Move your way back
If you are a machine, train. If you are human, practice to adapt and thrive
Introduction
Humans are the only creatures that can get away with sitting all day. We’re actually remarkable at devising ways to feed, entertain ourselves and even find significant others all by barely lifting a finger.
Sure our bodies are clever, but it also shows how adaptable we are too. Our body adapts to the patterns that serve it and that can come at a huge cost to not only our bodies but also our minds: falling IQs and the rise in mental health conditions have both been linked to our lack of physical movement.
So adapt your body to the patterns that serve it! What patterns do you do most, need most, want most, are you frightened of, think you should have, used to have, don’t want to lose? Here's my pick of the best ways to use your body to achieve a healthier better functioning mind:
Get on your feet -
The recommendation is to get 10000 steps a day, but that’s not only a big chunk out of your day all at once, it’s a big ask on your body all at once, and when you’re fatigued you tend to make mistakes and injury is more likely. But 10000 steps a day is a great goal; and it’s way better to get that through the day. Which makes sense doubly as you move in order to be able to move more, so moving more often makes more sense to being longevitous, right?
Now get back to and then off the floor -
There’s a lot of research suggesting that not being able to get down and back up from the floor without using your hands correlates with increased mortality. Can you think of how many times you got down to the floor today, this week, last time you did? So we need to practice what it is we want to ensure and endure and that includes getting down and up off the floor. Try getting down and up off the floor as many ways as you can - check out @fit.by.nature instagram for how we turned this idea into a workout (as in work it out and it became a workout too!). As an aside, when we sit to watch a movie now, we make sure we sit on the floor at our house, rather than the sofa as you have to keep changing your position on the floor, as well as get up for a drink and back down with the choccies!
Roll more -
Rolling comes naturally to babies and it’s definitely something we do less of as adults. But when you roll, think holding your knees and rolling your back up and down, even trying to stand from this position and using no hands to get those immortality points - see previous point! - innervate all your vertebrae, as in there’s a nerve to every organ in your body traveling through each vertebrae and a nice roll through them all can only get things moving nicely around each as you go.
Twisting -
The amount of people that injure their neck or back turning in the car has surely gotta say something for our immobility when twisting. Training rotational movement is like a lie-detector: you know if you need it. Our modern bodies have adapted to linear positions - and we transfer this over to our training. Our body loves rotations, craves stability in instability, it wants to play, learn, experience and feel movement. So try out ways to train awkward and specifically rotational movements.
Hips don’t lie -
Our hip flexors and their opposing buddies, our hammies, have all gotta be some of the tightest muscles across most of us. They're also our ‘brakes’ if you think about running, yet also our accelerators if you think about sprinting. So we need to train how we slow and stop and we need to get some faster efforts in there sometimes. Movement is always initiated from our prime engines - our hips and our shoulders - so move yours through their full range of movement for your own full range of energy in return.
Back bends -
Sure yogis get into some pretty aspiring back nedy poses and I truly applaud their time, talent and determination, but for me I want a useful body and for me that includes my version of backbends, arguably the most forgotten of movements. Simply sitting, on the ground of course (see second point), and looking up could be your version of a backbend. Where do you bend from? Try to get lower. Are your legs out in front, crossed or knees bent to one side? Try all three as they’ll move your back bend in different directions. What other back bends can you work in? See @fit.by.nature for more ideas
Wrists and ankles -
Our wrists and ankles are where we manipulate and locomote our world. Pretty important right? So what kind of mobility do yours have? Any stiffness? Any hypermobility? Take each through a nice circle each direction now and see if there’s any stiffness or even squares instead of circles. Get into individually moving each finger and toe while you’re there too. We need them for really feeling out the world for ourselves, arguably our most important task as humans!
To do today:
We all have things we want to change:
but sometimes it takes the right tool to get those changes made.
With movement you can take your body to a new level of life.
Move lots, throughout the day rather than all at once as x all out in an hour to only sit again
Move with complexity and try awkwardness, with extra points for supreme discomfort.
You can acquire new skills you think might be impossible for you and you can take this practice so you’re not broken at 50, physically or mentally.
Movement is so much more than getting rid of aches and pains. It’s about taking back your life and living. Maybe you’d call it an obsession or a healthy obsession though it’s not a negative one because when you’re obsessed with living a lifestyle you love you just get to do more than you’d ever dreamed - which means you just gotta dream more!
