How to Move Better

Let me state unequivocally that I respect my profession and know countless chiropractors who provide exceptionally high quality care for their patients. Every such chiropractor I know spends time educating his or her patients on diet, exercise, and other determinants of overall quality of health. When a person experiences musculoskeletal discomfort, I think that it can be highly worthwhile to visit a chiropractor who is committed to providing this level of comprehensive care.

With that said, I strongly feel that the most effective and efficient way to create a healthfully agile body is to align one's daily choices to the body's natural design of being self-healing and highly capable of a variety of physical tasks.

You can do so much more for your health than anyone else can. Few others care as much about your health as you do. No one else can make the moment-to-moment adjustments needed in the ways that you eat, move, rest, and interact with others to honour your ever-changing needs - this is the timeless truth that I hope my own children embrace and live by as they grow into adulthood. Not only with their health, but in every area of their lives. If we want something of value, we need to work at it regularly.

Part of my job as a health care provider is to show people what they can do to best take care of themselves and to decrease risk of injury. When a person presents with low back pain with symptoms of peripheral nerve dysfunction, my hope isn't solely to get rid of pain via adjustments, soft tissue work, and physical therapy. Yes, I would like to see pain go away, but what I hope for most is for the health seeker to learn what he or she can do regularly to be less prone to injury. And this is true regardless of what a person's presenting symptoms are.

Do you remember what it felt like as a child to do cartwheels and somersaults, to swing freely on monkey bars, or just sprint full out for a hundred yards without any apprehension? Depending on our history of injuries and current circumstances, we may never move as well as we did when we were in elementary school, but I strongly believe that most of us aren't coming close to experiencing the mobility that we have access to in adulthood.

To move better, we have to work at using all of our body parts as they were designed to be used. How to start? I would suggest going to YouTube and searching terms that feel appropriate for your current level of physical health and fitness. If you are severely limited in your ability to move, you might start with a simple stretching routine. If you are relatively fit, you might look up functional movement exercises or how to improve mobility of x, x being any major joint in your body.

Try anything that feels doable for your situation, observe how your body feels during and after, and over time, compile a routine of stretches, foam rolling, strengthening exercises, and movement patterns that leave you feeling more limber and stronger the next day. Few others can design a better program for your circumstances than you can in following your intuition, paying attention to how your body feels, and making adjustments to your routine as you go.

You'll find some of my favourite exercises in the videos embedded below, with more to follow in the days ahead. If you feel some excitement about restoring mobility that you have lost over the years and would like more guidance on a routine of progressive movement patterns that take your health status and goals into account, I think it's highly worthwhile to consult with Darren Veira, a Movement Coach who offers personalized online coaching for people of all ages and circumstances. Please have a look at Darren's Instagram Account to get a sense of his approach to helping people move better:

A video posted by Skillz Movement (@skillzmovement) on Dec 30, 2015 at 3:28pm PST

Darren has shown me several movement patterns that have become favourites for my daily routine of self care. From my conversations and correspondence with Darren, I've developed a lot of respect for his progressive holistic approach to helping people move better. Here is a recent post of me experiencing mobility at a level that I thought was forever behind me - I have Darren's coaching to thank:

With our older son taking the week off from tennis training, I was moved to do a little Ninja training over my lunch break. Gloriously sunny with strong winds from the lake, but a cool 38 degrees F - my kind of day for some play outdoors. #Play #FallDown #LieBackAndLookAtThatHushBlueSky #GratefulToBeHere #SendingLoveToAll

A video posted by Ben Kim (@dr.ben.kim) on Apr 14, 2016 at 11:04am PDT

Whether you pursue guidance from a Movement Coach or act as your own guide and piece a routine together from the many video resources that exist online, remember that there is magic in beginning any journey. Begin with hope and a vision for the level of health that you would like to experience and good things will happen.

I have a number of other videos planned for the days ahead thanks to the many requests that I have received from readers. If you would like to see a video for any specific issue that hasn't already been addressed below, please feel free to write to me directly at benkim@drbenkim.com.