New Slaves

Don’t let the title scare you off, I’m not about to go all Kanye on you here. I want to help you gain your freedom, but not in the way you think…
You see, although many of us may claim to hate our jobs (real stat: less than 20% of Americans say they feel satisfied with their job) the real problem is not our jobs, but the freedom it is taking away from us. We work 8–10 hours at a (standing…if you’re lucky) desk each day and the toll it is taking on our bodies is down right criminal.
You may remember the Independence Day email and subsequent blog post I wrote about the effect your job has on your brain. Well today I want to tell you what effect it has on your body and I’ll throw a few tips up for you in the blog for later.
Ok so I’ve been reading this book called the The Body In Action bySarah Key. I would actually normally not read books like that, but rather skim though them and just find what the author was trying to get at. But this book is very well written and is full of very relatable ideas that I highly recommend no matter your fitness or flexibility.
Oh yeah…the slave part…
So as I was reading, I got to understand WHY sitting, standing, and general inactivity are so bad for our body. We all know that it weakens the muscles…but actually it doesn’t. What I’m talking about here is that this lifestyle actually strengthens muscles, but they just so happen to be the wrong ones.
And the reason for this? Well there are actually two, but the main one here is actually the unstoppable (and necessary) force of gravity. You see, when you stick yourself in one position, your body tends to take the necessary steps to prepare you for the tension of gravity on an inanimate object. (i.e. you). The only way to stop that?
Move!
A lot!!
So yeah. If you’re working, you’re probably not moving and are slowly becoming a slave to your own body’s natural process of degeneration. If you’re not moving, your body saves resources for other places that need it and eventually your body in some way or another gets strong in all the places you don’t want it to.
So to wrap this all up B, let me break it down for you. If you want your muscles, and joints not to hurt (including your back that hurts when you bed over) and lock you down, move, move, move, move, move. But don’t just move, do different stuff. Because repetitive movement is just as bad, if not worse than no movement at all.
Jerry “moving target” Washington
P.S. This one got away from me and it looks like I’m gonna have to get those preventative/prescriptive measures in the blog in later today. Sorry bud, s’been a busy one today. Talk soon…