My grandpa used to say: “If I stop moving, I would probably kill over!” He lived to be 100- and every single day he moved. He moved just because he didn’t want to sit still and feel lazy. He moved because he felt better when he did.
In a perfect world, we could wake up without stiffness or pain. We could jump right out of bed the same way we did when we were 15 and go on about our day; jumping off of playgrounds, running across the street and never once thinking about our achey knees or backs.
BUT, that’s not this world.
As we age, it is NORMAL for us to feel stiffer when we wake up, for our backs to hurt after sitting for hours at a time. It is completely NORMAL for our feet to hurt after walking all day long (hello, have you ever walked around an amusement park all day and felt terrible the next day??). The problem we experience as we get older is just that.
WE ARE GETTING OLDER.
We cannot expect to feel the same way at 30, 40, 50 etc. as we did when we were 15. Our bodies change throughout time and a good reason for that is our lifestyle that we end up in after we enter the workforce. No more scheduled recess, or time outside. It is up to us as individuals to create habits that will keep us moving throughout the day. We started jobs that have us sitting in our car all day, bending over and picking up patients twice our size, standing on our feet all day- and any time we have a break or time to rest we usually pull out our phone and scroll through whatever social media interest you more. Or maybe we opt for 10 minutes of a quick nap. Either way, we aren’t moving our bodies.
During a visit, I try to reiterate to clients that although whatever injury or issue they came to me for could be a one-time thing, most of the time it’s a result of their daily habits and positions. If we can dedicate 5-10 minutes of our time 2-3X a day to either doing simple exercises or even just walking- we can drastically improve our bodies ability to withstand our day to day stressors on our body.
Let me continue by saying, you are NOT broken if you have to do a couple exercises every day forever. We have to brush our teeth twice a day, every day. That doesn’t make our mouth broken, we are preventing future decay and build up so we don’t have to spend thousands on surgeries or to get teeth pulled later. The same comparison can be made for doing exercises. If 3 exercises stand between you and feeling better, every single day, would you not want to do them? If I told you 3- 10 minute walks have been shown to improve digestion, stimulate brain activity and improve your flexibility more than just sitting and stretching- would you do it? We must be willing to invest a small percentage of time during the day to feel better throughout the day.
So yes, if you would like to not feel like the tin man every time you stand up or get out of bed- It’s time we start adding in SIMPLE things that you can stick to every day.