Exercise Is Not Enough
Imagine a life of being pain free and being able to move like you did when you were younger… how significantly would that improve your quality of life!
What would you do!?
It would be much easier if exercise alone could undo the damage caused by long periods of sitting down.
The cold hard truth is that exercise alone will not reverse the potentially harmful and irrefutable effects that extended sitting does to our bodies.
Would you consider someone who eats fast food and drinks alcohol regularly healthy, even if they regularly make it to the gym?
Sure, exercise will rid the body of empty calories or get stronger, but it is not going to magically overcome poor lifestyle choices overnight.
Unfortunately, we don’t apply the same logic to the ravages of sitting. Most people believe they can offset 8 or more hours of sitting with a solitary ‘hard’ workout a few times a week.
Working out will most certainly make you healthier overall but won’t undo all the sedentary choices you make over the rest of the day.
Our bodies were not built for sitting - squatting yes, sitting no. It’s why the glutes (backside) are the biggest muscle group in the body. When sitting, this powerful muscle group lay in a dormant position. Your body is forced into a compromised position when sitting, which leads to compromised function.
Almost all clients like to diagnose themselves by proclaiming their glutes don’t work. Unfortunately, they’re mostly correct! Yet they believe the solution to this problem is just exercise.
As a society we are not:
Moving enough;
Moving well; and
Not performing basic maintenance of our body.
We are starting to address the first problem, but we don’t have much of a solution to the 2nd and 3rd issues.
Reality: Mainstream medicine has failed people with chronic back pain
The overwhelming reality is that, what amounts to an international epidemic of back pain is intimately bound up with the way we live today.
Stop and think for a second to see how the 21st century modern lifestyles are contributing to the epidemic of back pain.
Compared with 100 or even 50 years ago, people in general are far more sedentary. A day spent driving to work, sitting at a computer and then watching TV all evening adds up to spending approximately 10 to 12 hours dominated by sitting.
Remaining in the same position (sitting or standing) for prolonged periods is itself bad news for the human body.
Some of us who aware of this, try to compensate by rushing off to exercise or play sport, assuming that it will keep us fit and healthy.
The body begs to differ. It comes as an unpleasant shock to find that you have developed back pain.
The Australian Physiotherapy Association got it right: ‘Move well, stay well’. Notice how it’s move well, not move more. If you keep moving and exercising in a safe and moderate fashion, like we do in our Carlton gym, you will go a long way towards preventing back pain.
Unfortunately, re-acquiring the skill to stand properly and become pain-free is not very sexy in a world where all we want are quick fixes and stimulation.
To stop back pain, you need a process and structure, not a quick fix!
If you’re looking for a personal trainer in Melbourne’s CBD to help build your body back to optimal health, contact us at info@hamilton-fitness.com.