You may have heard that sitting is the new smoking. My response is that it doesn't have to be. Sitting isn't inherently passive. If you position yourself well, you could be engaging your glutes and hamstrings the entire time you're sitting still. It's a serious isometric workout. 

Also, the hunched-over shoulders thing? Doesn't have to be this way. A good ergonomic desk set-up and simple practices to maintain your spine and shoulder position, and voilà! You can have beautiful posture while you're typing. The modern world doesn't have to ruin our bodies. We just need to know how to hold ourselves in relationship to our technology. 

Come learn the basics with me.

Learn to stand? You gotta be kidding me. Seriously?! Yes. 

It's easy to develop bad habits. How often do you find yourself standing on one leg, collapsing your hip joint, tilting your pelvis, and holding a lot of tension in your shoulders? You may have your own version of bad standing habits, and I encourage you to notice what they are. 

The body evolved for ease. Life is better when standing feels natural. It's likely you've built up a number of compensations over the years, and learning to find your way back to your body's balanced posture is what we're here to do. 

There is a sense of strength available when you stand well. Confidence. Presence. Dare I say power? There's nothing metaphorical about standing your ground. It's a lived experience.

Learn to stand. 

Walking moves us through the world and through our days. It is also the movement that made us human — we learned to walk upright rather than on all fours. Unfortunately, when it comes to walking, the modern world has taken us back a few steps in evolution. 

Most of us were trained to walk with a hard heel strike that disrupts joints and is jarring to our nervous systems. We use our thighs to move the leg forward, which takes effort. The spine doesn't move. All this wears the body down and ages us more than necessary. 

There is a more natural way to walk. One that generates energy rather than tiring us. A way that increases fluidity and relaxation, lubricates our joints, and improves coordination. And above all, it feels delicious to your body. 

Once you get the hang of these new movement patterns, walking may just become one of your favorite forms of exercise. Or maybe it's not even exercise anymore. It's pure enjoyment in motion. 

Our cells don't generate energy without oxygen. Breath is needed to metabolize what we eat. Breath is the rhythm that guides the movement of our digestive system. Breath is how we access the state of relaxation that enables assimilation.

So we need to breathe. This sounds obvious, but how often in a day do you notice yourself holding your breath?

In this series of Five Fundamental Movements, we will focus on breath. Not controlled breathing. Not techniques. Breathing the way your body is naturally designed to breathe. Diaphragm, rib cage, and lungs all in coordinated motion. Breath that generates flow. 

Constructive Rest is the foundation for all functional movement. When we allow our spine and skeletal system to come into natural alignment with gravity, we gain efficiency and ease in motion. 

With time spent cultivating our ability to be, to do nothing, to become receptive, we create the conditions for change, transformation, and healing. We begin to sense the natural waves that organize us, the biological rhythms of cerebrospinal fluid and lymph, the ability to sense fluid within tissue. This is how we initiate movement. By learning to sense movement within us. 

The focus of this section: spend more time on the floor.