Breaking the Mold
How Can We End this Notion that We are Weak and Fragile"?
As we approach the unofficial holiday known as “Super Bowl Sunday”, here is a great reminder that at the end of the day, these modern-day gladiators are human. Here is a photo from QB Matthew Stafford’s wife of him arriving home at 2:30 in the morning AFTER losing in a tough game, to tuck in his biggest fans, his 4 kids.
“I retired from my active job to protect my knees.” “I was on the move all day today…I need to rest tomorrow and take it easy.” I hear it all the time, especially from older populations. There is a negative mindset that our joints have a limited shelf life (which they do), and we need to “not do too much” to prevent their further destruction. I am on a crusade to vanquish that mindset. Whether it is my mom, my neighbor, the nice older couple at church… we need to stop it with the idea that if we move, we will hurt… and it only gets worse with age. I love to cite this study to engage in such a discussion. If you ever heard that running will wear out your knees, then feast your eyes on this “There was no identified association between cumulative running history and risk for arthritis.” That quote is from this 2023 study of nearly 38,000 marathoners.
Weak things break. Here is another “oldie but goodie” that came to mind after a few conversations this week. In terms of reducing the risk for injury in sports, strengthening beats stretching… by a lot! In summary, if you don’t want to pull a hamstring, tear a tendon or sprain a ligament, improving your strength is the better medicine. In this study of over 26,000 participants, stretching had “no beneficial effect” whereas strengthening exercises reduced injuries by nearly 2/3rd.
This same movement mentality also works well for discs in our spine. This lovely quote from the British Journal of Sports medicine last week: “The intervertebral disc isn’t a fragile structure that needs to be protected from movement. It’s a living, metabolically active tissue that depends on movement to stay healthy” sums it up nicely. What if we swapped words like “degenerative discs” w/something more opportunistic like “movement hungry”? I’m open to other ideas? Help me out here. Stay healthy, keep moving.