During holidays, we sit down with our families for a full day to catch up on a years’ worth of each other’s lives. 4-day weekends including holidays like Thanksgiving influence our culture to sit down, relax, and sleep in more than a usual day. As shelter in place restrictions influence society to stay indoors to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, a correlation can be seen between the activity levels of our holiday habits and our current daily activity as we stay inside distancing ourselves from society. However, as physical activity decreases and the location of our bodies acclimate to being closer to the kitchen, we enter a scenario of a prolonged Thanksgiving simulation. We know tryptophan in turkey can influence a brief relaxing coma of lethargy upon us after a Thanksgiving feast. With a warm house, a few pounds of food in our bellies, and some eggnog, you can expect to mold into the couch following this hedonistic tradition.
Imagine if Thanksgiving lasted 8 weeks. We would wake up every day with the desire to consume comfort food with our family, sit on the couch, watch 3 football games, and meander around our homes at the speed of a sloth in Costa Rica climbing a palm tree. It’s important to think about what would happen to our bodies if we had 8 straight weeks of Thanksgiving. Not only would the lack of physical activity paired with an overabundance of delectable foods lead to pre-diabetic conditions and influence cholesterol molecules in our bloodstream to swell to the size of mini marshmallows, but our joint and muscles would become rickety, stiff, and painful. An 8-week Thanksgiving is dangerously similar to the lack of movement threatened by our current culture’s activity levels. This can lead to debilitating factors. If we don’t move, we get stiff. If we get stiff, we don’t want to move as much because it’s painful to move. If this is abused too long, we might not want to get back up to our normal physical activities when society reverts to normal.
Common areas of joint stiffness from decreased human movement are the lower back and hips. Nagging lower back and hip pain decrease people’s desire to move. We can focus on alleviating these tight hot spots of the body by practicing stretching techniques a few times throughout the week. These are two examples of some mobility exercises we instruct our personal training clients in the Napa Valley to do:
- Standing Bent Knee External Hip Rotations: While standing, lift one leg up to where the knee is about the height of your hip. If you need to use an object to stabilize yourself, you can stand next to a wall for balance. After you have achieved your knee to be the height of your hip, rotate your knee away from your body to until you feel a brief stretching sensation in your hip joint. You should feel the muscle of the inner thigh, top of the thigh, and deep inner glutes being stretched. Once you feel the stretch, lower your foot to the group and repeat this movement for 5 to 10 repetitions. Ensure to keep the crests of your hips square in front of you and your core muscle slightly engage.
- Supine Knee Tilts: While lying flat on your back, bend both knees at a 45-degree angle toward your body. Keeping your knees together and feet flat on the ground. Slowly tilt both legs over to one side of the body, ensuring to keep your feet stacked on top of one another and keeping your shoulder blades flat on the ground. You should feel a brief stretching sensation in the lower back and outer portion of the upper thigh. Once you have achieved a stretch, gradually repeat the same movement tilting your knees to the other side. Alternate tilting the knees to each side for 5 to 10 repetitions.
By focusing on simple and effective movements that take very little time, we can decrease the likelihood of our bodies developing debilitating joint stiffness. Remember, performing simple mobility exercises just 2 to 3 times per week can make a significant impact. If you would like to further explore increasing the mobility of your joints, online Yoga classes are being offered by local Napa fitness professionals via Zoom video classes.
Shelter in place doesn’t mean its holiday season. Don’t let the lack of cars on the road fool you. Even though we aren’t venturing outdoors as much, it’s important to keep our bodies mobile in our everyday lives.
Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.
