Natural movement for fun and longevity

Today I met my friend Max and we went for a brisk walk up to the waterfall . Most of the journey was uphill with some road , stairs and broken path . We had to negotiate slippery rocks so our balance was challenged and also work quite hard work on the uphills so our cardiovascular capacity was challenged.

Long ago when humans still stalked , hunted , foraged and climbed trees our bodies naturaly moved in a vast array of patterns . We were healthy and strong because we used our bodies to their full potential . Now we sit a lot and I know very few people who climb trees . It is almost like keeping a Chimpanzee in a cage and not allowing him out into the jungle to swing through the trees and have fun . It is not surprising so many people are depressed and have little joy in their lives . We are caged humans !

Lets break out of our cages and move like wild chimpanzees .

Next  I went to the track and played around with some body weight movements . The number one rule here is that as soon as you get tired and your movement quality suffers stop and rest . A lot of these moves come from Mike Fitch , Ido Portal , Gray Cook  and Feldenkrais .

I use some of these exercises especially crawling to help back pain and shoulder rehab clients . When you crawl try to imagine that there is a glass of water on your back and you do not want to spill it , this promotes pelvic stability and core strength . The movements are very safe and are multi dimensional so our bodies are challenged in all planes and repetitive stress is diminished .

Most importantly I believe the movements are fun and have a carry over effect to real life activities .

Check out my blog next week for a small piece on sciatica .