Movement is magic

Movement is magic. The human body wasn’t made to sit still all day. Maybe it will evolve to enable that in a few millennia, but I doubt it. Sitting all day is as bad for your spine, muscles and joints as smoking is for your lungs and yet the modern workplace seems to demand it! That sounds like being between a rock and a hard place. That’s exactly why I started to write this blog today....

It doesn’t have to be that to please your boss, you must harm your health and damage your precious body! There are ways to mitigate the harmful effects of sedentary work and computer-based living, so listen up! First a few facts that will make it easier for you to manage this yourself effectively.

1. Joints like to be in “loose packed” positions as much as possible. That is the position in which none of the joint structures are in a compressed or stretched position and there is as much space in the joint as possible. It’s the mid-range of any joint’s movement excursion. If we look at your pelvis, which is the obvious place to start since you sit on it and through it, loose packed is the half-way mark between tail bone tucked under and tail bone upward to the sky (cat and cow in yoga). If we look at your neck, it's half-way between chin poked forward and chin tucked in tightly.

2. The head weighs a lot (3-4kg, depending on how brainy you are). So, its weight needs to be carried in the middle of the spinal column. If you poke your head forward then the weight is carried by the small muscles at the back of your neck and by your upper trapezius muscles, which get overloaded and tired and therefore sore!

3. To “feed,” themselves spinal structures need to be pumped, allowing fresh blood in and stale blood out. These structures behave like a sponge, which can't imbibe water unless it's squeezed dry and released.

4. All joints have synovial fluid inside them. It acts like Q2 (lubricant). Your fluid needs movement to stimulate its production and work it through the joint surface, keeping everything lubricated and smooth, nourished and healthy.

5. Your brain needs to know where your body is in space. When you keep still all day, your brain loses insight of your spinal joints and muscles’ positioning (proprioception). This makes your brain tighten its control over these crucially important tissues and so the muscles contract and spasm up. The less you move, the more your brain is starved of information on your body’s position in space, the tighter it holds things together to guard it and try to protect it.

6. Your higher brain region is the part your work needs you to use, and this part of your brain is extremely “hungry”. It uses up loads of resources (oxygen and glucose) and it fatigues fast. It fatigues after about 45 minutes to an hour. When it starts getting sluggish and weary, that’s when you need to get moving, give it a rest, pump your heart and breathe deeply and re-resource it so it can rejuvenate and deliver the goods for the next hour (Your intelligent thinking)

So, with all these facts in mind, you will agree, I am sure, that motion, is lotion and peppering your day with regular, well-chosen movements is critical to your success. It may slow you down a fraction in an hour, but it will speed you up incredibly over a day! Your boss will love you for it in the long term and so will your health! But what to do? let’s start with what not to do:

• Go straight to the coffee machine.

• Get a chocolate.

Instead do things that will really energize you and keep you going:

1. Back arches. Make a big C shape with your back. Don’t collapse back, lift your chest upward as you arch backward. Beathe out as you go back.

2. Move your neck in all directions: ear to each shoulder, chin to each shoulder, chin to chest and chin to sky. One breath per movement.

3. Open your mouth wide and oil and grease your jaw. Next take your bottom jaw from side to side and front to back (don’t let anyone video you while you are doing this, it doesn’t look pretty!).

4. Reach for the sky with your fingertips as you inhale and then fold forward to the ground as you exhale.

5. Slide your fingers down your leg past the side of your knee as you side bend your body to each side. Lift the other arm up and over your head to stretch your waist.

6. Put your hands behind your head open your elbows wide and twist to either side, using one breath per movement.

7. Squat down as if you were going to sit down, but don’t sit. Push your heels into the floor and take your butt backwards and your arms forward to balance you and do tiny bounces there as your quad’s get a workout.

8. Do 10-20 toe ups onto the big toe side of your feet, going up and down and breathing as you go.

9. Swing your shoulders and arms and roll your shoulders backwards.

10. Squeeze your chin in to make a double chin and pull your shoulder blades together behind your back at the same time. Squeezing tight and then releasing with your breath.

And then a few last tips that will get more movement and with it, health and fitness into your day so you are as mobile as you can be even although your job asks you to sit all day.

Walk as you talk. Have your meetings as you get outside and nourish your brain and body. Why sit and meet?

If you are on the phone, walk while you talk!

Take the stairs (every time)

Park far away and walk into work, don’t waste time driving around looking for the closest parking. Just use the time to walk a good few hundred more steps!

Get up and talk to your colleague, rather than emailing or “WhatsApp’ing” them.

Go slow to go fast, meaning: STOP, get up and move, feed your brain and tissues and keep your productivity high and your vitality flourishing. Your rests help you function. Your movement keeps you vibrant and alive and your spine and musculoskeletal system will thank you every step of the way.

Your health is your greatest treasure, don’t squander it by sitting still all day!! Movement is magic!