Sitting Is The New Smoking

February 25, 2019

The term "Nutritious Movement" was coined by Katy Bowman, biomechanist (and author of "Move Your DNA") to explain how we all need to be moving our bodies, in different ways, all day long, in order to be healthy. She takes it to the next level -- she doesn't even have any furniture in her house! But her point is this: many of us are sedentary for most of our days. When we do move around our homes or offices (or even if we exercise on a treadmill), the bulk of our movement is done on flat, level terrain (which is not commonly found in nature). This causes our bodies to lose the ability to deal with non-flat-and-level and, as such, can be deemed non-nutritious movement.

We don't need to be as extreme as Katy to get a little more nutritious movement into our lives. Here are 5 easy suggestions:

1. Stand up as often as possible. If you can stand at your desk at work, great. If not, stand on the train for the ride home or stand when you eat breakfast or lunch.

2. Stretch your calf muscles. Katy has a little wedge (like this) that she rests her toes on when she's at her standing desk but a rolled up towel works just as well. You could do this while you're brushing your teeth.

3. Sit on things with different heights. Sit on the floor with or without a cushion (it gets easier), sit on yoga blocks to watch a TV show, or kneel up to read an article or respond to emails at your coffee table.

4. Strengthen your feet. To keep feet healthy, they need to be exposed to a variety of different textures, as opposed to the same socks, shoes or even flooring of our homes. Some of you have seen the rock mat I have in front of my kitchen sink -- that serves a dual purpose: the uneven surface is good for the foot muscles and the rocks are from my happy place so they give me a sense of calm every time I look at them. Something like this works just as well.

5. Chest-opener stretches (aka Crucifix Stretches). I've mentioned this one before, but it's such an easy one and it FEELS SO GOOD after being hunched over a computer for hours. Stand up straight, feet together, tighten your glutes and reach your arms out straight to the sides with your hands externally rotated, so your thumbs are pointing straight behind you. Hold for 10 seconds or so. Do this as often as you can -- a couple of times an hour is not too much!

It stands to reason that we wouldn't have nearly as many aches and pains as we age if we kept our bodies active. As Katy Bowman says, “...movement, like food, is not optional; (the) ailments you may be experiencing are simply (and complexly) symptoms of movement hunger in response to a movement diet that is dangerously low in terms of quantity and poor in terms of quality—meaning you aren’t getting the full spectrum of movement nutrition necessary for a baseline human function.”