Hi Everyone. It’s that time of year-Again! The time when everyone stops, takes stock in how well, or not well they are doing in the fitness stakes and become really determined to do better this time; this year. Please stop. I’m begging you. Really. For the sake of the children- oh wait, that’s a different topic. For the year that’s in it we all need to take stock in how well we’ve all done in very difficult circumstances, and appreciate we do not need to be adding to our already fractured mental and physical health with thoughts of how inadequate we are when it comes to improving our physical health. Why not stop, take a breath, and appreciate how amazing our bodies have been, challenged by this very stealthy foe; how amazingly resilient the body machine is when under extreme pressure. As a Physio, I have a very unique front row seat in the theatre that is the life experience, and believe you me, even I was taken aback at the increased levels of stress and tension that was appearing in my clients throughout these past two years, so lets not get over anxious to add to the tension with unnecessary loading of exercise to an already fragile form. But we gotta do something, right? Well, here’s what I think.
- Start with breathing; correct breathing. Breathing through the upper chest will activate your sympathetic system (fight or flight) response and just make you more tense, as you release adrenalin into your system. You only need this kind of breathing if you’re highly excited or in danger. Now, I know you must be highly excited reading my blog, but just tone it down a bit, and I’m just a pussycat so there’s no danger involved, especially as you’re just reading. Instead, place one hand on your abdomen, and the other on your chest. There should only be a rise of your abdomen (diaphragm). If there is a rise of your chest, concentrate on only allowing the breath to come from below. This will activate your parasympathetic system which slows everything down, makes you feel calmer, more relaxed. You can make it easier by lying down and placing something heavy-ish-not a child(ha)-on your lower abdomen and breath where you feel the heaviness. You could and should use this technique whenever you feel a stressful situation coming on. Once you’ve trained the parasympathetic system, it only takes seconds to readjust back to a calm state, but you gotta practice. The trick is to not let it get to the really anxious stage. Correct breathing is an essential support to all functions and postures. Without it, tension will creep into the body quicker than a Covid transmission. Hmmmm.
- Once you’ve tuned into the breathing, check your posture. If you’re slouching, correct breathing is nearly impossible, so sit and stand up straight, just like your mam told you. Now you can start some activity, if you want to. If you don’t want to start activity right away, that’s okay too. Do it on your own time and terms and don’t let anyone bully you into it. We all have our own rhythms we live by and we should respect them, but we need to nurture them with appropriate activity as they will serve us well into our older selves. Recognizing your unique rhythm just takes a small bit of self awareness, so start ‘listening’ to what your body needs and wants. I really believe there are activities for everyone but not every activity is suited to everyone. I would rather crawl through broken glass than have to run for any length of time-sorry runners-but would happily frolic in the frigid sea every day. Find your activity passion and see the joy it brings to you and your body. And if the great Betty White is anything to go by, happy people live longer and in better health. You’re in trouble if you never smile-just sayin’.
- So what activities? Well that all depends on what you like, because I believe it’s not how much, or how fast you can go, or how much weight you can lift, but do you enjoy it? All my years have taught me, especially brought home this year, that movement, any movement is the key to keeping the muscles and joints happy-there’s that word again-and healthy. Dancing in the kitchen to music like no one is watching (if you like that sort of thing) is more likely better for you than doing something you feel you ‘should’ be doing but something you derive no pleasure from. If you love the feel of pumping iron, or a ‘good’ run, or a punishing spin class, that’s great, but if you feel you ‘need’ to do it rather than want to do it, then, in my opinion, the value is diminished. Move, but like your moving, and move as much as possible, especially with each passing decade.
- This brings me to the need to evaluate how you want to age. I’ve seen, over the course of my nearly 34 year career, a graduated overdependence on external supports and devices to get us through our negative age changes, which are only occurring because, in my opinion, we move and hold ourselves improperly, forcing the wrong muscles to work, causing them to become dysfunctional, and certainly not up to the tasks we force them to do. If you want to rise from a chair without help, at the age of 90/+, then practice getting out of the chair without the use of your arms, instead of buying a chair that will do the work and movement for you. Use it or lose it comes to mind, but I say, use it correctly or waste it. Correctly practice the ‘movement’ you need, and everyday, no matter what age you are, you’ll have it. And besides, every movement done correctly in good posture is a legitimate exercise, and more importantly, more relevant to how we want to live both now, and in our futures. Every correct movement then becomes perpetual strengthening. Think about that for a moment. If I’m doing every ‘movement’ correctly, I won’t have to worry about starting ‘something’ at the beginning of each year, because I’ll already have been doing it every day of the year. Til we meet again, loveens.
