Moving Better Before Moving More

Sorry for the late post! I was in Mississippi at a cabin on Friday and had no wifi or cell phone service. Needless to say, it was nice to disconnect.

So I had this conversation with a friend at the gym this week. We were talking about his new workout plan and how it was going. He told me that he has been having lower back pain while lifting but he knew it would go away eventually. I asked him what he was doing about it and he told me, "I'm working out more. It will eventually go away". I was a little confused by this. To help you see what I see, here is an analogy.

Imagine that you were just given your dream car. It has all the bells and whistles. Everything you've ever dreamed of. When you sit down in your car and you begin to drive you notice that the check engine light is on and the car is riding a little rough. What do you do? Do you continue to drive it or do you stop driving it and take it in to get it checked out? If you're smart and you care about your car, you get it checked out. It is the same with our body. If we start to have pain do we continue to move or do we get it checked out? Unfortunately, we typically ignore the pain and continue to move. But why? Do we seriously think that moving more will fix our pain? Unfortunately, yes we do. The main point that I want to illustrate in today's post is this: MOVING MORE IS NOT THE ANSWER, MOVING BETTER IS. Just like a young child should not run before they walk; we should not move more before moving better.

This is a concept that we as adults do not get. When animals are hurt or injured, they stop moving. When babies are hurt, the cry and stop moving. When adults have pain, we move more. It just does not make sense! If we want to get rid of pain or avoid injury, it is imperative that we learn to move correctly before we move more. Now, can we survive moving more without moving better? Yes, we can. Will we avoid injury and not develop compensations? Nope!

That is why I love doing what I do. I take people with "check engine lights" or "flat tires" and I help them perform better. So if your body is not moving properly or you have pain, do not assume that more movement is the fix. Come by and see me and let’s figure out what is going on. We'll get you moving better so that you can move often!