The article highlights seven ways to incorporate functional movement into everyday life not only in designated fitness, but also in regular movement.
The seven functional moves are: squats, hip hinges, lunges, rotations, pushing, pulling, and walking. Some examples of how to incorporate functional movement into regular life is to squat or hip hinge instead of bending over, keeping the back straight and the core engaged. This not only protects the spine and helps reduce risk of injury, but also helps to safely and effectively strengthen the muscles needed to maintain mobility as we age.
While daily walking and squats have long been a staple of regular movement personally, and hip hinges were purposefully added more recently due to injury, rotations are definitely something that needs a lot more work, especially as the thoracic spine is currently sub-par in mobility and posture.
The article also mentions the importance of engaging the core to prevent over-arching the back and maintaining good head/neck posture when walking.
This is something that is not so easy to remember to do consistently and continually when one is busy focusing on something else while walking - which brings up the idea of incorporating practicing proper posture and walking technique via mindfulness, which was in the expert article from earlier in this challenge. To focus on one's body, muscles, and posture in the moment is a form of mindfulness - so it's taking care of 2 things at the same time - good for the body and good for the brain. :)
What did you read today? Anything interesting or new to you?
2 Week Daily Expert Article Challenge - Check-in
Today, I chose to ready "Functional Movement Patterns Plus 7 Moves for Better Everyday Mobility" - https://www.fitnessblender.com/articles/functional-movement-patterns-plus-7-moves-for-better-everyday-mobility
The article highlights seven ways to incorporate functional movement into everyday life not only in designated fitness, but also in regular movement.
The seven functional moves are: squats, hip hinges, lunges, rotations, pushing, pulling, and walking. Some examples of how to incorporate functional movement into regular life is to squat or hip hinge instead of bending over, keeping the back straight and the core engaged. This not only protects the spine and helps reduce risk of injury, but also helps to safely and effectively strengthen the muscles needed to maintain mobility as we age.
While daily walking and squats have long been a staple of regular movement personally, and hip hinges were purposefully added more recently due to injury, rotations are definitely something that needs a lot more work, especially as the thoracic spine is currently sub-par in mobility and posture.
On that note, Kayla's got an excellent thoracic spine mobility workout, "Thoracic Mobility Stretches for Desk Posture" linked in the article - https://www.fitnessblender.com/videos/thoracic-mobility-stretches-for-desk-posture.
The article also mentions the importance of engaging the core to prevent over-arching the back and maintaining good head/neck posture when walking.
This is something that is not so easy to remember to do consistently and continually when one is busy focusing on something else while walking - which brings up the idea of incorporating practicing proper posture and walking technique via mindfulness, which was in the expert article from earlier in this challenge. To focus on one's body, muscles, and posture in the moment is a form of mindfulness - so it's taking care of 2 things at the same time - good for the body and good for the brain. :)
What did you read today? Anything interesting or new to you?