I’ve been reading The Wizard of Oz for the first time ever. Spoiler alert–it’s REALLY dark…like way different than the movie.
But the thing that resonates with me the most these days is the constant complaining of the “Tin Woodman” (the official name, not “Tin Man” as we hear in the movie) about his creaky joints.
I really thought I had done everything right during my pregnancy to set myself up for an “easy recovery.” I did CrossFit consistently, 3-5 days a week, modifying the movements but still moving really well, all things considered. I was even able to keep running until month 8. I felt really strong and figured I’d be back to my usual self in no time after I had the baby.
Well, it seems I forgot about some of the key principles of exercise physiology, my first collegiate degree, and also what I should know from my long hours in back-to-back-to-back meetings in the corporate world–it doesn’t take long after some consistent sedentary time for your body to lock up and decide that it doesn’t need to reach full range of motion any more.
If you’re a desk-warrior, the only stimulus your body receives all day long is that of a seated position–hips and knees stationed at 90 degrees in perpetuity, shoulders rounded forward and/or shrugged up with tension as we lean over keyboards and stare into screens, the body revolts, crosses its arms and pouts and refuses to move.
Or, if you’re post-partum warrior, sitting for hours and hours on end feeding and holding a baby in a sustained posture that causes everything to tighten up with no convenient “oil can” around to quickly get you back on your feet like our silver friend in the land of Oz.
But fortunately we have access to nature’s “oil can,” and that is MOVEMENT.
It’s counterintuitive sometimes to want to move when you feel achy or stiff. We avoid moving when we feel this way, instead of slowly addressing the stickiness in our joints to get them working properly again. Avoidance is not the answer here. As my physical therapy friends like to say:
“Movement is the lubricant.”
There have been many times that I’ve gone to physical therapy with pain and when asked what makes it feel better, a lot of the time I’ll say, “well it feels better after I get up out of bed and walk around a bit.”
Think about that–do you have any examples that mimic this experience? Is the first feeling in the morning one of stiffness and achiness? Does it get better or worse once you start moving around? And how does it feel later after you’ve been sitting for hours in virtual meetings?
The key that I’ve learned from my smart PT friends is that our “best position is our next position.” Sustained position of ANY kind is unhealthy for the body.
Each of our joints are made to move in a certain way, and if we deprive them of living out their purpose they will turn on us, fade away into the sunset, never to be seen again. Ok, maybe not that dramatic, but they may end up getting replaced by imposters.
The knee is a hinge joint, it wants to move back and forth, not sit at 90 degrees all day long.
The shoulder is a ball and socket joint, it wants to move around, ALL the way around, like Michael Phelps/Katie Ledecky range of motion (but you don’t have to be in a pool).
And the spine…don’t even get me started on the spine. The number of young people I encounter with back pain that they are just living with, no faith that anything can be done about the constant pain, “old injuries,” “genetics,” they just get used to it and live a limited life without access to things they used to enjoy.
We’ve got to start prioritizing our bodies –we only get one of them–and taking time for ourselves. It may feel like you don’t have the time but there are some short, simple things we can do by just focusing on MOVING more often, CHANGING position (think standing, kneeling, sitting on different surfaces like yoga balls or down on the floor!), and providing easy range of motion opportunities for those neglected joints.
So today I’m sharing a video for my fellow warriors who have inadvertently de-prioritized movement, forgetting that our bodies are a limited resource that require constant attention.
This is a short “desk yoga” routine that focuses on getting the spine moving in all of lthe directions its meant to. You don’t need any special equipment and you can do it seated or standing (though I would encourage standing if possible, since it’s probably the thing most of us do less of throughout our day).
Give it a try and let me know what you think, and if you’d like more ideas like this to help you take care of yourself in a way that works with your busy lifestyle.
Corporate warriors, everyday warriors…we all need our strong warrior bodies to be able to do all the good we want to do in this world!