Hey,
If you haven’t been following, I will catch you up. My name is Adrian Gomez and I am sharing some movement principles with you to shorten your learning curve and let you know what has worked the best for me and some of our clinicians here at PT-Connections. I have already given you 2 blogs for free that have played a big role for patients recovering and regaining their natural movement. Now keep reading each week for more information this is week 3. Enjoy.
Principle #3 Quality over Quantity
Moving well is priority over moving often. If you have a wheel on a car that is out of alignment it will blow out faster than a wheel that is perfectly balanced, they will both eventually blow but how quickly it happens is the reason to move well before jumping into a high volume routine where your body will be sure to react appropriately to poor movement under high volume.
Sometimes less is more.
Natural Movement
During the last few decades, we have turned into a nation of flexion addicts. We are sitting at the computer, traveling in cars and planes, watching T.V, talking on the phone, and eating. We think we are sitting, but physiologically we are slumping. We are almost always inclined forward even if we are doing nothing. This “posture” degrades our musculature and affects our neurological systems negatively.
The human body is designed to function from a neutral spine, most of the time. When we are slumped in the sitting position, our muscles become lax. You can feel the difference when you sit upright on your sitting bones. Connect the lift of the domes of the pelvis, ribs, and head. Look at your clothes and see how they hang. Now slump and watch how the fabric wrinkles. This is what is happening to your torso muscles. Still wonder why your abdomen is sticking out? Muscles become lax when you slump, so other muscles try to take over the slack of the internal support muscles. When you sit for long periods, your hips and shoulders become stiff. Your hip flexors and neck muscles must take up the slack. They are tightening to hold you up.
Natural movement occurs where efficiency and performance are instinctual. Watch a child play at the playground and how well they move naturally. Sitting and squatting for them is very natural on the floor and even when they are at a restaurant or in the car they want to sit on the chair with their feet not on their butt.
ACTION STEP: Sit less. Slump less. Eat less. Drive less. Watch less television.