called Life By Design,” says Richards. “It’s really built around this idea of reframing what chiropractic is in the public’s mind – away from something that is used as a therapy to treat a spe-cific symptom or condition, towards something that is done as part of a lifestyle to maintain the integrity of the spine and the nervous system.” The Richards brothers run a chiro-practic practice called Café of Life in London, Ont. They focus on subluxa-tion analysis and corrections, and they treat a variety of clientele. For some of Richards’ chiropractic patients – called “practice members” – their introduction to Life By Design came from the health and wellness education they get when they go in for treatments. Others get introduced to chiropractic later after getting to know the Life By Design principles. “We do a full neurological spinal analysis, give people care programs that are built around monitoring the nervous system overtime,” explains Richards. “So, basically teaching them about how to move, how to eat and how to think. “My objective is the see improve-ment in the nervous system and the spine, and there’s evidence to support that chiropractic care can improve the function of the nervous system and the spine,” he says. Richards says he does not really prescribe a particular diet or exercise program, but educates practice mem-bers on how the human body has been designed to eat and move for optimal function. Eating by design, for example, means filling the body with the basic suste-nance it needs, regardless of where the person is with his health or in his life. “What it comes down to is, what are the best food sources that meet the requirements of the human body? And these are fat, protein and micronutri-ents,” explains Richards. “No matter where you fall in the health spectrum, your body has the same requirements. So when we teach people what to eat, it’s not based on what symptoms or condition they have, it’s built on what the requirements are for the body to be healthy.” In addition to the chiropractic prac-tice, the Richards brothers also own 30 Canadian Chiropractor February 2014 Dr. Jamie Richards talks about the principles of Life By Design and chiropractic care through public seminars and information sessions. West London CrossFit gym located in the same community. The gym offers Strength and Conditioning (SC) pro-gram, which encompasses the Move By Design principles of Life By De-sign. “Move By Design is different from your typical gym,” says Brent Tiesma, a gym manager and also a Life By Design practice member. “It’s a little different in the fact that it’s run by a coach. People sign up for a class and so the people are led through program-ming by the coach.” Before becoming the gym manager, Tiesma was a Life By Design practice member first. He was introduced to the program by his sister when he re-turned to Canada after working over-sees. He became a member of the gym and started learning about the princi-ples of Move By Design. “With that you are exposed to the other Life By Design areas and so I have gone to Eat By Design,” says Tiesma. “I got my whole family in-volved. I have three boys and they are practice members. They go for chiro-practic treatment.” SC coaches include chiropractors and crossfit-certified training coaches, who educate and train members on the fundamentals of the Move By Design philosophy, which centres on the movements the human body requires. “Every human being has some basic fundamental (movements) that they require and we split them into four categories.” Richards explains. He says Move By Design teaches the four basic movements that the body requires: mobility, strength, conditioning (mov-ing at an accelerated rate for short periods of time) and enjoyable move-ment (i.e., walking, biking, playing with kids). Richards’ goal is to spread the Life By Design movement and reach one mil-lion families worldwide “living Life By Design.” He also wants to achieve 1,000 Life By Design-certified practi-tioners–other chiropractors who share the same values, living and teaching the Life By Design principles. To become certified, chiropractors go through an application process and a certification program. There are now about 21 chiropractors worldwide who are certified as Life By Design practi-tioners, including three in Australia and one in New Zealand. One of them is Toronto-based chiro-practor Amy Robinson, who met Richards as a student at the CMCC. She became certified with Life By Design more than two years ago. www.canadianchiropractor.ca sPreadINg The word
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