Pillar of Health 4: Movement
When it comes to movement, I’m largely referring to how you move your body, and your experience of living in that body.
The body is the vehicle we experience life from. And it needs to be tended to for it run well.
Since our culture’s lifestyle largely revolves around sitting and walking, we are by no means expressing the kind of movement functionality that our ancestors evolved doing.
Our ancestors spent hours every day performing movement tasks such as bending, lunging, squatting, twisting, pulling, pushing, and walking/jogging/running. This variety of movement patterns allows the human body to function optimally.
When you move in these ways, you nourish the body in the way it was designed to be nourished.
This means that the human body would get adequate stimulus for optimal:
- Posture
- Cardiovascular Health
- Strength
- Body shape
- Functionality
Our modern way of living has largely made us become disembodied. We reject what it means to have a healthy and functionally fit body. With this comes the unfortunate repercussions of disease and dysfunction.
- Obesity and being overweight
- Poor posture
- Chronic tightness and inflexibility
- Heart disease
- High blood pressure
- Chronic pain and aches
- Chronic use of medical drugs
- Low energy and caffeine addiction
- Back, shoulder, and leg pain
So what can we do?
We can invest in ourselves and make a movement practice a daily requirement!
Depending on your specific and unique needs: you can move your body for a specific amount of time every day and in specific ways in order to promote optimal health.
Ask yourself:
What do I need to do as a human being in this modern environment, so that my body can work effectively and not progressively downgrade and become a nuisance to me?
Take into account:
- Your posture
- Your working environment
- Your goals/objective/dream
- Are you overweight or underweight?
- Do you take part in specific sports or activities?
- Are you in pain anywhere in your body?
- Are you low on energy?
- How does your dream body look?
As a general rule of thumb, each of us needs about 45 mins of functional movement a day minimum.
This means walking around, bending down to pick stuff up, lifting things, twisting the body, etc… The kind of stuff you’d do if you were gardening, getting into your car, or playing with your kids.
This is an absolute baseline minimum.
If you work at a desk all day, you’d want to consider a specific program that enhances your ability to be in that environment without creating poor posture for yourself.
With my clients, I go through a thorough physical assessment that allows me to create a bespoke program that enhances
- Posture
- Flexibility
- Mobility
- Conditioning
With this, you can be the driver of a vehicle that is functionally fit and allows you to do anything you want to set your mind to.
