We often think we need access to a gym, a personal trainer or train multiple hours a week to improve our health. Although these are useful tools, they are not the only ones. I’m here to present a free and more accessible alternative, and the main tool we use here at Casa Kandamy.
We can improve our health without a gym or trainer by altering the environments we spend most of our time in, like our home or work space. How do we do this? We tweak everyday tools that often go unnoticed in these spaces, to our advantage so that they promote more movement. Things like our mattresses, lounge areas, and desks to name a few.
For example, instead of having your mattress high off the ground, you could remove the base of the bed and simply have your mattress directly or slightly off on the ground. Similarly, you could do the same with your sofa and you can even take it a step further, by placing cushions and mats on the floor so it's more comfortable to sit or lay on the ground. The idea here is to have these “tools'' closer to the ground.
Another area that has huge potential for more movement is our work space. The office space is synonymous with the desk, chair, and desktop. Sadly, most people in this area spend the majority of their time sitting in the same position. This is an issue because your tissue will begin to tighten and weaken, this is what leads to back pain, headaches, and breathing issues. These days there are innovative and creative alternatives to solve this sedentary problem.
The standing desk is one of them, as well as, an alternative desk that brings you closer to the ground (Check out Limberlife.co desks, we were inspired by their work to user their desk models here at Casa Kandamy) The benefits from these desks comes from changing your position and posture between sitting on the ground all the way to standing. This allows your body to MOVE through different positions. As a result, your body is constantly exploring different angles, ranges of motions, and positions which prevents one body part or parts to atrophy
Additionally, having an area where you can hang from such as a bar or a set of gymnastic rings will have a profound change in your body. While you hang you will decompress the spine and hips. All while, also strengthening your grip, forearms and shoulders. The benefits of hanging go well beyond just physical, but we will discuss these in a future blog entry.
Ok, so why do these alternatives work?
Your body is designed for a wide range of movement, we are the most versatile movement creatures of Mother Nature. In the present day, our environments are poor with movement, they actually promote LESS movement.
But if we alter our everyday environments just slightly, like I mentioned above, we go back to more patterns of movement that our bodies have done for centuries. Suddenly everything changes!
When we have to reach down to the ground to lay on our beds or sit on our sofas, we have to pass through a wide range of motion in our spines, hips, knees, and ankles. How many times a day will you repeat this pattern a day, and how many minutes a day will you accumulate in those deep positions? It’s difficult to say exactly how much, but I’m certain it will be more time than the one you spend in the gym trying to mobilize and strengthen your hips, knees, etc…
Opting for these changes will create an adaptation because you accumulate a lot of time in different positions, far more time than the one hour or two a day you spent in the gym or with your trainer. We focus not on those two hours (at best) but rather, we focus on the other 23 or 22 hours of the day we spent doing other daily activities.
This method of altering our environment to encourage more movement is exactly what Casa Kandamy was created for. Our beds are low on the ground, our lounge area has cushions and mats from organic materials so we can lay and sit on the ground comfortably. Our dining table and co-work space is low to the ground and just a few feet away we have monkey bars and a few sets of rings for hanging.
To be clear, we don't want to discourage training, we actually want to encourage more movement. But don't overlook the power the environment has on your health, start simply by observing if your environment is encouraging or discouraging movement in your pass-time. Every meal, night's sleep, day of work, or friends visit, we believe, is an opportunity to drastically improve your health.
Let me know what you think!
Commenti