Slow Transformation to Restorative Exercise and a More Alignment-Friendly Living Space

In case you missed it earlier, I have fallen in love with a newish (to the world of exercise and medicine) understanding of the body, often referred to as Whole-Body Alignment and/or Restorative Exercise.  In a nutshell it says that a lot of our troubles (aches and pains, etc) are caused by lack of movement and lack of moving the "correct way" (but don't get caught up on "the correct way" as really all movement is good - but some ways of moving can do better things for your body - especially ways of holding your core or ribs, etc that affect large chunks of muscles and bones and such, over large amounts of time. . . like your whole life up to now).

Anyhow, if you want to read up on it I recommend this book called Move Your DNA by Katy Bowman.  It is a good introduction and includes some basic exercises.  She has written a few other books and has some more in the works.  Her latest books is Whole Body Barefoot and I have not finished it (or really gotten further than the introduction) but it also seems like a good place to start.

*Side Note: Katy's earlier books (such as The First Five Years) are really just her blog posts put together for accessibility, but they are still very helpful I think.  She also has TONS of information at her blog, KatySays.com and lots of other resources like DVDs, online courses, etc.

Now that I have set the stage I would like to share a few ways we I have attempted to make our home "more alignment-friendly."

First I sold one of our couches, as sitting, especially in the position you would on a couch is an over-used position that does not promote proper length in your muscles.  (In other words, your hamstrings shorten when you sit - and over time and repeated sitting your body will adapt and you will not be able to lengthen them to their proper length and that will affect how you walk and how you hold your organs and everything else.)  I would like to scrap the other two couches, as well, but the hubby wants me to keep one and the other one is apparently not tempting enough to sell at this time.  Although I have mixed feelings about it not selling as it is by far the most comfortable and durable couch we own and if I had to pick one to keep I would keep it.  But hubby wants to keep the "nice looking one" so right now we have both.  Whatever.

Paul, in need of a haircut, preparing to show his skills on the rings.  (Side Note: One of the rules is nothing can be under you while you are on the rings, the pillow moved before he began, in case you were concerned.)

Ditching one of the couches has freed up some space in the living room so I could hang some rings!!  Hanging and playing on rings or monkey bars is VERY GOOD for your upper body - and especially good for developing kids to play on as they need that motion to help with brain development.  Seriously, I remember reading it a couple of times from different sites and I would link it now, but I'm too lazy to go look it up (and I have been linking stuff like crazy in this post already).

Paul showing off on the rings.

Even if you do not get what this "Alignment/Restorative Exercise" bit is all about, anyone home with your kids all day can appreciate some indoor play equipment, right?  Now, it is not perfect all the time.  Sometimes the kids fail to follow the rules and the rings come down for a time, but generally, they LOVE THEM and take turns and what-not.  And the kids have all gone from just swinging on them in the beginning to flipping.  And then not just flipping one way, but flipping the other way.  And then inverting with feet straight up and then hooking their feet and pushing their chests out.  And. . . well, let's just say it has been pretty awesome to see them all progress.  

Samuel showing off on the rings.

Perhaps the most notable change in our home atmosphere has been our table.  Although my husband is not in quite as deep as me in this new way of living, I think he has secretly wanted to be Japanese all his life, so when I asked for a short table we could sit on the floor at, he did not even flinch.  Since our current table was not suitable for adapting (and we have really outgrown it anyhow) we decided to adapt an old table we picked up second-hand.  It has proven to be exactly what we wanted. . . other than hubby making it just a touch lower than I would really like (but that was mostly a miscommunication and I am over it now. . . although maybe some day he could figure a way to make it just a few inches higher so I could put my legs under it!  But I digress. . . ).

Horrible picture of the kiddos, but notice the table.  And all of the cushions now have covers, except for the extra-large one under Samuel.  I'm not sure how to cover that one yet.

We had some old couch cushions that the kids would use to build forts and such and I found some outdoor cushions on a local swap meet that work well.  I have since covered them with pillow protectors (to absorb spills) and am working on getting zippered pillow covers, but in the mean time we just use pillow cases and I rotate them as they get dirty and need to be laundered.  It is not glamorous, but it works well for us and makes me happy.

Rebekah happily modeling our standing desk.

Our schoolwork is mostly done in the front room of our house because I like to have the whole family together and this is really the only room that can fit us all comfortably, at the same time.  Although we all "could" just sit at the table, it is nice to have another desk to plug in the laptops and hold books and such.  Plus, sitting at a traditional desk with a chair is not all bad, it is doing only that ALL THE TIME that can cause problems.  So we do still have a traditional-height desk.  However, I modified it slightly to make it a standing desk, as some standing is good for you.  I also moved up a tall chair we have for when the student using said desk gets tired of standing and wants to sit.  In a perfect world I make sure to check that the children are moving and changing their positions and such throughout the day.  Since our world is far from perfect I simply provide the best environment I can to enable my children to move and wiggle and such as they go about their day, even when not outside for recess or playing upstairs in our indoor gym.

This is an accidental picture of our futon on the floor.  I was washing the sheets and the girls decided it was a good place to play.

One final area we are going more minimal is our sleeping arrangements.  My dear husband slept on a futon before we were married and I often slept (by my own choice) on the ground growing up.  My parents had to buy me a brand-new fancy bed to get me to sleep in one when I was in high school.  Anyhow, futons are great, but the bars of my husband's frame were poking through the thin mat, so we simply moved the mat to the floor for our first bed as a married couple.  It worked wonderfully.  Although we did use my "fancy" new bed for a brief time (a couple of years) after moving into our first house, we soon returned to a futon on the floor, mostly for the sake of comfort while co-sleeping.  With a king-sized-futon on the floor I had plenty of room to nurse the baby to sleep and leave said baby safely in his/her area as I wiggled back over to snuggle with my husband.  There was no fear of baby falling out of bed and we could actually fit most of our family comfortably!  (Although, oddly enough, now days the kids all stay in their own beds and the baby, too!  Who knew that would happen?!? )

Here is Rebekah's "bed."

Rebekah had recently taken to sleeping on the floor as she complained her bed was not comfortable.  (But she had the most comfortable bed in the house really - a pillow-topped fancy mattress a friend had given us!!)  In any case, I sold her bed and bought her a little futon mat and she has been so happy with it.  It is nice to have less furniture in the girls room and to be able to move Rebekah's bed so easily - she potentially could sleep anywhere in the house at any given moment and she could probably take her little mat camping, too, if she wanted.  I am considering doing the same for the boys and Miriam, but our bunk beds would need to be modified with OSB or some other support so the mats would fit.  Another hindrance at this time is my young children that occasionally wet out of their nighttime diapers.  A crib mattress is considerably more waterproof than a futon mat.  We do have a cover on Rebekah's mat, but I am still hesitant to lose the security of a plastic-covered mattress for the little ones.

This concludes my "update" of changes I have implemented to make our living space more alignment-friendly.  I have seen some serious improvement in my personal health by implementing some restorative exercises and changing our house this way.

P.S. A special thanks goes out to all my friends and family that still come to visit despite all these changes.  As I often say, I know I am crazy, but I'm in too deep now! 

An old picture (for the changes anyhow - as the couch in the background is the one we have since sold!) but I could not resist sharing Miriam's smile.  She loves the rings.