How to get through a move, Pain Free
I’m not going to be the first person that says a lot of things have changed about COVID. That’s old news at this point BUT what I haven’t heard too much about is how COVID is making some people rethink their living situation. Working from home has its advantages but it also has some struggles. WFH life had Colin and me really reassess condo life. We both have work where video conferencing throughout the day is a must and living next to a canyon where noises are not only amplified but also echo got old real fast. So when the opportunity came to rent a house on short notice we jumped on it.
I was grateful that it lined up after our engagement photos. We had been working out consistently for months leading up to the shoot and were keeping up the ritual of it afterwards. This left our bodies in a strong state of being to go through the move. We hired movers to help us with the heavy furniture because (let’s be real) I did not want to navigate the staircases. But we still had to pack up the house and load up the truck with all the clothes, pantry items, pots & pans etc. It had me really appreciating how hard moving is on the body and the 3 key things needed to help you relocate from old space to new space pain free.
1. You need hip mobility
Have you ever thought about how many low cabinets you have? Neither have I. If you ask me now how many our former condo had I would say too many. I spent the week leading up to the move cleaning out kitchen cabinets, bathroom cabinets, the “junk” cabinet and underneath the stairway closet all of which required me to squat lower than the height of a chair to clean out. Sure you can sit on the floor. But even if you are sitting criss cross apple sauce you need to have hip mobility to maintain the position for a long period of time. Plus- when was the last time you sat like a grade schooler anyways?
2. You need (deep) squat strength
This one I will admit might already be known however, reiterating the “squat lower than a chair” point mentioned above, most of us practice squatting from a chair height level if that. Take a moment and think about how you pick up a bag of groceries from the floor. Do you hinge from the hips and lean over or do you bend from your knees to pick it up? Most people I know use the first technique which when used for a moving box filled with books is asking for a thrown out back.
3. You need a strong core
Regardless of if you are like me and follow the packing technique of filling the box to the brim or follow a more systematic way of moving things you are going to come across some heavy -ish to move. On a couple occasions I was surprised to find out that I could move some boxes that my fiance couldn’t. Colin and I follow a similar training program with the only differences being that he lifts heavier than I do and I add Pilates into my routine 3x/week on top of my strength training. The core strengthening and whole body integration that the Pilates method teaches is what helped me to protect my back and move boxes that my fiance couldn’t.
At the end of the day, you can have strong arms to carry things but that is only one piece of the puzzle. We made it through the move pain free because we not only had strength but also flexible & mobile bodies to pack up and pick up all of our belongings. We did discover that we kind of own a lot of stuff and even though we donated a substantial amount of things to the goodwill, I am going to do a little investigating on how we can minimize and downsize. Comment below if you Marie Kondo-ed over quarantine! I’d love to hear how it went for you.
Also click here to request a copy of my free “Healthy Happy Back” guide to start alleviating back pain now!
