareness, the brain has an opportunity to build new connections. This is the essence of neuroplasticity.
Aging does not remove the brain’s ability to change. It simply requires us to be more intentional about how we use it. The patterns you practice today become the patterns your body relies on tomorrow. When those patterns include coordination, awareness, and variety, the system stays more responsive.
The principle is simple and worth returning to often: If you use it (with purpose), you improve it.
Neuro-Qi Tip o’the day!
Crawl When You Can
Practice crawling in all variations - like a baby, like a bear, like a tiger
Find more times when you can get down and crawl (army crawling on your forearms is fine too!)
To help strengthen the wrists, push against countertops & sturdy table tops
*Video posts every Friday by 11:30am Mountain Time
Resources:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33021583/ (benefits of crawling)
