Do you remember being a kid and not thinking much about exercise, but somehow you got a whole lot of it? I do! We ran, played all day, stopping only long enough to grab a sandwich and we usually ran back out the door eating the sandwich! It was if we almost never stopped moving. Now, as adults, most of us have to structure our movement and we call it “exercise” or “training” which comes in many forms and usually takes place at a gym, fitness studio or maybe your garage.
If you have a regularly scheduled workout regime, congratulations, you have taken a huge step in taking charge of your health and well being. It’s important that you have done that. However, there is more to fitness and health than your regular workouts. Exercise helps you stay fit, but it doesn’t replace staying active throughout your day. A recently published study in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health showed that exercise doesn’t cancel out the effects of sitting all day.
Biomechanist Katy Bowman, in a “Breaking Muscle” article said: “Even those with excellent exercise habits spend most of their non-exercise time not moving. When we’ve checked the exercise box, we perceive ourselves as active, but it is the almost-all-day stillness that is the problem.”
You see, what has happened to the modern world, is that we have compartmentalized movement to mean, “exercise I do in the gym or at my workout class”. In reality, life, even our modern sedentary life, requires movement. More importantly our bodies require daily movement no matter what lifestyle we have enforced on them. The movement we do at the gym, should be a supplement to the that which life requires of us. Our structured, formal workouts help us to work on things like our strength, flexibility, mobility, endurance, stamina, etc. They might be used to train for a specific sport or general fitness; we decide what to accomplish with our training.
What about all that time you are not working out, recovering from a workout or sleeping? Well most folks are at work. I’m including full-time stay at home moms and dads too, not just the outside of the home jobs. If you have a physical job, getting in enough movement is not a problem, however, if your job is sedentary you will need to make a concerted effort to get up and move throughout your day.
Frequency of movement is important. The good news is that the movement doesn’t have to be hard, in fact, it should be gentle, not another tough workout. Another component to movement is fluidity, which comes by moving often and within your ability range. You can work on increasing that range, but keep moving with the range of motion you have, don’t let limitation stop you; do what you can.
In reality, your body doesn’t know whether you are on a treadmill or a trail, or if you are lifting a barbell, a baby, or a bag of groceries. All it knows is that it was made for movement.
A list of simple every day movements include: Bending, squatting, lifting, tossing, walking and carrying things. These things might be done in any of the following contexts: Gardening, hauling groceries, going up and down stairs, walking the dog, pushing a baby stroller, building things, walking, hiking, backpacking, city walks.
Your Action Plan while at a Desk Job: Implement simple movement EVERY Day. Make a point to get up and move for 5 to 10 minutes every hour. Set an alarm and at least stand up, stretch and walk. If you can actually walk outside for fresh air, lucky you! Do it! Maybe find some stairs to walk. You can use a chair to do some stand up and sit downs instead of full squats. Pace while you’re on a phone call, stand up while brainstorming. Get in short bouts of movement as often as possible. Remember, you don’t have to sweat, just move.
Check out this link for more at work movement ideas:
EXERCISE-AT-YOUR-DESK http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/features/exercise-at-your-desk
Do you have some ways to move outside of your workout? Feel free to share them with us and keep keep on Truckin!
Written by Hope Langevin – Certified Personal Trainer – Move Your Mountain Fitness
Stephanie and Hope are personal trainers alongside a team of trainers and can be reached for a complimentary consultation at www.moveyourmountain.com OR use the contact form below!
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