Activity & Play
Move more of you, more often and in more ways.
Non-training movement and activity is a great way to enjoy moving our body in a playful and social way, getting us to move more of our self, more often, in more ways. When resistance training, our movements are very rigid with a focus on keeping neutral, braced and breathing throughout, but we also need other variations of movement. There is no need to keep perfectly neutral in all movements. In fact, too much of this rigid style movement can have negative effects if we lose the ability to move the rest of our body.
Our body has evolved to move, so our non-loaded and non-repetitive movements in life need to get us moving into all the positions our training movements do not. Play, sport, yoga, gardening, pilates, cleaning, dance and other recreational exercise/activity variations are great ways to improve our overall movement capability as they get us into all sorts of weird and wonderful positions. This helps us to maintain our bodies natural ability to move, helping to maintain healthy joints, soft tissues, lymph flow and blood flow.
keep the body ticking over
Movement helps to keep all of our bodily systems ticking over throughout the day, rather than just aiding our physical movement. Remember from stress management, stress hormones are released to increase bodily output to meet current demands. Well, no activity, means no demands and the system slows bodily functions to preserve energy. This means slowing rates of oxygen and nutrient delivery around the body, slowing rates of waste removal, slowing rates of blood flow with important immune cells in, plus more. Simply put, we become a less efficient human in all aspects of bodily function when doing nothing vs doing something. This is why periods of movement and activity can be so good for our health as it keeps our bodily systems ticking over throughout the day.
Low level movement and activity help by keeping up demands and therefore keep it from entering low power mode. Doing nothing all day can actually lower our ability to recover because we lower the demands on the body, which the body adapts to by lowering output. Doing nothing for long periods of time can cause us to feel stiff, sluggish and tired, none of which are helpful towards a positive fitness process.
I always try to get clients to move more throughout the day especially if they have a desk job. Breaking up the day with some simple movement or activity can help keep us from entering a low power mode, keep the body ticking over for our health as well as improve our energy if training at the end of the day.
healthy movement
Health includes all aspects of health, physical, mental and social (See Health) and movement can positively contribute to them all. Not all movement has to be stressful or progressive as with training, but can simply be a method of playful enjoyment with friends and family. Playful, non-competitive movement can be a great way to enjoy moving our body such as with a sports team or activity club, which can also double up as a great place to meet new people with a joint interest in moving more.
Movement can positively influence our mental health especially if enjoyed outside and can boost our social health too if done outside with a friend. Going for a walk to catch up with a friend can be a great precursor to a sit down rather than having to solely be at a pub, restaurant or bar. Going out dancing with friends, dog walking with friends or going to the park with the kids can all contribute to our overall movement health with its many health benefits.
There are many ways to move more of our self, more often and in more ways, all of which can positively influence our overall health. We just need to search them out and go have fun.
Important
As movement is so important for our health, maintaining our ability to move is key. This is why the fitness section focuses on quality of movement over training stress to aid long term fitness success. Similarly, if you experience any pain from movement, it is well worth seeing a professional physical therapist to aid you in fixing any movement related pain and restoring your ability to move. This will compliment your overall health as well as any fitness related goals you may have.