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All the movement in your life simply cannot be saved for the one hour you plan to spend at the gym. That does not justify nor does it cancel out the other 23ish hours that were spent almost motionless.
Movement needs to be part of your day, it’s not meant to be scheduled for later when you have more time. That’s not how our body works.
Otherwise you will start losing mobility that you once had and you’ll wonder where it went. Well, your body decided it wasn’t very important to you and it stopped allowing that mobility so it could conserve energy for more important things.
You need to signal to your body that your mobility is important to you and the way to do this is by consistently using these movement patterns.
Here are several areas that you can reincorporate more movement into. This is in no way conclusive. It’s just a short list of some common areas people should have the opportunity to use more of their body in.
Because sitting is the current public enemy #1, how about a couple alternative, sedentary resting positions you can switch to!
The first is a squat, a deep squat that is. Heels on the ground, knees pushed out, back straight, butt almost of the floor. If you can’t hold yourself upright on your own power, lean your back against a wall until you can.
Next is kneeling. This one is great because it will keep you switching positions often, a key factor in your movement diet. You can hold yourself up while on both knees, sit your butt onto your heels (and even stretch your feet by pulling your toes back under you), or switch off with single leg kneels.
Last is the side bent sit (pictured below). Newly one of my personal favorites, you’ll need to sit on your butt with both knees bent and pointing the same way while laying them flat on the floor. What I love is that you can feel a stretch in your hips, hip flexors, and groin while you are “sitting”. I didn’t know that was possible until now.
Even replacing your current chair with an exercise ball would be a significant improvement as you would be forced to sit on the edge of your seat in a more engaged position. This would have your legs, core, and back doing more of the active stabilization work they are meant to be doing.
Here’s probably the area with the most potential for improvement: your kids and/or your pets.
What are kids constantly doing? Moving! All they want to do is jump around and have a great time. We adults are the ones crashing their party telling them they need to sit still, stop what they’re doing, and other bad news.
Children are actually the very best teachers of movement around whether you know it or not.
They have perfect mobility, are not embarrassed to dance or jump around in a weird way, and are the most willing movers. So what’s my advice to you? Move with them! Don’t think about it any harder than that.
Play their games, do the obstacle courses with them, swing on the monkeybars with them. They’re always squatting down and crawling through tight little spaces, they jump and fall on the bed, and they play on the floor. These are the only things you have to do to experience full ranges of motion in your body.
That transitions nicely into the next point which is re-acclimate yourself with the floor. This is the ultimate principle of great mobility. The floor is your friend, a very good friend. Even if its really hard, that can be better for certain things.
So now when you’re watching tv, a movie, or your favorite show, get off the couch and sit on the floor, preferably with no back support behind you. The key is to use your own power to hold yourself up, using your core and back primarily.
Why don’t you want to be on the couch? Because it’s too comfy and cushioned, so you’re never going to move! You’ll sink in and be there for hours.
Being on the floor, like a harder one, will make you move more frequently and take up new positions because it won’t be comfortable for long. This will keep you more conscious of how you’re using your time and your body as well.
Using the floor for things is also essential for putting your hips and knees through their full ranges of motion. If you’re going to sit down or get up from the floor, you will have to bend your knees and hips, maybe even use a squat, and use some of your larger lower body muscles. That’s great news for you because using the floor is an easy way to get many benefits packed into simple movements.
If sitting directly on the floor sounds a little extreme to start with or your floors are uncomfortably hard, consider easing into the process with a floor pillow. This will allow you to still exercise your full ranges of motion on the floor and work your stabilizing muscles while remaining comfortable.
The floor can also be used for…. Sleeping! Until recently, I had slept on my bedroom floor for a year and a half. Now, I sleep with my girlfriend and our son but I might have to hit the floor again soon because I miss it 😉
The back aches I used to have from taekwondo classes, sore leg muscles, and occasional stiff neck took care of themselves after I ditched my mattress.
Our beds and even pillows can be problematic for many people as the mattresses are often too soft and the pillows are too big (and soft). The body thrives off of a more firm, unforgiving surface surprisingly and our necks, shoulders, and back would ideally use no pillow at all.
Try transitioning yourself to firmer surfaces and thinner pillows over time. Your body will begin to loosen up and thank you for it.
So far you might be thinking to yourself, what does this guy have against my furniture? Well, you’ve got me. It’s becoming more and more apparent that our furniture locks our body into certain positions for very long periods of time; death by comfort.
Our chairs, couches, and beds all have us slouching, sedentary, and becoming lazier overall. Not to mention that tightness and weak muscles that follow.
I’ve been proactively avoiding the furniture in my house for the last couple of months now and I do notice myself being more active because of it.
If I’m kneeling to eat my dinner, it won’t be more than 5 minutes before I adjust that position. If I’m laying on the floor instead of a comfy couch, I can’t unconsciously let an hour go by because I’ll want to shift myself around or get back up.
That was the more philosophical/conceptual part of the post. Now here are some quick and easy points of your day to get moving more.
Keep in mind that while some of these will only give you an extra minute of movement at a time, the cumulative effect is what you should be paying attention to.
If you started cooking one more meal every day of the week than you normally do and let’s just say that takes about 20 minutes of prep work, that’s an extra 2 hours and 20 minutes of movement in that week that would’ve been lost by ordering take-out.
Doing the dishes yourself rather than using the dishwasher is probably at least another hour of some activity every single week as well.
Before you make dinner, you have to get the groceries. Those could be carried from the store to the car instead of pushed in a cart.
Or maybe you can carry your child through the store or from the store to the car to work on your functional strength in the trunk of your body. Carrying children is an often overlooked workout as it seems like more of a chore than an opportunity (I’m guilty too).
I’ll never forget my girlfriend’s 14 year old cousin carrying our son through a couple miles worth of city landscape and then handing him off to me (23), only for me to make it a couple of minutes before my arms were killing.
This 14 year old boy has most likely been carrying children for half of his life with all the little cousins he has. If that isn’t a testament to functional strength than I don’t know what is.
You could also take your bike to nearby stores or even….walk! It’s crazy that we’ve gotten to this point but it happens to the best of us.
We get very complacent in our set routines that we stop evaluating to see if there’s a better way to do things. Many of the places we go are very walkable or at least bikeable.
Turn these trips into chances to get outside, experience the weather that we all talk about but never endure, have a nice talk with your significant other.
If it’s too bitterly cold outside, make the most of your indoor space while being productive.
Open up all your closets and clear out the junk that accumulates in all the drawers, on the floor in the back, or on the top shelves. This will allow you to make many level changes with your body: reaching up high, squatting down low, etc.
While you’re in the bedroom, hang a pull up bar in the door frame or over your work station.
Grabbing onto and hanging from a bar throughout your days allows your shoulders, elbows, forearms, wrists, hands, and fingers to get the motion and stability work that they probably rarely see.
Move furniture to clean under and behind it. Rearrange your bedroom or living room.
If you’re stuck at home, try being barefoot more often.
It’s good for the musculature and sensory functions in your feet to feel new textures and surfaces. Not to mention your feet and ankles are probably pretty weak and locked up from all the shoe wearing. So bring them out to the movement party and make it a full body experience.
All these activities will allow you to experience level changes, do some weight-bearing work, and move parts of your body that don’t normally move, all while being productive!
Remember everyone: It’s about movement, not exercise.
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