The Physical Movement, Lifestyle: 3 Simple Things You Can Do To Get Stronger and Move Better!
If you don't move much, this is for you!
Let’s face it, our lifestyle has us not moving very much.
In fact, if we don’t want to move in a day, it can be done. Driving, sitting at work, driving, sitting at home. Go to bed. Repeat.
There is many a day where we do not have to lift a finger if we don’t want to .
As we get older, that inactivity takes it’s toll.
In fact, inactivity is now proven to be more damaging to our physical capacity that aging.
Think about that for a second.
We know that getting older reduces our ability to do stuff.
Being inactive can do more damage than the decline that comes from aging.
A lot of the symptoms that we associate with old age — such as weakness and loss of balance — are actually symptoms of inactivity, not age, says Alicia I. Arbaje, MD, MPH, assistant professor of Geriatrics and Gerontology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.
Reference:
Myths About Exercise and Older Adults
Have you given up on exercise? A lot of older people do -- just one out of four people between the ages of 65 and 74…www.webmd.com
According to research from the Center for Healthy Aging and the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen, it only takes two weeks of not using their legs for young people to lose a third of their muscular strength, leaving them on par with a person who is 40–50 years their senior.
Reference:
Inactivity reduces people's muscle strength
New research reveals that it only takes two weeks of not using their legs for young people to lose a third of their…www.sciencedaily.com
At this time of year, as the calendar flips to the new year, there is a ton of interest in getting fit, more exercise, lose weight, eat better, get healthier etc. The famous new year’s resolutions!!
Researchers say about 60 percent of us make New Year’s resolutions but only about 8 percent are successful in achieving them.
When we combine the futility of new year’s resolutions with our lack of activity, our new year can get off to a rough start.
Part of the problem is that many of our resolutions around exercise are too drastic, too much change. Many of the routines you find at the gym or on the internet involve a lot of time and becomes a big jump.
What if we started with simple tasks, a daily routine to get us moving more that would take a few minutes per day?
Here is are 3 simple things that you can do today to get stronger, have more energy and move better:
1. Get more sleep. We don’t get enough sleep. Google it. It’s a thing.
2. Drink more water. Eat less sugar. Drink less booze. Eat more vegetables and get enough protein. A billion dollar industry broken down into 5 things.
3. Get down on the ground and back up 3 times. (I stole this great idea from the great Dan John, and practice it a few times a week with great success)
Yours truly getting back up!
a. Get down using 2 arms to assist and get back up .
b. Get down using 1 arm to assist and get back up.
c. If you get really good, get down and up without using your arms to assist.
Start with 3 times, work your way up to 8–10 times. Start from the ground up to mix it up if you want.
This activity alone will improve muscular strength, mobility, get you huffing and puffing, and tax you in a way you probably have not done so in a while.
Is this get down & ups as good as 30 minutes of cardio or lifting weights? Probably not. But if you are not moving much on most days, this 5–10 minutes will get you feeling better and over a couple of weeks will start to feel easier.
That is progress!!
Then you can move on to something else, or go for a walk, or keep this as your activity when you don’t move enough.
No big announcement.
No big hairy goal.
A small series of steps to get you on the right path.
Then you can decide what to do next.
Keep it simple. Feel better. No excuses.