Read any of Katy Bowman’s blogs or her books, and you will quickly get a sense of how passionate she is about movement.
She will never be a person who says that aches and pains are inevitable. This biomechanist is very interested in the "Why" rather than the "Why me?"
Katy took some time with EmpowHER to go over the cultural issue of inactivity and how she is getting fitter with mindfulness (and less furniture):
EmpowHER:
Why have we forgotten how to move?
Katy:
You can’t read much clinically or research-wise that would say explicitly how little of a portion of a day exercise is, because we are so entirely sedentary save for 60 minutes or 10,000 steps.
When you put them in context of how many steps you could take, this isn’t much. It’s a relativity issue. Exercise is a small fraction of health, but movement is everything.
When I was in University, there were two categories of people: exercisers or sedentary.
“Sitting is the new smoking” is five to seven years old. In the last ten years, there has been a shift in understanding. It turns out that sedentary and active people can be pretty similar on paper besides a small period of time.
How much are people really moving throughout the day? I want to clarify how we classify movement.
The parts of you that reap the benefits of movement are the parts that are moving. If we are stiff, this is a sign that not all of us is moving when we are moving. Move more of you rather than just move more.
EmpowHER:
You are a movement junkie now, but how did you get to be that way?
Katy:
My life is totally similar to everyone else’s. I come from an exercise background. I love exercise!
My light bulb moment came with regards to movement as a bunch of smaller light-bulb moments. I was trying to find answers to a whole bunch of smaller questions.
Graduate school exposed me to cultures beyond mine. When it comes to data on human behavior, Western American humans are a completely different population than the rest of the world. How our bodies are, is a cultural issue.
EmpowHER:
We are sitting too much. What if our job doesn’t allow us to move more?
Katy:
I am productive in a traditional way. I write books (including "Don’t Just Sit There"). I have a 9-to-5ish job, but there are ways to change the way you see the components of what you actually need to do for work. You can make what you do more dynamic.
A lot of corporations are having walking meetings now. If you go to conferences, more people opt to stand on the side or sit on the floor.
Start with the most malleable parts of your work life. See if you have options to work on the move. Think about starting outside of your work day. Many of us are sedentary out of our work day lives.
I don’t have furniture in my house. In my everyday life, I am stretching and doing squats, getting up from the floor far more often.
EmpowHER:
How long have you been without furniture?
Katy:
I got rid of my furniture right after the birth of my son. I converted my house to a more movement-friendly place.
As a new mom I didn’t have time to exercise. I couldn’t take a yoga class, but not having furniture had me doing a couple of hundred of squats a day. I was doing all of the exercises I was doing in a mobility class. I just distributed the movement through the day.
I recovered from my pregnancy so fast, and I ended up more flexible and stronger. I was stronger at 35, postpartum, than I was at 30.
I have an integrated, functional movement program that my house facilitates. I realized my lifestyle before was too comfortable and too convenient. I reformulated a relationship with convenience.
I have a book coming out November 30, 2016, that is called "Movement Matters."
EmpowHER:
The term "nutritious movement" that you use really is appealing.
Katy:
It really is like diet. You can’t subsist on a handful of vitamins. You body doesn’t get it what it needs from a single dose of exercise. Most of the mechanisms in your body are movement-dependent. Almost every disease has an increased risk for a non-exerciser.
Your body simply works better with more movement. There has been a hyper-focus on the search for the perfect workout, but there is no perfect hour that will make up for the fact that you are not moving throughout the day. We need to create a movement-based society.
Reviewed August 10, 2016
by Michele Blacksberg RN
Edited by Jody Smith