Fast Fitness - Count How Many Times You Help Or Hurt Your Body Daily

Here is Fast Friday Fitness - a simple tool to help you notice how many times during your ordinary day you can either get functional built-in exercise for leg, back, and hip muscles plus a Achilles tendon stretch, or produce a common factor in back and knee pain.

1. Every time you bend down to reach or retrieve something, count it
2. See how many bends you do for ordinary chores and by the end of the day
   
3. Choose if you want to hurt or help your fitness each time.

David from Belgium has written numerous Fitness Fixer success stories and created many photos and videos for better learning. He writes:

"I just spent half an hour vacuuming our house downstairs.

"When I do chores like these, I try to practice some focus instead of letting my mind wander all over the place.Usually this means I try to remain aware of my breathing (breathing normally, not grunting, straining, or holding breath to reach or lift things).

"But today I thought of one of your articles that said how many times on average a person bends over during the day. So I decided to count this for myself, just for fun and something to focus on.

"In the roughly 30 minutes of vacuuming, I counted 67 squats. Now that's a good workout! =)

Photos by David of squat and lunge for household bending

Bending over "wrong" is a common factor in back pain, and not only for out of shape people. It is common in many weight lifters. Bending "wrong is often done as an exercise. It doesn't strength back muscles as much as other ways, and puts large load on the discs, So it's not a helpful trade-off.

Previous Fitness Fixer posts explained that doing a few good rehab exercises and stretches for back pain won't undo a day of bad bending, and that you bend hundreds of times each day. "Fitness as a lifestyle" does not mean doing crunches during TV commercials or doing squats while on the phone. It means how you live. Get real exercise, built in, during real daily movement.

You get to choose whether you add an obvious check mark in the pile of things that don't benefit your fitness or whether you get functional exercise.


Fitness Fixer post on good bending for knees and back at the same time:

• Free Exercise and Free Back and Knee Pain Prevention - Healthy Bending

Related Fitness Fixer:

• How Good Would You Look From 400 Squats a Day - Just Stop Unhealthy Bending
• Readers Count - Second Missed Cause of Back Pain With Golf
• Household Fitness in the New Year
• Fast Fitness - Better Back and Leg Exercise When Vacuuming
  
  

Labels: achilles stretch, fast fitness, knee, lower back, readers inspiring story, squat, tests of fitness/health

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