November 2018 - Elevation Physiotherapy & Wellness

Are Our Brains Making Us Sit Too Much?

A recent study in the journal Neuropsycologia finds that our brains tend to be wired towards being lazy. People know that they should exercise and even may plan to work out, but electrical signals in the brain may be motivating them to be sedentary. Relatively few people exercise regularly, even though most know that it is important for our health. Earlier research shows that many people sincerely wish to be active, but few people actually follow through.

Scientists wondered if there was something going on in the brain that lessened the motivation to exercise, so they recruited 29 healthy and fairly sedentary young men and women who said they wished to be more active. Each volunteer was fit with a helmet that had multiple electrodes that read and recorded the brain’s electrical activity.

Each person was given a computer test where they had an avatar they controlled by pushing a keyboard key, and they were instructed to move their avatar as fast as they could toward either the active images and away from the sedentary ones, and then vice versa.

If people respond more quickly to one kind of image, moving their avatars to it faster than they move them away from other types of images, then it is thought that they are drawn to that subject. The people in this study were almost uniformly quicker to move toward the active images than the sedentary ones–they all consciously preferred the figures that were in motion.

But at an unconscious level, their brains did not seem to agree. The electrical tests of brain activity showed each person had to use much more brain resources to move toward physically active images than toward sedentary ones. Brain activity there was much slighter when people moved toward couches and hammocks, suggesting that our brains are naturally attracted to being sedentary.

The results were explained in that our ancestors needed to conserve energy, so they had fewer calories to replace when food was not easily available—it was a survival strategy.

Of course, this study was small and looked only at electrical activity in the brain, but the authors feel that it would be helpful for some people who are reluctant to exercise to know that they are not alone. It is also very important to note that we can consciously choose to move, despite what our brains might think.

4 Reasons to Try Yoga When You Are Recovering From Pain

As a Physiotherapist, I see people who have pain. Together we work on strategies to help that pain and get to the root of the problem, and often for a period of time I will ask people to limit certain activities, but the big picture is to get someone back to full function and have no limitations. Once people are on the road to recovery, then often yoga can be beneficial as part of the solution! Here are 4 reasons to start yoga when you’re recovering from an injury:

Here’s the thing: all yoga is not the same. It is important to look at your specific movement and breathing patterns, and develop a yoga series that is unique and helpful for you and your pain. Start small and slowly by focusing on one joint and one movement at a time, as that is easier for the nervous system to learn and progress occurs more quickly. As you progress, you may increase the number of joints involved, number of reps and speed. You may also transition from sitting or lying down movements to more standing movements to build stability and strength.
There is a sense of safety: When the nervous system is responding to stress, your breath can be shallow, muscles tighten, the digestive system and sleep get thrown off. Pain and anxiety can exacerbate the stress response. Yoga can help to down-train the nervous system and encourage further healing of the issue with breath, movement and calm.
It helps you listen to your body. As you get to know the cues your body is giving you, you can learn a better connection with your body and can help take control of your own self-care.
Any movement is therapy when done with ease. Yoga can help you become more aware of how you move. You can work on easy vs. tight breathing, and ease of movement vs. force. Awareness is the key to shifting the movement and breathing habits that can contribute to symptoms. With awareness, symptoms can change.

How do I start? At Elevation Physiotherapy, we work closely with a trained yoga instructor to develop a program that can be a part of your own injury recovery. Speak with your Physiotherapist to see if yoga sessions could be helpful for you. If you are still working with your Physiotherapist, it is possible that your yoga session(s) could be covered under your Physiotherapy benefits.