What is one of the most important challenges to learn and practice when incorporating exercise into daily living, to ensure wellness and to be injury-free?
FORM. That’s right, the correct positioning and posture of your body, not only during all your exercises, (both cardio and strength training), but through everyday activities. Everything we do has a proper “technique” to it. From sitting, walking, standing, lifting, squatting, lunging, even during different types of running (jogging to sprinting). Adding flexibility and strength enables your muscles and joints throughout your whole body to perform with ‘proper body mechanics. Learning these important methods is another aspect to incorporate into your healthcare maintenance. Take it from a nurse who has had to stoop over a baby bassinette for 12 years. Ergonomically this has caused many permanent injuries in most of us working in this setting!
Remember, if you’ve hurt yourself while exercising, chances are improper form was the cause and you need to take the time to learn how, even by observation in a mirror, or better yet by seeing a personal trainer. Not only will he/she instruct you through purposeful exercises, but also how to position your body CORRECTLY while doing it.
For example, when you:
Squat – are your knees behind your toes and do you stand back up by pushing through your heels?
Lunge – are your knees bent at 90 degrees, not leaning over your toes, and your torso upright and tall with your eyes fixed forward?
Shoulder Press – when you do your shoulder exercises, do you stand tall, with soft knees, and SQUEEZE your shoulder blades together with each lift?
How about when you power walk – do your heels come down first, as your roll through your toes?
When you sit – are you tall and straight, HOLDING your shoulder blades back, as if you’re holding a pencil between them?
I am now incorporating a squat every time I pick things up, NO MORE STOOPING. I’m also trying to not slouch (as my Mom nagged me for years to do), but it’s hard to remember to maintain, and very tiring for those muscles involved. And, of course my kids don’t listen to me either….
I had the opportunity to tour the McDonald’s Production Plants: Cargill Beef & Poultry, Produce Plant and the McCain French Fry facility and that’s where I linked the two thoughts. MECHANICS – whether it be the body, equipment, machinery or any items put together/manufactured, how its parts interact together, relies on functioning at 100% for a perfect end result or product.
What truly AMAZED me the most, were the methods of production and preparation of the various food products.
The physics, engineering and development as well as maintenance of the all of the huge, noisy, efficient ‘state of the art’ equipment that is used for such mass productions, (and man power of course), is incredible to me. To have plastic tubing run throughout a factory, using water to move product and waste, and lasers uniformly cutting chicken breast and also the precise inspection of each lettuce piece by a laser, for example, made me realize the incredible brain and man power, teamwork and cost behind-the-scenes. To even understand the effect on production if any part of the equipment were to malfunction is also mind-boggling (so we’ll just leave that to the smart people to worry about).
So now I, who has sat for two years, having five shoulder dislocations (I’ll take child birth pain over that), two surgeries for repair, and not being able to work and I still don’t have the assurance that I will ever be able to function at 100% again. How I wish I would have listened and also taken the time to truly realize the importance of the physics of ‘proper body mechanics”. Will I ever see my desired outcome?
Please take care of yourselves through education, knowledge sharing and putting it to practice. Knowledge after 40 – unfortunately, in some areas- it’s too late for me.
Kath, a.k.a -Broken Wing.
I LOVE how you linked the mechanics of your body to that of Cargill! I never really thought of it like that but it was definitely true. I was also so AMAZED at how much thought and detail goes into everything that Cargill does, the people that invented most of those machines are utterly brilliant. If you also remember, most practices at Cargill thought of the proper ergonomics for each employee in the workplace, so hopefully they will not injure themselves longterm like you have Broken Wing Kath. Hope your shoulder is getting better!