Movement for Wellness
“Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every
human being, while movement and methodical
physical exercise save it and preserve it.”— Plato
Most of us know that moving is good for us. Young children don’t like to sit still for good reason. But as adults, our work or home environment forces us to sit for hours and hours a day. Sometimes for work, sometimes because our screens have trained us to sit still. It’s estimated that each person sits in front of one type of screen or another for an average of almost 7.5 hours a day!
In Europe, people move a lot more than they do in North America because more activity is built into their days. It is not a coincidence that Europeans tend to be slimmer and healthier than North Americans. In North America, we know that people who work in big cities get more steps and weigh less on average than people who live in the suburbs. People who live in rural areas tend to be even more physically active.
During the pandemic, we learned a lot about the importance of movement. Many people were working from home and getting less physical activity than ever. Prior to the pandemic, most people working in the suburbs usually averaged 3,000-5,000 steps a day while most people working in the cities averaged 5,000-7,000 steps a day. During the pandemic, everything changed. People working from home were only getting 1,000-2,500 steps a day. Several people working in downtown condos told me that they could get as few as 500 steps in an entire day!
Our bodies paid a heavy price for lockdowns. As people didn’t even have to commute to work and couldn’t go to gyms, more and more people suffered from neck pain, back pain, weight gain, and increased glucose, cholesterol, blood pressure, and liver enzymes. For years prior to the pandemic the term ‘sitting disease’ was becoming popular. During the pandemic, we were supplied with proof that ‘sitting is the next smoking.’
Now that the pandemic is over, many people are struggling to get back to higher activity levels. Once our routines were disrupted for over a year, our minds and bodies have a hard time getting back to a healthy routine.
More Information coming soon.