So last Friday, I was in the gym and I tweaked my back quite painfully. Once I’d finished rolling around on the floor and feeling sorry for myself, it got me to thinking: why is it that someone as sedentary as myself goes into the gym and expects to be able to perform high-intensity exercise without getting hurt? If I spend 10 hours of my day sitting at my desk, and one hour exercising, what is my body going to adapt to more? I don’t think that I’m alone in having this problem either. Nowadays, it is a majority of us living extremely sedentary lifestyles, constantly hunched over our keyboards, and this is undoubtedly having a detrimental impact on our flexibility, mobility, and general health.
As I recover from my injury, then, I have good intentions of building regular stretching and mobility exercises into my daily routine as a way both to rehabilitate myself and to prevent further injuries in the future. And if you’re a fellow desk jockey (you know who you are!), I’d urge you to join me and follow along…after all, the time investment is small, and the benefit of being able to move around like you’re supposed to is surely one of the best things you can do for your physical health.
Personally, I’m going to be doing the stretching routine recommended by the excellent weightlifting coach Alan Thrall…all neatly summed up for you in the video below. It’s a simple, 10-minute routine you can do when you get up or before you go to bed to work on your overall flexibility, mobility and health. I’m interested to see what it can do for my recovery and flexibility…and, please, let me know how you get along too!
