Listen to your body
Listen to this articleLook after your body: It’s the only one you get!
When you consider that you have just the one body, it makes sense to do all you can to look after it to prolong its life. This gets harder the older we get and may require some changes in the way we live our lives.
Listen to your body
There was a mantra back in the 1970’s and 1980’s of, “No pain, no gain.”
It was used in exercise to encourage people to push through the pain barrier they were experiencing to get the most out of the exercise they were engaged in. When you think about it, this is a stupid idea. Pain is the body’s way of telling you to stop whatever it is you are doing so that it can recover. If your body is hurting, you should listen to it, especially as you start to enter middle age.
Not only should you stop an activity when it begins to hurt, you should take steps to prevent injuries from occurring. Take sport as an example. Athletes and sportspeople understand they need to warm up their bodies with gentle movements before they can attempt their main activity and then cool their bodies down afterwards. Never attempt any kind of exercise without warming up and cooling down.
Stretches are a great way of doing this, helping to elongate muscles gently. This not only helps to prevent sprains and muscle tears but should also mean you do not ache the next day.
For those who are suffering from painful joints, such as the knees and hips, strenuous exercise will only make these more painful as they have a heavy impact. Take gentle walks rather than aerobic classes or a jog, and to improve your flexibility, as well as your state of mind, start practicing yoga.
Many suffer from back pain, as our modern lives often mean that we are hunching forward over desks, tapping away at computers for most of the day. This affects the shoulders and upper back area most. Perform shoulder rolls to release the tension in your muscles and make sure you step away from the computer and have a 15 minute break every hour or so. Also, make sure you sit properly at the desk, with your feet flat on the floor and your trunk and thighs forming a right angle.
Parents, too, are often martyrs to back pain, especially the lower back, as they may find themselves lifting and carrying children several times during a single day. Children have legs too, so where it is practicable, let children walk to save your back. If you have persistent pain in your back, head for Detroit lower back pain treatment where a chiropractor can manipulate your body to alleviate your pain or even cure it altogether.
It is best for your general wellbeing to make some changes in the way you move and act to prevent back pain and other conditions from forming, but there is also no need to put up with pain once you have it. Gentle exercise and chiropractic treatments can give you back your quality of life.
Claire Bolden McGill is a British expat living in Maryland, which means she still drinks tea, but now has it with a corn muffin instead of a crumpet. Coming from a full- time job as a communications and PR manager in the UK, Claire and her family made the move the States in August 2012 and haven’t looked back since. Claire is a fitness instructor and blogger. She blogs about fitness and what it’s like to be a Brit in the USA, as well as trying to find time to write her novel and short stories, make lists about things she should do like clean the house and bake things, and be an utterly doting wife and mother. @ukhousewifeusa