Emotional fitness is closely associated with core functionality. Good core functionality equates with good emotional fitness.

In terms of physiology, the most important muscles in the development of emotional fitness are:

• The face: nose (including cheeks), eyes and forehead
• The chest, especially intercostals

The face muscles are essential for the following:

• the expression of a full range of emotions. Constriction in these muscles leads to lack of expressiveness and diminished ability to assert oneself and experience situations fully
• the projection of the voice. The physical production of sound requires the face muscles for creating resonant passages and shaping the sound to effectively communicate both emotions and symbolic language. The voice is not just reliant on the passive structure of bone but also on the active structure of tissue upon that bone for the qualities it holds.

Physiologists have divided the face muscles into three: nose, eyes and forehead, however they are all so closely intertwined and so closely connected to facial bone that it is probably impossible to use any one of them in isolation of the others. The face muscles are a complex group of muscles that work in multiple directions and have similar multiple connections to the bone that underlies them. They are quite unlike any other group of muscles in the body for their complexity and multiplicity. In addition, humans and apes, while most of their physiology is fundamentally similar to that of other mammals, are quite dissimilar from them in having this outstanding facial motility. It differentiates humans and apes from other mammals in terms of social communication and adds a new dimension of emotional expression.

The relevant chest muscles here are not the mass that might be developed through intense weightlifting sessions, but the less noticeable muscles that connect between the ribs. The intercostal muscles are essential to emotional fitness as follows:

• They provide the avenue for physical connection to the emotions. If the chest is open and there is good connectivity between it and the rest of the body, then it is easy to keep in touch with emotions. If the chest is collapsed and there is poor connectivity, then any stimulated emotional energy may not be expressed, but instead redirected into the intestinal cavity.
• They work in concert with the muscles of the face: Their level of connectivity reflects the level of expressiveness of the face muscles.
• Like the face muscles, the chest is essential in the projection of the voice and accompanying emotions: a taut chest chamber exhibiting 'body grip' is a much better foundation than a loose one.

In the following pages is the theory from EmotFit programmes: Basic and Intermediate.  The EmotFit programme uses the theory outlined here to help people to develop and improve parts of their core functionality and consequently their emotional fitness.