The real price of lifestyle and activity choices

29 January 2024
Adarsh Gopal

There’s never any or enough rehab, prohab, exercise, release or massage that you can do to compensate for too much time spent in too few positions.

Exercise is not a magic bullet. Even physiotherapy procedures like ultrasound, heat wave therapy have a mixed track record for solving underlying problems (they don’t).

The things you do for six, seven or eight hours a day will provide the dominant stimulus your body adapts to.

Spending 5 mins stretching, walking around or a few intense seconds on a roller will not solve or undo the adaptations stemming from 7-8 hours of sitting, standing, sleeping etc.

That massage once in a week does not solve, let alone cure or reverse the things you do everyday.

Takeaway

If how you sleep, stand, sit or exercise is bothering you, you need to try something different. Those endeavours should not constantly leave you with something to fix.
Exercise can help. But use it as a starting point to build something productive. Using it as a tool to undo damage from elsewhere is not a fun place to be.
Doctors, therapists and masseuses can be part of the solution. But it’s going to fall on you to make lasting changes in habit and lifestyle to deal with pain or discomfort in the long term.
There are things that can be a short term fix for hours or a day. But unless you dig into the cause/causes and address it, it’s a matter of when trouble will creep up.
Some chronic pain/issues need constant monitoring and management. Good and bad days will come with little warning. Sleep and stress can trigger discomfort. And there will be random days of pain with no rhyme or reason.

All writing