True to Form

Gravity.

It’s basically trying to push us into the center of the Earth every second of every day.

Working against that gravitational force is ESSENTIAL for our vitality and well-being—which is why astronauts age 20-30 years on a trip OUT of gravity.

Recall how NASA health expert Joan Vernikos puts it in Sitting Kills, Moving Heals: “The physical deterioration suffered by astronauts in space in a matter of days, mirrors what happens to all of us here on Earth as we age. However, living in space profoundly magnifies the changes that normally take a lifetime to appear. On Earth, from age 20 we lose roughly 1 percent of our bone density a year. Yet astronauts in space, on average, lose 1.6 percent of their bone density a month, and some have lost as much as 1 percent in a single week! This is on top of their muscles becoming weaker, their immune systems being suppressed, and their sleep being disturbed. And when they first return from space, they have less stamina, they shuffle when walking, and they have lost their sense of balance. It’s tough being an astronaut!”

And, recall that SITTING has the same detrimental effects on our well-being—albeit aggregated and compounded over time whereas the astronauts have a radically quick deterioration in a short period of time.

And… Let’s remember that the answer to this challenge is NOT more exercise. It’s more movement. Specifically: “High-frequency, low intensity, habitual, stop-and-start activities throughout the day are the path to health. They make the most of gravity, and by their very nature include limitless varieties of movements that benefit your whole body.”

And, finally, note that, as per the intro testimonial above, Joan thinks Foundation Training is the secret sauce to all this: “The human body is designed to thrive against gravity – else we tend to age rapidly and get injured. Foundation Training is the answer to my many years of research on the negative effects of sitting. It is a ticket to discover a more vibrant healthy life – no matter your age.”

Here’s how Eric describes the two key pillars of Foundation Movement: “It stands to reason that if we can return our bodies to the physiological foundation we all started out with, we can recover the capabilities the foundation promised and perhaps reverse the adverse effects of the neglect. That is the aim of Foundation Training, and it works in two ways: one, through decompression movements that unwind and elongate the body to please the pent-up pressures of a body that has insufficiently resisted gravity; and two, through anchoring movements that strengthen the body’s ability to hold itself upright and propel itself with stability and flexibility through various planes and axes of movement.”

Two key aims: Decompression + Anchoring.

Let’s take a quick look at how we were designed to move so we can take some baby steps in getting true to form!

That’s from Chapter 2 in which we learn how we *should* be moving. (Chapter 1 was a quick look at the prototypical modern citizen who moves in pretty much precisely the wrong way—sitting, slouching, hunching over and otherwise getting compressed all day every day.)

Let’s go back in time to the late Pleistocene era, which began around 250,000 years ago and lasted up until the agricultural revolution about 12,000 years ago.

From sunrise to sunset, our ancient nomadic ancestors were upright and nearly constantly moving (against gravity!) all day every day.

Although shorter than modern humans, our ancient ancestors stood tall—which is one of the key themes of the book and one of the simplest things we can start integrating into our lives.

In fact, standing tall and sitting tall and walking tall are some of the top recs Joan Vernikos makes to push back against gravity.

I LOVE the simple way Eric tells us how to optimize our posture. He tells us “chest up, chin down.” Try it right now. Stand up. And stand tall by bringing your sternum UP and your chin slightly down. (“Don’t shrug or hike up your shoulders; instead, raise your sternum, letting the breath of the inhalation lift your ribcage upward…”)

Eric has some great little illustrations to show us how, when we bring our sternum up and our chin slightly down we lengthen our spine and, at the same time, gently pull the back of our skull up and back and off the top of our spine in a healthy, decompressing movement (which also happens to open up our rib cage to allow for more deep breathing which we’ll talk about in a moment).

Again, check out the book for a thorough look at how to do that movement optimally but for now think about maintaining a long, tall body.

Another helpful hint I picked up when studying the Alexander Technique (on a tiny island in Greece 15 years ago) was to imagine a thread running from the top of your head down through your spinal column. Imagine gently pulling that thread up—gently lengthening your spine and widening your back. (And notice your sternum naturally rises as you do that.)

And, finally, here’s another fun way to feel the decompression of standing tall: Stand up and put a book on your head. You can’t keep a book balanced up there if you’re hunched over. Gotta stand up tall. (Try it!)

Chapter 3 is all about how to decompress and the #1 focal point is getting our ribcage nice and big so we can do the most important thing for our optimization: BREATHE DEEPLY!

Quick question: How many breaths would you guess we take every day?

* insert Jeopardy music here *

How about 23,000 to 25,000 breaths per day?

(<— That’s a lot. :)

And, of course, if we’re hunched over with a dinky ribcage compressing our lungs for the majority of those breaths, we’re not going to fully oxygenate. When that happens, E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. suffers.

Therefore, Eric’s primary aim throughout all his exercises is to make sure we BREATHE as deeply as possible as we expand and elongate.

Obviously, check out the book for the specific exercises on how to actually go about doing that. For now, to get the ball rolling, you might want to check out the core movement Eric calls “The Founder.” Here’s a great little 2 minute YouTube video that walks you through how to do it!

And, here’s a little more mojo on decompression breathing: “To me, there’s a kind of magic in decompression breathing, although it’s a pretty straightforward matter of biomechanical science. Standing tall against gravity by expanding the ribcage and filling your lungs with air is the gateway to everything else in the body’s natural posture of strength and flexibility. When the ribcage is as big as it can be all the way around, chances are good that you’re long and strong in the torso, with an axial skeleton elongated from the tailbone to the skull. Everything is supported.”

Remember: Decompression. Expansiveness.

—> “Make your ribcage as big and wide as it can be so that the lungs can do their job successfully.”

I love the metaphor that optimizing is like becoming fluent in a new language—that point where you no longer need to “translate” what’s being said into the new language—you just get it.

Eric tells us that it takes a LOT of diligent, patient, persistent mindfulness to re-train ourselves to move properly. He tells us that to achieve this fluency in optimal movement, it’s NOT about intensity per se, it’s about CONSISTENCY.

Taking advantage of tiny little opportunities throughout our days to engage in our new movements (and all the other thinking + behavioral optimizations we explore throughout these Notes + classes). <— THAT’s where it’s at.

Little by little, we re-train every aspect of ourselves. Fully immersed in our new OPTIMIZE “language,” translating and translating—embracing the discomfort of learning the new language until (OVER.THE.LONG.RUN. I say!), one day we’re dreaming in our new language—and what used to require conscious effort now runs on autopilot.

THAT’s what we’re after.

Eric tells us: “It cannot be stressed too often or too strongly that restoring your body’s natural strength and flexibility comes not through intensity of effort but through consistency. The body responds to how well and how persistently the postures and movements of Foundation Training are performed, not to how hard you do them.”

Consistency over intensity.

This is a theme of both Movement 101 and Conquering Perfectionism 101—we need to let go of the idea that HOW HARD we do something in any one moment is the most critical factor and realize it’s all about how CONSISTENTLY we show up, day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out.

Diligent. Patient. Persistent.

Remembering that incremental optimization aggregated and compounded over time = OPTIMIZE fluency + the joy of ACTUALIZING our greatest potential.

Eric tells us that 86% of us do our work sitting down all day, every day.

And, he says, that has to stop.

We need to remember that Sitting Kills and Moving Heals.

Let’s go back to our ancestors moving all day every day.

And, let’s remember Katy Bowman’s reflection in Move Your DNA that our ancient ancestors were moving for something like 3,000 (!!!) minutes per week whereas our modern “active” person is a hero for exercising 300minutes per week.

Katy makes the SUPER important distinction that MOVEMENT transcends and includes exercise. Exercise is super important but it’s not enough. If we don’t MOVE throughout the day, we can be active AND sedentary—and lose a ton of the benefits of that workout we just did before sitting the rest of the day.

Draw your exercise circle. Crush it. THEN remember to draw a HUGE circle around exercise that makes it look dinky.

Then? Then set your timer for 20 minutes (automatically repeating at the end of every cycle) and get up and move every time it goes off.

This is my new favorite thing. I do something different every time it goes off: 10 super simple step back burpees in the morning and other stretches throughout the day. (Taking as little as 1 minute to move but doing so frequently throughout the day—rather than sitting for hours on end.) And, I aim to go from 5 walks a day—even if they’re only 5 minutes long—en route to my 10,00 steps per day. Plus, now I’m excited to integrate the Foundation Movements.

The goal: Let’s have fun becoming perpetual motion machines.

Those are the final words of the book.

Let’s be like that postage stamp—sticking to the fundamentals of our optimization until we arrive at our destination of actualization.

And, of course, that actualization will always be more like a guiding star than a distant shore, so here’s to having fun enjoying the process and the progress we make as we stand (and sit and walk) tall every step of the way!