By: Lee Snider
Sept. 24th, 2022
It is with great sadness, that I have to say yes. Many do choose to be inactive. They can't wait to complete that compulsory PE credit in high school and retire from their active living careers. For a lot of us however, I believe inactivity chooses us, merely as a culmination of our lifestyle choices. You may have chosen a high school party, Freshman year mixer or even a study group over being active, sure, but shortly after that your free will ended! Once you hit the computer desk, car seat, or some other form of repetitive, stressful patterns, (likely combined with some god-awful shoes) your window for easy, pain-free movement began to close. Of course there are many variations or different versions of this, and of course outliers. But I'm speaking to the average person that I work with or call a friend. And I'm speaking to myself.
Now, the majority of us recognize the importance of movement or exercise and most will adopt a gym-going routine of some variety, but, here's the thing.....That 'run of the mill' exercise protocol - usually running or traditional resistance training - paired with a lack of emphasis on maintenance and mobility, can play right into the problems you're getting from other areas of your life. This is not to discount anyone's effort to get to the gym, because that's you showing up for yourself! Congrats.
The unfortunate reality is that our 'run of the mill' exercise protocols, tend to favour certain movements that can, one, create a lot of compressive forces on our spine - which is really the structure that is going to dictate posture - and two, perpetuate or even exacerbate the conditions we've created from our real-world patterns. Also, here in the Western World, we tend to adopt a "Reductionist" mindset, as we do with medicine, that favours isolating certain movements or certain body parts, with redundancy, rather than looking at the body as a whole, functioning unit...at least some of the time. So basically, when we combine our typical exercise methodologies, with the societal norms of lifestyle, it's not a matter of IF you get dealt an injury or setback, it's when. A brief, objective look, at our collective health and Orthopaedic injury rate, will substantiate this most definitely.
What 11 years in the coaching industry has showed me, time and time again, is that you can't Deadlift and Couch stretch your way out of these problematic patterns in which we get ourselves. So, it is through this that inactivity chooses us, or more appropriately, that our bodies choose, to keep us out of pain and discomfort. I never thought I would stop playing sports, or sprinting, or basically doing the things that brought me all of my joy. But I stopped. Gradually. One activity after another, over the course of a half decade, my body decided for me. So, by neglecting certain elements of maintenance and having a naive perception of movement abilities, I believe I did myself and my clients a lot of disservice at times, all in the name of "feeling the burn".
THIS, to me, is how so many adventure-loving people become inactive over time and don't even know it. The human body is remarkable. Even in promoting a more sedentary lifestyle as a means to your protection. So if you have unwillingly or unconsciously chosen an inactive lifestyle and want it back, take it. Reclaim your movement. It's yours to take back and your body will begrudgingly accept the terms if the conditions are right. I did this through soft tissue work, basic and fundamental corrective exercises, and lifestyle changes that took a lot of self awareness and accountability. I'm not saying this is an easy task, but it's literally life-changing.
So, if you're ready, make the commitment to yourself. Seek out help. My Limitless Movement Program is the culmination of what I did to reclaim my movement and how I can help others. There are so many valuable resources on this inter web. Find one that speaks to you and get started today. In a few months, you may have some of that freewill over movement back and be doing things you love. By choice.
Comments