The day to day challenges of maintaining a household can put undue and unnecessary stress and strain on the tissues of the body.

These include: joints, nerves, ligaments, muscles, tendons and fascia.  The human body is made to be resilient and is capable of tremendous amounts of work.  However, if you are working in poor positions or utilizing poor movement patterns, your body’s precious tissues will eventually pay the price.  In order to maintain your body and keep your body systems working at their full capacity, you must be systematic about how you move and position yourself.

If I asked you to state the activities that you must complete to maintain a household, you might say things like: vacuum, bag the yard waste, haul out the trash, wash the floor, dust the end tables, wash the dishes etc.  You get the picture.  What we often fail to realize is that these tasks can be broken down into more fundamental movements. For example bagging yard waste involves squatting or deadlifting. Vacuuming involves pushing and pulling. Hauling the trash out involves carrying.  But who has ever been taught the correct way to perform these basic movements? Most individuals are surprised to learn that they have not been moving very well.

In order to stay healthy with our basic household tasks we must prioritize moving well. To move well, we must first become educated on what correct movement looks like.  This means understanding how a movement should be performed.  We know how the human body is made to operate and correct movement can be taught.  Through practice efficient and safe movement practices can be integrated and used in daily life.  As I stated earlier, the body is designed to be resilient and capable of massive amounts of work, but this all relies on moving correctly to prevent injury.

My best recommendation for maintaining your health with the necessary tasks of living is to learn how to become a better mover.   A basic check list of the movements you should know how to complete is below:

1. Squat
2. Deadlift
3. Overhead Press
4. Lunge
5. Pushup
6. Row

Once you learn how to perform these exercises correctly, you can use them as templates for daily living.  For example, I know how to bag leaves correctly because I know how to squat.  I know how to vacuum correctly because I learned how to push from the pushup and pull from the row.

Learn the fundamentals and utilize the techniques in everyday life to stay healthy and prevent injury.

Dan Ormsby DPT

Neil King Physical Therapy – Bloomfield Hills