How to Get Your Back Out of the Red and into the Black

Did you know that your body has a bank account?

It’s main currency? Quality Movement.

If you have lots of good movement dollars in your account, you feel light on your feet and full of energy.  If your account is overdrawn, you feel stiff, tight, sore, tired, heavy, injured.  What does your account balance look like?

Here is how to get rich in Quality Movement dollars:

Good Movement Quality   +   Rest     =     Deposit in Your Movement Bank Account

Poor Mvmt Quality + Poor Posture +  Insufficient Rest b/w Activities = Withdrawal from Mvmt Acct

Good movement includes exercise of all sorts within your body’s level of fitness (not beyond it); including, mobility, strength, cardio fitness and agility.

Rest is often a forgotten component. If not enough rest is given to recover, even good movement will draw funds from your bank account. Why? Because Rest is a requirement to give your body time to adapt and recover from the activity performed and be ready for another session. Otherwise, your muscles and joints start to break down.

Posture is a critical component of good movement. Dynamic and Static Posture must be considered. Dynamic Posture is the posture you carry throughout a Movement.

Static Posture is the posture you hold when stationary, sitting, or standing in place, laying on the couch and so on. Everyone knows what bad posture looks like, yet find themselves in it all the time. Poor posture will quickly draw your bank account of free flowing movement dollars.

What about if you have excellent static posture? Is that not good? It is the best type of static posture, that’s for certain, but it will still slowly draw funds from your movement bank account; our bodies are designed to move, not stay in the same position for long (exception is sleep, as there is minimal stress on our body in this position - assuming no toddlers in the bed with their feet pushing you to the edge :)).

So, let’s look at two different individuals.  We’ll look at each person’s movement bank balance sheet for one day.

Mrs Homemaker:
1 day:
8hrs total On her feet and knees actively moving while playing with her toddler, including significant time holding her clingy toddler. Putting toddler in and out of car seat.
1.5hrs sitting in the car for older kids school drop off/pickup and errands.
1hr walking at a good speed, pushing her toddler for a walk
30min moderately intense workout while toddler napping
1hr (if you’re lucky) of rest on the couch reading, watching TV, or flipping through your phone.
2.5hrs relatively static posture cooking and doing the dishes accumulated throughout day.
1.5hrs (if you’re lucky) sitting on the couch in the evening catching up with your partner
8hrs broken sleep, half in her bed, half in odd positions on toddler’s bed, or toddler pushing her off her own bed.

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16 hours awake
9.5 hrs activities were active movement
6.5 were static postures

What about the quality of the movement and postures? Were good movement mechanics used during play time with toddler? Or did she bend down several times with her back rounded and twisting? When she was in the kitchen, was she hunched over the sink and cutting board, or kept a neutral spine by bending forward hinging at the hips? When sitting on the couch, was she slouched with her back sinking into it?

Do you see that as active as this mother is, the distinguishing factors between having a positive vs negative movement bank account where she feels light on her feet is the Quality of Her Movement and sufficient rest. There are many things that cannot be controlled in this scenario, making it difficult to be in the black with her movement account. Such as: a clingy child for several days in a row (not allowing appropriate rest on her back and muscles to recover for the next day). You would never train your back in the gym multiple days in a row without at least changing the intensity up and the type of exercises. You don’t have that luxury as a mother.

So, focus on what you can control. Consider the postures you have when sitting, doing dishes, cooking, walking. Work on those, and you will be making gains in your movement bank account.

Mrs DeskWorker:
1 day:
2.5 hrs a day in car. Includes driving to/from work, and to gym, and errands
8 hrs sitting at desk at work with or without mini standing breaks throughout the day.
1 hr workout at gym.
1.5 hrs standing preparing meals and cleaning up kitchen with relatively static posture
3 hrs sitting on the couch watching Netflix
8hrs sleep

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16 hrs awake
15 hrs static postures (13.5 of which were sitting)
1 hr active movement

How can Mrs DeskWorker ever be in the black with her movement bank account with a schedule like that?

Consider trying:
Mini standing/stretching breaks from the desk every hour. Continually changing sitting posture, to kneeling at desk, to standing at desk (if sit-stand available to you).

Lunch break walk
Instead of sitting to watch Netflix, perhaps lay on the floor on your tummy to reverse your day’s worth of sitting posture. Or at least, laying on your back or side on the couch instead of sitting.

I know it’s hard to be conscious of good movement and good posture. Especially when you are mentally and physically tired. But the reality is that if we don’t work at becoming aware of our daily movement quality and postures, we constantly end up bankrupt (in the red) when it comes to our body’s ability to move with ease and comfort.

Can Chiropractic help? Yes, it will give your body a breath of fresh air, and help rebalance your movement bank account. But it will only last so long, as your body runs through it’s miles (some faster than others) before needing another service. The ultimate onus on feeling full of energy and light on your feet is on you.