168. That’s how many hours we have in 1 week.
If we take away sleep (at a generous 8 hours say…) that would be 56hrs less
Now we’re at 112 hours.
Take away 1 hour of structured exercise a day (again, VERY generous for most people…) and that leaves us with:
105 Waking Hours.
6120 minutes.
Hundreds of Thousands of MOMENTS.
So what?
If you think about it, 105 waking hours is quite a lot! Imagine all the things you could LEARN if you had 105 hours!!!! Amazing!
Guess what? That’s EXACTLY what your body is doing… each and every moment.
No amount of structured exercise will REALLY make a dent in this equation.
Let’s do the math – 112 (total hours) / 7 (exercise hours) = a whopping 6%…
Now that’s a fail if I’ve ever seen one 😉
Instead, we look at the hours left and see that there indeed are quite a few!
So the BIG QUESTION IS: What are you doing, MOST OF THE TIME?
How are you Sitting? Standing? Sleeping? Relaxing? Feeling? Travelling? Working?
Do you Stretch? Change position often? Spend time on the floor? Move your joints? Play different sports? Do different activities?
What does it take?
The beauty of this equation is that these 102 hours are there for YOU to change/adjust/alter at ANY TIME!
You don’t need anyone, you just need yourself – you are in FULL CONTROL!
How do you do it?
Take stock – What hurts? what is your body telling you? What can you feel, hear, see?
Pay attention – Body Scan: Scan your body… What are you noticing? Make adjustments and re-scan. Better? Worse? No change? (the more you practice this, the more habitual it becomes and you find yourself correcting your posture/stance/movement without even realising that you mind has recognised the need to!)
Fidget – Move around, a LOT! Don’t sit still, take your body through ranges of movement, feel the different ways your body moves.
Change Position Often – No position for any great length of time is good. Change position often. It’s that simple.
Variety – Do different things, repetition is the key to mastery – just make sure that you are REPEATING the skills that you want your body to remember!
Limitations
I know it’s not always simple. I hear from people that their work is quite repetitive, or they “have to” sit in a chair all day, or stand all day, etc.
My answer to this is such: That sucks for you. BUT! What CAN you do (in your 105 hours, 6120 minutes, hundreds of thousands of moments…) to make small adjustments to these repetitive jobs?
- Small mini movement breaks
- Use: standing desks, sitting desks, sit on the floor, sit on a ball, sit on a stool, sit on a chair – Do ALL of these options throughout the day! NOT JUST ONE!!!!
- If you sit all day – when you get home, STAND A LOT! don’t just sit down on the couch for ANOTHER 3 hours!!!! You need to balance that out!
- If you’re standing all day, take time to sit comfortably or stretch on the floor in front of the fire.
- Hire a movement coach (Hi!) to help you understand your body better and move more efficiently through your day no matter what you do! Most times, it’s what you’re doing repetitively that is causing you the most grief. Let’s have a closer look!
At the end of the day…
It’s just you mate.
You have an infinite number of opportunities to check yourself and make the adjustments.
This shouldn’t make you feel overwhelmed, in fact this should make you feel EMPOWERED that you hold the KEY to your own wellness! It’s amazing!
Remember, if you need help getting started… this is our specialty. We’ve worked with hundreds of people, helping them to MOVE BETTER FOR LIFE. Once you know, you know 😉 We have the tips/strategies/habits down pat and we can help. Just reach out x
