Play

Our bodies are owed the range of motion my two year old has. At 32 years old, I should be able to mimic my daughter at the bottom of a squat. In practice, not theory, there was a time in our infancy, our childhood, and if we were lucky, our youth that our bodies were pliable, mobile and adaptable.

We ran, we jumped, we climbed, we played, we squatted. We took physical risks. We hopped off of things at odd angles. We could pivot. We could throw. We could touch our toes. We manipulated our bodies into weird positions. Through play we experimented and used the entire range of motion that our bodies were capable of. We fell off of things. Then you know what happened? We stopped moving.

Too soon we were put into chairs. Too soon we were told to settle down. Too soon we were told to sit still. Too soon we were told to be careful. We stopped honoring the needs of our bodies. We fought the urge to move until we forgot what it meant and felt like to use our bodies for play. Our ranges of motion slowly became stunted and in some cases completely disappeared.

We began to believe that to avoid injury we had to avoid movement but in fact we need movement to avoid injury. In it’s best sense exercise should be helping you to move your body without pain through the actions you enjoy. In it’s highest sense, exercise is something that you enjoy because of the ways you discover your body is capable of moving again.

Imagine if you could shift your mindset to recognize your fitness for what it is…play!

As much as possible get your kids moving, get moving with your kids. Keep your kids moving, keep moving with your kids. Start to play again. Pick up a new hobby like Pickleball, Horseshoes, Golf, Spikeball, Horseback Riding, Soccer. Include your kiddos. As much as possible, keep your kids moving and exploring those ranges of motion. That is the best injury prevention you could offer to them.

As much as possible keep yourself moving. All ranges of motion are inherently your right to own.

You might not think it matters in your horseback riding if you can reach very far in a hurdler stretch. But just maybe, you have pain during riding because you stopped trying to stretch. When you are ready to start playing again, please reach out to me for help.