Why don’t we move more often?

Your first reply to that question may be because it hurts too. That is probably true on the surface. We don’t move when our body or parts of it hurt. Pain is a signal that something is wrong with our body and we need to take care of it. Our body naturally limits movement to protect itself from more harm.

How did our body come to hurt in the first place? Maybe we slipped on a sheet of ice and strained our groin. Or we rolled our ankle when we stepped down on a rock. Maybe we were injured playing a sport. That injury could have been when we were young and it’s coming back to haunt us now. Perhaps we have back and neck pain, chronic tension in our shoulders and neck that causes daily pain because we spend 8 or more hours a day sitting at a desk looking at a computer screen. Perhaps we’ve been told that we have arthritis in our joints.

These are all physical causes for our pain. There is no doubt about that. They also have a why behind all of them. We hurt from an injury because that is part of the injury process. If our recovery from the injury is not complete the adaptations to the way we move will start to cause stress, injury and pain in other parts of our body. In the short term it will also increase our risk for re-injuring ourselves. (Of course, this is also the case for the long term as well.)

How about the why behind the chronic back and neck pain along with shoulder and neck tension. At least part of the why is the fact that we are sitting for 8 or more hours a day at a computer. Our posture changes so the position of our spine changes. Our spine is the foundation for our body. When our foundation’s structure/position change it affects the position and function of every other part of our body. We have adaptation again which eventually leads to physical pain. Not to mention that sitting in a chair is one of the most stressful positions to put your spine in. We weren’t meant to sit that way. We really weren’t meant to sit for a great deal of time anyway. We were built to move.

So, we might be starting to get somewhere. I’ll pick this up next time. I hope this gives you some food for thought. I’m wondering what your thoughts on this subject are? Let me know in the comments below.