Is your body scared of movement?
Movement is necessary
Movement is necessary in life. Our bodies move in amazing and wonderful ways, we have capabilities that we are generally unaware of and can push ourselves to achieve (within reason) anything we want to do. But why are so many people scared of getting their bodies moving – especially after long periods of inactivity or injury?
When I was younger ………
When we are children we learn to cartwheel, climb, sit with our legs behind our heads without thought about the consequences. Our bodies are so very ‘plastic’ and bendy and our healing capabilities are remarkable.
So much younger than today……
As we get older things do change, our joints become not quite as bendy and our tissues don’t heal at quite the same rate.
But what changes more are our beliefs.
Our beliefs of what we CAN achieve and fear of any movement that is out of the norm. We have past experiences that make us wiser, stopping us from putting our bodies into quite so many risky positions. We try and keep ourselves SAFER! Sensible?? Maybe… but also maybe not. Does this lack of movement make us safer or are our bodies just scared. Scared of movement? Scared of the consequences? Of hurting, breaking or worse? The more we avoid movements and positions then more we become limited and further away from achieving.
Do you ever run?
Take for example running. All 2 year olds run, they rarely walk. We get older, up until about 10 running is still part of a daily activity – we did it to keep up, to run away or just have fun. After about 10 we only run for sport. Some people stop about here others keep going with their chosen sporting activity. But the longer we go without running the harder it becomes to do it again. Perhaps at some point you did run, but you were sore afterward… your brain then tells you its probably not sensible to run again, you avoid it.
Muscle tone decreases, joints become less tolerant of the impact physically it becomes even harder mentally. Then we see a specialist who tells us the joint is damaged, it’s degenerated and to avoid running… yet another thing to reinforce the fear factor of running. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that we should do any activities without consideration of the risk. Its all about balance, but the old saying is true, IF YOU DON’T USE IT, YOU LOSE IT
What to do?
I would like to encourage you to try something you want to do. It might be as simple as standing on one leg, riding a horse, walking on the beach or running a marathon. Break it down in to manageable components and slowly increase your tolerance. Pace it! Strengthen, mobilise, glide and have confidence in your body’s ability. Sometimes the idea of this is all too hard for you to process alone, the overwhelming beliefs of I CAN’T do that anymore takes control. However if you want to do it you CAN!
At Portside Physiotherapy, we can help you to understand why you have pain and hopefully change some of those avoidance beliefs and functional limitations. Break if down into achievable goals pacing the activity until you can do what you want to do.
Don’t spend your life believing you CAN’T. Push yourself because we know that you CAN.