Saturday, April 6, 2013

Your Body is Designed to MOVE!

The longer I live, the more I learn, the more I experience, the more I realize that taking time to be active every day is not just a weight loss thing. It's not just a physical fitness thing. It's an overall health thing. It's what our body was designed to do. We were not designed to be still.  Your body wants to move, it needs to move, it LOVES to move!

Think about all the things that happen when you are still, all the diseases in which a sedentary lifestyle is a contributing factor, all the thing that develop if you are still for too long. Your body needs to move. Your body is designed to move.

I personally have discovered how much my own body relies on exercise. A few years ago I started having strange and severe pain in my pack along my spine near the bottom of my shoulder blades. The pain would be so uncomfortable I could neither move or lay still without it hurting. The first time this happened resulted in a trip to the emergency room at 3:00 am. They suggested then that it was probably just a muscle spasm. I had other fears, but was relieved that it could be something as simple as that. So they sent me home with some pain meds and muscle relaxers. A few days rest and I was back to my normal self.

I went the better part of a year before I had another one. So, this time I went to see a Chiropractor. He thought he felt a vertebrae in my back slightly out of line so he spent several visits trying to realign my spine. A few days after each visit I would get an even more intense pain in my back that would surround my whole torso and eventually become so severe that I would vomit. When I finally made the connection that these more intense episodes came just a few days after each chiropractor visit I stopped going, not surprisingly  these episodes subsided.

I started working out again. Something I fell out of the habit of doing a few weeks before the the second spasm. I did my usual routine, the routine I had done throughout college, light full body workout, then a half hour on the treadmill or a 3 mile run on the cross country course which ever the weather dictated. (Yes, I am a fair weather runner).  Months went by without any back pain. Throughout my entire weight loss journey I did everything from lifting, running, Insanity, flag football...etc. I even tried out for the Pittsburgh Passion - women's professional football. Not one problem in all that time, but recently, with wedding planning, holidays, and buying a new house I kind of fell off the workout wagon and guess what? I had another back spasm, but this time it happened just before a well check up with my doctor. She did the typical exam, pressing on parts of my back and spine to rule out bulging disks and things of that nature. She told me she believed it to be muscular-skeletal in nature. And guess what she recommended? Specifically light lifting, even more specifically lat pull downs, lat rows, and push ups. Why? because your muscles actually help keep your spine and skeleton in place. This is why as most people grow older and become less active they develop more back and joint problems.

Incidentally, I ran this by my sister who is an Occupational Therapy Assistant and she confirmed that for most physical injuries some sort of physical therapy is often part of the healing process specifically for the reason of your muscles helping to stabilize your body.

So, I have even more motivation to move. Instead of wasting money and time at Chiropractor's offices. I just move.

This got me thinking about all the different diseases and ailments that are out there and how much staying active can help in preventing many of them.

 If an ill patient lays in a hospital bed too long he will develop sores simply from being still for too long. If you stand around all day at your job you develop varicose veins. A lack of movement throughout the day burns less calories which contributes to weight gain. Without moving during the day your heart muscles weaken. The American Diabetes Association lists lack of exercise as a risk factor for diabetes. The American Heart Association suggests that living a healthy lifestyle plays a big role in reducing the risks of Heart Disease - they list getting plenty of physical activity as part of a healthy lifestyle.  Blood  failing to flow properly is one of the many factors for developing blood clots that can lead to strokes or heart attacks as can happening during prolonged immobilization according to WebMD.

So moving and staying active is about more than vanity. It's about maintaining a high quality of life.

You can read more on the articles referenced in this post by going to the following websites or clicking on the hyperlinked text above:

American Diabetes Association - Diabetes Risk Factors
http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/prevention/risk-factors/

American Heart Association - Coronary Heart Disease
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/More/MyHeartandStrokeNews/Coronary-Artery-Disease---Coronary-Heart-Disease_UCM_436416_Article.jsp

WebMD - What is a Blood Clot?
http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/blood-clots

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