Sunday Story...You Got to Move It

Sunday Story…You Got to Move It

You got out of bed and sat down at the breakfast table, maybe slumping over a bit as you read the paper, watching the news or read the back of the cereal box (the same one you read yesterday by the way). Then into your car for the commute to work…which might be 30, 40, 50, minutes or more. Entering your office you proceed to spend the next few hours sitting in a chair, bent over looking at reports, staring at a computer screen or making notes from the boring and meaningless meeting you are required to attend. Then it’s back in your car for the commute home, sitting at the table for dinner, then over to the couch for some T.V. time or maybe your home office chair for some home-work or recreational computer time. Do you notice a pattern here?

Maybe somewhere in there you went to the gym for some “cardio” on the bike or the stair stepper or the treadmill where you also slumped over reading this week’s People or Time magazine. 30 or 40 minutes 3 times a week is what all the “experts” say you need to do to be healthy and fit. And yet…
You hurt. All the time you hurt and you hurt all over. Maybe you had a trauma, an accident some injury that was unpreventable but more likely you are victim of your own ennui. There you are…a new syndrome…”ennui-itis” or injury caused by lack of movement and more specifically lack of proper movement. There are thousands (if not millions) of people suffering the devastating effects from this horrible condition. And you don’t have to take my word for it, all you have to do is go down to your local senior center or nursing home and you will see people unable to walk with a straight spine or unable to look up. This is not the normal state of the human condition.

You were made to move. Look at your body…from your feet to your head all your joints articulate and move in several directions. They are made to bear weight. They are made to extend and contract, your muscles are there under whatever you have covered them in; your nervous system is conditioned from birth to handle the stress of movement. Yet we have spent the last few hundred years devising ways that will allow us to move less. True, we can move longer distances faster and more efficiently but our bodies no longer participate in the getting us from point A to point B and beyond. Instead we hop on a plane and go thousands of miles to arrive and just sit around more.
Maybe you are one of the lucky ones…the ones aware enough to know you need to move more and better but you just aren’t sure what that is going to look like. So we do crunches and sit ups and bench presses…all exercises designed to improve your “front”…the parts you can see in the mirror. But what you really should be concerned with is the part you can’t see...your posterior chain from your mid back down to your knees. Remember back when you were a kid and someone was always saying “sit up straight” or “stand up straight”, “fix your posture” and things like that?

The fix for your pain is simple. Start moving and start moving properly. Lift heavy things once in a while. Run really fast (or swim or bike or row) occasionally. Walk more, a lot more. Stretch and work on your flexibility and your mobility regularly (like every day or so.) Make it fun and enjoyable...this should not be tedious and it certainly shouldn’t show as work. Hire someone to help you (I am available!) The penalty for not moving is also very simple…more pain which will have you move less, which will give you more pain which will give you more pain and on and on and on until you need a handful of drugs every day just to get out of bed and another handful to go to sleep at night. All of which will contribute to not wanting to move, stand up straight, or walk to the mailbox.

The only real question you should want to answer at this point is this: Why aren’t you taking steps to live in less pain and more health?

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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