“Initiating challenges is at the heart of the solution to our mechanical problems”
You can live a healthier life—both physically and financially–through good biomechanics. By staying active, you can greatly reduce your health care costs so you have more money to enjoy your good health.
Our evolutionary past included many stressors, and searching for a break from them–for comfort–would be useful, because the environment would not allow us to become too comfortable.
Today our search for comfort results in insulating ourselves from the contrasts that would otherwise make us healthy. We sit in overstuffed chairs, and walk in soft, cushioned shoes on unvarying flat surfaces.
Our dilemma is that we are not hardwired to initiate environmental challenges such as walking on rocks. Today’s environment “protects” us from these challenges, so we must consciously incorporate them if we are to be healthy. It is vital that we initiate challenges, but we often don’t think about doing so until we feel pain or become sick. Why wait that long? Create physical challenges that give you better posture and fuller movement.
Easy activities that challenge your body in healthy ways include:
• Gently stand on a golf ball or similar round rock, and roll it around to help release the tightened muscles and fascia in your feet that normally don’t have an opportunity to move.
• Walk on odd shaped rocks that force your feet to move.
• Change the position of your computer monitor and chair often
• Sit on an exercise ball instead of a chair, putting one foot onto a box in front of your chair, stretching one arm above your head to open up your ribs.
• Lie on your back with a pillow under your shoulder blades, to help reverse the forward curve that comes from sitting all day.
Once you start thinking of these kinds of activities, you will find all sorts of opportunities to challenge you.
Speak Your Mind