Did you ever wonder why your largest muscles are in your legs? Perhaps it's not the first question to come to your head, but maybe it should be; especially if you sit all day.
Despite what your actions display in your modern day living, you were designed to move. That's right, upright on both legs, walking and climbing great distances every day. If you don't use your legs for what they're there for, your body will begin to discard all the excess muscle that you apparently have no use for.
It's called pruning, and the purpose of it is that the body doesn't want to keep anything that you tell it that it doesn't need. This whole modern concept of sitting for hours, day in and day out, causes muscle wasting in your legs and lower back, since it has become evident to your body that sitting is all it really needs to do.
Despite what your actions display in your modern day living, you were designed to move. That's right, upright on both legs, walking and climbing great distances every day. If you don't use your legs for what they're there for, your body will begin to discard all the excess muscle that you apparently have no use for.
It's called pruning, and the purpose of it is that the body doesn't want to keep anything that you tell it that it doesn't need. This whole modern concept of sitting for hours, day in and day out, causes muscle wasting in your legs and lower back, since it has become evident to your body that sitting is all it really needs to do.
The really big muscles in the body consist of those in the buttock region, and down the front and back of the upper legs. If you don't use them, in time they just wither away to nothing, reduced to nothing more than enough tissue to walk you to your car. If you can't walk up one flight of stairs without getting out of breath and feeling fatigue in your legs; you're in big trouble.
Losing too much muscle is also a great way to start putting on weight. There's no coincidence that once people settle into a sedentary job, they shortly thereafter start to gain weight and develope various pains they never had before. Common ones are low back pain, sciatic pain, various knee complaints, and foot pain.
If you ignore all these indicators that something is going wrong, it will all just get worse in time.
Let's explore a few ways to stop pruning in its tracks, and turn on the body's rebuilding process back on.
Step #1 Every time you have a choice to use stairs, go for it!
Step #2 Whenever weather permits, walk or take your bike to work.
Step #3 There are three basic exercises that you should perform at least 3 times per week. They are:
Single leg hip lifts
Corrective squats
Hockey squats
Step #4 All that sitting is also bound to give you a tremendous amount of stiffness as well. For that I recommend the following stretches, at least 4-5 times per week.
Quadriceps stretch
Figure 4 active hip stretch
Deep lateral stretch
There's no escaping it! You were made to move and if you can't incorporate more movement into your daily routine, you're going to have to get used to living with pain.
