Your Body Will Love You for It

Movement is a necessity at any age and one of the three pillars for a full, healthy life. (The others are sleep and nutrition.) If you’re not moving as much as you would like, decisive change in that direction will be your own best reward. Some straight-up rewards you may notice right away are increased mobility, more energy, optimal weight loss for your height and body type, stronger digestion, more equanimity and joy, an immune system that sings―and the list goes on. Considering all aspects of your longevity will point you in the right direction and inspire you to move more.

Consider Your Lifestyle to Move More

Moving more is an informed lifestyle change, not just a “fad diet.” We can look at what we do during a day, assess our activity level, decide to make changes, and subsequently get ourselves in motion. A few general questions to ask yourself as a “movement barometer” are:

• How much do I move every day?

• Do I like to move, or do I prefer sitting and resting?

• How much do I walk?

• What do I carry?

• Do I sit on the floor at all?

What It Takes to Move More

Here are two ways to incorporate more movement in your life: 1) through your willpower and decision to move and 2) an examination into your deeper beliefs about activity. A combination of these two is usually the most effective and includes the same avenues involved in forming any beneficial, long-term habit.

#1: Willpower

The first way to move more: sheer willpower. Make an intention to start moving more; just do it and experience the benefits. The reward is immediate and can happen without any plan or expense. It could happen right now in simple, everyday ways. You can substitute physical activity for resting or spending time in a vehicle (for example, walk to a friend’s house a few blocks away instead of driving). Make it fun by listening to yourself and coming up with new ways to move.

The simplest start could be to walk more. If you live in an urban environment, instead of taking the bus or subway all the way to your destination, get out a couple of stops early and walk. If driving is your mode of transportation, park your car far away from the store, bank, or restaurant and walk to your destination. Another great addition is biking. If you think you’re too old to bike, think again. I live in London part of the year, and bicycling is the main mode of transportation for people of all ages.

Other possibilities: Start a routine first thing in the morning that boosts your circulation and wakes you up. During the day or evening, instead of watching television or reading the paper, move! When you go out shopping, carry your groceries to your car or all the way home. Try standing for periods of time rather than sitting when you work at your computer.

#2: Examine Your Beliefs

The second way to tackle a lack of movement is to examine your beliefs about it. This is a vast topic! The process is subtle, and it may provide a solid foundation to fuel and change your level of activity. Examining your beliefs can help you make movement a regular part of your life.

Are your feelings and thoughts about movement etched in stone? Most likely not. Changing your habits by working on your beliefs might begin by asking yourself these questions: Were you active as a child, a young adult, a mature woman or man? Did you like to ride your bike, play sports, swim, or make time to play tennis or basketball with friends? How did you feel doing these activities? How was your energy level and enthusiasm? These experiences from the past are stored as muscle memory; it is there for you to tap into.

Movement Expert Katy Bowman Provides Insight

An outstanding proponent of movement, author Katy Bowman provides insights on the evolutionary history of movement. She shares that our predecessors moved very naturally. They had to move constantly because of their lifestyle and their need for sheer survival. Bowman celebrates movement as our natural heritage and says it is the way our bodies came to be what they are now. Reading her three books―Move Your DNA, Dynamic Aging, and Movement Matters―is like viewing a million-year sweep of human body history. One moment you’re around a campfire crouching, kneeling, or sitting on the earth or climbing trees to gather fruit the next you’re looking at an X-ray or CAT scan to determine what’s really happening in that joint that’s been bothering you every time you move.

Her books, website, and teachings inspire people to move more and experience the immediate benefits movement brings to their health and mobility. She offers a step-by-step explanation of her philosophy as well as exercises to fix any physical problems you may have, so you can get moving and stay motivated. You may realize that your rationale for taking it easy doesn’t hold a candle to the immense cumulative benefits of moving—and how good you feel when you do move. The fringe benefits of moving vastly outweigh being sedentary. Action has a much-needed place in our modern lives, just as taking it easy has its place. The important takeaway: create a balance between the two.

Understanding Your Body Mechanics Will Help You Move More

A believer in systems, Bowman says nothing in the body works in isolation, as gym trainers might have us believe. She calls herself a bio-mechanist, someone well-trained in the human body’s mechanics. Bowman knows the way every joint, muscle, tendon, and bone was built and how they all function.

She practices what she preaches and walks barefoot in the forest every day near her home. Often, she brings her children and gathers edible, wild plants during their walks. While working at her desk she either stands or sits on the floor. If you think this sounds strange, try this simple experiment: stay close to the floor for even a fraction of a day rather than sitting on chairs or sofas. Once you get used to it, your hips, legs, and knees will thank you for giving them the extra strength it takes to get up.

The initial aches in your legs are the measure of one thing: how much strength, mobility, and health you’ve given up by sitting in a chair. Your body was built for so much more! Going back to our roots helps us see our bodies from a whole new perspective.

Hold onto Your Hat: Here’s What Bowman Thinks about Exercise

It’s well known that modern life does not encourage or support constant physical motion. Many of us sit at computers, tablets, mobile phones, or TVs, with eyes glued to a digital screen for hours each day. This dramatically affects bones, muscles, circulation, and every bodily function. Exercise is one solution many of us can embrace―and it occupies a certain place in moving more.

But here’s what Katy Bowman says about exercise as we know it: “Even modalities of exercise like yoga or dance class, which focus on cycling through twenty to a hundred unique body positions, offer a small fraction of the movements we are capable of ... the first step to radically improve your health is to let go of the notion that movement is exercise.”

Movement can be enhanced with exercise but confining it to the gym is depriving you of all the movements that have been part of our ancestral lives for millions of years. Addressing the misnomer that movement needs to happen solely in the gym, yoga studio, or other exercise-focused locale is one step in committing to live a healthier, more deeply honest life.

Think about our roots, and you will see our bodies from a whole new and authentic perspective. Movement is an essential ingredient that forms who we are. It’s part of our life, moment to moment. The more we recognize the inestimable benefits movement can bring, the richer and healthier our lives will become.