Stopping The “Little Niggles That Became Big Pains”: Fixing Your Body One Issue At A Time

Cover Photo From Pxhere

Fundamentally, it's very simple, if we want to lead a happy life, it's about ensuring we look after our body, mind, and soul. But naturally, things come up that put a temporary stop to our enjoyment. As we get older, little niggles turn into big pains, and we can find that we can't put our bodies into the positions that we once did. Either that or we never even tried in the first place, and those years of sugary tasty treats, and “one more drink won't hurt” have resulted in us living a more sedentary lifestyle than we ever intended. If you've got issues with your body, it is time to start fixing them, one small issue at a time…

Fixing Our Posture

While so many people go to yoga classes in the hope that they fix the vast majority of issues, if you don't have the physical support network i.e. the posture, in the first place, you won't feel the benefits. In fact, you could be doing yourself more damage. The first thing to do is to look at your posture and see if you're holding your body the right way. These are things you can learn from a chiropractor, but if you've spent your entire life doing things with poor posture, that's not to say you can't fix them. It all depends on our individual issues. If, for example, you live a sedentary lifestyle which revolves around you sitting down the vast majority of the time, the first thing to do would be to get up more. From there, you can start exercises to strengthen your core postural muscles. This isn't just about keeping your shoulders upright, but it's about practicing sitting properly, standing properly, and also ensure that you have adequate support when you lie down.

Strengthening Our Joints

As we age, calcium is drawn from our bones, leaving us feeling brittle, and this is where osteoporosis and other aches and pains can increase. Strengthening our joints can be done through yoga postures, but if you don't have the diet to support it, you may very well be putting more strain on your body than necessary. To strengthen our joints, it's all about good diet, but a handful of the right supplements can help us as we age. Supplements aren't a thing that needs to be exclusively for older people, you can start taking them right now. Glucosamine, MSM and Chondroitin are three that are commonly put together that result in sufficient joint strength.

Improving Our Functional Strength

And as it’s a commonly held belief that as we get older, we get weaker, there are things we can do to counteract this. There is no reason to feel less strong as you age, but it's more about ensuring that you're giving the body the fuel it needs. There are plenty of people out there that can get stronger as they get older, and now, there is a lot more focus on strength as a functional thing rather than excessive exercising that puts your body under considerable strain. A lot of people lift weights because they believe it gives them strengths, but it's been shown that resistance training and specifically load bearing exercises have been shown to increase natural strength. There are products out there and exercise protocols that focus on the constant tension in an exercise, rather than the act of just lifting a weight. Products like the X3 bar, or training protocols like Body By Science work on the notion that the more stimulus you put on your body, the better your body adapts readily for the next time you lift a weight. It's basic science, but the more stimulus you put your body under, the more muscle you will develop, and therefore you will get stronger. By no means should you try to lift a boulder every single day, but yoga provides a wonderful starting point because you're working with your own body weight. And gradually you increase the stimulus. This is the key to all exercising.

As we get older, we can fall foul to physical ailments. But rather than thinking that it's a part of aging, you can begin to fix your body, one problem at a time, so you can age with grace, and get stronger. But because we have bad habits ingrained into us, that's not to say we can't get out of them. To be healthy and happy, you need your body to be a temple, so if there is one issue that’s causing you frustration, whether it's a lack of flexibility, poor posture, or insufficient strength, you can begin now.

CONTRIBUTED CONTENT