People are asking me “Why, Alex, why? Why are you raving about corrective exercise and why do I need to be focussing on my mobility right now?” and the answer is 2 words: “Adaptive Shortening”.
Our muscles are the engine by which we move, impacting every aspect of our bodies whether we realize it or not.
Unfortunately, muscles do not naturally maintain an ideal range of motion on their own. Actually, the opposite is true. Muscles will change the length to match their regular use and/or positioning.
So, if you’re sitting a lot your muscles can adaptively shorten to the sitting position and create muscular imbalances. You can then compound these imbalances by performing explosive or high-rep home workouts or outdoor exercise.
As the imbalances between the muscles increases, joint movement is compromised. You can start to feel pain or restriction in your movement.
Even over a short period of time, you put yourself at a higher risk of injury or start to suffer pain which prevents you from performing daily activities. And, right now, we need to be able to perform our daily activities to maintain sanity and focus.
Bottom line; you can have the best workout regime in the world, the best desk posture, and get up to go out for walks, daily, but if your muscles are imbalanced you’re at risk of injury, if not experiencing pain, already.
So, what’s the solution?
How do we fix it? Simple answer? Move more! Even the fact we aren’t walking to and from our cars or around our offices anymore means a significant drop in daily movement. Therefore there ia a negative impact on our joints.
So get up! Something as simple as cleaning high and low will put our joints through a larger range of motion. You can also try daily Yoga, Pilates, or Tai Chi to gain a broader range of movement in an activity designed to increase general flexibility and balance.
My personal approach is to use targeted dynamic movement, or “corrective exercise”. It has been proven to help eliminate pain, accelerate recovery, and significantly reduce the risk of injury by restoring a healthy range of motion in the joints.
It’s also incredibly easy to pick up and doesn’t require any previous exercise experience. This is the method I use with my clients and have done so for years in order to help people learn to treat their own aches, pains, and restrictions from home.
