Posts Tagged ‘movement’
Movement carcinogens
High heel shoes. Economy airplane seats. Wallets in back pockets. Tight fitting clothes that limit the range of motion required for activities of daily living like tying shoes and picking small humans up off the ground. Laptops literally being used on laps. Sitting in one position for more than twenty minutes. Walking only on smooth…
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Movement cancer
It starts small. An ankle sprain when you’re twenty. After three weeks, it feels better so you move on, but with an almost imperceptible decrease of 10° in dorsiflexion. Every cycle of three weeks thereafter comes another layer of the compensation as the nervous system adapts to the altered ground reaction forces. A neuroplastic adaptation…
Read MoreMovement hygiene
Remember the last time you wore black socks? Remember the fuzz that accumulated between your toes? There is a similar lint-like fuzz that accumulates between your skin and the underlying tissues when there is no movement between the layers for an extended period of time. This occurs every night as we sleep and in regions…
Read MoreStandards
Much of the life we experience is determined by the standards we accept. If the quality of our food, sleep, training, or communication is less than acceptable, and we accept it anyway, our quality of life is dimished. We establish many of our standards before we even come into adulthood. We set and forget them…
Read MoreBudgeting for health, not survival
We put a significant portion of our health care budget toward keeping people alive during their last two years. We put almost no money and energy toward teaching our culture how to cultivate and maintain their health throughout life in an effort to avoid such an enjoyable couple of final years. Imagine if budgets swung…
Read MoreAppropriately-timed gratification
One of the challenges when getting healthy is that it can feel like we are successful as soon as we buy the healthy cookbook. As soon as we buy the mindfulness training course. When we pay the gym membership fee. As we press play on the “101 Tips for a Healthier You” podcast. We get…
Read MoreSpinning vs turning
Spinning on a stationary bike is inherently rapid. It requires effort even at the lowest levels of resistance and is arguably worth the time spent doing it. On the other hand, sitting on a bike and slowly turning the pedals while watching TV, and then logging it as exercise, is deceptive and hazardous. Hazardous to…
Read MoreDear FedEx guy
You and I have been together for years. It’s been a good run. I’d even be willing to keep growing together, but I feel nervous that we’re on the rocks. If we’re going to make this work, I have a request that you must consider. It’s a small thing, but it would mean a lot…
Read More35,000 decisions
The decision to be healthy is not just one decision. We make roughly 35,000 decisions per day and each of them is an opportunity to influence health for better or worse. There is variability is the number of decisions among people of course. For example, a child’s choice count is perhaps closer to 3,000. Regardless,…
Read MoreThe effort behind the effortlessness
We all know someone who seems to make healthy decisions without a second thought. Even when inconvenienced they rise to the occasion with composure. They mentally massage menus to coax out meals that match their mission. They fit in the time to stay fit. They set goals, achieve them, and make it look easy. How…
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