‘The inconvenient cost of comfort & convenience’
“What is right is often forgotten by what is convenient” Bodie Thoene
To make this quote more relevant to the importance of movement, I would adapt it by adding the words, ‘what is right…for our bodies…is often forgotten by what is convenient’
Comfort and convenience versus movement and healthspan
We’ve become very good at building a world around us (particularly in the more developed nations) that makes our lives more comfortable. Our key needs for survival are met in ways that are very convenient. Shelters in the form of houses (if we’re fortunate) ensure we’re as warm and dry as possible. We have places nearby that mean we can purchase food to feed ourselves with little effort (and in recent years sometimes none at all) and for most in the West, water is piped right into our homes. We’ve come a long way and technology has only served to make that pace of development even quicker…with products and services being created to bring us even greater convenience & comfort.
Living in a more developed world than our predecessors has given us increased life expectancy. I’m very grateful for all the years I will hopefully have on this earth and I’m working hard to ensure I’m healthy enough to enjoy them all!
At what (movement) opportunity cost?
Progress, however, can also have its disadvantages. Many things that make our lives more comfortable and bring increased convenience also reduce the amount of daily movement that’s necessary to survive. This has a direct impact on our health; both short and long-term.
This page on the UK Government website is an eye-opener!
An excerpt reads…‘Unfortunately, our population is around 20% less active than in the 1960s. If current trends continue, it will be 35% less active by 2030.
Many people don’t realise that physical activity has significant benefits for health, both physical and mental, and can help to prevent and manage over 20 chronic conditions and diseases, including some cancers, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and depression.
Around 1 in 3 (34%) of men and 1 in 2 (42%) of women are not active enough for good health.’
The conditions listed are potential longer term consequences of a more sedentary lifestyle. This means a daily lifestyle lacking sufficient regular movement, not just in the form of exercise. Every time we move our bodies, we’re increasing our daily movement minutes. We can be forgiven for not realising the bearing our movement choices today could have on our future health and mobility, and often it’s not until something happens that it’s brought into sharp focus.
I was lucky to have an ‘early wake up call’ in the form of injury at 40 and years of chronic pain which made me face my future in no uncertain terms. It didn’t feel lucky at the time, but now, looking back, I know that it gave me the ability to choose to give my movement habits high priority for life every day. I found out first hand that being in pain and having greatly reduced mobility is neither comfortable nor convenient in any way and something I never want to have to endure again.
However, instead of condoning progress (as very few people would choose to give up their modern comforts!) I want to bring awareness about the movement costs of the way we are living, so that informed and conscious choices can be made about how we choose to adapt to our modern environments.
Have an awareness day
To increase our awareness of how the modern world affects our daily movement, we need to actively notice the elements of our lives that are actually hindering our movement.
Start by having an ‘awareness day’! From the moment you get up to the last thing at night, try to notice (and even note down) how your environment is reducing your movement and try to create a new lens on your world about the things you didn’t even realise you were avoiding because of the way the world is set up now.
Examples would be…
Getting in the car to go on a short journey that could be walked or cycled
Standing on a set of escalators or in a lift instead of walking
Getting a food delivery instead of walking around a shop
Choosing a supermarket trolley when you really only need a basket
Using a hoover instead of a dustpan and brush for smaller jobs
Putting plates in a cupboard as close to the dishwasher as possible or things in convenient places
Using a wheeled suitcase when you could carry a bag
Sitting on a chair instead of getting down to the ground
Working from home instead of commuting to an office
Always walking on paths or pavements instead of more varied terrain
Excuses, excuses!
Read the following phrases that you may use, but may not have thought of as movement avoidance, but are all good examples of when it’s not just our modern environment that takes movement away, but also our personal defaults.
It can be so interesting to watch what we say to ourselves! Notice your defaults and try to STOP to think whether that’s the choice you want to make?!
“I’ll walk when it’s dry tomorrow”
“I’ll just take the car, it’ll be quicker “
“Please can you bring me the….”
“Let’s meet for a coffee to sit and chat”
Awareness brings opportunity, so once you’ve noticed a few of your automatic defaults, think about how you’re going to make changes to try to consciously add more movement into your day.
Push into discomfort in small ways to become mindful and resilient
‘Meaningful growth requires challenge and stress’. This phrase is actually used for talking about muscle growth. Although not the topic of this blog, the statement seems very applicable.
When we do the same things repeatedly, the body becomes really efficient at them and the challenge to our bodies and minds lessens. If we are to work against the inevitable reduction in muscle mass & bone density as we age, we need to ‘mix up’ our movements, push ourselves and not feel we have to be ‘comfortable’ all the time. Continuing to challenge the body (& mind) will help us to remain capable and even to improve our movement, whatever our age.
Set yourself daily movement challenges
When you decide to create mini movement challenges as part of your daily routine, you help maintain that awareness of when you’re consciously choosing to move more in spite of your environment.
Here are just a few suggestions for ways you can add more regular and varied movement into your daily life….
Don’t use your hands to get off a chair
Stand and balance to dry after a shower and put on lower half clothing items
Get your centre low to the ground as many times as you can each day
Squat to get your washing out (my regular!) or to get things from low cupboards
Play on walks
Ditch the chair or sofa and instead choose to sit on the ground to do a task every day and get down and up in different ways
Spot opportunities to lift & carry more
Call instead of texting and walk while you talk
Walk around shops to buy provisions and then carry them home
Discomfort versus pain
I often have people telling me that it’s sore for them to sit on the ground. We have become less used to discomfort and so tightness from extended periods of chair sitting or from using the body in repeatedly small ranges of movement daily means we avoid the things that make us less comfortable.
Acute, sharp pain is a warning sign and should absolutely be listened to and responded to. However, discomfort doesn’t need such a strong reaction. To use the example of sitting on the ground, if we feel discomfort, I would suggest that this means we need to be there more often. Make it more comfortable with cushions and blankets, so we can start to allow our tissues to adapt to the more unusual and therefore very beneficial positions we need to be there. The more we do so, the easier it becomes.
From this perspective, you can see that accepting a level of discomfort is actually a good thing. This then translates to us being more resilient in terms of when we find ourselves in discomfort in other ways, such as having to carry something heavy that we are not used to over a long distance. We are more likely to bear that discomfort knowing it is doing us good and will become easier with practise.
Our whole environment shapes our daily habits and our bodies!
I’m not saying the developments of the modern world are ‘bad’, instead that being aware gives us the power to make good choices for our health in the long run.
When you start to notice where movements are being taken from you and choose to counteract them, you’ll not only feel good about yourself for doing it, you’ll also start to feel the physical and mental benefits of adding in regular, varied movement. This shift in perspective may even mean that you’ll actually start spotting opportunities in your environment (natural and man-made) where you can actually add in more movement & realise that this wonderful world we live in can be used in positive ways.
Let’s celebrate development, become aware of the impact it has upon us and choose to work with it, rather than let it make choices for us.
Remember - every movement counts!
For more information about how to use the floor more comfortably and all the benefits it brings sign up here for my FREE E-Book ‘Making the ground your friend for life’
For a YouTube tutorial looking at different ground sitting positions and a mini movement break of moving between them, click here
