When keeping on moving is the best thing to do
Movement is medicine is a great way of looking at things. When we move we provide the body with a stimulus to heal. That healing comes from better blood flow, removal of waste products and an bunch of feel good hormones which not only provide pain relief but also feel good factor. These are what give us a positive outlook on the day when we have been active. These neuro transmitters help our mental health as well. I’m sure you have had this feeling once or twice when you’ve been active.
When the body lets us down however, either through pain or injury we can be quick to stop our activities in a strongly held belief that this will help the pain or issue pass. This can be counterintuitive though. I have found that often moving the body in other ways or rehabbing the trouble spot is actually a better course of action in the long run. I have worked with people wit h broken ankles and they have still been able to perform a great many movements despite the ankle preventing others. The same goes for a stuck shoulder or a tight hip. There are a great many remedies that can be brought to the session which will assist in getting abody back on tack and moving well again.
When a hip is replaced the surgeon encourages patients to be moving around the very dame day. There is an expectation that patients will be moving up to 30 minutes a day follow that surgery. This is standard practice now a days whereas in years gone by people would be kept on their hospital bed and made to remain totally inactive for a good number of days/weeks until it was deemed ‘safe’ for them to be moving about again – NOT any more!
One of the first things that happens when a body become inactive is the brain muscle connection can weaken. That’s not to say the nervous system isn’t able to activate muscles but there may be some muscles missed in the messenger system from the brain to make them work correctly. This can create imbalance and compensations in the body. The body is very clever at doing this to enable it to keep feeding itself and stay alive. But when it comes to movement in the gym if we have a number of muscles not working well or at all then the body will wear and tear incorrectly. That’s what my blog “Move well before you move lots” was all about.
This is where muscle testing comes into it’s own. Finding out about which muscles are not switched on can then help get the body into balance once they are switched back on again using simple activation techniques. Once they are all firing correctly the wear and tear will be balanced and ‘normal’. Keeping them on is another matter!! Once you know your patterns it’s just a matter of having a little routine for yourself and away you go; walk, run, lift weights, swim, cycle the muscles will be doing their thing correctly and you won’t be compensating anywhere in your body.