The nervous system in the human body is the control centre for what our bodies actually do. The body's peripheral nervous system can be further divided into two systems of bodily functions - autonomic and somatic.
Autonomic systems are those functions that occur without us consciously controlling them; our heart continuing to beat, our digestive system doing its job to digest, our diaphragm expanding with the air in our lungs....
On the flipside somatic systems are the functions which are under our control - essentially what we choose to do with our body in regards to it's movement. It's the somatic nervous system that controls our skeletal muscles; and the movements of our bodies limbs.
What understanding all this did for me while I was running was brought to light the fact that exercising really does all start with conscious thought in the brain.
When we decide to do physical exercise the movements are somatic nervous system functions. We're consciously choosing to move our body in that direction in space. And we can instruct it to keep going when it feels tired. We can instruct it to not give up. We can instruct it to push harder and faster. We can send that message through our nervous system.
We are in control.
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