Movement: Why It Matters

All Life Needs to Move.

Just like the animals, insects, plants, earth, moon, winds, and currents, humans were made to move.  There is nothing an expectant mother needs to do - the life inside grows all on its own.  Then, when a baby is born it naturally goes through all the stages of development, holding its head, rolling, sitting up, crawling, pulling up to standing, walking, etc.  Nature does this all with very little needed help, usually.  Innate intelligence!

At any age, our bodies need movement for all of its biological, micro or macro, processes.  Movement is not only good for our joints and larger structures, but for our cells too.  The mechanical stimulus of movement is regenerative to the cell and therefore to our tissues and to our health.  

The power that made the body heals the body.

What creatures can thrive in the stagnant pond vs. the fresh pond is much different. 

We are not that different from nature.

Movement is essential.  

Dare I say movement is not medicine because it is essential to life, like the sun and water.

Natural movement refers to instinctual, unspecific, and macro movements very similar to those used while being outdoors - Squatting, balancing, reaching, hanging, walking on uneven terrain, jumping, etc. .

It includes moving more parts of you, more often, and in various ways. 

The better you move is usually a good representation of your health status.  For example, the movement of an 80 year old bed-ridden person vs. an 80 year old who walks the neighborhood everyday is quite different and thus typically their health status is different too.

Your body is so intelligent - it is monitoring you all the time and senses the positions you are in.  It will create or lay down tissue and change shape based on the forces applied to your body.  It does this for many reasons but one of which is for energy conservation.  

Your body is always working FOR you.  It tries to support the positions you spend the most time in. If you spend a lot of time in a stationary position, the tissues will adapt and make strong semi-permanent changes to make your static position easier and require less energy to be in.   Thank you smart body. 

You may have heard of the monk, Amar Bharati, who kept his arm raised for over 40 years to show solidarity for Shiva. This is an example of how the body works to support you and the positions you spend most of your time in.

https://www.historydefined.net/amar-bharati/

We are shaped by what we do and what we don’t do.

Your body is in the shape created by your movement throughout your life.  And, your future movement is possible by what you do today.  People living in blue zones usually have natural movement as part of their day - walking long distances for food or supplies.  

When we look at human movement from thousands of years ago, it was necessary for survival.  Hunger drove movement.  If we wanted to eat, we had to move.  Humans went from a migratory lifestyle to a farming lifestyle to an industrialized and technology lifestyle.  In modern day, eating too much food is the motivator for movement, for example all of those New Year resolutions to “work out” after holiday overconsumption.  Not to mention, moving is not required as most humans can get food, water, and a mate from their cell phone.  

With technology comes a health cost. 

Back up cameras on cars eliminate the need to turn our neck and spine, remotes eliminate the need to get up off the chair to change the channel, anything with wheels eliminates the need to walk, blenders eliminate the need to chew, chairs eliminate the need to get up off the floor, etc.  [Don’t get me started on the heated steering wheels.]

You may have heard the saying, “Sitting is the new Smoking.”  It is more about “being stationary is the new smoking.”   Sitting is not as unfavorable when it’s done intermittently and in various positions. Rather, it’s the consistent long durations of inactivity or a single position that causes our body’s soft tissues to be affected.   

It just so happens that we are sitting in front of our computers, sitting to watch TV or scroll, sitting to commute to work, sitting to eat, and sitting in the bathroom with your phone if you know what I mean for much of our day vs. moving.  If you are thinking, problem solved - get a standing desk.  Can I ask you, are you then standing in one position for long periods of time?  What is the ideal way to be in front of a computer?  Answer: as little as possible. 🙂 

Being still for most of the day is keeping you from achieving better health. 

Lastly…you can’t exercise yourself out of sitting all day.  The one hour of boot camp does not counter your hours of sitting.  Is it better to do 1 hour of boot camp vs. no boot camp, absolutely.  

If you want to move better now and into the future, move more often and in various ways to make your biological age younger than your chronological age. 

By no means is this blog intended to make you feel defeated.  My goal is to bring awareness to how you spend your day and how it may affect your overall health and longevity.  The GREAT part is that making small changes adds up!

So, here are some ideas on ways to throw movement into your modern day requiring no extra time devoted to it.   

• Get on the floor with your kids and animals and play.  This requires you to be in various sitting, crawling, and rolling positions and to get back up off the floor.

• Put things in hard to reach areas of your home (ie. kitchen) so you have to crouch or reach to get them.

• Get into a deep/full squat as much as you can to look at a toddler or dog in the eyes or pick the vegetables from your garden.

• Do the stairs - change up your stance, for example in a wide stance (feet wider than hips).

• Walk when you can.  Got 5 minutes while you wait to pick up your kid, Starbucks order, or dryer to be done?  Multiple 5 minutes here and there can add up in one day.

• Walk on different terrain.  Always walk on sidewalks?  Try the grass.  Try a hike.

• Walk while rolling your shoulders, wrists, or making giant arm circles.

• Do as much as you can while you can - Stairs, yard work, house work, chopping vegetables, carrying your groceries, etc.

• Go on a hike date vs. a dinner and movie date.

• Put on music and dance like no one is watching.

• Sit on the floor vs. the couch. This will cause you to change into various sitting positions and require to you to get to and from the floor.

• Explore and try new activities in general.

• If you workout doing the same type of exercise, consider cross training - add in different activities like: swim, bike, kayak, lift, run, ski, roller blade, play on a playground.

Make movement your lifestyle. No one can do it for you.

For more movement ideas related to add movement into your lifestyle, please check out the next movement blog coming soon.

If you are looking for movement methods (combination of self-massage, Pilates-like, mobility work, etc.) near McMurray or Canonsburg, PA, I would love to help you. Feel free to schedule a discovery call.