Your body breaking down is not an age issue!
We all eventually deal with age-related issues.
However, is age really the reason we suddenly have issues occur that we must deal with?
- Does aging cause random pain issues?
- Is aging the reason for the reduced ability to move or get up from the floor?
- Is age why we experience low energy?
- Is it age that causes the lack of ability to get a good night’s rest?
- Is it the aging process the leads to poor balance?
- Does aging result in sudden increased weight?
The belief that age is the lone culprit for these types of issues leads us to become disempowered.
These issues do happen as we age, but not because of our age.
Let me explain. As we get older, we have less ability to overcome our lifestyle habits. These habits include poor diet choices, poor movement mechanics, our body compensating for imbalances based on rigid areas in our body combined with hypermobile areas in our body just to name a few areas.
The result of these issues leads us to experience many of the above symptoms or other issues that do not seem to have a direct link to our habits, at least not on the surface.
Again, although these issues arise as we age, these issues are not because of our age. Most of these issues are preventable and when they arise, they are also often reversable when you apply the right changes to your habits.
What steps should I take?
Start with the basics. As you read through these action items, if you are not doing a majority of these already, pick only one or two and start with those. You don’t want to attempt to implement a bunch of new habits that are difficult to keep up with.
The basics that are often overlooked when a person has many issues they believe are due to age.
Hydrate! 75% of people are chronically dehydrated. Being dehydrated can effect many areas including: how well your skin looks, hunger pangs even when you don’t need food and how much pain you feel just to name a few areas. Drinking water is often overlooked because drinking water is so simple and doesn’t feel like it would help, but it does. As a measure, you want to take your body weight in pounds and divide that number in half, that’s how many ounces of water your should be drinking per day minimum. Any other drink that you have such as coffee, soda, or even drinks that you add a packet to water does not count towards your water consumption. You should be drinking room temperature high quality water. And I recommend adding a pinch of sea salt (not table salt) to your water to add a little taste, minerals and help you with the absorption of the water.
Stretch your tight areas! Another area that tends to make a person feel old and experience a lot of symptoms is poor posture. The most common reason for poor posture is having areas in your body the are chronically tight, often due to how you hold or position your body during many daily activities, even sitting in front of the TV. The most active muscles tend to shorten, become tight and pull your body out of postural alignment. If you were to stretch your entire body, the muscles that are not tight would actually tend to lengthen more relative to your tight muscles. This would actually make your alignment and issues that come with poor alignment worse. By stretching your tight areas, you are improving your postural alignment.
Improve the quality of food! Food is medicine! If you eat high quality food, you are giving your body the nutrients that you need to repair and rebuild your body. Eating low quality food lacks the nutritional density that your body needs to repair and rebuild your body as well as provide your body with the energy you need to keep up with your daily and recreational activities. Another area that many people miss with low quality food is that you tend to get hungry quicker because your body is still searching for nutrients that the food you ate lacks. A quick overview, low quality food is any food that is fast, any highly processed food and and conventionally raised food. You want food that are certified organic, with minimally processing and with meats, fed what the animal was intended to eat.
Improve sleep timing and duration! This one is easier said that done. Sleep is the prime time for repairing and recovery for our body. The ideal timing is getting to be by 10pm and waking up at 6am. The closer you can be to this timing, the better your body will respond. To keep this short, I’m going to cover a few areas to improve your sleep quality and duration. Limit any stimulants and simulating foods to before 3pm. These include coffee, sugary foods and drinks, any caffeinated drinks and foods (such as dark chocolates). If you do have trouble sleeping, stop watching TV and use of electronics (computer, smart phone and other screens) to roughly 2 hours or more prior to going to bed. Stretch your tight areas about 20 minutes prior to going to bed. When you get into bed, take time to breathe deeply (allowing your belly to raise for the first 2/3rds of your inhale, and your chest to raise the last 1/3 of your inhale) for a period of time. Ideal is 20 minutes but even 5 minutes is a good start.
Get regular exercise! This exercise does not have to be strenuous! If you currently are not exercising, start with twice per week for 20 minutes. This can be a leisurely walk, some light lifting of weights, or riding a bike for a few examples. If you do exercise on a regular basis, change your routine up if you haven’t done so in the last 2 months. This change will allow your body to get more from the time you do perform your exercise. Regular exercise allows your body to get lose, pump your blood and improve your mental outlook to name just a few benefits.
If you are having any challenges with any of these areas, contact me so that together we can get you unstuck and on your way to improving your health and fitness. Call or Text me: (916) 293-1830 Email me: [email protected]
How can you determine if your issues are reversable?
The first step in this process is to have a comprehensive assessment performed.
I offer an assessment that includes a functional movement assessment along with a health appraisal questionnaire. This allows me to find areas that are leading to many of the issues people experience. These are the areas we are told are the result of age!
By addressing and correcting these issues, your symptoms will reduce and often be completely alleviated.
For example: if you have low back pain, often your lower abdominals are not engaging to protect your low back. I focus on developing your lower abdominals in a way that allows your lower abdominals to engage functionally which protects your low back. This is a simplified window into how the lower abdominals, once working properly with your body, correct your low back pain, and will protect your low back from pain and future injury.
The test for your lower abdominals is painless, and only one of many areas that I assess in my functional movement assessment.
Find out more about my assessment by starting with your free consultation.
We will discuss your wants, needs and challenges. I will also walk you through the assessment process which will allow you to be sure this is the right next step for your needs.
Call or Text me: (916) 293-1830
Email me: [email protected]
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