Let me start by saying... I love being stiff! Haha I know that sounds weird but what I mean is that I love that feeling of your muscles being sore after a workout. For me it feels like accomplishment.. like then I know my muscles really worked! I crave that feeling if I haven't felt it in a while.
I train about 5 times a week for an hour but it's not all heavy workouts. Now and then after a really good Pilates class I'll feel certain muscles be nice and stiff.. or the next day at least. Then I know it's those muscles we haven't worked in a while. I can visibly see how my muscles have toned from doing Pilates.. it's really cool. The other day I played squash for the first time and I could barely walk the next day.. it was awesome!
In today's fast paced lifestyle we don't move enough. I know everyone's jobs are different and while some are very active, most I can think of off the top of my head is very low mobility kind of jobs. Desk work has become a problem.. we're not moving anymore. People are coming up with ways to change that by swopping your chair for a bouncy ball or switching entirely to a standing desk. I even saw a treadmill desk on Facebook the other day where you work and walk at the same time. The miles this lady got was amazing. We're not even walking enough.. we get in our cars, drive to work, start working, get in our cars and drive home. How much walking have you actually done? I always thought they were just being funny when they said: Take the stairs instead of the elevator but like now I really wanna take thr stairs! It's become too easy not to move.
Remember those days where you actually had to get up to change the channel on the TV? Or do you remember thr days of writing letters instead of emails? Those letters had to actually be taken to the post office.
Back in the day lots of people used to grow their own food. They had big gardens by their property and they used to grow fruit, herbs and vegetables, sometimes even grains and legumes. Now it seems I get jealous when I hear about someone's veggie garden. Lately it's a lot easier to just go buy groceries at the shops. I remember a few months ago my mom's veggie garden was overgrown with tomatoes. And I mean overgrown.. in like 15min I managed to harvest like 2kg of cherry tomatoes. I remember this clearly because having to climb and step and bend and reach and stretch to get to those perfectly red tomatoes had my legs and bums feeling like they had the workout of a lifetime the next day. I was so stiff and I was stil thinking but what did we do in class that targeted my glutes? And then it hit me.. it was the tomato picking. Such a simple exercise that's done daily for many, left my body feeling like that. I was shocked. It just showed me that I really don't move enough. Simple things but like squating to open the garage door instead of using a remote. You get that squat, or you don't. That how our routines have evolved to include less and less movement.
I'm not saying that we should throw away our TV remotes and stop using technology. I'm just saying that we should be aware of this trend and try to make up for lost movement in other ways.
Oh yes.. another story.. more recent.. because my shoulders and traps are still sore. We're busy with big changes at The Village Square and with new tenants moving in we had to take some of the decor pieces away. Me and Adriana had to carry a ball and claw couch from shop 3 to shop 7. Now this isn't far but damn it was heavy. I could feel the strain on my shoulders but I was like.. yeah this is a good workout. Then came Pilates that afternoon and we did those closed stretch bands and guess what area we targeted.. arms, shoulders and traps.. haha I was so stiff the next day but I'm thinking it was more the couch's fault.
Simple things like moving the couch and picking some tomatoes (almost said veggies but if I remember correctly, it's a fruit.. that whole debate.. at least I know not to add a tomato to my next fruit salad) are what we were built to do, so we shouldn't stop doing it.
You've all heard of the saying: If you don't use it, you lose it. And I've seen this. Clients that could do certain stretches perfectly in Stretching Class, all of a sudden can't after being away or sick for a while.
We need to stay mobile and flexible. Keep moving and not just day to day stuff. Moooove every part of your body. Stretch each toe and reach for the sky every now and again. See if you can get that book off the top shelf without getting a stepping chair. Dropped something? Do a squat and pick it up.
The longer we can keep moving like we used to when we were kids. The longer we will take to get old. At Namo we like to think that it stands for Natural Movement, which can mean many things but one of them is that we're designed to move and that's what we should be doing. In whatever shape or form.
If you want to join a class to help increase your daily movement: www.namohealth.co.za/exercise-studio
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