These 6 exercises are fundamental to how you move
There are basic actions we don’t really think about: lifting a package off the floor, getting up from a chair, pushing a door open. But there’s a right way and a wrong way to perform these basic moves, and if we don’t do them with the correct form, we risk injury and pain. This excellent article shows how to improve the basic moves we make.
“When you sit in a chair, lift a package off the floor or climb a flight of stairs, your body is doing some form of squatting, hinging or lunging. But just because you perform these movements every day doesn’t mean you’re doing them correctly. Whether you round your back while lifting or overload your knees when you stand up, repeatedly moving with poor form can lead to pain and injury.”
The article identifies six fundamental movements and presents specific training exercises on each. The movements are: hinge, squat, lung, push, pull and rotation.
“Training these six fundamental movements — hinge, squat, lunge, push, pull and rotation — can help you accomplish daily tasks more easily and without pain as you age. Similar to a musician practicing their scales, mastering the basics can help you expand your range of motion,” said Beth Lewis, a movement and Exercise specialist based in New York City.”
The training exercises can all be done easily at home. The article presents full details, but here are the highlights:
Overview
You’ll need a light or medium resistance band, or a light dumbbell or kettlebell. The workout takes about 12 minutes and you should start with three times a week, working your way up to daily. Do each exercise for 45 seconds, with a 30 second rest until the next one.
The 12 minute session can serve as a warmup to a longer exercise session.
Hinge
“Stand with your feet hip-width apart and gently rest your hands on the back of your head. Maintaining a flat back, push your hips back, allowing your knees to bend slightly, and lower your torso until it is nearly parallel to the ground. Pause, then slowly rise back to standing.”
Squat
“Whenever you sit or stand up, your body is performing a squat … Avoid leaning forward to begin the movement, which can cause you to round your spine, forcing your lower back to support most of your body weight. When rising, keep your torso upright.”
For the exercise, hold a light weight with your arms outstretched at shoulder height. Slowly lower into a squat, with your heels flat on the floor. Hold for a moment at the bottom.
Lunge
“Any movement that involves placing one foot in front of the other and bending both knees uses the lunge pattern, including bending down to tie your shoe, taking the stairs and walking uphill.” Because this means uneven balance, the risk is in leaning toward the opposite side to compensate. This can lead to knee pain.
For the exercise, “step onto a six-inch platform (or a stair) with one foot, allowing the trailing foot to hover slightly behind the lead foot. Hold that balanced position for three to five seconds before lowering slowly to the ground.”
Push
You’re performing the push motion when you push a door open, place something on a shelf or even get up from bed. This action requires proper horizontal and vertical push movements. Typical mistakes include arching your back or shooting your hips forward, which can cause lower back pain.
The exercise consist of a modified push-up, which helps you focus on your upper body.
Do the push-up in a kneeling position, with your hands on the floor, shoulder-width apart and under your shoulders. Lower your chest toward the floor, keeping your torso straight. Push back up to the starting position. If the exercise causes discomfort to the knees, try it standing up, pushing against a wall.
Pull
When you take a load of laundry out of the machine, it’s a pull motion. The risk here is pulling from your arms and not properly engaging your back muscles.
Here’s the exercise: “Place a light or medium resistance band under your feet. Grip the opposite ends of the band with your hands just outside your hips. Hinge at your hips and draw your elbows up and back, squeezing your shoulder blades together. Hold for a moment before slowly returning to the starting position.”
Rotation and anti-rotation
“Reaching for the remote, taking groceries out of the cart and even walking all require your body to use its rotation and anti-rotation patterns. A lack of core and spinal stability can limit your range of motion, leading you to hinge your lower back instead, which can lead to pain or injury.”
The exercise: “Attach a light resistance band to an anchor point between waist and shoulder height (you can use the leg of a table, a bed frame or a door handle). With your body sideways to the anchor point, grip the end of the resistance band with both hands against your chest, then shuffle away from the anchor point so the band offers some resistance. Keeping your torso and lower body still, slowly press the band out in front of you until your arms are fully extended. Return slowly.”
This is an important topic because it demonstrates how — rightly or wrongly — we’re performing all kinds of motions and either enhancing or jeopardizing our joints and muscles every single day. By paying more attention to how we’re doing it, and by performing simple exercises like these to “train” our bodies to move more efficiently, we can significantly reduce injury and pain.
More fitness tips:
The big benefits regular exercise brings to longevity
Strength and aging: The unheralded benefits of weight training
Experts say you should exercise in short bursts, and before bed
5 exercise mistakes to avoid if you’re over 50
New study reveals why exercise is so good for the brain
