You've got to Move it, Move it….
[by Daniel Monahan - Sports Massage Therapist] Sometimes I will ask a client how they injured or what happened to cause their pain? Unless it was a specific event (impact in sports for example) they may say "I didn't do anything?", "I just bent down to pick something up" or "I woke up one day and I had this pain"
What you should really be asking yourself is....
"What don't I do?"
Modern life and inactivity is ruining our bodies; you wake up, have breakfast, drive to work, work at your desk all morning, eat your lunch at your desk or in the lunch room, continue working in the afternoon, the work day finally ends and you get back in your car to drive home and then spend all evening watching TV, maybe some of you might make it to the gym.
What is the common factor in all of this? You're sitting all day long...Your body is stuck in the same position that it was not designed to be in for extended periods of time, we are forcing our bodies and muscles to adapt to sitting, certain muscles switch off and other muscles start doing all the work instead, and this is where problems arise. Then we wonder why our shoulders start hurting, or our backs start aching, inactivity is what causes this, we are stuck in a box and we don't move out of it, we don't raise our arms high above our heads on daily basis, we hardly walk these days as far as we used to.
Our bodies become unaccustomed to these basic movements, they become foreign movements that our bodies aren't used to, so our body protects us from these movements by stopping us because it's scared something will happen to the muscle, tendon, ligament because it's forgotten how to perform this movement and the brain sends a signal to the muscles saying STOP! It's here that we experience that sudden pain, or we strain a muscle and we start to get achy joints and muscles.
Just think when was the last time you squatted, jumped, reached over head with your arms, rotated from the waist, and even ran, for some of you even walked? Start bringing these movements back into your daily lives and start moving more, your body will thank you.
Tips to bring back some movement into your daily life
1. If you work in an office stand up to answer the phone, think about how many times per day the phone rings?
2. Take a walk at lunchtime even if it's just 15mins, it will get your body moving
3. Drink plenty of water; use the water cooler on another floor or at the end of the office
4. If you park in a multi-storey car park, park on the top floor and take the stairs
Daniel Monahan is a Sports Massage Therapist and Sports Injury Specialist at www.MoveEasySportsMassage.co.uk. He is a previous back pain sufferer of 4 years suffering from a herniated disc. It was after this injury that he decided to qualify to become a Sports Massage Therapist and start working with others and working on getting others pain free and back to living a pain free happy life.
