Eating, Exercise & Joint Noises

Weekly Resource Roundup

Reflecting on Eating & Exercise

Katy Bowman’s book “Move Your DNA” analyzes the impact our modern, sedentary culture has on our bodies. She describes how our relationship to food has changed in our modern era. As we approach the holidays, this excerpt is important to reflect on how we frame eating and exercise.

In our lifetime, it is the abundance of food intake that motivates us to exercise. When it comes to both food and exercise our relationship is not only off, we are essentially operating in reverse when it comes to our human reflexes to eat and move.

The ancestral model of movement says movement initiates reflexively via a desire to find food. In order to satiate biological hunger, the movement was initiated in an organic way. When food became readily available without movement, our relationship with food and movement completely changed. Now we move as a response to too much food. This perspective, that movement is necessary to mitigate the effects of food, is a mantra repeated by every health publication and practitioner.The notion that movement’s purpose is to avoid the negative repercussions of consuming food is fundamental to our modern beliefs about health.Our current model sets both food and movement as a negative. Eating food (a biological imperative) makes us feel guilty, and we turn movement (also a biological imperative) into punishment. Atonement for diet through exercise.

Why Your Joints Make Noises

It’s normal for joints to make noises. As long as there’s no pain with moving the joint, there’s nothing to worry about. Tim on the Original Strength Bodcast, reviews 3 reasons your joints make noises:

1. Joint surfaces wear down but ‘motion is lotion’ so we need to keep moving.
2. The joint lubricants are creating mini bubbles and nitrogen gas is getting released when the joint moves. Popping your knuckles would be one example. Popping joints won’t cause joint problems or lead to arthritis.
3. Something outside of the joint is causing the noise. Tendons or tissue over the joint could be causing the noise. This could lead to bursitis or tendonitis so it’s important to stretch the area around the joint.

Movements to Try

A Movement Advent Calendar providing a movement to try each day leading up to Christmas. Katy’s Dynamic ADVENT-URE calendar is a great way to keep moving throughout your house over the holidays.