“Motion is life”…wise words, no coincidence that they were said by Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine. In my book, The IBD Fitness Solution, I quote Hippocrates regarding my outlook on warming up. We simply need to move. We need to move before we workout in the gym, before we run, before we can’t move any longer.
From The IBD Fitness Solution:
Having ulcerative colitis can give new meaning to things. While I was lying in bed for weeks with symptoms, I didn’t have much motion and I definitely didn’t feel very alive! Even without an illness, we’ve all had those days when we slept in a little too long, watched football or movies all day, and were surprised by how exhausting that felt. If we don’t move, we don’t thrive. I believe that starting each workout with a proper warm-up routine, or movement, is a great strategy for success. Gray Cook explains this in his book Movement: “When basic movement is limited or compromised, it follows the natural laws of energy conservation, compensation and avoidance of pain, avoidance of the unfamiliar, and the essential tendencies of survival. Often the poor technique we observe is the body trying to survive a predicament it is not ready to address. Only when the movement patterns are present and functioning at a basic quality is it time to add volume or intensity or to work on specific skills.”
We must all understand the importance of authentic movement – the ability to move and control the body without compensations. A major step we can take toward authentic movement is with proper warm-up routines before each workout. Coming out of your diagnosis or flare only highlights this necessity. It also provides you the unique opportunity to basically relearn how to walk again. During my recovery I quickly learned just how difficult rolling over, sitting, standing, and walking could be. I felt like a child again. However, embrace this outlook on your warm-up and you will find faster improvement in a shorter time. Enjoy the process of learning how to simply move again. Watch healthy kids play. They roll, move, sit, bend, stand, and run without any mobility or movement restrictions. Granted, they don’t have much stability or strength yet! But if we took our analogy to our ultimate goal, we’d see a body in motion that enjoyed complete and proper range of motion in all joints while simultaneously owning necessary levels of strength and stability.
I want everyone (those with IBD and those without) to enjoy the ability of moving their bodies without restrictions and with strength and ease. It can be simplier than you may imagine.
~With Strength and Nutrition
