GMB Elements and the Missing Pieces for Epic Movement

Note: This is a follow-up to this post about how to reverse the damage of sitting and human domestication.It took a lot of damage to get it through my thick skull.Big, hard heads are great for absorbing punishment, but not so great at learning how to do things smarter."Just go for it!"Doesn't that ring a bell?You're in a class and you want other people to see how badass you are. You get excited about a youtube video, and like Nike, you just want to do it!"Oops. Umm, something doesn't feel good. Owww, what is that?"Guess it wasn't as easy as you thought it would be.So, you lick your shoulder/knee/ankle wounds and retreat back into your pain cave with your tail between your legs."What did I do wrong?" you wonder.What you, I and 90% of the human population, did wrong is that we tried to skip vital steps along the process. Each of those steps would have formed a stronger base in our foundation, but since those bricks were never laid, collapse is the only possible outcome.

One way ticket to back to the basics, courtesy of the Welcome to Reality Foundation

I'm going to tell you the unsexy, raw truth about high level movement ability:If you want to move in an epic way, you have to go back to the beginning. Probably a lot further back than you'd like.The deeper the foundation, the higher your building of movement can be built. The more mastery you have over the most basic elements of movement, the greater potential you unlock further in the game.Let's take for instance a simple squat. At face value, it looks like a basic, simple, nothing-to-see-here-move-along type of movement. But in reality, a squat has much more going on than meets the eye.The squat is not only an important "elemental" position in itself, but it's the link in between many other movements.Going from seated on the ground to standing might easily involve a squat. Bending over to pick something up often goes through a squat pattern. Jumping or even climbing usually involves some kind of squatting motion as well.If there is a breakdown in your squat, none of these other movements are likely to go well.Adding load, complexity or speed to this movement is only accelerating the inevitability of collapse in the system.The distance you go with your development will always be determined how much time you spend on the basic, foundational elements.

What are the obvious things everyone overlooks?

We have a nasty habit of making assumptions and taking certain things for granted. It's all too easy to overlook the most obvious things when studying a subject.We pay the price for this when stretching to higher levels of movement capability.If you really want to go back and master the foundational elements of movement, you'll go beyond how to squat, pullup or pushup.You'll begin investigating the deeper levels, like:

• Awareness of your relationship to gravity
• Awareness of your whole body
• Moving from your center

And then you might be ready for:

• How to crawl
• How to get up from the ground
• How to squat
• How to stand
• And so on...

WTF, you might be thinking. "I already went through that awkward learning how to use my body period. Of course I know how to crawl and stand. Gravity is automatic and everyone feels their body. Only a moron would waste time with these things. Bring on the handstand pushups!!!"This might be true, if you never stopped doing all of these things, and hadn't sat in chairs for the majority of your life.Chances are you have some joint issues, some overly tight muscles, and a few imbalances. Some of these were probably brought on by injury, others by repetitive motion or just sitting too damn much.Going back to the foundations helps us relearn how to use our bodies efficiently and consciously. Through increased awareness, we're better able to figure out what we need to do to restore balance and integrity to our entire system.Really what we're after is creating a base of flexibility, strength and joint integrity that will serve our exploration of movement.This is not exhaustive, but just a few of the most important things I've done to rebuild strong, mobile, happy joints.

1. Return to your home, homo sapien

It's amazing how little contact most of us have to the ground these days.The shoes we wear keep a continuous buffer between our feet and the earth beneath us. Our furniture keeps our asses at a safe distance from the dirty, filthy floor.As kids we're encouraged to quickly grow out of this primitive habit.But at what cost?By putting so much distance between us and the earth, we tend to become disconnected from it. We forget that the ground underneath us is solid, and here to support us. We lose touch with our feet, the very base of our bodies.Without a close relationship to our base and the ground — no surprise here — we are already at a disadvantage with any movement that involves either (which means, pretty much everything).Taking off your shoes and spreading your toes is a good start. Actually sitting on the ground, a rock or even a cushion on the floor is the next step.Try feeling the weight of your body through the support points of your feet as you stand, your butt bones as you sit and your spine as you lay on the ground.It's one thing to know it, it's a whole other to feel it every moment.At it's most basic level, this is it. If there's one thing you can count on it's the ground... except if you're above a sinkhole or something. That would definitely suck.

2. Take back control of your joints

If you don't have segmental control over each joint, the ability to move it through its full range of motion, how are you going to expect movement that involve multiple joints to go well?If one joint in a movement is compromised, the other joints included will be forced to take on more work, causing further problems.Learning to control each joint through its normal range is key to waking up your connection to each area of your body, as well as identifying any areas that might need some rehab or healing done.I've taken the advice of Dr. Andreo Spina and made a morning practice of Controlled Articular Rotations, or CARs for short. What the hell does that mean? It's simply taking the time to move each joint slowly through its range of motion after a long night of not moving.Here's what they look like:

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3. Get up, get up, get up and get down

Getting up and down off the floor.You can see it in your WOD now...1. Get up and down from the floor - 10min AMRAPYeah, probably not happening any time soon. But if you can't decently get up and down from the ground —without your hands, momentum or compromising good posture — then you have some serious weak links in your movement ability as a human.In a study on risk of mortality, researchers found that those who couldn't get up off the floor without use of their hands were six times more likely to die than those who could. This is serious stuff.I like playing with getting up and down from the floor, especially since a lot of the times I'm working from my laptop on the floor anyway. Here are just a few of the possibilities:

4. Crawl like a (human) animal

I'm a big fan of the bear, frogger and monkey crawling patterns. I think they're great for establishing a baseline of strength, flexibility and body control.But what you might have forgotten is that these aren't just animal patterns, they're human patterns! The bear resembles a baby mid-crawl preparing to get up. The monkey looks a lot like squatting on the ground playing in the dirt. And the frogger easily looks like a kid attempting a headstand.Crawling is the precursor to standing and walking, so it makes sense to learn how to do these again. Plus, playing on the ground is just fun. I'll bear crawl down the hallway when I'm playing with my dog, or walk through the living room like a monkey. It's a fun way to get more "practice" in without making it into a thing.These compound movements are great for practicing total body awareness leading to greater skill and motor control.

5. Mobility games

I like to do mobility type stuff without actually working directly on my mobility. It's a great way of cheating the system and doing mobility without "doing mobility."What do I mean by mobility games? I mean any game that involves a wide degree of mobility.Hacky sack is a great way to get more hip mobility without trying to. The Trees Are on Fire is a great game for upper body mobility.I'm sure you can think of more.

6. Use squatting, crawling and playing in every day life

Woah, imagine that. Actually using movement to get things done, rather than it just being some isolated drill you practice in a gym? Preposterous! No, it's actually pretty simple when you think about it.I mean, squatting and moving around on the floor can easily happen if you let it while you're..

• putting away dishes
• sweeping or mopping the floor
• folding laundry
• playing with your dog/kid
• watching tv
• brushing your teeth

          This is a very half-assed list I just ran off the top of my head. I'm sure you can think of a thousand other ways if you just start exploring and being more mindful of how you move throughout your day.The more you move well throughout the day, in continually novel ways, with good mechanics, the more you will master the basic elements.

A video posted by Jonathan Mead (@jonathanmead) on Oct 22, 2015 at 1:03pm PDT

Becoming mindful of every moment you're moving and how you're holding yourself is the ultimate goal, and where you'll really find deep transformation of your body.It can start with closing the cabinets with your feet or brushing your teeth.

7. Explore your body, be in the mo(ve)ment and enjoy the journey

My buddy "Tom Mountjoy likes to say "Be In the Movement."I love this. It seems so obvious, to just be there, in the movement, completely absorbed and immersed in what you're doing.When the separation between you and the movement disappears, something foundational shifts. Being in the movement you are conscious and alive as motion.You are not just thinking about the movement and going through some motions. You are fully immersed, and on a great day the boundary between mover and movement seems to dissolve.The more you relax into movement, the more you slow down, move with greater quality, and most importantly, enjoy the journey.Whether you're reclaiming the lost elements of movements, or reaching towards epic feats of skill, the journey is what matters most.Building a great foundation is a process that requires patience and is always evolving. The more you venture down the rabbit hole, the further you might find that it goes.

Increasing your foundation with the elements = longevity and preparation for advanced skills

When you build a strong base, you're setting yourself up for healthy, functional joints that you can rely on throughout your life.What it requires is that you slow down and stop trying to "get there."You are exactly where you need to be right here, right now. And this moment is the only moment you can affect any change from. If you're not in your body now and you're just trying to get somewhere else, you have very little power to transform what is.When you're actually in relationship and present to what is (embodied), you can begin to work with it.In other words, freaking enjoy the body you have and what it can do. Be grateful for every single articulation you're capable of right now.[clickToTweet tweet="Start feeling the pleasure of movement itself." quote="Start feeling the pleasure of movement itself."]

Wait, you don't have to do this blindly

Reclaiming a strong foundation of movement ability can feel like a seriously daunting task. After all, what I just covered in this post is a lot, and that was me holding back a considerable amount.How do you put "returning to the elements" thing into practice, and more importantly, how the hell do you find your weak links and what you need to work on the most?For that, I recommend my friends at GMB's course, Elements. Shocked by the name? It's no surprise that they built this course because of a common need for people to get back to the fundamentals of strength, flexibility and skill.Here's what Elements does:

• Helps you diagnose your weaknesses in mobility and strength
• Builds confidence through basic crawling patterns
• Helps you regain lost ranges of motion and skill in your body
• Gives you a structure for exploring creativity and flow within your movement

This is just a bit of me playing around with some of the patterns in Elements:Of course you can try to do your own thing and search around on Youtube for endlessly, but you’re not going to get the quality you would investing a few bucks into a quality program.If you’re tired of being confused about the proper foundations, and want to start actually seeing results, this is the way to go. I've used many of their programs to get great results in my training, which is why I'm proud to be an affiliate for them.Check out Elements nowP.S. You might also like this post on how I went from a stiff board to a supple beast in 10 months.P.P.S. Remember, your body is your own, and only you can claim total responsibility for it. Research and learn about how to maintain and care for your vehicle, you don't get another one.Full disclosure: If you click on the link above and purchase GMB's program, I will get a cut. This helps me make more awesome videos and tutorials like this for you. I only promote products I've personally used and tested, so you can be sure they're top notch. Thanks for helping out!

How to Reverse the Damage of Sitting and Reclaim Your Physical Freedom

It's easy to put off the debt incurred from not moving. You don't feel it now so you keep your shoulders hunched and plug away.

You'll move your body later.

If you do this long enough, "later" will come crashing down on you in the form of herniated discs, knee replacements and loss of basic human function.

So, what the hell is movement debt and why is it the most important thing you're not thinking about?

Allow me to explain...

We're all familiar with sleep debt.

If you don't sleep enough one night, you'll feel it, but generally you can still get by. Cut your sleep for more than a few days in a row, however, and it starts to catch up with you. Ignoring it and powering through becomes much, much harder.

Movement debt works the same way.

If you don't move much for a day, you'll feel the stiffness and tension, but you can usually shrug it off and barrel through. Before long though, the tension begins to mount. Your joints, which require movement in order to regenerate, become cranky and aching.

You might wake up after a great night of sleep, yet your body begins pleading for movement by way the way your joints feel: "get moving, I need to articulate or I'm going to calcify!"

But what do most of us do? We make our coffee and plop down on the computer to begin another day of stationary life. Mostly in the form of sitting.

Over time domestication of the human has led to narrow and narrower movement demand. Agriculture made work predictable and repetitive and opened up the ability for division of labor and specialization.

The industrial revolution led us further into repetitive molds, and the information age has confined us mostly to sitting in right angles, working in boxes on bright, shiny rectangles.

Technology has done many great things for us (fridges and grocery stores are pretty freaking sweet), but it's mostly wreaked havoc on our bodies.

Each day the movement debt mounts. Each day we can either undo some of the damage of sitting, or we can defer the debt to be repaid in the future, perhaps to the point that a total collapse of the system ensues.

(The irony is not lost on me that I'm sitting even as I'm typing this. Time to get up and move!)

So, how do we undo the damage caused by domestication, mostly in the form of excessive sitting?

Step 1: Stop the damage of sitting

I know what you're thinking. "I just need to finally get a standing desk and I'll solve this sitting bullshit once and for all."

Now, don't get me wrong, mixing up sitting with standing can definitely be beneficial, but what most people do is replace one static position with another.

A friend of mine told me recently that while he's working standing his Apple watch will alert him to get up and stand because he's been so still it thinks he's actually been sitting the whole time!

So, the enemy is not too much sitting, and it's not too much standing either. The enemy is prolonged holding of static postures.

Learning how to align yourself better while sitting or standing is where we need to start, then we'll work on varying your habitual position.

How to have better alignment while sitting:

• Make sure your feet are on the ground, toes pointing straight ahead
• Untuck your pelvis by making sure there's a slight arch in your lower back
• Relax your ribcage, let it drop down
• Release your shoulders down (don't pull them, simply let them fall)
• Lift your chin
• Relax your jaw
• Let your eyes gaze down at the monitor without tilting your head

Standing? Here's how to improve your alignment:

• Place your feet hip distance apart, toes pointing straight ahead
• Screw your feet into the ground as if you're standing on big metal plates
• Bring your hips to neutral
• Let your ribcage fall toward your hips
• Lift your chest
• Relax your jaw and face
• Look down at the monitor with your eyes, not your neck

All right, now that your alignment isn't throwing your whole body off kilter, it's time to...

Step 2: Sit and stand weirder

How many ways can you think of to sit and stand? Here's just a few...

(image source: Wiley)

Most people are incredibly unimaginative with the way they sit. This isn't surprising, since we're told in school to "sit still and sit up straight!"

We're not told to continually move while sitting and regularly change our position, to save our joints and tissues from atrophy and inevitable collapse (wouldn't that be nice?!).

Getting into the habit of changing your position will take time, but it's a habit worth building. I mean, this is your body we're talking about here. If you can't move, what good is all the wealth in the world?

So, sit/stand moving is what we're after.

Here are some ways you can creatively change your position while sitting:

And if you stand while you work, here's how you can move more standing:

Step 3: Undo the damage of sitting (static) living

If you're not using pomodoros for your work already, I highly recommend that you start right now. They're the best way I know of to both increase your productivity and ensure that you get up and move your body.

Changing our positions will help undo stop the damage, but it's not enough on its own. We must act to undo and pay back the movement debt we've incurred. Fortunately for us this debt usually manifests itself in some pretty predictable patterns.

I recommend you get the pomodoro app for your smart phone and begin using it immediately. The way it works is you focus for 25 minutes, then take a break for 5 minutes. It helps helps you to be fully on when you're on, and then take a step back and recharge your brain.

What better way to do that then spend those five minutes getting some movement nutrition?

Now, big flashing warning for those of you that don't think you have the time for breaks.

Please excuse my intensity around this matter.

THIS IS AN EMERGENCY. THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE. YOUR BODY IS DECAYING AND ATROPHYING AS WE SPEAK. HIP AND KNEE REPLACEMENTS ARE ON THE HORIZON UNLESS YOU DO SOMETHING NOW. CRIPPLING BACK PAIN THAT DISABLES YOU FROM DOING SIMPLE, DAILY TASKS IS EMINENT UNLESS YOU TAKE IMMEDIATE, SERIOUS ACTION!

Okay, rant over.

Seriously though, if you don't think you have time for breaks or you don't think that your work will "let you" (what are you, a six year old?) just tell them that you have to go to the bathroom. NO ONE can stop you from going to the bathroom. Tell them you have a serious medical condition, and you got the evolutionary short stick, since your bladder is the size of a walnut. :)

Do whatever you need to do to make taking movement breaks a priority. Be the weirdo moving around in the office (your life depends on it!) and take breaks to go outside. Do it however you can, with whatever you've got.

Now, what are you actually going to do on your movement breaks? I'm glad you asked.

We want to focus on movements that counteract excessive sitting and computer work.

What are the common problems we see with excessive sitting?

• Hunched upper back
• Rounded shoulders and head jutting (not sexy)
• Tight hip flexors
• Tight hamstrings and calves

Here's a few that you can begin doing immediately, wherever you are to undo the damage:

Step 4: Return to the elements of primal movement

Of course, undoing the destruction of sitting is only really where you begin.

If you're serious about reclaiming your primal badassity that is your human birthright you'll begin exploring the elements of human movement.

My recommendation is to create a daily movement practice of ground-based movement, hanging, squatting, lunging and moving all your joints through their full range of motion.

Don't think you have time?

See how this busy doctor unlocked her physical potential.

Bonus: How to use your laptop pain free

Here's a quick video I made for you on how to use your laptop with better posture at home or work.

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Ready to make a big breakthrough in your body?

Check out some of the results our amazing clients have gotten following a proven, tested process.

Click here to see results

chair photo courtesy of fotothing

How Injury Can Be Your Friend (how to learn from it)

For better or worse, injury has been my greatest teacher.I wish it didn't have to be that way, but that's kind of what happens when you combine:a) huge, wildly unrealistic strength goalsb) living for decades in an environment (domestication) that gives you a stiff, imbalanced, immobile bodyc) a total ignorance for progressions and proper rehabAll of these ingredients make for a whopping dose of humility, forced through the vehicle of injury.Let's use the example of the handstand. I had no concept of how long it took to achieve a skill like this, so I would jump right in and "just going for it."Then, crrrrrriiick... rrrriipppttt... snap.Ouch. What just happened?Not being prepared just happened. Not having the proper mobility, strength, skill, or body awareness happened.Also, boxes.

The Problem: You Don't Know What You Don't Know

What I didn't realize then is that aside from not paying any respect to progressions was that I was living in a box.Yes, I literally worked, lived and slept in a box. We all do.Look at the room you're in now. Unless you're reading this outside there's a 99% chance you're in a box.Boxes  aren't the problem so much as what living in boxes does to our bodies.We move on flat surfaces all the time. We sit on things that are only box shaped -- that is, they are right angled. Everything we interact with is constrained in a very narrow range of motion.Rarely do we ever reach or move in a range of motion outside the height of our hips to our shoulders. Go ahead and look around. Everything is in this box. Very rarely do you ever have to reach over head or down on the ground.Boxes keep us moving in predictable ways that inevitably lead to major imbalances.But if you don't know that this is happening (like I didn't), and you're relatively young, you might just assume you should be able to move however you want.Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on the way you look at it, this will probably lead you down a path of injury sooner or later.

Injury can be your friend (yes, I am serious... your friend)

In my opinion, the sooner you hurt yourself the better, since injury occurring earlier in your life means that you'll be more likely to investigate what caused it. Depending on the type of person you are, this can lead you down a rabbit hole of learning about how your body works, what effects captivity has on the human structure, how to properly rehab yourself and learn smart progressions toward your training goals.Injury will either cripple you, or spiral you into a path of inquiry that in time will make you stronger.It will either be your greatest teacher and a dear friend, or it will be the nemesis you cower and collapse under.Modern, box living isn't captivity in the true sense of the word. But we are unknowingly being shaped by our environment all the time, through the process of domestication, whether we're aware of it or not.Let's bring more awareness to just exactly how domestication is making us weaker, and see how we might be able to counteract some of these problems.In the next post, I'll share with you some of the common weaknesses created by living in boxes, and how we can began to reverse them. Stay tuned. The journey continues!P.S. If you get injured enough and you decide to investigate its causes, you'll inevitably find your way back to a few missing elements.These basic movements are the foundation for strength, mobility and confidence in your body.

Uncage Your Body, Become Unbreakable

Life is movement.Natural movement = continually varying, unpredictable patterns.This creates a free moving, anti-fragile, open body capable of handling large quantities of uncertainty.Fitness routines = rigid, predictable movements which are performed in set, controllable sequences.This might be fine for the purpose of training for specific skills, especially if the practice led to free-flowing movement. If regular change in plane of motion of the exercise, your body's geometry, and shape of equipment occurred it might safeguard against the danger of predictability.However, because of this lack of freedom, expression and uncertainty, we build rigid, fragile bodies. Bodies ready to snap as soon as the first unpredictable demand is placed on it.Couple that with a life that demands little movement, environments that instill staticness, and design of space that keeps us in boxes of range of motion, and you have a body that hurts and a mind afraid to move.To change we must change the culture.We must find a way to reengineer movement and unpredictability back into our homes, workspaces, training sessions and minds. We must unspecialize our skills and decompartmentalize our lives. We must regain trust in our bodies,trust in  our vehicles for physical experience.But through this, we shouldn't attempt to kill the mind and exalt the body.We need both.We can use our minds to reimagine our spaces, habits and relationships, to create a more healthy, alive and moving experience.It's up to us to break free from the templatized life of domestication.Break your patterns, or become more breakable.

Humble Yourself to Get Stronger

We all want the badass, fancy stuff. We want the double bodyweight squat, the 10 foot jump, the slow muscleup.It's easy to get sucked into the sexiness of impressive movement skills and abilities.It's much harder to go back to the basics and focus on the fundamentals.How far you go back is really a complex issue with a lot of variables. Past injuries, muscle imbalances, and poor mechanics are just a few of the challenges that might make you scrap your planche work and go back to mastering pushups.The greater the heights you want to reach with your body, the wider the foundation will need to be.In this podcast, I chat with my friend Galo about the importance of humility if you want to go far with your training.It's far from perfect. The audio isn't the greatest and we take about five minutes to warm up.But I think you'll get some value out of it. And please let me know if you do. We're considering making this a regular thing if enough people are interested.Check it out, and get humble...