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  Three or More Very Important Reasons We All Should MOV

  Walking has many positive biological benefits, such as blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol regulation.  It helps in body fat management, improves mood, reduces stress, and improves brain health, and so much more.  Walking is good for the human body and mind in so many ways it should be a part of our daily routine.  But it’s kind of a passive movement.  It’s so natural, we’re sort of on autopilot, even though our brain is calculating and coordinating so many functions to move us forward. Our brain tells our body how to move.  Movement improves the health of our brain.  MOVMNT by Burke encourages the focused, active interaction between the brain and the body and the benefits are beyond measure. How? Kinesthesia, of course.  What?!  Kinesiology is the study of movement and kinesthesia is the ability to know where parts of our body are and how they are moving.  Spatial awareness, timing, coordination, focus, precision, and adjustments in real time. The more we do it, the better we become.  This is kinesthetic learning.  According to an article by the National Math Foundation, ...
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  5 Reasons that Outdoor and Indoor Fitness Equipment Are Not the Same and 4 Tips to Design the Best Outdoor Fitness Area

  Five Reasons that Outdoor and Indoor Fitness Equipment Are Not the Same and Four Tips to Design the Best Outdoor Fitness Area Back when I was in the commercial fitness equipment industry, we did a lot of R&D, prototype design, testing, and product development.  And that’s just for one machine; say an arm-curl/biceps machine.  These are called single-station strength machines, which means that one entire machine is specifically designed for one muscle or muscle group, like the upper arm/biceps.  Then there are like twenty other machines to hit the rest of the body. But one entire machine, just for one specific exercise.  Then we would take the “finished” product to the next trade show to see how an actual human related to it.  These people ranged from gym owners, to fitness enthusiasts, to professional bodybuilders.  And they were quite critical. “The resistance falls off at the end”, “I don’t like the weight ratio”, “the range of motion isn’t fluid all the way through”, and so on.  At a fitness equipment trade show, before the actual hall opens officially, there’s a time period ...
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  International Darwin Day and the Evolution of Playgrounds

  International Darwin Day and the Evolution of Playgrounds International Darwin day is February 12th, so in honor of that, let’s take a look at the evolution of playgrounds. In the grand scheme of things, the late 1800’s wasn’t that long ago.  We had cars, cameras, telephones, record players, electric lighting, and typewriters, but pretty much no playgrounds.  They weren’t a thing.  Very uncommon and if you did find one, it was what the name says; a place (ground) where children played.  The idea was to give kids a place to play that wasn’t in the street. Cars evolved from the three-wheeled Benz, of Mercedes fame, that didn’t even have a proper steering wheel, to the luxurious, practically self-driving, AI machines of today.  Cameras are phones.  Wait … phones are cameras?  Actually, phones are also “record players”, but vinyl is making a huge comeback.  Lighting went from that single brownish incandescent bulb that didn’t really illuminate the far corners of the house to the multi-hued, multi-colored, variable brightness, illumination experience we fully control with our … phones.  Typewriters are now a software program ...
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  Is Playground Safety Bad for Our Health?

  Is Safety Bad for Our Health? My dad was old-school and something he said from time to time was, “safety third, if you want to get anything done.”  If you think about it, it’s true.  If it really was about “Safety First”, there wouldn’t be a welding bay to hang that sign in. There would be no crab fishing, skyscrapers, bridges, or rocket launches.  We wouldn’t have sailed across the Atlantic to build a new country.  We wouldn’t have sailed at all.  How crazy is it to build a structure out of wood, jump in, and leave the safety of land?  If it was all about safety, we humans wouldn’t exist today.  Yes, be safety conscious in the endeavor, but it’s the endeavor first.  Probably second is finances, because money moves everything.  But in reality, safety is at least third.  Unfortunately, in our efforts to make everything safer, we’re becoming weaker and that’s a problem, which brings me to brachiation and sarcopenia. Wait … what? Sarcopenia is a musculoskeletal disease in which muscle mass, strength, and performance are significantly compromised.  Age is a ...
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  Burke, NRPA, and the Importance of a Big Purple Party

  Burke, NRPA, and the Importance of a Big Purple Party Fun is only done right for the sake of fun with no peripheral agendas, hints of business, or underlying purposes.  Otherwise, it’s “fake fun”.  When fun isn’t real, we don’t get the full benefits. “We need more moments where we’re simultaneously in the zone and feeling ourselves, but not for work.” – Catherine Price; Author of The Power of Fun Real fun; unadulterated fun, brings us happiness and joy.  We’re enjoying ourselves in the moment, being fully present, without our brains being attached or distracted otherwise.  Experiencing happiness and joy on a regular basis is more powerful than genes, nutrition, and exercise for overall health and longevity.  Add friends or a group of friendly, fun people and the effects are multiplied.  I used the word “unadulterated” because as adults, we tend to do fun things from time to time, but not fully.  We convolute it with thoughts of things we have to get done, “important” stuff (whatever that is), and other obligations.  Children get fun right.  It’s very important that we do ...
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  Even Monkeys Fall From Trees

  Even Monkeys Fall From Trees Climbing, swinging, sitting, eating, socializing, playing, and living in trees isn’t just second nature to monkeys.  It’s their way of being. But … “Even monkeys fall from trees”. – Japanese Proverb Humans fall from “trees” too.  We slip, stumble, and fall literally and metaphorically.  Many times we’re embarrassed and our confidence takes a hit.  We hope no one noticed, we assess the damage, take emotional and physical inventory, and mentally process the moment.  Sometimes we’ll dwell on what just happened; “should I ever go back up in the tree?” Well … do you know what the monkey would tell us?  Not much, I’m afraid.  It’s a monkey and they tend not to speak. But, they would be back up in that tree, looking down at us, not understanding why we’re still sitting there.  Because when monkeys fall from trees, they shake their head, regroup, and get back up there, because it happens.    Even experts make mistakes.  It happens.  Kids are experts at playing.  And they’re experts at making mistakes.  It’s their nature.  It’s how they learn, develop resiliency, ...