Too Close to the Margins

Have you ever noticed that almost all print media – books, magazines, business cards, letterheads, etc – have margins? A space along the top, sides, and bottom?

Imagine how much shorter some books might be without a margin. Just print edge to edge. Why waste the space?

And even most websites have margins although it seems lately that those are often filled with some kind of ad.

Margins give a reader some space, some “breathing room” to take in the material. When the margins are too tight, you’re apt to feel rushed and, in my opinion, learn less.

Your body needs margins too.

The “margins” of your body are things like the rest period between exercises or sets, the time between exercise days, how many exercises you do, and even the pace of the exercise regimen. And outside of exercise, you need margins in your activities – how much you work and play.

Physically, we need space to benefit from exercise. The rest period or the time-off is when all of the good stuff happens. It’s when muscles and other tissues repair and rebuild, you re-charge, get better, get stronger, feel better.

Mentally, we need space to pay attention to our intention with the exercise or activity. Each exercise has a purpose and your mind should be on that purpose. Maybe the purpose is to strengthen certain muscles. If you cram too much in a session, do too many sessions per week, stress and press yourself to or near your maximum too often, your mind will likely be everywhere except where it needs to be – what’s happening right now.

And if you hurt, you need space to let your body do its thing – recover, repair, remodel, and rebuild. Too often, the quest for pain relief pushes us – our mind and body – to the very edge of the “page”. We’re so desperate to get out of pain that we layer one procedure on top of another never giving the body a chance. I’ve seen clients go through, for example, a Platelet Rich Plasma procedure and before they have even seen the possible benefits of the procedure, often 3 to 6 months later – they pursue something else.

And while you need more “space” as you age, it’s not limited to only that population. In this study of younger athletes with Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction, the athletes that returned to sport before 9 months had a 7 times greater incidence of re-injury.[source]

It takes time to heal, to get stronger, to feel better. Your body operates at a tempo of its own.

For a lot of us, I know this is true for me from time to time, our lives are not built on the idea of adding space or a margin. It’s the digital age. Things happen fast or they don’t happen. Get more done. Get up earlier, work harder, exercise more, get more stuff done. And for sure don’t do one thing at a time.

But, space is good. We need margins.

Thanks for reading.

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Doug Kelsey has been a physical therapist and human movement expert since 1981. He is formerly Associate Professor and Assistant Dean for Clinical Affairs at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and the author of several books. He has conducted over 250 educational seminars for therapists, trainers, physicians, and the public and has presented lectures at national and international scientific and professional conferences. His professional CV is here.