Say no to stiffness and soreness! Stretching your muscles is better than weight training

Why does sitting for too long and not moving enough cause so many problems? The answer lies within our cells. A person's vitality comes from trillions of cells in the body. The reason why these cells need to be active all the time is partly so that they will not stick together and so that blood loaded with nutrients can be transported to each cell. If we do not move for a long time, a chain reaction of cells sticking to each other will start until the connective tissue sticks together into a large hard piece that completely wraps up the internal organs and muscles, making us even less willing to move. And wrapped in this hardened tissue are more dying and shrinking cells.

At first, we will only feel a little stiffness, and as the body moves less and less, the stiffness will become more and more intense. As a result, muscle cells begin to slowly atrophy and die, causing the joints to squeeze each other, resulting in damage and developing into chronic pain. If the situation does not improve significantly, surgical treatment may be the only option, and even joint replacement may be necessary.

In addition to absorbing nutrients, the function of cells is to regularly remove waste produced by the body so that we can survive. This task is performed by the body's circulatory system. The circulatory system is designed to deliver nutrients and remove toxins by circulating blood and oxygen throughout the body. If you are used to sitting, your circulation will slow down and less nutrients will be delivered to cells throughout the body. When cells are undernourished and cannot successfully excrete accumulated toxins, they will suffocate from the inside out. Basically, as long as we lead a sedentary lifestyle, our body is unable to fully utilize its innate healing powers.

Not being active will not only make you feel tired and uncomfortable, but will also slow down your body's recovery. The negative feedback loop caused by a sedentary lifestyle can get out of control in a very short time. In particular, cell death caused by inactivity will make it extremely difficult to control weight, because the mitochondria in every cell of the body are the melting pot responsible for burning calories in the human body, and they will be sacrificed in the process of cell death; muscle cells will atrophy, and fat cells will proliferate. As time goes by, the body will become weak and loose, and increasingly stiff. Obesity becomes another negative cycle that cannot be stopped.

I consider myself a fairly active person, but even so, I still spend a lot of time writing, doing research, commuting, and meeting with colleagues, and I mostly sit down when doing these things. A study on muscle atrophy pointed out that muscle cells will automatically shrink due to lack of regular use. This made me realize: If you don’t use your body well, you will lose it!

Walking is good exercise for the hips; if you walk fast enough and uphill, it may also help the cardiovascular system, but walking only uses half of the body's muscle tissue. I also noticed that people who walk as a daily exercise usually have a big belly, weak core muscles, and less exercised arm muscles. This is because they rarely use their upper body when walking.

Some people blame their big bellies and weak upper bodies on age. Aging is not the main reason for weakening muscle strength, but not using the muscles properly is. If you want to keep your body strong, lean and free from pain, you must stretch every part of your body regularly.

This article is from Tianxia Culture "Zero Pain Fitness Exercises: Combining the principles of ballet, Tai Chi, and acupuncture, 10 sets of stretching exercises to relieve stress, straighten bones, and loosen fascia"