Stand up for your rights. What a song. Fortunately, you can’t hear me singing it. Unfortunately, our ability to get up and stand up from both a societal as well as a physical perspective are being eroded. Society is a topic for an intoxicated sunny afternoon on the park, physically it’s a discussion for here and now. So Let’s Talk
Getting up off the floor is literally our first fundamental primal drive to move, and we do it with relentlessness tenacity. A baby could literally crack its head off a table trying, but nothing is stopping those chubby little baby legs from learning to get up. Once up and no longer confined to the horizontal limits of all fours, a baby’s opportunity to enjoy life will increase exponentially. Life Standing Up is much more interesting.
Fast forward forty years, or in some cases thirty. The primal drivers have long gone, your lifestyle has kept you happy in the chair, and you have no reason to be on the floor. The body is a temple of survival efficiency, if it doesn’t think you need it you will slowly but surely lose it .
When life becomes sedate our need to crouch diminishes. As a result your hips stiffen and our knees get weak. We start bending more and now the back begins to ache. The urge to put your hand on your knees to help yourself climb the stairs creeps in. Your posture begins to compensate; creating tension and muscle adaption, all resulting in lost mobility in your ankles, knees, and hips. The body stealthily becomes out of sync and getting up off the floor becomes an awkward version of twister.
Give it another few years and you’ve lost the confidence to stop a fall, to absorb the impact of a mishap, or lie down on the floor. The appetite for adventures and experiences is subdued by caution, and overridden by survival. Life below the knees is uncomfortable and your options to enjoy the full human experience begins to dissolve. Does it need to be this way ?? The use it or lose it principle suggests otherwise. Keep using it, and stop losing it.
Movements are like keys , each key opening up another world of options. Once you misplace or lose a key you are denied access to levels of life you once took for granted. Luckily some movements are more like master-keys opening up and maintaining access to more than one door. The sit up stand up movement in my opinion is a master key.
This motion hits all the elements needed to keep the lower body functional and primed for longevity. Ankles, knees, and hips have to maintain mobility. Dynamic core activation not only cultivates the ability to generate power but requires the deepest core muscles to engage. The transfer of energy from the upper body into the legs and feet require coordination with balance and timing. Push to soon you lose, push to late and the opportunity escapes you. The muscles of pelvic floor, abdominals (internal and external obliques), diaphragm are all challenged with this movement along with all the muscles involved with a deep squat.
However, the beauty of this movement really comes with its ability to keep all these elements in check. Growing bigger leg muscles without increasing relevant hip mobility will stifle this motion. Everything has to be in balance. As it should be.
The sit up stand up even helps to massage and sooth the digestive tract. If you’ve read this blog I wrote then you’ll know how important I believe that to be. Basically, if you’re going to do one movement for the longevity of the lower body then this is it. If you are wondering where to start, or want to talk more about how to develop this movement than drop me a message.
Level Up On Life & BEMORE.
BeMore 