“Don’t just sit there.”

~ Katy Bowman, M.S.

Move Your DNA

How is your summer going?

I hope you are getting out there, digging in your yard, travelling, adventuring, and having so much fun!

My partner and I just returned from a 5-day backpacking trip in Glacier National Park in Montana. The scenery was mind-bending, and the whole trip was breathtaking, wonder-full, even spiritual – I don’t ever use this word lightly! – experience. And hey, zero smoke the entire time!

Glacier National Park of the USA and Waterton Lakes National Park of Canada join to form Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. You can hike from Waterton across the US border and into Glacier Park.

Glacier is like nothing we’ve ever seen before.

Unlike in Canadian national parks, forests here haven’t burned in recorded history, so we had a wonderfully thick canopy of 200-hunder-year-old Douglas Firs sheltering us from heat and sun.

Under the canopy, there was a magical world of lush ferns and salmonberry bushes, often up to our shoulders. We picked huckleberries, strawberries, raspberries, salmonberries, blueberries and grouse berries every day to supplement our dry rations.

Out in the open alpine, the scenery was jaw-dropping.

360-degree views, a tapestry of alpine meadows stretching out into the skies everywhere we looked.

The only not-so-amazing part of our entire adventure was sitting for two straight days in the car to get to where we were going.

By the time we reached Waterton, our backs and hips were stiff as boards, plus my legs had the nervy dull ache right down to the feet. I can get pretty nervous about this nervy feeling – you know, fear blast from the past – and even more so when it affects my sleeping.

Fact: sitting shortens the hip flexor group.

One or even two days shouldn’t make this big of a difference; only it does because we already live in a sedentary culture. For most of us, the hip flexors – the long muscles that connect the legs to the pelvis and spine – are chronically contracted.

While the hip flexor complex is not the only contributor to a stiff low back or a dull ache down the legs, it is most certainly one of the major players in the low back-hips-legs area health, especially when sitting is involved.

Luckily I knew a few nifty moves to ease the discomfort, so with a little bit of stretching, nerve gliding, and a lot of walking, the pain and stiffness were all but gone. As usual, nature and natural movement delivered their potent magic.

If sitting is what you often do, and hip troubles are what you usually get, consider joining the Rapid Relief – Hip Flexor Rehab class on Wednesday, August 9.

I’ll teach the very same movement strategies that helped us loosen up after the two-day drive to Waterton and then crank out 20K days without injuries (and we are not your spring chickens, either).

Get Your Hip-Flexors Happy – Reserve Your Mat Today

Rapid Relief classes are always open to anyone.

Take notes or join the movement – the choice is yours!