Frequent And Quality Movement Promotes Good Function
Movement and function are often how I describe the way our body works. One of the many components that determine the quality of life is our ability to move and do the things we want to do, without pain or restriction.
The above picture illustrates that if we don’t focus on moving our extremities to greater ranges of motion, our environment we move in gets smaller & smaller. We end up moving and living in a small box of motion.
I see this a lot with people who have sedentary jobs and they spend most of their time working in a small area of movement patterns. Such as sitting at a desk on a computer or phone. Bad posture develops and you have limited upper or lower extremity range of motion. This limited motion will then not be available when we need it. For example, if you stumble or trip, the reaction is oftentimes to reach out with your arms to find something to grab and help prevent falling.
To prevent living in a box you must MOVE. Simply put…move those arms and shoulders as much and as far as you can. This applies to the legs as well. When exercising do a full range of motion with whatever movement pattern you are performing. A tip I often tell my clients is to practice walking with over-extending or long strides. This helps keep mobility in the legs, as well as helping with balance and coordination when needed.
I want you to try this little exercise:
Sit in a chair with both feet flat on the floor and raise one arm straight out in front and back as far as possible. Keep the elbow as straight as possible and close to the head. See the photo.
What I also want you to notice is, if one arm goes back farther or feels easier than the other. If that is the case I want you to raise up the better arm and hold it for 20 seconds. Rest the arm for 30 seconds and do it again. Then I want you to go back to the other arm that was the “yucky” one and check to see if it feels better or goes farther than the first time you raised it up.
Congrats…that was your first attempt at Total Motion Release (TMR). Now repeat that sequence a second time to see if the “bad” side gets even better.
Using TMR can be your solution to living in a box.
For more information about becoming more balanced, functional, and have better workouts, follow my BLOG or contact Mark Tolle by private message on my Facebook page.