Ep 132: How Movement Fits into Intentional Aging

Our bodies need a lot of movement to operate fully. In almost every single medical issue, movement is listed as something that can prevent or restore an issue. 

• Movement protects muscles and joints.
• A lack of exercise can affect the health of your eyes, your brain, and your digestion.
• It can negatively impact your energy levels, lipid panel results, or how well you feel each day.
• A lack of exercise can cause your cells to age faster. 

This doesn’t mean that we need to be marathon runners. Instead, we need to find ways to increase our habitual activity levels.

Movement and exercise are separate ideas. There are three different useful definitions when it comes to moving more.

1. Movement is the broadest category. It is any time you change the load on your body parts. 
2. Physical activity is within the broader frame of movement. It is any time you move your body to get something done, whether that’s exercise or chores around the house, etc.
3. Exercise is a sub-category of physical activity. It usually has a predetermined duration and mode. “I’m going to take a walk for 20 minutes.”

From a public health standpoint, we need to do physical activity.

Most of our culture will see itself as promoting convenience,  yet convenience is almost always about reducing the movement it takes to do something.

In our modern culture, we do many things with the movement of the finger, such as using our smartphone or iPad or even ordering food or groceries. Before, we had to walk into a grocery store and move around.

Our day can be broken into five categories:

S - Sleep time

L - Leisure time

O - Occupation or our work

T - Transportation, moving from point A to point B

H - Home

We need to get movement in all our domains. Exercise will fit into the leisure category. We can opt for active transportation, such as walking somewhere or riding a bike. 

There is a range of nutrition that we need. If kale is the best food and you only ate kale, you’d be ill because kale is not enough by itself.

Movement nutrition is the same way. You could be a regular exerciser and not get enough elbow extension and flexion. Maybe your left ankle, even tho you take a walk every day, doesn’t move very much. Perhaps you cycle every day, but it doesn’t help the hip bones in terms of weight-bearing. 

You’re never not moving. We’re under a gravitational load all the time. But if you’re sitting in a chair for nine hours a day, that is the movement food you’re eating the most. 

So if you’re sitting at your desk all day, maybe stand for a portion of work or adjust your position in the chair a bit. Or schedule a time to take a lap around the office.