Show Your Body Some Gratitude

by | Nov 3, 2015 | Health & Fitness

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Photo: Courtesy of Kirk Meyers

While we go about our day to day lives, running after cabs, holding onto subway rails, sitting down and standing up at our desks, climbing the steps to our apartments or offices, there’s something that often gets overlooked or taken for granted.

Our bodies!

When we are at the gym, doing our bicep curls or squats, it is so easy to be aware of our muscles. We feel the burn. We strain to lift the bar once more, or do five more sit-ups. We feel each pull, stretch and contraction of muscle. We are aware of the breath in our lungs when we go for a jog, and the impact on our knees. We are focused on these things when we are purposefully exercising.

But what about when we aren’t at the gym? How much time do we give to appreciating our bodies when we aren’t “working out?”

We move all day long, using our muscles, our skeletons and our organs in ways we never really think about. Every time you go from sitting to standing at your desk, you are engaging your quadriceps, hamstrings, gastrocnemius and soleus (calf) muscles in your legs, your abdominals, obliques, lower back and glutes in your torso. That is a lot of muscle at work! When you carry your groceries, which can weigh much more than that ten pound weight you curl at the gym, you are using your triceps, biceps, deltoids, trapezius, pectoral muscles—the list goes on and on.

Take a moment to thank your body for all of the work that it does. Acknowledge the beauty of movement, no matter what your fitness level or ability is.

The human body is an incredibly powerful and finely tuned machine that seems to just work on its own and is so easy to ignore—until something goes wrong. It is our responsibility to maintain our bodies through activity, healthy diet and a positive mindset. Awareness of the types of movement we do each day, the fuel we are using to keep our bodies going, and appreciation for ourselves and all that we DO, can help keep our bodies doing what our bodies do best—moving!

-by Reyna Abraham 

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