Be like a tree: stand tall, stay quiet, grow upward, be fruitful, hold your ground, and branch out to beliefs.
I wanted to title this blog ‘Stand Tall’ after a conversation with my running buddy this Sunday on why he should try to stand tall first and then simulate a fall. An incident on Tuesday got me thinking about Living Tall and not just Standing tall. More on that a little later....
Standing Tall has huge advantages, most important one is Posture. As an entrepreneur promoting an Active lifestyle, I have realised that the first step to fitness is Posture. As a human race, if you believe in science & evolution, we evolved from scampering around on all four to bipedal. i.e. walking & running on two legs and this happened somewhere between 3 to 6 million years ago. We evolved to run on our two feet as soon as we realised that resources were getting rare, competition was getting fierce and the goods need to be carried, there was no other way than to stand up and use upper two limbs as hands to hold things. Our posture to stand/walk straight was created out of our necessity to lift things and move fast. Today, keeping a tall posture is a necessity considering the amount of time we have to look at a screen be it a laptop or a mobile.
Over years we developed muscles & skeletal system to enable walking on two legs. Our foot evolved to push off from the ground while walking and absorbs shock on touching down. And just like that we started running too.
Run Tall (almost Tall)
As a runner, one thing I have realised, running is a process of learning. I remember I started running, the entire effort was on legs & knees. Slowly over time and with guidance especially from Col. Avdesh Kumar, I learned the trick of standing tall to be more energy efficient and also to be kind to our bones and muscles. Running is a two-part motion. You have to simulate a fall with a little bit of braking force to catch your balance and then go with the flow and gravity, it generates force to propel you forward. By standing up straight you centre your weight over your feet. This also helps you maintain correct form while exercising, which results in fewer injuries and greater gains.
Running is - Stand Tall, fall, and Just Flow!
Walk Tall
Just like in running, proper walking also promotes the same concept, stand tall, lean/fall forward and walk with mid-foot landing. Your head should be balanced over your shoulders. Your shoulders should be balanced over your hips, and your hips should be balanced over your legs. No slouching your shoulders (a common problem since most of us are hunched over a computer all day). No head in front of your body (thanks again to the computer).
Work Tall
In our workspace, sitting tall looking at a laptop straight without slouching is one the most important posture correction we should do as humans. We evolved from walking on four limbs slouching to being upright, but now our laptops and mobile have made us slouch again, even if we are walking on legs.
Your workspace where you spend maximum time of your day has to be an Active space with enough enablement to stand or sit tall, like using risers, standing desk and broad passages to walk around every 30 mins and also take stairs as much as possible. My venture promotes this solution to bad posture with our Risers & Standing Desks.
Let your Workspace Work for you!
Live Tall
Tall has an important significance in our lives. Metaphorically, it means how we face challenges in life.
To Stand Tall means “To behave in a brave, proud, or unyielding manner, without retreating from confrontation, danger, or adversity”
To Sit tall means “To be or remain proud, stoical, or august in one's manner or composure.”
Now to the incident that changed the context of this blog for me; Bijay and I were discussing posture, forms and running after completing our Sunday morning run at 9:00 am.
Little did we know a kilometre away from where we finished our run, a fellow runner & cyclist with an amazing fitness lifestyle breathed his last after cycling for 50kms. A massive heart attack! His stats on wearable tech showed nothing less than perfect; and shock was the only reaction all of us had. How does something like this happen to someone who has followed fitness to the T? Such is life. Attending his funeral on Monday, I recalled a few times that I met him and a few memories that came to me was of someone who was soft spoken, smart, well read and very focussed on his active lifestyle. A few days before the incident I remember joking with friends saying a heart attack is probably the best way to depart without much of a stress to the body or loved ones. But then at his last rites, seeing his son, I realised that there is never a good way or a good time to go.
The adversities that we face every day in our life, the unpredictability, the uncertainties, we have got to Stand Tall to that first. In words and in actions. Stand Tall in our challenges, Sit tall through our adversities, Live Tall in this journey called Life. A Testa Alta!