Balance…
Let me start by saying, when I say “balance” I am not talking about the kind of balance you do on one foot. I’m talking about balance for all the different body parts and the ways in which they are used. This is the kind of balance I’m referring, “a state in which different things occur in equal or proper amounts or have an equal or proper amount of importance”.
I am doing a workshop 10/25 @ Asphalt Green, It’s yoga for injury prevention and it has me thinking so much about that very topic. Do I think that yoga, stretching, foam rolling, massage, physical therapy techniques, using balls for self massage, etc. work? I don’t think there’s any guarantee for anything in life, but yes I do think all these things help and I think they can actually help tremendously. I think there are many variables in keeping a body working well and with little to no aches & pains, but I do think balance is a big part of the equation. Yes, balance and I am going to try and give some examples of what I mean. If you’re a tennis player and your using your arm, shoulders, lower back, knees in a certain very repetitious way, balance would be stretching, giving enough down time for those areas, etc. If you don’t, they may be achy, tight, less range of motion, etc. If you’re a weight lifter and again multiple, repetitious movements in certain body parts, those areas in my opinion need balance. If one sits to much at the office, home, etc. this also needs balance. I want to be clear that repetitious movements might be one part of the equation of why there may be issues. Alignment and using the body in a way that puts its use in unclear pathways (if your not sure what I mean by clear/unclear pathways, call me), might be part of the issue. There can be a combination of things that are causing issues, so I don’t want to over simplify.
I hear it over and over again with students, friends, that they have repeated issues in certain body areas. I ask questions about what they do, how much are they doing counter balancing things, its almost always the same and they say no. I know in my own body that when I am doing my long hikes over and over, I feel the same areas of my body start to get achy and if I do all my counter balancing techniques, it almost always feel better right away. This is not to say you don’t have to do things for your whole body, including all the parts that your not using as much. Our bodies work so hard for us, and do all these amazing things. I think many of us, use it unconsciously without much thought about any of these things until something hurts and then boy watch out. I get the phone calls and the “oh my god I will do whatever you say” kinds of things and then as soon as something feels better, back to unconscious land. Balance is a very important word in dealing with the human body and our bodies don’t care how much we hate stretching, or how inflexible we think we are, or that you would rather watch a movie, it does not care.
I am not talking about any big grand gestures of counter balancing, I am talking about some pretty simple stretching, foam rolling, using the self massage balls and finally giving my body enough time to recover. I am not talking about spending hours a day, I am talking about a few minutes here, and a half an hour there, and if I were to make up some sort of formula, ie, for every hour of hard, repetitious workout, you should spend half the time in a counter balancing routine and then giving proper rest and recovery time.. Go for balance and feel great!