The Boss of You-Taking Ownership
Right now, without moving, what are you doing while you are reading this? Are you sitting? How are you sitting? Are you sitting on one hip more than the other? Is your pelvis square to the front or twisted? Are your feet fully touching the ground comfortably? These questions help raise awareness of habitual patterns we may have that might contribute to pain. These questions are helpful to remember in order to start taking ownership. Ownership of your body. As a trainer, I am grateful to teach clients who want guidance through movement. For the last 22 years, I have seen so many bodies and scenarios to help troubleshoot pain possibilities with clients. But I see them maybe 1 or 2 hours a week. There are 168 hours in a week where anything can happen, and it’s all up to you. Exercise and movement is a very important part of the health puzzle, but not the only one.
What are your unconscious movement behaviors?
You may not know, but they are there ready to be discovered! I recently found myself gripping my lower back in the car, for no reason. I had no idea, and I am a deeply self aware movement teacher, so there is always more to learn and discover! That awareness of tension really helped me relax that grip I was creating, and relieved the pain I was experiencing. It wasn’t a “I need to do more strengthening or stretching” issue, but being aware of my unconscious habits. There is always observation and unraveling to do, and it serves you to be your own detective. Other considerations are as follows:
How much sleep are you getting? Not getting enough sleep can lead to a plethora of body sensitivity, systems weaknesses, and imbalances.
What foods are you eating? Eating too much sugar, alcohol, unbalanced diet, or ingesting allergens can cause inflammation in the body. Suggestion: write a food journal to bring awareness, sometimes we are not thinking when we are eating. Eliminate one allergen (gluten, dairy, legumes, sugar, alcohol) for a month to see if you feel better.
Are you drinking enough water? Some people go through their whole day without drinking it, and wonder why they feel bad, or why their body is tight! We are 50-60% water, and muscles contain more water than fat. Suggestion: Fill a bottle and make sure you finish that by the end of the day.
Are you taking medication that may have side effects? Although necessary for some, statins have a side effect of muscle pain. Also is your medication due to genetics or something preventable, like changes in diet?
How are you sitting and for how long? The body adapts to this sitting position by shortening hip flexors and hamstrings, creating imbalances in the body. Suggestion: write yourself a post it note “ How are you sitting?” in your chosen seat so you can make adjustments.
How are you standing? Do you have even weight on both the heel and ball of the feet or relying on one leg for your weight. Are you only in your heels? Ball of the feet? Suggestion: Make these observations especially in line at the market. It will give you something constructive to do.
Phone! Are you looking down at your phone all day. That’s hard on the neck, as the head weights 10 pounds. Are you pinning it to your ear and shoulder, well that makes the neck stay in one static position for too long and offsets the shoulder, and thus spinal alignment, overworking one side and overstretching the other.
I had a friend ask me for help with her hip pain. Right away, I noticed she was putting all her weight into one foot, sinking into that hip, jutting it out. This puts too much stress on one hip joint, overstretching ligaments and muscles, restricting strength and range of motion. But the other hip, the one she is not standing on suffers too, from lack of use. This is unconscious movement behavior. Imagine the skeleton and the spine at the hip joint region, not having any support, and now the whole body suffers. So just the awareness of this bad habit can change the course of pain, and reposition the body on two legs. She said she had no idea she was doing that and thanked me but two seconds later, in another conversation, she was back at it, sinking. But that is truly a start!
Flickering
Awareness comes in as a dim, flickering light, but practice makes it bright. This dim awareness is so important as it is the beginning of getting to know a new part of your body. I didn’t expect my friend to change in an instant but there has to be a willingness to go there and explore it. A habit is something you do so consistently, it becomes a pattern and needs to be worked on to break out of it. It is a practice to observe your body and get out of bad habits that can be contributing to pain. It’s ok if your trainer or PT points them out to you. That’s why we are needed in the world, and thank goodness! But there are many things we don’t get to see - 160ish hours of it. We are your coaches, but you are your own healer. Tap into that power of self, take responsibility and create accountability to make changes important for living your best life!