Ah yes, the best thing we can do for our health – move more, Move Well. I’m happy to avoid the word exercise as it conjures up thoughts of discipline, time restraint, and clothing choices. The big push now is to get us off the couch and moving more. Ideally we look at a number of specific movements that are good for certain things, but most of us just need to move more. If we move too much, this is a stress to the body and pain will often result, if not strain, sprain, or fracture. However, insufficient movement is the most common stress on the body. The less we move, the less we can move, and the more our body stresses out. This causes an increase in blood pressure, blood sugar, and cortisol levels, while lowering our immune function (causing more colds/flus) and many other things. So if you find you are sitting a lot, think about what you want for your future. Do you want to be able to run if you have to, lift a friend who needs your help, or even walk upstairs with little difficulty?
The fitness trackers are a wonderful motivational tool and counting steps is a great way to get more movement in your day. Instead of worrying about how far you can run or how much weight you can lift, just focus on getting your target of about 10,000 steps a day. If you want to do more after that, you could focus on core strengthening and then muscles for posture or job/sport specific muscles.
Joining a gym is fine for those who want to round out their fitness and do a variety of exercises, but most of the benefit of exercise comes from moving more. Try for at least 30 minutes a day of walking, or the equivalent, along with more movement around the house or the office whenever you have a few minutes. Simply walking the stairs or hallways more, or standing and doing some stretches, or taking a walk at lunch are all great ways to encourage more healthy movement at work.
Finally, the best way to improve movement in the body … where it needs it the most … is to have a Chiropractic adjustment. When joints lock up or become stiff, they don’t move enough and the result is stress to the body. This could be experienced as pain, but at first it’s more likely to be a feeling of stiffness. Chiropractors are known for aligning the body, but the most important influence on our overall health comes from restoring normal movement to restricted areas to reduce the effect of stress on us. We always reinforce the adjustments with exercises that are done several times per day in order to further improve the range of motion in our joints and muscles, and help prevent a relapse.
Watch for next time. We’ll be discussing how you are healthier, that is feel better, happier, have less colds, and live longer when you Think Well.