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Move Your DNA: Restore Your Health Through Natural Movement
Humorous, fascinating, and science based, the bestselling first edition of Move Your DNA has been updated and expanded to include a comprehensive three-level exercise program. In layperson-friendly terms Move Your DNA addresses the vast quantities of disease we are suffering from, identifying our lack of movement as the primary cause. Readers can use the corrective exercises and lifestyle changes Katy Bowman has created to help each of us transition to healthy, naturally moving bodies. Move Your DNA explains the science behind our need for natural movementright down to the cellular level. It examines the differences between the movements in a typical hunter-gatherers life and the movements in our own. It shows the many problems with using exercise like movement vitamins instead of addressing the deeper issue of our poor movement diet. Best of all, Move Your DNA contains the corrective exercises, habit modifications, and simple lifestyle changes we need to make in order to slowly mobilize our body to decrease pain and uncover our naturally healthy, reflex-driven selves. From couch potatoes to professional athletes, new parents to seniors, readers will love Bowmans humorous, passionate, and science-based guide to restoring your body and reclaiming your life.
301 pages, Paperback
First published September 25, 2014
802 people are currently reading
5652 people want to read
About the author
Katy Bowman
26 books395 followersBestselling author, speaker, and a leader of the Movement movement, biomechanist Katy Bowman, M.S. is changing the way we move and think about our need for movement. Her ten books, including the groundbreaking Move Your DNA, have been translated into more than 16 languages worldwide.
Bowman is the creator and host of the "Move Your DNA" podcast, teaches movement globally, and speaks about sedentarism and movement ecology to academic and scientific audiences such as the Ancestral Health Summit and the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. Her work has been featured in such diverse media as the Today Show, CBC Radio One, the Seattle Times, NPR, the Joe Rogan Experience, and Good Housekeeping.
One of Maria Shriver’s “Architects of Change” and an America Walks “Woman of the Walking Movement,” Bowman consults on educational and living space design to encourage movement-rich habitats. She has worked with companies like Patagonia, Nike, and Google as well as a wide range of non-profits and other communities to create greater access to her “move more, move more body parts, move more for what you need” message.
Her movement education company, Nutritious Movement, is based in Washington State, where she lives with her family.
Bowman is the creator and host of the "Move Your DNA" podcast, teaches movement globally, and speaks about sedentarism and movement ecology to academic and scientific audiences such as the Ancestral Health Summit and the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. Her work has been featured in such diverse media as the Today Show, CBC Radio One, the Seattle Times, NPR, the Joe Rogan Experience, and Good Housekeeping.
One of Maria Shriver’s “Architects of Change” and an America Walks “Woman of the Walking Movement,” Bowman consults on educational and living space design to encourage movement-rich habitats. She has worked with companies like Patagonia, Nike, and Google as well as a wide range of non-profits and other communities to create greater access to her “move more, move more body parts, move more for what you need” message.
Her movement education company, Nutritious Movement, is based in Washington State, where she lives with her family.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 334 reviews
August 20, 2014
I am a huge fan of Katy Bowman. Her holistic yet thoroughly scientific approach to health and wellness is extremely fascinating and incredibly effective. I have experienced first hand how releasing tensions and correcting alignments can fix seemingly unrelated health issues--and thus believe her when she says that the majority of chronic ailments our society suffers, have mechanical components that are largely unaddressed.
The first part of the book is fairly technical discussing adaptions of the muscles and cells at microscopic levels. While it may be a bit much for some people I love the technical details and kind of wished for even more.
The middle part of the book mostly describes how our modern environment causes our body to adapt into adopting damaging chronic positioning that cause us to restrict our ranges of motion. For instance don't sit on your tail bone, stand with your feet straight instead of pointing out, drop your ribs, ramp you head back over your shoulders instead of jutting it forward, straighten your legs instead of keeping your knees bent.
She also points out the irony in that even those who are diligent exercisers are usually still sedentary for the majority of the time, and that the exercises most of us do for health are just more inputs that cause us to adapt to restricted ranges of motion instead of ones that promote greater ranges of motion and thus why many extremely fit people suffer from poor overall health. She also discusses the psychology of how if you are participating in movement as part of you daily life versus as a compartmentalized chore or activity, the greater an impact it will have on your overall health.
Then in addition to adjusting your daily habits of sitting, standing, walking, etc she does offer some corrective exercises that can be done to help us mimic some natural motions we often miss in our modern lives. While the descriptions are thorough and contain pictures and also excellent notes on how our body can try to "cheat" to avoid the desired effect, I recommend watching her free youtube videos or downloading some of the $5 classes she offers, as videos are a better media for explaining exercises clearly.
It is difficult to do a complete synopsis of the ideas she presents --and thus why she has written three books and has tons of videos, interviews, blog, etc, but once you have absorbed enough of what she says you get the bigger picture of how it is all connected.
The first part of the book is fairly technical discussing adaptions of the muscles and cells at microscopic levels. While it may be a bit much for some people I love the technical details and kind of wished for even more.
The middle part of the book mostly describes how our modern environment causes our body to adapt into adopting damaging chronic positioning that cause us to restrict our ranges of motion. For instance don't sit on your tail bone, stand with your feet straight instead of pointing out, drop your ribs, ramp you head back over your shoulders instead of jutting it forward, straighten your legs instead of keeping your knees bent.
She also points out the irony in that even those who are diligent exercisers are usually still sedentary for the majority of the time, and that the exercises most of us do for health are just more inputs that cause us to adapt to restricted ranges of motion instead of ones that promote greater ranges of motion and thus why many extremely fit people suffer from poor overall health. She also discusses the psychology of how if you are participating in movement as part of you daily life versus as a compartmentalized chore or activity, the greater an impact it will have on your overall health.
Then in addition to adjusting your daily habits of sitting, standing, walking, etc she does offer some corrective exercises that can be done to help us mimic some natural motions we often miss in our modern lives. While the descriptions are thorough and contain pictures and also excellent notes on how our body can try to "cheat" to avoid the desired effect, I recommend watching her free youtube videos or downloading some of the $5 classes she offers, as videos are a better media for explaining exercises clearly.
It is difficult to do a complete synopsis of the ideas she presents --and thus why she has written three books and has tons of videos, interviews, blog, etc, but once you have absorbed enough of what she says you get the bigger picture of how it is all connected.
August 30, 2016
Clear out the nightstand, cos this is my new bible.
I consider(ed) myself to be a very healthy person. I exercise tons, and eat good, whole foods. Unfortunately I am exercising wrong, and so are you. Exercising, walking, standing, sitting, sleeping...
Katy Bowman proposes that we need to think of movement the same way we think of food. Our "movement diet" needs to be natural and varied, and it isn't optional.
The first half of the book explains basic biomechanics and cell function, relating to a "movement environment." The biggest idea is that we aren't moving anywhere near enough, or properly. All exercise as we do it is movement, but not all movement is exercise.
My favorite theme was that the way we live our lives today is like animals in captivity. Bowman likens out knee/back/mobility problems to captive orcas fins flopping. We are experiencing, "diseases of captivity." Cool huh. Now I studied kinesiology in college. I'm not sure if I would have struggled with some of the concepts if I didn't have that background, but I don't think so. Everything is explained quite clearly.
Now that you're all terrified because you're ruining your body, the second half of the book is a practical guide to fixing bad habits. Bowman gives us specific movements and releases to start regaining mobility and strength. Mostly though, it's just a matter of changing your daily habits to incorporate more natural movement. The exercises given are good. A handful of them are difficult to understand in the book, but these I just looked up on YouTube and found loads more information.
Overall, it's a bunch of really interesting ideas. It's also funny, and easy to take and put into practice. This is one I'll be pushing on all my unwilling family and friends. Look out world, amateur physical therapist on the loose
I consider(ed) myself to be a very healthy person. I exercise tons, and eat good, whole foods. Unfortunately I am exercising wrong, and so are you. Exercising, walking, standing, sitting, sleeping...
Katy Bowman proposes that we need to think of movement the same way we think of food. Our "movement diet" needs to be natural and varied, and it isn't optional.
The first half of the book explains basic biomechanics and cell function, relating to a "movement environment." The biggest idea is that we aren't moving anywhere near enough, or properly. All exercise as we do it is movement, but not all movement is exercise.
My favorite theme was that the way we live our lives today is like animals in captivity. Bowman likens out knee/back/mobility problems to captive orcas fins flopping. We are experiencing, "diseases of captivity." Cool huh. Now I studied kinesiology in college. I'm not sure if I would have struggled with some of the concepts if I didn't have that background, but I don't think so. Everything is explained quite clearly.
Now that you're all terrified because you're ruining your body, the second half of the book is a practical guide to fixing bad habits. Bowman gives us specific movements and releases to start regaining mobility and strength. Mostly though, it's just a matter of changing your daily habits to incorporate more natural movement. The exercises given are good. A handful of them are difficult to understand in the book, but these I just looked up on YouTube and found loads more information.
Overall, it's a bunch of really interesting ideas. It's also funny, and easy to take and put into practice. This is one I'll be pushing on all my unwilling family and friends. Look out world, amateur physical therapist on the loose
October 1, 2021
A militantly primitivist book chiding us for the absolute state of the place, with the place being our bodies.
I do love my unga bunga bullshit, and sweet Katy legitimizes it more than the paleo zealots and coffee bulletproofers could ever hope to, because she is a Load Scientist. While I'm sure a contributing factor is her rejection of bras in favor of "the natural strengthening of our tissues", in this context I refer to her biomechanics degree, and her obsessive study of the long term effects of repeated movement under weight to parts of our bodies, as we all as the whole damn body.
Barefoot Katy's Load Science tells us that the trappings of civilization are frigging with the natural patterns that our bodies are supposed to assume, which disconnects us from ourselves both physically and spiritually (whatever that might mean), leading to postmodernist dysphoria and oof owie chwonic bones. She hates bras and underwear, because the "dangly bits"[sic] have points of muscular attachment that are supposed to be supporting the weight of the dangle and becoming stronger over time. Underwire support for the busty and bodacious, and tighty-weighty hammocking for the cursed dongoloids, promotes a cumulative inability for us to pull our own weight. So to speak. Without that support, gravity takes its toll more pronouncedly, which can lead topheavy ladies to earlier and more profound sagging, and gradual misfiring in the masculine equipment because the support system is too weak to support the system.
She also hates shoes, for the same reasons, but across the entirety of the corpus. The little foot coffins shift the whole angle of our gait, which we developed because it was the most effective way for our uniquely constructed skeletal and muscular layout to navigate in space. Forced into a pattern of locomotion at odds with our physical scaffolding, all the angles shift, and the weight is distributed strangely over our ankles, our knees, our hips, our spine, all the way up. This inequality leads to overuse of some joints, muscles, and ligaments, and underuse of others. The whole shebang becomes unbalanced, muscles decay, bones grow spurs, joints swell, and boom! You're a whining, depressive wreck who waddles around like Baby Huey. For want of a nail, the kingdom was lost.
She also observes that our butts are disappearing, and she is livid. Me too. While a portly childhood of walking places because I couldn't afford transportation, and a subsequent near-religious squat regimen has rendered me bammin' slammin' bootylicious, I am in the minority. Our gluteal muscles evolved to keep our uniquely bipedal bodies balanced and upright while we list merrily from foot to foot like a hairless simian sailboat. Power and athleticism comes almost exclusively from the legs. You can establish a fighter's potential looking at the keister. All in the hips, as Henry Cimoli said, but isn't everything?
The deterioration of our naturally endowed derrieres makes us less than human. Not just less strong and hearty, but less than evolution intended. Full bipedalism was the key to everything else that allowed us to become the dominant species (for better or worse), and we would not have gotten this enterprise off the ground without our thick, juicy glutes. Sadly, our occasional hour-long nuggets of unnaturally intense exercise interspersed between marathon sessions of sitting around with our ass up our ass watching Chopped marathons has let the whole system go to rot, and ancestors as recent as a hundred years ago would find us, on average, revoltingly neotonous. To say nothing of the merry hell it plays on our spine.
Her solution is build a life around subtle and constant movement, as we have for the past two million years.
Broke: Running for 30 minutes.
Woke: Meandering around slowly for hours.
Bespoke: Avoiding chairs like a vampire driven from the cross. Crouch next to your table at Wing Night. Shift your weight from foot to foot as you suck at the chicken bones like Gollum.
Four stars because her personal science is solid, the writing is engaging, and Katy's got the goods to back it up. One off for the more woo stuff, like "earthing" barefoot for negative ion collection, or describing pillows and mattresses as "subversive immobilizing devices issued at birth".
Unless she's right. If the science backs it up, or I have a sufficiently convincing anecdotal experience, I'll come back and add another star. I slept without a pillow for a few nights and the only difference I noticed was it was harder to fall asleep. My neck still cracks like a Mortal Kombat X-ray combo.
I do love my unga bunga bullshit, and sweet Katy legitimizes it more than the paleo zealots and coffee bulletproofers could ever hope to, because she is a Load Scientist. While I'm sure a contributing factor is her rejection of bras in favor of "the natural strengthening of our tissues", in this context I refer to her biomechanics degree, and her obsessive study of the long term effects of repeated movement under weight to parts of our bodies, as we all as the whole damn body.
Barefoot Katy's Load Science tells us that the trappings of civilization are frigging with the natural patterns that our bodies are supposed to assume, which disconnects us from ourselves both physically and spiritually (whatever that might mean), leading to postmodernist dysphoria and oof owie chwonic bones. She hates bras and underwear, because the "dangly bits"[sic] have points of muscular attachment that are supposed to be supporting the weight of the dangle and becoming stronger over time. Underwire support for the busty and bodacious, and tighty-weighty hammocking for the cursed dongoloids, promotes a cumulative inability for us to pull our own weight. So to speak. Without that support, gravity takes its toll more pronouncedly, which can lead topheavy ladies to earlier and more profound sagging, and gradual misfiring in the masculine equipment because the support system is too weak to support the system.
She also hates shoes, for the same reasons, but across the entirety of the corpus. The little foot coffins shift the whole angle of our gait, which we developed because it was the most effective way for our uniquely constructed skeletal and muscular layout to navigate in space. Forced into a pattern of locomotion at odds with our physical scaffolding, all the angles shift, and the weight is distributed strangely over our ankles, our knees, our hips, our spine, all the way up. This inequality leads to overuse of some joints, muscles, and ligaments, and underuse of others. The whole shebang becomes unbalanced, muscles decay, bones grow spurs, joints swell, and boom! You're a whining, depressive wreck who waddles around like Baby Huey. For want of a nail, the kingdom was lost.
She also observes that our butts are disappearing, and she is livid. Me too. While a portly childhood of walking places because I couldn't afford transportation, and a subsequent near-religious squat regimen has rendered me bammin' slammin' bootylicious, I am in the minority. Our gluteal muscles evolved to keep our uniquely bipedal bodies balanced and upright while we list merrily from foot to foot like a hairless simian sailboat. Power and athleticism comes almost exclusively from the legs. You can establish a fighter's potential looking at the keister. All in the hips, as Henry Cimoli said, but isn't everything?
The deterioration of our naturally endowed derrieres makes us less than human. Not just less strong and hearty, but less than evolution intended. Full bipedalism was the key to everything else that allowed us to become the dominant species (for better or worse), and we would not have gotten this enterprise off the ground without our thick, juicy glutes. Sadly, our occasional hour-long nuggets of unnaturally intense exercise interspersed between marathon sessions of sitting around with our ass up our ass watching Chopped marathons has let the whole system go to rot, and ancestors as recent as a hundred years ago would find us, on average, revoltingly neotonous. To say nothing of the merry hell it plays on our spine.
Her solution is build a life around subtle and constant movement, as we have for the past two million years.
Broke: Running for 30 minutes.
Woke: Meandering around slowly for hours.
Bespoke: Avoiding chairs like a vampire driven from the cross. Crouch next to your table at Wing Night. Shift your weight from foot to foot as you suck at the chicken bones like Gollum.
Four stars because her personal science is solid, the writing is engaging, and Katy's got the goods to back it up. One off for the more woo stuff, like "earthing" barefoot for negative ion collection, or describing pillows and mattresses as "subversive immobilizing devices issued at birth".
Unless she's right. If the science backs it up, or I have a sufficiently convincing anecdotal experience, I'll come back and add another star. I slept without a pillow for a few nights and the only difference I noticed was it was harder to fall asleep. My neck still cracks like a Mortal Kombat X-ray combo.
September 23, 2014
I'm a great fan of Katy Bowman's and read everything she's written that I can get my hands on. I wanted and expected to give this book 5 stars, but I had two problems with it: I couldn't understand from her written instructions how to perform many of the exercises in the book (perhaps more pictures or links to videos would have helped me), and that at the end of the book, I was more confused than when I started. I had a specific question and not only wasn't it answered, but I felt I was given conflicting indications on how it would have been answered. I guess I will have to write her an email and hope that it will not drown in her inbox and that she will choose to dedicate some time to answer it. (If I succeed, I will of course add a star).
Other than that, the book is of course great. Illustrations, separate boxes on anatomy and terminology right where they are relevant rather than collected at the end of the book should make it easy to understand for anyone (except for those, like me, who are hopeless when it comes to understanding instructions on how to perform specific movements). Katy Bowman's writing style is compelling, as always, and her recommendations both sensible and easily incorporated into daily life.
Other than that, the book is of course great. Illustrations, separate boxes on anatomy and terminology right where they are relevant rather than collected at the end of the book should make it easy to understand for anyone (except for those, like me, who are hopeless when it comes to understanding instructions on how to perform specific movements). Katy Bowman's writing style is compelling, as always, and her recommendations both sensible and easily incorporated into daily life.
January 19, 2015
This is a great book to read, if you want get a basic understanding of what ”natural movement” means. It turns out, sitting is not really the new smoking, and standing is not the cure for everything. Varied and diverse movement is the key, so try to sit and stand in as many ways as possible.
The book has giving me a great desire to get my own garden, as doing garden work must be one of the truest expressions of natural movement.
The book has giving me a great desire to get my own garden, as doing garden work must be one of the truest expressions of natural movement.
February 23, 2015
No thanks, I'll sleep on my comfy bed rather than curled up on some tree roots in my backyard. I'm pretty into wearing shoes too.
April 24, 2023
Should honestly be required reading for having a human body 😭
December 2, 2022
Dense with information! I borrowed this from the library, but I've added it to my Amazon wishlist now, and I pinned some DVDs from her site for good measure. In the meantime, as we can't make all the changes at once nor absorb all the information at once, the changes we are making are more walking and less sitting! (And I'm throwing in some of the stretches that seemed most immediately pertinent into my daily routine.)
February 11, 2021
Fucking amazing. Life-changing. Dense with research. Katy Bowman is a formidable researcher and writer, and all round brain. Funny too. Explains 95% of what’s been going wrong with my body. Everyone should read it. Cannot recommend it enough. Has ramifications for everything. I took so much away from this book and will keep going back to it as I seek to change my lifestyle.
June 1, 2024
Après avoir écouté le même livre en audiobook (et en VO, donc en anglais) il y a quelques mois, j'ai finalement emprunté la version papier en VF pour éclaircir certains points qui m'avaient paru difficiles à comprendre en audio (surtout les exercices préconisés) et avoir certains diagrammes/schémas sous les yeux.
Finalement, tout ce qui est très technique le reste un peu trop à mon goût, mais plaira sans doute aux science nerds mais... franchement même avec explications + photos, les exercices ne me semblent pas évidents à comprendre, du coup je pense que j'irai fouiller sur YouTube ou sur sa page Instagram pour avoir des précisions en vidéo.
Quant au fond du propos, ma foi, c'était tout aussi intéressant que la première fois - le mouvement nous manque cruellement dans nos habitudes de vie, et nos corps en éprouvent le manque en développant diverses maladies et complications. C'est parfois un peu extrême - je veux dire, à la lire, on devrait tous laisser tomber nos sous-vêtements, lits moelleux, sofas et chaussures classiques, et si je veux bien croire que toutes ces inventions modernes ne nous font pas que du bien, je reste parfois un peu sceptique face à ce retour à la vie paleo.
Ceci étant dit, je reste intriguée par le propos, et vais me pencher sur des exercices "correctifs" (mais en vidéo donc) pour me mouvoir mieux, tout en continuant à étudier toutes ces questions de mouvement. C'est hyper intéressant, même s'il s'agit toujours (je pense) de prendre du recul face à ce qu'on peut lire (et ça vaut pour tous types d'essais).
Finalement, tout ce qui est très technique le reste un peu trop à mon goût, mais plaira sans doute aux science nerds mais... franchement même avec explications + photos, les exercices ne me semblent pas évidents à comprendre, du coup je pense que j'irai fouiller sur YouTube ou sur sa page Instagram pour avoir des précisions en vidéo.
Quant au fond du propos, ma foi, c'était tout aussi intéressant que la première fois - le mouvement nous manque cruellement dans nos habitudes de vie, et nos corps en éprouvent le manque en développant diverses maladies et complications. C'est parfois un peu extrême - je veux dire, à la lire, on devrait tous laisser tomber nos sous-vêtements, lits moelleux, sofas et chaussures classiques, et si je veux bien croire que toutes ces inventions modernes ne nous font pas que du bien, je reste parfois un peu sceptique face à ce retour à la vie paleo.
Ceci étant dit, je reste intriguée par le propos, et vais me pencher sur des exercices "correctifs" (mais en vidéo donc) pour me mouvoir mieux, tout en continuant à étudier toutes ces questions de mouvement. C'est hyper intéressant, même s'il s'agit toujours (je pense) de prendre du recul face à ce qu'on peut lire (et ça vaut pour tous types d'essais).
January 5, 2017
Katy's thoughts on natural movement really resonated with me and isn't something that I've seen a lot before. The book had great detail and easy exercises, but it was hard to remember everything listening to it on my commute. I'll be listening again and trying the techniques.
January 13, 2023
As I started this book, I was astonished that the person writing the forward was “the first person to circumnavigate the planet by human power” without any training! With such lack of intelligent training how could I not be turned off. Fortunately, that was not the author of the book.
The title led me to expect intimate details of cell biology. Nope! Not there! Even though the book doesn’t talk about telomeres and other DNA related aspects, the author demonstrates a solid understanding of what she writes about.
As I read, I found myself stopping to do the exercises she presented. I expect to use it more than I've used most exercise books because it is about total health instead of just specific exercises.
Update 2023-01-13
I have hardly looked at this book since then. Here are a few things I highlighted:
“This Rhomboid Push-up is often mistaken for a cat-cow yoga pose, but in the Rhmboid pushup there is not a change in the curve of the spine.” (Page 131)
Sidebar: Core Activation, Schmore Activation
“In the 1980’s, the standard exercise-class protocol was two hundred crunches, ‘keeping your back pressed to the mat.’ But it turned out that this posterior tucking motion coupled with spinal flexion created a whole world of high loa to the disks of the spine. … by the 2000’s a new stabilizing muscle — the transverse abdominal (TrA) — the darling of exercise classes, research and … magazine articles the world over.” (Page 144)
“… but the TrA should be activating on it’s own. If you have to think, ‘Better stabilize my core now,’ then it means that your muscles are not sensing the load, or your muscles are sensing the load and do not have the leverage to generate force …” (Page 144)
“If you’ve got a lot of belly fat you’re trying to hide, or no fat but a serious vanity issue, your chronic hold-in patterns can be wreaking havoc on all sorts of other body parts and functions that no one ever thought to link together.” (Page 147 in chapter 8: It’s Hard to Res in a Zoo)
“Rustling vegetation, wind, water, birds, and insects are the world’s natural noisemakers, with the peak decibel (dB) of all ambient noise to be about 36 dB midday rising from an early morning 20 dB. (Page 153)
Sidebar: Noise Pollution, a Modern “Plague on Your House”
“75 dB, which would have signaled an approaching avalanche or earthquake back in the day, is a completely reasonable level for a city street, …” (Page 154)
Section: Release the Psoas
“The psoas (SO-az) is an unfortunately named muscle directly impacting more joints of your body than any other single muscle. Branching off like a crazy starfish,… A ‘sticky’ psoas has the ability to alter the orientation of your spine, hips, pelvis, or knee … … it is no wonder that so many injuries can be blamed on one misbehaving muscle.” (Page 155, followed by some exercises for the psoas)
The title led me to expect intimate details of cell biology. Nope! Not there! Even though the book doesn’t talk about telomeres and other DNA related aspects, the author demonstrates a solid understanding of what she writes about.
As I read, I found myself stopping to do the exercises she presented. I expect to use it more than I've used most exercise books because it is about total health instead of just specific exercises.
Update 2023-01-13
I have hardly looked at this book since then. Here are a few things I highlighted:
“This Rhomboid Push-up is often mistaken for a cat-cow yoga pose, but in the Rhmboid pushup there is not a change in the curve of the spine.” (Page 131)
Sidebar: Core Activation, Schmore Activation
“In the 1980’s, the standard exercise-class protocol was two hundred crunches, ‘keeping your back pressed to the mat.’ But it turned out that this posterior tucking motion coupled with spinal flexion created a whole world of high loa to the disks of the spine. … by the 2000’s a new stabilizing muscle — the transverse abdominal (TrA) — the darling of exercise classes, research and … magazine articles the world over.” (Page 144)
“… but the TrA should be activating on it’s own. If you have to think, ‘Better stabilize my core now,’ then it means that your muscles are not sensing the load, or your muscles are sensing the load and do not have the leverage to generate force …” (Page 144)
“If you’ve got a lot of belly fat you’re trying to hide, or no fat but a serious vanity issue, your chronic hold-in patterns can be wreaking havoc on all sorts of other body parts and functions that no one ever thought to link together.” (Page 147 in chapter 8: It’s Hard to Res in a Zoo)
“Rustling vegetation, wind, water, birds, and insects are the world’s natural noisemakers, with the peak decibel (dB) of all ambient noise to be about 36 dB midday rising from an early morning 20 dB. (Page 153)
Sidebar: Noise Pollution, a Modern “Plague on Your House”
“75 dB, which would have signaled an approaching avalanche or earthquake back in the day, is a completely reasonable level for a city street, …” (Page 154)
Section: Release the Psoas
“The psoas (SO-az) is an unfortunately named muscle directly impacting more joints of your body than any other single muscle. Branching off like a crazy starfish,… A ‘sticky’ psoas has the ability to alter the orientation of your spine, hips, pelvis, or knee … … it is no wonder that so many injuries can be blamed on one misbehaving muscle.” (Page 155, followed by some exercises for the psoas)
April 7, 2022
**I completed this book via audio, which I would highly recommend so you can be moving while listening to a book about movement. She'll even give you mileage marks as you go. Tip: Listen all the way to the end, she includes outtakes.**
Am I going to immediately stop using my pillow and start sleeping on the floor? Probably not. Will I start using my husband's Squatty Potty? Maybe. Am I going to stop wearing a bra? Tempting! (You'll know what I mean after you read this book.)
While I won't be making any sort of drastic changes to my habits as soon as I get home, this book was definitely full of helpful and practical information and tips that anyone can begin to implement in their daily life such as stretches, posture, and exercises. I've been trying to be more aware of my movements and what my body is telling me, and I feel more prepared after this info.
The author does throw in some medical terminology, but she explains and breaks it all down to be easily understandable by anyone without a medical background. Completing the book by audio was great because I got to enjoy it while taking my walks, but I might invest in a hard copy as she did mention there were some images to supplement some of the body mechanics she was describing. Plus!... I'd like to be able to refer back to a lot of her tips.
Am I going to immediately stop using my pillow and start sleeping on the floor? Probably not. Will I start using my husband's Squatty Potty? Maybe. Am I going to stop wearing a bra? Tempting! (You'll know what I mean after you read this book.)
While I won't be making any sort of drastic changes to my habits as soon as I get home, this book was definitely full of helpful and practical information and tips that anyone can begin to implement in their daily life such as stretches, posture, and exercises. I've been trying to be more aware of my movements and what my body is telling me, and I feel more prepared after this info.
The author does throw in some medical terminology, but she explains and breaks it all down to be easily understandable by anyone without a medical background. Completing the book by audio was great because I got to enjoy it while taking my walks, but I might invest in a hard copy as she did mention there were some images to supplement some of the body mechanics she was describing. Plus!... I'd like to be able to refer back to a lot of her tips.
January 15, 2016
this book calls for a shift in the paradigm that associates all body movement with exercise. I enjoyed it immensely and have already been putting into practice the various, subtle, easy and common sense movements into my day. I particularly related to the idea that our modern day, sedentary bodies are similar to orcas in captivity. we are designed and capable of much more than sitting in front of tvs, phones, and computers.
December 2, 2018
Exercises seem to be working so far- so giving high rating for now :)
Book is extremely unclear and hard to follow though
Book is extremely unclear and hard to follow though
January 7, 2022
This was a book that Patty Sommer recommended and I’m so glad I listened. I couldn’t stop reading.
I finished Fiber Fueled last year and I would say this is a similar approach and rationality. Just as our bodies work optimally with a huge range of different real foods, so does our body with a variety of movement.
This explains the needs to move and keep moving your body to strengthen your muscles and bones based on loads and how sitting all the time is our enemy to health. She explains that by making small changes and stretch/exercises they will fire muscles to realign your body and restore motion and health to your body. I look forward to reading her other books.
I finished Fiber Fueled last year and I would say this is a similar approach and rationality. Just as our bodies work optimally with a huge range of different real foods, so does our body with a variety of movement.
This explains the needs to move and keep moving your body to strengthen your muscles and bones based on loads and how sitting all the time is our enemy to health. She explains that by making small changes and stretch/exercises they will fire muscles to realign your body and restore motion and health to your body. I look forward to reading her other books.
October 6, 2023
An interesting read that might be best intended for a student considering going into physical therapy. The author is well versed in body movement mechanics and effectively sells getting out walking and stretching more. I will say if one utilized all her recommended therapies, I don’t think there would be enough hours in the day. Nonetheless, it does make one think about moving and stretching more which clearly has its benefits.
February 2, 2025
Ribs down, hips back 🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡
November 30, 2024
|| 4.5 ⭐️ ||
Remarkable book on “ancestral” movement. I’m pretty well versed in ancestral nutrition at this point, but movement is an area that I have not explored extensively yet. So every little bit of information presented in this book was totally, mind-bogglingly new to me. I learned so many new things about how modern furniture leads to sedentary muscles and bones, and gained plenty of tools for developing a healthy posture, standing and sitting stance, walking gait, squat, and ultimately just increasing my range of mobility. I had no idea how stiff and shrunk some of my muscles were until going through some of the assessments. But I’m now looking forward to expanding my mobility little by little.
My limited knowledge of muscle anatomy did have me confused at some points, no matter how well she tried to explain it for the layperson. Katy Bowman is incredibly knowledgeable in the field of biomechanics and practically a genius. It was difficult to understand some of the movements from just reading descriptions and looking at images… video explanations might add a lot of value here.
I’m very interested in reading more of Bowman’s books, especially Whole Body Barefoot since I’m already wearing minimalist shoes and would like to nerd out on that subject a little more. I just feel like there’s so much to learn from this woman!
Remarkable book on “ancestral” movement. I’m pretty well versed in ancestral nutrition at this point, but movement is an area that I have not explored extensively yet. So every little bit of information presented in this book was totally, mind-bogglingly new to me. I learned so many new things about how modern furniture leads to sedentary muscles and bones, and gained plenty of tools for developing a healthy posture, standing and sitting stance, walking gait, squat, and ultimately just increasing my range of mobility. I had no idea how stiff and shrunk some of my muscles were until going through some of the assessments. But I’m now looking forward to expanding my mobility little by little.
My limited knowledge of muscle anatomy did have me confused at some points, no matter how well she tried to explain it for the layperson. Katy Bowman is incredibly knowledgeable in the field of biomechanics and practically a genius. It was difficult to understand some of the movements from just reading descriptions and looking at images… video explanations might add a lot of value here.
I’m very interested in reading more of Bowman’s books, especially Whole Body Barefoot since I’m already wearing minimalist shoes and would like to nerd out on that subject a little more. I just feel like there’s so much to learn from this woman!
August 17, 2023
Good book!
While I can’t quite get behind her near constant assertion that things were better in the hunter-gatherer days, there’s no denying that modern physical movement has some problems.
It’s common for people to get hurt by simply sitting into their car if the seat was last adjusted by someone much taller, or twisting your ankle on an unexpected terrain change or simply getting out of bed.
This seems like a problem.
And the author spends the whole book giving a brief overview of some ways of thinking about movement (it’s not only “exercise!”) and our bodies that I think is worth some time. There’s also super helpful stretches all throughout.
I never want to lose my ability to sit comfortably on the floor, or get down into a squat. Having a functional body that serves as a tool for doing life isn’t coming naturally to our comfort-focuses society/lifestyles.
While I can’t quite get behind her near constant assertion that things were better in the hunter-gatherer days, there’s no denying that modern physical movement has some problems.
It’s common for people to get hurt by simply sitting into their car if the seat was last adjusted by someone much taller, or twisting your ankle on an unexpected terrain change or simply getting out of bed.
This seems like a problem.
And the author spends the whole book giving a brief overview of some ways of thinking about movement (it’s not only “exercise!”) and our bodies that I think is worth some time. There’s also super helpful stretches all throughout.
I never want to lose my ability to sit comfortably on the floor, or get down into a squat. Having a functional body that serves as a tool for doing life isn’t coming naturally to our comfort-focuses society/lifestyles.
January 18, 2025
A very fundamental book on whole body movement. Too radical at some points and reads a bit pseudo-science-y. But nonetheless fundamental and offers good explanations of body mechanics and how to improve the physicality of our sedentary bodies.
My only big gripe with it, as with all other wellness books, is the assumption that everything paleo is good and all natural. That is the assumed default, most healthy state of human beings. Why? When our bodies have evolved to be who we are today, along with our biomechanics, for millennia. You cannot just throw that evolution away and dismiss the way it has shaped us (even in the preindustrial age). We haven’t lived close to nature in thousands of years! Hunter-gatherers had entirely different bodies and pretending that “we can go back to our natural state” is imho dumb and unnecessary. We have to work with what we have but I don’t think we can escape modern life.
I completely agree with the author’s radical proposal to incorporate more movement into our daily lives, not just thinking that exercise is sufficient movement. Would be beneficial for most people with sedentary lifestyles.
Anyways, my only regret is that I didn’t read it in English. Българският превод е… интересна интерпретация. На места направо ми беше трудно да разбирам какво е написано. Тотално непознаване на съвременния американски английски и културния контекст, част от който е авторката. Все пак се надявам и другите ѝ книги да бъдат издадени и да бъдат достъпни за българските читатели.
My only big gripe with it, as with all other wellness books, is the assumption that everything paleo is good and all natural. That is the assumed default, most healthy state of human beings. Why? When our bodies have evolved to be who we are today, along with our biomechanics, for millennia. You cannot just throw that evolution away and dismiss the way it has shaped us (even in the preindustrial age). We haven’t lived close to nature in thousands of years! Hunter-gatherers had entirely different bodies and pretending that “we can go back to our natural state” is imho dumb and unnecessary. We have to work with what we have but I don’t think we can escape modern life.
I completely agree with the author’s radical proposal to incorporate more movement into our daily lives, not just thinking that exercise is sufficient movement. Would be beneficial for most people with sedentary lifestyles.
Anyways, my only regret is that I didn’t read it in English. Българският превод е… интересна интерпретация. На места направо ми беше трудно да разбирам какво е написано. Тотално непознаване на съвременния американски английски и културния контекст, част от който е авторката. Все пак се надявам и другите ѝ книги да бъдат издадени и да бъдат достъпни за българските читатели.
February 25, 2022
As a former division l athlete, someone who has always spent ample time at the gym “working out” and submerged in the culture of “going to the gym”, believing in the separation between exercise and… well…the rest of my life, I really appreciated this book for its science-based ideas on movement and how it relates to our health. From cover to cover, this book was chalk full of new ways to think about our everyday movement. Im so glad I read this after I have read The Jane Austen diet, which had some similar principles relating to everyday movement. I loaned the audio version of this book through the library (the author is the narrator, and she does a FANTASTIC job at it), but I will definitely be purchasing this book for future reference, and to re-read again at some point. I highly recommend this book, it has certainly sparked a new train of thoughts that I believe will impact the rest of my life.
August 7, 2023
The main point of this book is that, as modern humans, we're suffering because we aren't moving our bodies the way our ancestors did. Our sedentary lifestyle is a big part of that, of course, but the author also explains how shoes, chairs, and pillows factor in, for example.
There's LOTS of food for thought in here, and it inspired me to make a few easy changes to my routines that should add some variety of movement to my days.
I would have listened to this as an audiobook, but my library didn't have it in that format. I'm glad I ended up reading it instead, since there were lots of diagrams and pictures, as well as technical bits that I had to read a second time to really get. The flip side of that is that I found myself sitting and reading as the author went on and on about how bad sitting is. So: your choice. Maybe you can be extra ambitious and read it on your yoga mat!
There's LOTS of food for thought in here, and it inspired me to make a few easy changes to my routines that should add some variety of movement to my days.
I would have listened to this as an audiobook, but my library didn't have it in that format. I'm glad I ended up reading it instead, since there were lots of diagrams and pictures, as well as technical bits that I had to read a second time to really get. The flip side of that is that I found myself sitting and reading as the author went on and on about how bad sitting is. So: your choice. Maybe you can be extra ambitious and read it on your yoga mat!
August 27, 2025
3.5 🌟
This book has given me so much to consider when it comes to movement. I appreciated the conversational tone used. I mostly listened to this one on audiobook- it's helpful to have the physical copy to see the diagrams she references. In ending the book I wish I had a professional who could verify that I'm doing these movements and stretches correctly. It felt a bit depressing to read how so many of our basic movements are being done incorrectly in addition to the years of training it can take to start doing movement properly. Biggest take away is to vary movement- types, length, etc.
This book has given me so much to consider when it comes to movement. I appreciated the conversational tone used. I mostly listened to this one on audiobook- it's helpful to have the physical copy to see the diagrams she references. In ending the book I wish I had a professional who could verify that I'm doing these movements and stretches correctly. It felt a bit depressing to read how so many of our basic movements are being done incorrectly in addition to the years of training it can take to start doing movement properly. Biggest take away is to vary movement- types, length, etc.
January 30, 2019
Comprehensive, motivational overview of natural movement as a lifestyle (along with a slew of carefully explained corrective exercises). I am very inspired and plan to keep devouring everything Katy Bowman has written.
September 25, 2021
Forever fascinated by the human body!
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What a fresh, new and objective perspective on movement.
As a lifelong learner, athlete and mover, I plan to use this knowledge for the rest of my life!
I hope to empower others to question their previous teachings to improve their mobility and in turn, health.
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What a fresh, new and objective perspective on movement.
As a lifelong learner, athlete and mover, I plan to use this knowledge for the rest of my life!
I hope to empower others to question their previous teachings to improve their mobility and in turn, health.
May 3, 2019
This is a good book and makes a good argument for why we should move more and perhaps exercise less, but it’s not really meant to be an audiobook,
January 24, 2023
This book serves as the catalyst to a massive change in how one views movement and their own holistic health. Bowman describes in a very concise way how to create a more natural and intentional way of living. My only gripe is some of the formatting is very weird. 4.5/5
February 29, 2024
While reading this book, I've already started moving more, and I intend on moving more and more! :D
May 12, 2020
My old teammate recommended this book to me and it was fascinating! Full of facts that I didn’t *know,* exactly, but that make PERFECT SENSE when Katy presents them. I loved it. I’ll think about it all the time. This is a rare book in that I think it will have an actually effect on how I live my life.
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