Movement Is More Than Exercise

When I tell people they need to move more, most people get stuck on how to fit another half-hour run or bike ride into their week. Running, zumba, cycling, swimming, yes, those all count as movement, but they really fit into a smaller category of movement we call exercise. You may love your run or your time on a bike, and yes, exercise is beneficial and feels good, but the ways in which you move your body during exercise are pretty limited. Even in a yoga or dance class, the movements practiced, while certainly more varied than what you do when running or cycling, are only a fraction of what the body can do, only a fraction of what your body needs, and only a fraction of your time spent moving in a day. How you move the other 23 hours matters even more than how often you exercise. (See article The Futility of the Workout-Sit Cycle)

So what does movement look like? It looks like utilizing muscles in a bigger variety of ways, undoing movement habits and maintaining (or regaining) the ability to move as we would have if we still relied on our bodies to transport us, to get food, to flee from danger.  No, you don't have get rid of the luxuries of our current time. But recognizing what is missing might be the key to moving more as opposed to working out more.

Let's look at standing as an example since pretty much all of us do that every day, a little or a lot.

​When you stand, you utilize muscles in the feet, legs, and torso to keep yourself upright. An imbalance anywhere (ankles that roll in, more weight in one leg, etc.) will force certain muscles to work harder than others. Changing how you stand is a subtle but powerful way to increase movement in your day. Most of us have habitual ways of standing that seem harmless in the moment. We put more weight on one leg or we turn one foot out. Turning out the feet creates a rotation in the legs that decreases the use of the muscles in the back of the legs and the gluts. It also pulls on the lower back. While standing in such a position is certainly a reasonable option for standing, if you stand like that 90% of the time you stand, over years and decades, some muscles will be forced to overwork and others to atrophy. You might even find yourself in pain.

How you stand also affects bone density. The bones of the feet and legs become denser and stronger when they bear the load of your body weight, hence the focus on weight-bearing exercise. But improving bone density doesn't have to require lifting weights and doing pushups. It requires attention to how you stand and walk. If one leg always carries more weight, or if the body isn't truly stacked over the legs, then the possibility of fragile bones becomes becomes more likely. Losing bone density isn't due to aging; it's due to how we do and don't use our bodies. Given that we sit a majority of the day, and that when we stand, we stand with imbalances, osteoporosis can be seen within the lens of our sedentary culture and our built-in imbalances as opposed to just chalking it up to aging.

What do I mean, built-in imbalances? Let's start with shoes. Even those of us who gave up heels years ago have been wearing them unknowingly. Men wear heels, too. Athletes wear heels. Our whole culture has accepted standing in heels as the way to stand and our bodies have adapted to that. Go look at most "good supportive shoes" and measure the height of the heel as compared to the height of the toe. It is almost always 1/2 - 3/4" higher in the heel. Doesn't seem like much, but that little lift is tipping your whole body forward all day every day. When the body tips forward at its base, the muscles do whatever they have to to get the skeleton stacked vertically above the feet. This causes the front of the thighs (quadriceps or quads) to over work. And all the bones above your foot need to compensate for the angle of your foot.

Don't believe me? Put a 1/2" thick book under the back edge of a book shelf and look how far forward the top shelves tip away from the wall. Now imagine that that is you. Every day for decades. And increase the issue for years spent wearing even higher heels.

How do you fix it? As to shoes, fix it slowly. Gently work toward barefoot or truly zero elevation heels. (See my blog post about transitioning to minimal shoes for more on that).
As to standing:
• Line up your feet so your toes point forward.
• Distribute your weight between your feet evenly.
• Shift your weight onto your heels.
• Repeat whenever you think of it. In fact, try it now.

Exercise is a small chunk of time during your day or week. Movement includes all the subtle ways in which you load bones or use muscles throughout the entire day. How you stand, how you sit and what you sit on, how and where you walk, whether you use your arms overhead, whether you chew your food on both sides of your mouth or only one side, whether you look off in the distance or only stare at a screen – it all equals movement. How much of your body is involved in your daily activities is all movement. Figuring out ways to move more first means expanding your definition of movement beyond exercise.




If you are interested in simple ways to stand better, please join my FB group Sit Less Move More with Lynn Shuck or contact me to set up a session to assess and address your stance.