Getting fit and healthy is not always about making massive lifestyle changes quickly. In fact for some people the whole idea of changing everything at once is enough to stop them even trying or they give up early on during the transition because it’s just too hard. The good news is... It doesn’t have to happen that way!
Today I’m giving you a few simple ideas of changes you can make to start a life-long journey of better health and greater quality of life. Making slow changes to different aspects of life is far more achievable, sustainable and enjoyable.
Sit on the floor more often – since chairs hit the scene we’ve come to rely on them for pretty much every resting minute of the day. This is having a damaging effect on our posture, our muscular structure, our flexibility and our mobility. By spending less time sitting on chairs and spending more time sitting on the ground we are allowing our body to take on a more natural position and rely on our own muscles and joints to support us as they are designed to, not a nice soft couch doing all the work for us.
Sitting on the ground is a great way to allow feedback from our body and for it to indicate to us when it’s a good time to change positions, which will allow more of our body to engage and not become lazy and switch off. An example of this is our glute muscles; they don’t know how to function properly in every day movement because sitting at 90 degrees in chairs allows them to switch off for too long. This leads to structural imbalances and possibly injury and pain.
If you’re stuck for ideas on how to use chairs less often for your current ability level I recommend watching the following video to take you through some resting positions Http://tutorials.awarerelaxedconnected.com.au/programs/resting-transitions
Change your body position often – as mentioned above it’s important for us to change our body position regularly. I was once told "there is no such thing as bad posture, it only becomes a problem if we keep going to that same position over and over again".
So next time you find yourself sitting, standing, exercising and just going about your daily life waiting in lines, sitting on the train, etc etc… take note of what postures and positions you’re regularly using and whether or not they’re your default positions.
If you find you keep using certain positions (and I can almost guarantee you are) I suggest changing them up. Perhaps stand on one leg when waiting in a line, maybe you could use your less dominate hand for everyday activities, lean to the other side when you’re standing and sitting, cross the other leg over your other knee... the opportunities to explore this and adjust your positions are endless.
Balance more - in my books balance is one of the main movements everyone should spend some time focusing on. A lack of balance can lead to falls and falls are responsible for many injuries and even death.
Balance is an easy thing to work on and can be adapted to whatever level you’re at. For example, a complete beginner may start by balancing on one leg standing on the floor, then the other. Balance on each leg for as long as possible. Once you’re comfortable with this then practice balancing on one leg with eyes closed! Practice these for a few days in a row.
Once you’ve progressed past this you can then practice balancing and walking on a piece of timber from your local hardware store, just placed on the floor/ground, or even on logs or rocks in the bush and at the park.
Once you’re capable of balancing on these different surfaces and low heights you can start testing your balance on higher and narrower objects. Look around at your local parks, in the forest, at the beach... there’s an abundance of objects and surfaces to balance on. Remember to practice walking forwards, backwards and sideways, not just in one position and in one direction (which relates to the last tip!)
Have fun - whatever direction your health and fitness journey takes it should be one thing if nothing else... fun! If you don’t enjoy doing what you’re doing, you don’t laugh and have fun then stop!
One of the main goals people have with their health and fitness regimes is to "feel good", am I right? So how can we feel good if we’re not feeling enjoyment in what we’re doing?! We’ll never reach a point of feeling good if we don’t feel good while on the journey! Simple.
Life should be fun. Our evolution to better health and fitness should be too. The "no pain no gain", "you have to work hard to get results", "you have to exercise to get fit and lose weight" are all incredibly misleading and, for the most part, untrue. The last one especially; we do not have to perform boring and unenjoyable exercise to get good results. We can move naturally and play games to get good results. And both of those are actually enjoyable!
Find a way of moving, or a few, that bring you enjoyment and happiness. Join a dance group, try acrobatics, go bushwalking, try slacklining, run around with some kids, play games with friends, look into MovNat if you’re not already familiar with it… just make sure what you do is enjoyable and you’ll have a much bigger chance of reaching your goals.
Clint and Aimee
Primal Influence
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