A Masterclass On Movement & Mobility

26:29And then you switch and do it on the other side. and it's a really great two minute balance practice. And that's how I put my shoes on every single day. You know, and that's something - Mischief managed. That's just this little, you know, small behavior that we add into our day that's easy and fun and you can, you know, challenge your kids to do it. And so, you know, that's just one of those things that we've snuck in and said, hey, there are ways that you can change your environment and just slightly think about your environment differently so that these are just things you do without having to rely on willpower or motivation.

27:01So if you, in the evening, could sit down next to a ball, tennis ball, softball, roller, and ask yourself from the day, what's sore? What hurts? What's achy? And I'm going to commit 10 minutes, the first part of this show I'm watching, I'm just gonna roll around on whatever, ails me, that's a really important conversation you could begin to have. I'm talking about 10 minutes, like that's super reasonable. And the reason we started shifting that from the day and the gym to the evening was that we saw that people didn't actually do it or want to do it as a team. But in the evening, they had time and agency and nothing was happening at the end of the day.

27:38Like you're on Facebook, you're, you know, you're surfing Instagram. So there was this great moment where you could do some self-care and 10 minutes a night usually turns into 12 to 14 minutes because you discover something. You can sit on your coffee table, put that ball right in your hamstrings, just roll around. Then the next sort of level there is we could say, hey, can you take take a full breath in that position. So if you're working on something or you've got some aspect of your body that hurts and you push on it and that takes your breath away or you catch your breath, then we found an area of interest.

28:09And it doesn't mean we need to shy away from that. It's okay that that's uncomfortable to compression. So when the first things we can do is say, am I doing harm to myself? No, not at all. If you can take a full breath in and out, you're signaling to your brain, this is safe. Nerves are king of the breath. The breath is king of the brain. That's Iyengar 101. and why breathing is such an important part of yoga is teaching your body to accept and be able to control those positions by breathing there. Your brain says, it's not a threat. So if you find a painful spot or a sore spot or an uncomfortable spot, you found a spot and all you need to do is take a four second inhale there, contract into the ball roller and hold that for four seconds.

28:47We call that an isometric in the parlance, right? You're just building a tension or a movement without motion in the limb and then exhale a long time for eight seconds, long exhale. And what you'll find is if you just repeat that cycle a few times, whatever hurts in that area that you're working sometimes starts to hurt less. You're resetting some threat signals. And if you started doing that on your back, your hips, your calves, your feet, what you realize is, wow, I can make myself feel better. And because you did it before you bed, it's like getting a massage. You tend to sleep a little bit better.

29:19You're down regulating. Yeah, and we snuck in breath practice. And you had to get up and down off the ground. Oh, J-Star, you ruined it. Yeah, exactly right. That's exactly right. One of the things we know is that pain doesn't mean injury. It doesn't even mean tissue trauma or damage. It's a request for change. So part of what we're trying to say in this book is, hey, we can try to treat pain and use it just as another metric. Like if you were stiff this morning because you were a big workout yesterday, you're not thinking, you know, you've got, you know, some, you know, you didn't contract rabies.

29:50You just are sore, right? from your run. And so if we can shift that narrative a little bit and then also empower people that, hey, there's a whole lot they can do. And some of that is sleep. And some of that is nutrition. And some of that is down regulation. But a lot of it is there's some inputs you can do that are really safe and really easy. And then we can have the next conversation because maybe you don't wanna go for a walk because your knee hurts. Your range of motion doesn't have to change because you age. That's the one physical aspect. You're gonna be less powerful. You may be able to maintain your aerobic power for a long time.

30:24We know that that to be true, but your ability to express your range of motion in your joints doesn't have to degrade necessarily. You may have bony blocks and a patina of athleticism. You gotta work through the fascia and all that stuff. Right, but as we take the systems approach, you being able to get up and down off the ground or flex your knee all the way doesn't have to go away. And I think that's important to remember to consider for people.

30:58As we age, we don't have to sacrifice our mobility or range of motion. There are practices we can adopt now that can secure our ability to stay fit and active well into our 70s, 80s, 90s, and beyond. And few people embody this ethos more powerfully than Chef Babette, who believes that caring for our bodies is an act of self-love. Babette is a vegan superstar and the very model of fit and radiant at 72 years young. Listen carefully as she shares the importance of taking care of ourselves as we age, how to form an easy and impactful routine, and the power of starting a new lifestyle with one simple movement at a time.

31:51part of the whole self-loving thing is to be a part of all of this to be able to move you know if i want to run a hill i can run a hill i don't want to have a life alert i don't want to get in the bathtub and can't get out so i force myself to take baths sometimes i'm not always It's taking showers. Make sure you can get your butt out the tub.

32:17That's the whole thing. When you get older, it's all about like, if you fall down and you can't get up. And you can't get up. That's what people need to really understand. Now, of course, sometimes we have accidents that it's not any fault of our own. But when we just sit down and just let it go, that's generally what will happen to you. You lose strength. And another thing that I think is I'm not a superficial person. I enjoy the aging process. I don't look like I looked when I was 60. You know what I mean? But however it is, however this look is going to be as I age, I embrace it. Because just think, I had lived an entire lifetime looking different.

33:03So, you know what I mean? It's not a bad thing to have the crow's feet. I don't care to use anything to get rid of that. I'm okay with it. I wanna see what it's gonna be. I saw one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen before. She had lines like in this table. She was beautiful. She was beautiful. And if just to experience - Because she owned it and she's comfortable with who she is. Oh, she was just gorgeous. And that is how we should all be because it's each step of the journey that we embrace and appreciate. And you know, I can't wear the bushy eyelashes. I'm a little bit too old for that.

33:42That don't work on this face. But you did, when you turned 70, you posted these, you did like a bathing suit shoot, right? Oh, I remember the bathing suit shoot. And that went bananas and like when everybody was sharing that and all of that. It went crazy. That one went crazy. That was another like inflection point in your kind of story arc, right? Yeah, people really, really love that. I got a little bold the next year and did bikinis and stuff. But this year I am gonna do a beautiful photo of myself, but you'll see. But no more bathing suits. So I'm good for that. I still have my little calendars.

34:16I wasn't able to give them all away. And now it's the end of the year. You made like a bathing suit calendar? Man, yes. I should have brought you one. Hang it up over here. Oh man, we gotta get you one, Rich. We gotta get you one. But the fitness routine, that's basically like strength training. That's everything. You're in the gym. and some hiking or stairs. You like to do the stairs and stuff like that. But it's pretty basic stuff. Now, I had a torn groin, so I hadn't been really doing too much of the hike because I'm a part of a docuseries in Houston, Texas. And so I was feeling good from the ground.

34:51I didn't feel like I still had the tear. And we went to the track. When we got to the track, the sister was sprinting and I was like, yeah, I feel really good. So I got up there and all the athletes, were like, no, chef, you haven't stretched. You haven't, I got out there and I, by the time I got to the end, I had to limp back. Yeah, you gotta have yourself a little bit. You know how a groin tear will do. It takes a long time. A long, long time. A long time. Yeah, yeah. So we've been very careful, my trainer and I, going forward, not to stretch that too much. And stairs, I love stairs. And you know I love running hills.

35:29I just posted a video when we were in St. Martin of me hitting a hill. I just love movement. I love knowing that I can move. I love that. I've often thought if something ever happened and I was the only person that could get to help, even at my age, I know I'm in shape enough to do that. Right. That's important. And maintaining that is so key, especially as you get older. Consistency. Yeah, like the gym stuff becomes really important. I started with one pushup and every day I would add a pushup. And if I couldn't add a pushup, I do the numbers that I'd done the day before. But I tell people that, I tell women that, start with one, inch by inch, life's a cinch.

36:19Yeah, whether it's pushups or anything. Anything. That's the way you do anything. Yeah. It's by starting with one. Starting with one. like I have to do at least 72 pushups on my birthday. So I'm gonna do it in the restaurant. Anybody that wants to come to the restaurant and hang out and either get down there and do some pushups with me, maybe I'll give you a taco, especially. Free tacos. Free taco, especially. Watch the pushup competition. Look, I'll give you two tacos if you can do all 72 with me. Yeah, this is why you can't hire somebody to help you in the restaurant. You're giving away too much stuff.

36:55That's my husband. and you sound like my husband. But I figured like this, if somebody suggested to me because I was doing sets of 25 and someone said, you know, I can do that many, but I do sets of 10. And then I thought, that's a lot easier because the time between sets is only like a minute or two versus three to four minutes when I'm doing sets of 25. So I'm going to do sets of 10. I might even get push out 100, honey. Yeah, well, if you break it down into sets of 10, and then it's easier to build and improve. Exactly, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, so. There you go. To be clear, the goal shouldn't be to live as long as possible.

37:37It should be to live as vibrantly and with maximum mobility for as long as possible. This is longevity overlord, Dr. Peter Atiyah's scientific obsession. And in this next clip, Peter continues on this theme of maintaining mobility as we age by sharing movement practices one can adopt now to live stronger and more agile for longer. He also explains the function and importance of dynamic neuromuscular stabilization, muscle recruitment, how to identify and unlearn poor movement patterns, and how to be a lifelong athlete.

38:21you'd be amazed at how many people even in their 40s and 50s don't possess even though they're strong enough to meet the metrics of their 90 year old self they already show signs of weakness in terms of instability in their hips instability in their knees horrible patterns of walking you know pelvic tilts that are too far forward all of these things that they can sort of muscle their way through when they're younger, but it becomes problematic later. Athletes are the best cheaters, right? The more you're a grinder, the better you are at cheating your way around bad movement patterns. Right. And so the downstream implications of that become cataclysmic.

39:02Yeah, you have to start to unlearn that stuff. So that's what began for me in 2018. I mean, and you know how it presented actually was, I was getting tennis elbow. And I'm like, it's really odd because I don't play tennis. So that doesn't seem like a likely injury. And that's when I first met a guy who kind of got me on this path using something called dynamic neuromuscular stabilization. And he watched me do pull-ups. He's like, let me see you do a pull-up. And I was like, dude, I own this baby, watch. Did a million pull-ups for him. And he's like, yeah, it's horrible. Like your technique is so bad.

39:36You have no scapular control whatsoever. You are transmitting so much force into your elbows is doing that because you can't keep your scapula in place. There is a fundamental difference between having a strong muscle and knowing how to recruit it. And for me, the aha moment came with my hamstrings. I have always prided myself in having just the strongest legs, right? I mean, you know, cyclists have strong legs. I deadlift tons of weight. I do insane amounts of stupid leg curls, you name it, I'll do it. But when I was placed on the floor in a very simple position, laying on your back, knees bent, feet flat on the floor, could I, without screwing around in my pelvis, just pull back with my feet?

40:22A pure hamstring recruitment. No, could not. Yeah, I can't do that either. Yeah, couldn't do it. And so what that says is, it doesn't actually matter how strong your hamstrings are, you can't recruit them. And if you can't recruit them, your pelvis is tilted forward. You have to be able to keep those hamstrings recruited to keep that pelvis in the right position. I mean, it took me a year of daily, I mean, just grinding away at these movements and this practice. And now it's hard for me to remember what it was like to not be able to recruit my hamstrings. You can unlearn these patterns, but the irony of it is the more of an athletic background you have, the longer it will actually take you to unlearn because you have more bad stuff to unlearn.

41:06Those neural pathways are so embedded. They're so wired. The good news is you have the reps on how to do stuff. So I think it's a wash. Taking an untrained person and teaching them versus taking a highly trained person and teaching them takes about the same amount of time, but for different reasons. One of the things that you've talked about quite a bit is noticing how natural it is for your children to do all of these movements that then become so difficult for us as adults because we've unlearned them and our sedentary lifestyles kind of detach us from our kind of natural blueprint and ability to do those things.

41:41So most people listening or watching this probably have to sit in a chair for their work. And we're sitting in chairs right now. What are some of the practices that could be adopted to help keep us connected to that natural ability that is kind of innate in our unconscious? I mean, for me, I've taken a very deliberate approach to that. So four or five years ago, when I got introduced to this pattern of movement called dynamic neuromuscular stabilization. Yeah, talk about that. It's super interesting. Having now been connected to a number of these practitioners, I have found this to be one of the most important systems that I've incorporated.

42:18So initially my exposure to it was basically to fix problems, right? I was fixed. I had two nagging issues four or five years ago. One was this elbow issue, which again, I couldn't understand what was causing it until I realized it was inability to localize and control my scapula. And the other was just my right SI joint nagged. You know, it just had this little nagging pain in the right SI joint. Certainly didn't ever raise to the level of lower back pain, no sciatica, nothing like that. But whenever I deadlifted really, really heavy, 50 % of those days, I would be punished with some right SI joint pain.

42:54And again, these two things seemed completely unrelated until I got under the hood of what was going on with my movement patterns. And I realized, you know, like every, whatever I was, 45 year old, I didn't know how to move. So what started out as kind of rehab has then just morphed into life movements. So I do an hour a week in person with a DNS teacher. So guy named Kyler Brown comes to my house. Once a week, we just hammer DNS movements together. And then I'll spend 10 minutes every day doing them on my own. And that has been kind of life-changing. Now, of course, with my shoulder injury, Kyler is overseeing the rehab there.

43:35And so we're now incorporating really good shoulder rehab coupled with the DNS principles of getting my scapula to relearn how to move. Because when you have this type of an injury and you have surgery, the brain really wants to shut off how this thing works. So now we're just kind of basically reprogramming it. So what is an example of a DNS movement or exercise? The first one and the core one. I'm trying to understand, visualize it. The very first one is something called learning how to access intra-abdominal pressure. So, you know, I think most people who think about breathing have a pretty good sense that you aren't just breathing into your thoracic cavity, right, a good breath has to have the diaphragm going down, you have to get into the abdomen.

44:18What DNS does is it really explains to you how a child is breathing, which is, you know, if you imagine the waistband of your pants or your shorts, when a child is breathing, that thing is fully expanding. So they have purely concentric force in their abdomen with every breath. And again, if you look at a really good power lifter or something, you'll see the same thing. I mean, the amount of intra-abdominal pressure that they have to generate to be able to move such heavy loads is essential. And so that was literally the very first thing we worked on is just, can you access pelvic floor pressure?

44:56Can you create enough pressure into your pelvic floor? Can you maintain it while you breathe? So that, first of all, it's just hard to do that out of the gate. And the second thing is you can do it, but you're not relaxed. So you're gonna have to be able to do that, hold it while you can breathe around it. The next things for me that were very important, I have a very congenitally narrow C-spine. And if you look at an MRI of my neck, you wouldn't believe what a disaster it looks like, even though I've never really had an issue. but I'm being very preventative about it. And so one of the other things I'm working on is learning how to use the deep neck stabilizers.

45:32So these are muscles that ride on the back, they're inside, you don't see them. So they're not these scalene muscles that are in front, they're the muscles that sit on the vertebral body, sort of deep in my neck. And it's learning how to use those muscles to keep my head forward so I'm not relying on these muscles here. And so that's a lot of movements where I'm on my back, chin is forward using the cue of the eyes looking forward, which kind of lights up that circuit and using various pelvic positions, arm positions and leg positions in there. So it's very subtle and gentle, but it's more about like, how do I connect my intention in my mind to these muscle groups to get them to just activate?

46:14The starting positions are, now it starts to get very elaborate. Basically, if you, you know, someone Googles sort of a DNS progression, you'll see how complicated it will get because you're basically walking through the first two years of development. So the stuff I just described is like, you know, is the fetus basically. And you start moving into a three-month position, a four-month, five-month, six-month position where now the child is learning how to roll. Well, they roll in a very connected way. So when they're reaching for something with this arm, they're completely connected across their oblique sling.

46:47and they're gonna initiate that movement down to their foot. This is the other stuff that was just like, when I look at videos of me four years ago and videos of me now, I just don't know what the hell I was doing before. Like how I was getting away with the nonsense of being completely disconnected, you know, scapulas all over the place and all that sort of stuff. And here's the other thing, the best athletes in the world kind of naturally do this. That's another thing I've learned is that there are some really exceptional athletes out there who have never once spent a minute learning DNS, but when you look at them, they have somehow managed to preserve those neuromuscular pathways.

47:25And that is essentially a big part of what their athletic gift is. And I would imagine it's pretty good for injury prevention, right? If you have the ability to recruit all of these muscle groups, you're inherently more stable and resistant to a lot of the injuries that are occurring from those imbalances. Yeah, and that's why for me, It's a once a week, do the lesson once a week, push how much further can I get in those things? And then it's part of what we call our dailies. So we have, for our patients, we program things called dailies. Like whether today's a zone two day, a strength day, a rest day, you still have your dailies.

47:59You got your 10 minutes of daily. So I assume there's practitioners, trained practitioners who can teach this, but are there YouTube videos? Like if somebody is listening to this, I mean, how should they go about researching this or finding somebody? So I did a podcast with one of the probably, six or seven most prominent teachers in the United States, a guy named Michael Rontala. And we have the video of my interview with him and then also a few introductory movements, probably another hour worth of videos we made. And I suspect there's gotta be a ton on YouTube.

48:32Peter mentioned how athletes get away with not utilizing proper technique when they're younger. But as they age, the improper technique begins to cause pain and injury downstream. And I feel this is especially true for runners. Getting started with running seems as easy as lacing up shoes and running out the door. And of course, to some extent, that is easy. It is easy, but proper running technique is vital to avoiding injury later in life and staying a runner for as long as you can. Born to Run 2 authors, Chris McDougall and Eric Orton, expand on this sentiment by sharing leg stiffness drills, barefoot exercises, and the power of movement snacks, bite-sized mobility and movement practices any athlete can adopt.

49:26This idea, and you talk about it in Born and Run too, like don't teach people technique when it comes to running, like everyone's an N of one and there is no right or wrong way and we all know how to run. So you just go out and run and like don't mess around with that, which is insane when you deconstruct that, like you use the example of like the basketball player, like you don't just throw the ball up in the air and hope for the best. Like it's a skill just like anything else. And there is a right way and a wrong way. And so much about our modern lifestyles and we can get into all of that, drive us into situations where we're compelled to do it improperly.

50:01And that leads to all of these injuries and persistent problems that sideline people unnecessarily. You know, I tell a lot of beginning runners, don't view starting running as a workout or as a form of fitness or a way to lose weight. Create the joy first and everything else will follow. And that goes into learning to be efficient, not thinking it has to be hard. And that's kind of what we really dove into with Chris is that I worked kind of the real easy end. But also he did a lot of hill sprints and a lot of other higher effort training to develop that efficiency and economy that was revelatory.

50:45He was in a matter of a couple of weeks doing so much more than he had ever done just by changing things up. Let's hone in on the form piece for a little bit. I think with Born to Run, it became a little bit reductive in the sense that everyone just thought I thought it was about minimalism and barefoot running. And that is a piece in there for sure, right? But that's really kind of evidence of a broader concept around form, technique, and lifestyle. I think the further we get away from the ground in a shoe, the more we are getting away from allowing our feet to work in a natural environment. And I think what people really need to understand is that how we use our feet really dictate how we stabilize.

51:34You know, our first line of defense as runners is with our big toe and our arch. That's our stabilizer. And that really dictates how well we use our glutes. So how we use our feet directly relate to how we kind of hear the important stability, strength we need to be healthy, strong, performance or longevity-based runners. But for me, even more so, So it's what we're doing for the structural system is that a lot of what's in the book. Waking up all those muscles and groupings. And using them in an appropriate manner, activating things. We were in Lawrence, Kansas, what, two days ago or whatever it was.

52:10And kind of our MO for these events have been start out with some of our skills in the book and then go for a run. And we did some neuromuscular jumping and what we call leg stiffness. leg stiffness is a crucial element for performance and longevity for good health and running. And so we went through our leg stiffness exercises and then went for a trail run. And after the trail run, two gals came up to me and they said, those exercises transformed my running in a matter of 30 minutes because normally I would not be able to run that trail as a steady run. I felt like I could run forever. What does that mean, leg stiffness?

52:57Essentially, your ability to land and get off the ground as quickly as possible, helping your cadence. So I see cadence and leg stiffness go hand in hand for performance and for longevity or that real feel good we want out of running where it takes away tightness. When we hear leg stiffness, that's a good thing. It doesn't mean lack of mobility or tightness. It's your ability to use and operate the springs and rubber bands in your body to land and snap and get off of it as quick as possible. I see, yeah, cool. Talk a little bit about the movement snacks. I mean, that's sort of drill oriented, but I like how you've encapsulated that and turned it into like a fun thing.

53:42Yeah, the movement snacks are something that you can do anytime, anywhere for a variety of reasons, but how we strategically use them in the book is a lot of diving into the diagnostics of the injury chapter, where maybe the movement snacks are a strategic way to begin to add more mobility or give you a sense of where you're lacking in movement while you're then implementing some of the remedies for that specific injury. These are developed by a friend of ours, Julie Angel, who comes from a parkour background. And so what Julie, Julie was actually a filmmaker who started to film parkour athletes.

54:23And as an observer, she realized, oh, they've got some really kind of cool, full natural movement skills that a lot of people could benefit from. So she extracted movement snacks from the isolated movements of parkour athletes, like precision jumping or quadrupedal movement. Right, crawling around on all fours. Yeah, yeah. But that kind of thing too, to balance on your left foot and your right hand at the same time and move forward. And then she realized these are fun. They are non-threatening. And that if you do a little bit of bear crawl for like 30 seconds and you stand up, everything feels loosened.

54:58And so I think it's kind of a genius move by Julie to create movement snacks because you take that group of people, I'm not a runner. I don't wanna do this. I don't do that. Oh yeah. So the parkour community will form a big circle as a way of saying hello. And then they will bear crawl to the center and everyone will high five and then they'll reverse and bear crawl backwards back out. That's the warmup. But they've now extended their entire chain of motion, their arms, shoulders, backs are loosened and they're ready to go out and work out. So that's what we basically adopted all these things from Julie's and Movement Snacks.

55:30Cool, well, let's end this with a couple drills, things that you can, I don't know if we can like, if it's possible to articulate it in a way where people can kind of understand, but like one or two things that people could start to practice where they can get a gauge on like, oh, this is why I feel this way because this thing is weak or what have you. Yeah, so maybe we can hit it from two sides. One, what we call the foot core, where we can train our feet. We've got muscles on the bottom of our feet and there's some simple but very, very potent ways to train your feet. And it's a simply, you always kind of wanna work barefoot.

56:03It's simply taking off your shoes and socks and balancing on your forefoot on one leg. and Chris is sick of me here and saying this, but you're gonna feel it where you need it. You're gonna, the weakest link is gonna show up. It might be for someone, hey, they start to feel it in the feet and the arch or it might be the calves or hey, they're strong down there. They bike or they do mountain running and so they're strong down below the knee, but they start to feel it in their glute and that's how the feet really affect everything up through the leg. So again, simply barefoot, forefoot balancing.

56:37Right. I've noticed, and I don't know whether this is an age thing or a weakness thing or whatever, but my balance got really bad. Like, you know, when I stand on one leg or I'm putting my underwear on or whatever, I'm like, why can't I just, you know, hold myself up in a stable way? And I think too, in doing these simple foot core exercises that you're going to start to see or feel a difference between right and left. And then you can start maybe making a correlation of, oh yeah, I'm kind of tighter on this side and making a correlation of how poorly or how well you're using each foot based on how you're feeling as an athlete.

57:15The genius of these exercises that Eric came up with is I wanted everything to be something that I would personally do. And if I ain't going to do it, I'm not going to put it in the book. and things like the one foot balancing. If you're waiting for the coffee to brew, you got two minutes on your hands, you can do this. And that's what I really like about them. These are extraordinarily practical, but have a great residual effect as well. And that doesn't mean they're not potent. I mean, as you're listening right now, take off your shoes and socks and balance on your forefoot. It's not an easy thing.

57:43And you can see how challenging and difficult it is. And with that, in that position, regardless of good or bad form, We're asking ourselves to be in that position every step as we run. And you need to be stable there. And that's how we can really train the feet. The self-correcting part of this is that Eric doesn't give you any instructions on how you, he goes, just move your arms, move your legs, however you want to get that balance. What you find is you self-correct. You realize, oh, if I just kind of tighten my core up a little bit, if I straighten my posture, I do my arms like this. And so you do it for 30 seconds and your body will find that balance that you were struggling for just by putting itself in that position.

58:20Yeah, the tweak for me is embracing the fact that so much of that is about like creating those neural pathways. It's not about suffering. Like, you know, the athlete in me is like, I'm gonna do it until it hurts. Or how many of these lifts, you know, am I gonna do? Well, I'll just do it until it's burning like crazy. But it's not really about that. It's really about just developing the habit as a preset. And that's about like your mind connecting with that movement. It's not about hitting anything hard. It's the best warmup you can do because now we're turning our electrical system on before we go out and run.

58:54So another one, leg stiffeners we talked about is simply, there's three types of strength. We have concentric, eccentric, and isometric. And the eccentric and isometric is very rarely talked about. And especially the isometric where it's that when we land as a runner, there's a moment in time after our land and before we take off that is really, really crucial for injuries, that isometric hold. A lot of runners don't have that. So leg stiffener exercise would be simply standing on your right foot, barefoot, and just taking a short leap forward and sticking it like a ballerina without a whole lot of leg movement.

59:34You want to stick it without movement and just kind of progressively hop forward with that stick, two or three, five second stick to create more leg stiffness to allow you to really get off the ground. Right, so that creates the ability to be resilient in that isometric position and avoid injury. And it's a great way for people who are training for a hilly race that might not live in that area. Now we're training that eccentric landing as well that we get from downhills that maybe they don't have. So yeah, cool.

1:00:13So as you just heard, Eric and Chris shared the benefits of adopting exercises and drills to support running. But often, mental endurance is far more challenging than physical. So what do we do when we feel uninspired to stick to our goals? How can we cultivate lasting motivation? Well, the trick is to break goals down into very small, actionable steps. Focus on running 10 minutes rather than five miles. This is the mindset of my friend, the very exuberant endurance superstar, Hela Sidibe. a man who holds a 2000 plus day running streak. He's been running every single day since May 15, 2017. And in this clip, Hella shares why achieving your goals starts by making them pressure-free and attainable.

1:01:08That's when I started taking responsibility and say, go do what you can do and focus on that. Put your energy there, not the areas you can. And what was that? I mean, when faced with the prospect of your professional career, not panning out, What's next? I literally told myself one day, I'm tired of making excuses. I gotta do something that I can hold myself accountable for. And then fitness comes to your mind. You're an athlete. And I said, hello, whenever you tell yourself you're gonna go to the gym for a week straight, you go two, three days, you tap out. And I said, what is something that I'm afraid of?

1:01:36Running hit me immediately. So playing division one, even at the pro level running, I was always afraid of it. At UMass Amherst, the track team used to look at us. Are you guys the UMass tracking? You guys run so much. Our coach was very proud. but may he rest in peace, Sam Cooke, was very proud to say, you guys are gonna be the fittest team in the country. So anything you do, any mistake on the line, we want to play top teams the day before, he makes us run. So I was fitness test, I was afraid of it. I couldn't sleep the night before. I could play 90 minutes, no problem, because with soccer, you're hitting 50-50 ball, you're attacking, you're defending.

1:02:05It's not just solely focused on running. So I asked myself, what are you afraid of? And running hit me. And I said, you know what? I'm gonna go face my fear of running. Let me just go 10 minutes a day for two weeks and zero pressure. It doesn't matter if 10 minutes this means you don't even get to a mile, that's okay. So I told myself that within the first week I fell in love with it immediately. So I ran to Alexa Torres, my fiance. I was like, I think I can do this for the rest of my life, but I don't wanna get ahead of myself. Let me do this every day for a year. That's how the whole run streak started.

1:02:30Right, so it was really born out of this frustration and a little bit of confusion about what the next chapter was gonna look like. Yes, exactly, exactly. That's how it all started. It's also interesting that your frame on running is through the lens of punishment. When you are on a sports team, it's not run specific. It's like, that's, you know, being told to run is what happens when you get in trouble. Literally. It's like the stick. If you ask teammates of mine, I get so stressed the night before a fitness test. They can see it. They're like, hell are you okay? I'm like, I just can't stop thinking about that beep test tomorrow morning.

1:03:05Or like the Cooper test where you gotta run two miles under 12 minutes. And if you don't make this time, you gotta be in breakfast club, which is extra fitness before the actual practice. and the actual practice has its own fitness in it. So it really got me all confused and scared and petrified. But you're super fit. So when you started this streak, I think you said you went out and ran 10 minutes or something like that. But you're certainly capable of doing more than that. Yeah, way capable. And in that 10 minutes didn't even last. It was just the first week I was, I ended up finding myself running even four miles.

1:03:32But the whole point of that idea of saying 10 minutes a day was to have zero pressure. Cause I know if I was to tell myself, hello, you gotta run at least five miles a day. that's something at that point in my mentality and physical ability for running, I wasn't something I was kind of capable of maintaining, but I knew it was something attendable to the 10 minutes. So it was a mental thing. So that made me feel like, okay, you're doing this with non-pressure enjoying. Spring was in the air, it was May 15th of 2017. So it was just a perfect amount of time for me to be out there. So that's why I said 10 minutes.

1:04:03Have a change and staying motivated. What you've done is so inspirational. And I feel like you do such a good job at communicating these ideas in a relatable way. So for the people that are watching or listening who are feeling inspired and know they need to get off the couch and do something, it doesn't necessarily have to be a run streak, but perhaps are in the process of rethinking their relationship to their body and themselves and the trajectory that they're on in life. Like how do you speak to that person? I always say do something that's pressure free and do something that's attainable.

1:04:40Those are the biggest factor for me. And pressure free meaning don't do it because someone else is doing it. Do it because you want to do it and do it on your own timing. Don't feel like you got to get it done. If it's a goal, whatever, you don't have to get it done in 10 days. If you need a month, a month is okay. So just do it pressure free. Because of that, I fell in love with running. I never thought there was no chance. And now I get excited to run. And I know running is tough. it has its brutal days, but like I'm still excited to go at it. So do it. You don't feel the pressure of maintaining the streak.

1:05:10Nope, zero pressure. And I always say this too, this is how I feel about it. The day that I feel like it becomes more of a pressure and I'm not liking it, I'm gonna stop. I'll stop. And then I don't know when that day - Give yourself that permission. Yeah, and I know I'll find something else. I'll find something else. So making sure it's not, I don't have to go, I know I don't have to go run to keep a streak going, but I just do it because it feels good. that I enjoyed and I wanna keep sharing it. So pressure free, do it, something that's attainable. And just think about even spending five minutes a day goes a long way.

1:05:42If it's something you love already, or you're thinking about, you've been thinking about, that's all the time to start doing it. So if that means just spend five minutes a day, it's about volume. Five minutes a day for seven days a week is gonna add up. But if you just do it today and you take a few days off, that's not it. If you can do 10 minutes a day, that's also 10 minutes you can at least find out of your day if it's important enough to you. So as long as you wanna do it and just pressure free and get after it and don't think about anybody, even don't compare, even if it's running, don't compare yourself to these people who are doing hundreds of miles, these fast pace or these whatever.

1:06:14Everybody has their own process, their own journey. And if that's the goal, you'll get there just one day at a time. That's it. I love it, man. Yeah, one day at a time.

1:06:25I think Hela is really spot on when it comes to comparison. It doesn't serve you and it won't get you any closer to your goals. But when you hit plateaus, injuries, age-related physical changes, or even postpartum changes, it can be hard to not compare yourself to others or even to your old self. But Robin Arzon wants you to turn these plateaus into launching pads. A global fitness icon and vice president of fitness programming at Peloton, Robin delivers a sermon on positive self-talk, on gratitude, pre - and postnatal fitness, and how to form a movement routine after giving birth.

1:07:13Speaking strictly about fitness, like walk me through the prenatal phase and how you thought about your fitness, and now postnatal, like how you've approached it, whether it's different or has changed based upon pre-strong mama Robin. Prenatal. Okay, so I trained and I taught five days a week live throughout my entire pregnancy. And then everyone like fell in love with you because you were like, this is like, oh, she's pregnant. Like there was a emotional bond, I think, that you created with the people that care about you. Well, I announced the pregnancy on the bike. So that, it was like a very major, you know, pregnancy announcement.

1:07:53but that felt very logical to me because I have shared parts of my life, whether it's my romantic journey or my, you know, of course, as an athlete and as a woman, as a Latina, like there are aspects of myself that I infuse into my training and my workouts. And so announcing the pregnancy felt logical, especially because I knew I was gonna teach, you know, hoped to teach throughout my pregnancy and I had a great pregnancy, so that was possible. And I continued to run, strength train and cycle. throughout. I got my prenatal certification. So I did prenatal classes as well for Peloton. And I was like, oh, I got this.

1:08:31Postpartum, however, that piece of the journey was daunting. It felt like putting myself back together again. I just wasn't used to slowing down to that extent and being that vulnerable and having no control. I mean, there were so many days that the fatigue was crushing. I was recovering from a C-section. So major abdominal surgery. And there were, I mean, for probably the first six weeks, I was like, oh my God, am I ever going to be moved the way I'm used to moving? And the pressure of being this celebrity fitness personality. And what if I can't do that again or be that person that I want to be or know how to be?

1:09:13I had real moments of imposter syndrome, especially when we're run like a network. So I took five months of maternity leave, but when we were planning for me to come back, they're like, you know, production's like, what do you wanna teach? You know, we have to put something on the live schedule for X day. And I'm like, I don't even physically know what I'm gonna be able to do. You know, that felt really intense. And I developed a mantra then during that postpartum period of consistency over intensity, because I knew I couldn't go hard in the paint, which is I'm apt to do. Like that is much more my flavor of intensity.

1:09:52And I thought, just do something every day. And in the beginning, it was literally breath work, like literally feeding my daughter and doing 360 diaphragmatic breathing because I knew that was gonna repair my core. That was weeks of that. And then it was walks and little by little amounting to a lot, but it was frustratingly slow. And now I'm stronger than I ever have been a year later. Right. And how much of that did you share transparently in the Peloton classes, because I feel like that on some level is much more relatable to the typical Peloton person than all the talk about polishing your crowns and all of that kind of stuff.

1:10:31You know what I mean? Like, hey, I don't feel like, most of the time, I feel like I can barely do anything. And now Robin can speak my language or I can find a relatability there that perhaps even strengthened your connection with your community. Definitely. I was super honest, especially in those first few classes. But, you know, in that six month period, my first six months back on the bike and back in strength classes, you know, I'd already been doing my own training, you know, during my maternity leave, but it's different. It's different doing in front of the camera. You know, those first few sprints feel like, am I ever gonna get it back?

1:11:04But your body does remember. And I think being honest about that journey, especially as a woman and very anti-snapback culture, Yeah, I wanna talk about that because there is all this pressure, like how quickly can you get back to where you were before? And your whole thing is about letting go of what was before and let's focus on moving forward. Yeah, my refrain was, what if a plateau is a launching pad? What if a plateau is a launching pad? And for a really long time, like I'm supposed to wear the new Peloton collection and I'd have to go back and be like, I actually still need this other size, you know?

1:11:38And I had to reframe the story around that and focus on what my body could do rather than, you know, what size the tag set. Sure. And it's all good now though. Feel strong. I'm stronger than ever. Yeah. But it was little by little amounting to a lot. I mean, it was truly like the smallest steps. I remember runs on the West Side Highway. I ran the New York City Marathon about, I think Athena was nine months. And when I tell you that I didn't look at a watch, I would old school like map the distance for my runs and not run with a single stitch of like pacing. Yeah. Because I couldn't even take that information.

1:12:16You know, I couldn't be like, oh, but your pace was this and then, no way. I showed up to the New York City Marathon actually having zero idea how long it was gonna take me. Like I was just like, I'm gonna go. It was so liberating and it was a refreshing back to basics. Like it was like, I'm doing this because I love it and because I feel better doing it rather than any external gaze. Yeah, I shared a little thing about this on Instagram the other day, you know, my version of that is just getting older and dealing with injuries. You know, it's a limited version of what you experienced on an extreme level.

1:12:48But at some point, the GPS watches and all the stuff are no longer tools, but they're vehicles to shame yourself, right? And at that point, they're counterproductive. And I've been spending more time like letting go of all of that stuff. And what it does, it does exactly what you said, which is it reminds you why you're doing it, which is that it brings yourself joy. you know, and that's really the most important thing. So rather than like looking, you know, where am I at? It's impossible to look at that and not immediately measure yourself against the fittest version of yourself, which is a really unkind, unfair thing to do to yourself.

1:13:22I mean, I noticed myself doing that and I did do runs on the Peloton Tread and it was, thank God I had it because I literally during nap time, I like, I don't even know how I did cross that finish line, but I cobbled together, like I'm talking like 20 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes in the afternoon. And that would be my run, you know, when I was supposed to run five miles that day. Like it was not as I would have had done it in past marathon training cycles. But the most important catalyst was not crossing that finish line. It was how I was talking to myself along the way. And - Talk more about that.

1:13:58It was, okay, so I'll do, so pre-run, putting on a pair of pants that were bigger than I have ever trained in before, right? Go out, lace up, finish that 10 mile run, finish that 13 mile run, come back, kinder to myself because I completed what I said I was gonna do, even if it took me however much longer than previous versions. And it actually brought me back. So when I started running after I was held hostage and I started running during law school, it was the first time I was made aware of my internal conversation of like the actual thoughts, whether it was like in first person or third person that were going on in between my ears.

1:14:41And I was brought back to that in that training cycle postpartum as my ability to either use the words to cast, what kind of spell am I going to cast with the words that are going on internally? and it was either gonna be, I had a choice. Like, are you gonna berate yourself for the size of these pants? Or are you gonna tell yourself, oh my God, like you are outside. You have, your husband's able to watch the baby. She's healthy. Like you're healed enough from this post-C-section to even lace up, you know? You were craving to even get outdoors, you know? So there was an element of gratitude and kindness that I had to incorporate into that training cycle and it ended up being the best four months of training of my life.

1:15:26Yeah, it's a choice, right? But sometimes it's hard to make that choice. Like, is there a mental trick or tactic that you would deploy to get out of that negative headspace and inhabit that more positive, gratitude-oriented perspective? Yeah, I would often ask myself, what do you have right now that you used to dream about or pray for? And in the like specifics, it was like just last week, you couldn't even go three miles. So you've been grateful that you can even run an hour today, you know? And asking myself that question is like an internal reset. Like I remember the beginning of the pandemic during quarantine, I was pregnant during the pandemic and it felt, the walls felt like they were closing in at some points, you know, for all of us.

1:16:12And I started that as a journaling practice, but I would force myself to answer, you know, what is it that you used to dream about or wish for that you have right now, but like within these four walls. And then I noticed like, oh, there's that painting that I got at whatever trip, or there's, you know, the couch that I bought with my husband, you know, little things that I was able to kind of put that gratitude filter on that it really helps. I mean, there were, of course, there were some days that I was like, God, this feels cheesy, but the practice of it really helped ground me and anchor me.

1:16:44I really agree with Robin when she said gratitude is integral to motivation and accepting where you're at in your movement journey. But oftentimes, seasonal changes can present obstacles when it comes to movement. Wintertime weather makes for cold runs or icy swims. Who wants to do that? So in this next clip, two-time Olympic swimmer, Ironman master, and my coach, Chris Howell, shares off-season and cold weather routines, as well as discusses how to maximize strength the mobility work during the winter months and how to cultivate consistency and steady, gradual, sustained progress.

1:17:29What do you think is the biggest mistake that most masters or amateur athletes make around this time of year? Well, it's the thinking that you have to keep this perfect string of workouts going, right? If you get 80 % of your week done, if you get three, four days together, strung together, done well, and you miss a day, that's fine, right? We're all not gonna be 100 % on any of this. I'm never 100 % on any of this, let alone most of my athletes. Life gets in the way, right? We all went pro in something other than this master's sports. And so not judging ourselves, not worrying too much about missing a day, because the next day you're gonna come back more motivated, more focused, as well as fresher and more recovered and feel better doing it.

1:18:17So don't look for perfection, look for steady, gradual progress. Consistency. Yeah, because especially as masters athletes, as I like to call us, especially as swimmers, we remember how we used to be, right? And we have this image when we take on an event, whether it's an Ironman, whether it's a swimming race, whether it's a running race, how we used to be and how when we had a lot of time and no kids and not a career that demands a lot of us and so forth, oh, that's what it felt like. That's how I felt. And that's how the rhythm of the training went. Well, that was 20 years ago, buddy, right?

1:18:55Like you forget and you have to adjust those expectations. And that's why I always say, we can take on any endurance event. We just have to adjust the expectations. However you wanna achieve it, we can achieve it, but let's work around what the expectations are. For the endurance athlete out there, how important is the strength work like time in the gym this time of year? Well, besides that, I will always say it's individual to the person. Strength work is quite important. The beauty of strength work that fits really well in with the seasons of endurance training and endurance athletics is that this is a great time of year when the rain is here, the snow is here, the cold temperatures to work on those things.

1:19:39It's again, taking advantage of the environment we're in, spending the next 12 weeks, 16 weeks on strength and mobility, especially mobility, more than strength and mobility ties in stability work, what I call chassis integrity, core stability, things like that. So that then come the spring, we can put a bigger load on the body when it's time. but yeah, I'm a big believer in strength work, not for everybody because what are the best use of our limited time, right? So some people, we do just need to run, right? We just need to get them moving and running or walking in some cases. Others, we're better off spending that strength time if they're in the more temperate climate on the bike, right?

1:20:22We can do hill repeats on the bike at a low cadence and really work those leg muscles, very similar to squats, but you're doing it very sport specific. Do you have a specific mobility slash strength slash core workout that you recommend people? Yeah, no, I sort of fudge them all together from a variety of different people that I've worked with, things that I've liked, plans that I've applied and see how they work. That's the fun part, right? For me, even now at this time of year, I'm going through some different strength work and versions of strength work that I will then in two, three weeks hand on to my athletes.

1:21:00Like some of that kettle ball stuff? Yeah, kettle ball, a lot of - Kettle bell, I did it again. I had Mike Mahler in here. I got like crucified because I had Mike Mahler in here who's like an expert in kettle bells and I was calling him kettle balls. Yes, kettle bells, medicine balls, dumbbells. I like all that because again, we wanna manage the load and kettle bells because they're so versatile, allow you to do a lot of that work. And guess what? For 30 bucks on Amazon, for 50 bucks on Amazon, you can get a pretty good set and do most of this stuff in the comfort of your home, 30 minutes. And you are getting huge benefits from that strength work.

1:21:46Single leg lunges and squats and explosive jumps and so forth from a leg standpoint, core work and all kinds of crossover work that you can do with kettlebells that works really, really well, yeah. Yeah. All right, well, we gotta close this episode of Coach's Corner Down, but like I want you to just imagine it's late January, it's dark, it's cold, it's wet. You set that goal at the end of December, but your enthusiasm is starting to wane. What are the key most important things that people can kind of latch on to, hang their hat on to carry them into the spring months? Well, you've heard this from me many times before, but there's some more tricks to it in the meantime.

1:22:30And that is just doing something, a little something every day, right? Consistency. And don't beat yourself up if it's only 30 minutes. That's plenty to get the heart rate going. But let's say you're on a treadmill, right? Or on a trainer, bike trainer, where you put your bike on a resistance trainer. Like things that I say to my athletes is, you know what, let's say you have the TV on. Every time there's a commercial, that's when you run harder. You run it two miles an hour faster. And then when your show comes back on, back to easy, right? Use everything in your environment to your advantage to keep you motivated, to keep it fun.

1:23:04Save that TV show that you wanna watch on Netflix for being on the trainer or save that song or that music or that podcast or your podcast for when you're on the treadmill, right? And you're stuck in the dark times or in a gym with a billion people and you don't really want to interact right now, you just wanna exhale, you've had a long day, save that for them to listen to that music or that new CD or CD. CD, yeah. How old are you? Exactly. Or a podcast, right? And so again, use those things to your advantage to get you out there every day. The other thing that I use and my athletes know this is I put out an index card when I go through hard times every night and I put it right by my coffee in the morning so that that index card has my workouts for the day on it.

1:23:59And just seeing that index card there with a few intentions, I mean, it's not big, you know, it's those small little index cards, lying there and seeing it first thing in the morning when I'm tired and sleepy and walking, turn on the water, you know, already, okay, well, that I can do, right? It's just that index card. I have to put that in a box at the end of the day. At some point today, I wanna get that done, right? I like that. Another little trick that I use is to prepare for the following day's workout the evening before by doing simple things like, okay, it's a run, so I'll pull out the shorts and the socks and like kind of get everything ready and organized to make it as easy as possible to begin that workout the next day.

1:24:42And I think just the simple act of organizing that creates an emotional investment that makes it harder for you the next day to not do it. Or have it with you, like you have it in your car with you at all times. But I also like to do the, the podcasts are really intriguing, right? Because you see what the topics are and you load them the night before and you look forward to hearing. You create your playlist. Exactly, and you look forward, oh, I'm curious as to what this guy has to say or what she is contributing. Right, this one's only 30 minutes though. So I gotta make sure I have, I know what's gonna follow that.

1:25:13So I don't have to stop. Yeah, well, but we all also know once that initial momentum happens, you're out the door, you're going, right? No, I mean, not that, but like I don't wanna have to stop my workout to hit play on the next thing. Like I want it all cued so it'll just flow, right? For sure, for sure. Yeah, get in a little something every day. Don't try to string together too many days perfectly in a row. Just look at yourself big picture. A lot of times I also say, where do you wanna be on January 31st? nothing crazy, not something for June yet. How do I want to feel January 31st? How do I want to feel February 28th or whatever it will be this year?

1:25:53So give yourself short-term outcomes that you say, okay, that I can achieve. I just need to be a little bit better at the end of January than I was at the end of December, right? And then you're making progress so that you can set the marker for next month out there of this is what I want to achieve, right? You can chart it. There's a lot of ways to keep you excited about the next week. But if you have short-term goals that you feel good about achieving, it'll just create momentum once again.

1:26:24If you can master just a little bit of movement every single day, it can really have a dramatic difference in not just your physical health, but also your mental health. But tying in more natural movements throughout your day, that's even better. So closing out our movement masterclass is natural lifestyle coach and barefoot ultra running phenom, Tony Riddle, who is going to distill down everything we've covered today to the basics by sharing how to turn daily mobility exercises into habits, as well as talking about how to nourish flexibility and mobility and why we all might actually need to relearn how to walk.

1:27:13So if you were going to pull out a prescription pad and write a prescription for me, short of getting rid of all the chairs in my house and knowing me as a runner and a multi-sport athlete, what is the prescription around squatting or other things that I could be doing or somebody who is like me could be doing? And there's many people like you. I get to see a lot of people like you. I wouldn't go as extreme to taking your furniture away. It would be too much. Don't worry, it's not going to happen. Your family wouldn't handle it. It'd be too much of an emotional crash. Julie might be into it. I don't know.

1:27:45I think, again, you have to take it back to say, right, after a certain amount of time, like after this, immediately after, I'd be taking things to the ground again, just because of the length of time you're sat here. I feel bad that we're not sitting on the ground. It's okay. Again, we can squat after. That's the beauty of it. Like I was on a flight for 11 and a half hours, right? And I'd get up, I'd get up regularly, go to the back of the plane, do the mobility sequence, open my hips up, do some shoulder mobility, squat, you know? I saw that on Instagram. I hope you had an aisle seat. And then I'd go back to the seat.

1:28:18No, I managed to get extra leg room and I had a window seat. Oh, you did? Did you have to climb over somebody every time you wanted to get up, every 20 minutes? Yeah, and as I was explaining earlier, the lady next to me was really demonstrating the behavior that was encouraging me even more. I was like, oh, wow. So, yeah, I would, again, just look at what you're doing within the environment and try and make small changes within it rather than add too much to your day. And I think that's where a lot of things fall down is we think, oh, when are we going to find the time to do that? So it's very simple to be able to slide a chair away, hold the edge of the desk.

1:28:51do a few squats, lifting your chest up, and use the desk as an anterior support. A lot of the people I see just don't have the ankle function, ankle mobility to perform a squat. So allow the heel to come up and just keep the shape and just drop onto your haunches. So it's almost like a straight body. Your butt will be resting on your heel and your knees will be forward. You just do a few rhythm little bounces in that position and then stand again and then you're ready to walk. Other disciplines that we will cover, just go through a few kneeling positions that you can do on the ground and a little mobility sequence that you can play with within that.

1:29:22And again, they're just rest positions like long sits or straddle sits and things like that. The other thing for the upper body is I recommend for everyone to do is put a bar up to hang off. So hanging is even more ancient, if you think, than running, right? So it goes back into what would be our primate foundation. So if we go right down, climb down that phylogenic tree, we get to the brachiating apes. to how to restore and open up the ribcage and open up the lungs would be to basically just hang simple hanging systems so so you go through different hanging positions and we have in the wrist the elbow the shoulder and your scapula your shoulder blade we have all the same brachiating abilities as all the other apes and i find people just some people have trouble changing light bulbs now so it's really important to just keep nourishing that 80 % shoulder injuries i'd say is through the lack of brachiation and then we try and do things like dips in the gym but the scapula is internally rotated and raised then again it's just blowing up the shoulder so hanging will help reset or straight arm strength forget about bent arm strength forget about pulling patterns just get used to being completely straight in the arm then your posture hang from it again that will help mobilize the shoulder but it will also open up the tendons the ligaments everything and even the arteries through that pathway you'll lift your rib cage which will then make your breathing clearer and then you can play once you're in that position you can start to go through active hangs.

1:30:43So trying to keep your arms straight whilst lifting your chest up into your hands. So there's no bend in the elbow. And that starts to strengthen the lower trapezius, which is in the mid back. A lot of the disciplines that we see are about mobilization and flexibility. And you can do all the flexibility training you like. You can do amazing work for the mid back, but if you don't have the strength to hold it there through the lower trapezius, gravity is going to take over. What about doing pull-ups and chin-ups? and those are pulling. But great, but on a straight arm strength to begin with. So there's Ido Portel's work.

1:31:17So he has like a hanging tutorial thing. And I would suggest that you basically set a timer so you can have a time. I work with clients to start with 10 seconds hanging and then they're off the bar. And then I give them 30 seconds rest, then they go back up. Then that will turn to 20 seconds, 30 seconds and a minute. And the way this then starts to unravel is you start to build a relationship. It becomes a new habit. So I'll give you an example of someone who I coach who's 78 he's a old guy called Yehudi he rocked up at my gym door when he was 72 so six years ago and he was completely stooped scrunched up old posture he brought natural birthing into the UK wrote a book called birth and beyond a real manual for childbirth amazing guy but gravity and age were taking over and so I really want to learn how to walk and I was okay so it's a good place just to get you up on the treadmill and at the age of 72 you want to learn how to walk so interesting right so up he went on the treadmill just recorded him showed him his posture oh my god i can't believe i look like that you know like i'll bend over and these are these boxes that i was introduced by a coach called lee and basically have like the it's the conscious competency model so i record them up until that point they're unconsciously incompetent and then i show them the video and now they're consciously incompetent and then i go through the drills they need and then they become consciously competent and then over time doing the same drills and the same method which we're going what you're wanting me to break down what would i do that then becomes unconsciously competent and that's how you learn the skill but remembering the next time you get recorded you still be unconsciously incompetent so you keep feeding that so he basically just wanted to learn how to walk we'd go through walking go through that model with him and i prescribe footwork for rewilding the feet how to get the feet in the foot shape rather than a shoe shape so his feet were compromised by 72 years of inappropriate footwear that were compromising the shape of the foot get that back then ground rest positions so he then went through the various different ground positions what i would prescribe for him and then hanging and that was it and then he had a hanging bar in his home so this guy now since then has climbed everest base camp bhutan mount kenya atlas mountains and basically this is his morning routine so he wakes up now in an air purified room trots downstairs gets to the office on the second floor hangs in the bar goes into the office gets on the mat does his mobility sequence has a standing desk answers his emails go downstairs preps his smoothie prebiotics probiotics symbiotics puts his vivos on walks down to the tube gets to the tube doors open he gets on people usually say because he's 78 would you like a seat he's like no i'm okay and up he goes he hangs on the bars he hangs on the bars while the tube's moving feet off the floor tube stops doors open right next one next time the door's closed then he squats and he squats and then he does breath work so he does between breath work hanging squatting and a bit of surfing so surfing you don't hold on to anything you just try and get your support on the train and that's at the age of 78 he's just made small changes all the way along and he's using his commute.

1:34:24He's in incredible shape now. Wow. And his spine straightened out? Straightened out. It's completely upright. Wow. But the difference is how he looks now. So he doesn't look like the 72 year old. He looks great. He looks in amazing shape and newfound confidence within it. It's kind of a beautiful act of humility to walk into your gym and say, teach me how to walk too. That takes courage. Most people wouldn't do that. And it's interesting to think about walking as something that we might have to learn or relearn. Like we were talking about this in the context of running, like born to run. We're all born runners.

1:35:03We don't think that we need any instruction. It's all instinctual and intuitive. And I suppose on some level it is. But through the means by which we live our lives in this Western industrialized society, we've reshaped our bodies that have now created a situation in which we probably do need to formally learn how to run. And you just pointed it out to me when we were out on the trail, like all these things that I'm not doing correctly, but I could be doing better because I'm unconsciously incompetent in certain aspects of what I do, even though I've been doing it for a long time and I've done it at a decent level.

1:35:44Yeah, man, a really decent level. But there's still so much to learn, you know, and I know that I'm not working at my capacity because I've never had anybody formally instruct me in anything. Okay. So if you're in an office and your HR department won't allow you to have a standing desk, again, you slide your chair away, you do some squats. I have a whole squat tutorial that we can send out to the listeners as well. Yeah, it's great. I'll put a link in the show notes. So we can do that. And then that gives you some tips as well of what you can be doing behind the desk. 10 ,000 steps. Everyone loves banging on about 10 ,000 steps.

1:36:18But for me, if you have 10 ,000 poor steps that might lead you to an injury, it's probably not the best model. If you're wearing compromised footwear with a dodgy heel and a pointed toe box, it's not the best model. So I would go - Most people are wearing those kinds of shoes. Yeah, I would cut back and just say, okay, what's the more natural environment for a foot? it's nature it's creating a foot-shaped shoe so go to minimal footwear there's some amazing brands out there vivo is one but there's others there's some primal office wear that's come through and it's trying to basically even get into the feeling that it's not about running in those shoes it's about living in those shoes and that will give you an amazing foundation so if you're into all your disciplines it could be pilates yoga it could be running we're talking about it will only enhance that those disciplines will just get better because you'll be moving in the appropriate systems and creating the right muscle action, tendon actions for them, which means the next day you can get up and do the same thing without the tension.

1:37:26All right, everybody, that's it. We did it. This masterclass was packed with just an absolute of battery of resources to spark, to sustain and to fully adopt movement and mobility practices that are useful and most importantly, meaningful to you. But the biggest lesson I took away from compiling this very special episode is that physically embodying a dream, a vision, a belief or a purpose through movement is really the only way that you can and will ever make a change. because as I say relentlessly on this show, mood follows action. You cannot think your way into anything. You can only do something about it.

1:38:09I truly believe movement isn't just a physical practice that benefits the body. It's actually a means of evolution because when we embrace movement, even in the smallest ways, we open the door to a world of possibilities. In my case, a walk led to a run, which led to ultra endurance racing and ultimately to this entirely new life altogether. So my hope is that this masterclass gives you the education and the inspiration and the tools that you need to adopt a form of movement that brings you joy, a mobility routine that nourishes your body and that you discover something new about yourself, your purpose and your meaning along the way.

1:38:55Quick reminder that links to the full episodes for each of the individuals excerpted today can be found in the show notes at richroll.com. And in closing, keep moving. More exploring, more joy, and of course, always more plants. Peace. Love. Namaste.

1:39:25Thank you.