About 2,400 years ago, a popular fellow named Aristotle once
said, “Life requires movement.” For over
two millennium, we’ve known that our bodies need to move to stay healthy; yet
most of us nowadays have no idea how good our bodies are designed to feel. Our joints ache on cold days. We get up from chairs making all sorts of
funny noises. The idea of climbing those
basement stairs with a basket of laundry can almost bring a tear to our eyes. The culprits behind these aches and pains can
be any combination of osteoarthritis, inactivity, aging, injuries, repetitive
movements, and poor posture.
Putting our bodies in motion doesn’t have to be such a
burden if we consider the thoughts of Mr. Aristotle. We are designed to move, and our joints, surrounding
connective tissues, and muscles are at the front line of movement. So how do we preserve or renew our joint
health?
Exercise
It may seem counterintuitive, but I promise moving more will
help you hurt less. In fact, moving less greatly contributes to muscles getting
weaker, which in turn leads to more joint issues and snowballs into all sorts
of postural and alignment issues down the road.
Exercise helps maintain and restore health, joints included.
I
recommend resistance training as part of any well rounded exercise
routine. Resistance training is
contracting muscle groups in order to move against an external force, aka
moving weights around. Over time, your body will adapt to the strain resistance
training puts on the bones, muscles, and connective tissue by making them all
stronger. The key is improving the
integrity of the tissue around a joint.
Generally speaking, the stronger the muscles surrounding a joint, the
better off the joint will be.
Strengthening your muscles can contribute to better posture,
but we must also consider the available range of motion at a joint. Weak muscles on one side of a joint allows
tight muscles on the other side to pull a joint out of alignment, so strengthening
our muscles only solves part of the problem.
The solution to the rest of the
problem is to deactivate these overactive, tight muscles to allow the joints to
move more freely.
Unfortunately, the solution of stretching the
tight muscles and strengthening the weak ones isn’t as simple as we would like
it to be. Since our joints all work
together and rely on each other, we can’t just focus on one joint to solve the problem
of poor posture. As an example, our
ankles’ ability to move can affect how well our shoulders function. A movement screen by a physical therapist or qualified
personal trainer can help us better aim at the target through a much clearer
lens. The movement screen can determine
where the imbalances are, how our bodies have adapted to the imbalances, and
provide a better, more individualized solution.
Learning to move better and then doing it often will
diminish the nagging aches and pains many of us have developed over the
years. Remember that we must move to
keep moving.
