Hypokinetic Disease: An Epidemic of Sitting

We’re stuck. Confined in chairs and limited to a few dozen steps a day, we have imprisoned ourselves. Our insides are bloated, inflamed, and frazzled. Our coiled bodies trap stifled emotions, frenetic minds, and thwarted spirits. Slouched in spineless lethargy, we stare and poke at screens. Reality-based bodies suggest all our imperfections while commercials entice with mouth-watering yet toxic “food.” Numb and dazed, we forget our basic needs. As if sleep, real sustenance, movement, and fresh air are outdated vestiges. � Continue reading →

I’m a Sponsored Athlete! Really?

Last week the women’s clothing company, Athleta chose me as a 2013 Sponsored Athlete! For reals? Do they realize that I quit soccer in middle school? And during my 8th grade dance recital I leapt into the air and landed with an humiliating thump? In my Athleta application I outlined my thwarted athletic career: As a chubby girl on my rural, co-ed soccer team, puberty hit hard. Playing alongside the boys felt increasingly intimidating as my lady parts emerged. After � Continue reading →

Finding the Reset Button

Ah, the holidaze. Torqued schedules, buffets of indulgence, and hunting for the ideal sparkly accessories. As a Leo lady, I relish the full social calendar but need my reset workout more than ever. Beyond the din of festivities, the superego insists on punishing cardiovascular atonement. Yet as I settle into practice, a calm emerges. I submerge into down dog and crawl through standing poses. Squat. Vinyasa. Lunge. Handstand for an upside down. Backbend for an inside out. Lay down. Breathe. � Continue reading →

Sensory Motor Amnesia: What Have We Forgotten?

Soap operas invoke “amnesia” as a clichéd plot twist that leaves the character vulnerable to old adversaries. Hours of sitting in front of screens generates a less dramatic but possibly more insidious forgetting: sensory motor amnesia. Thomas Hanna coined this term for the neuromuscular atrophy that results from a lack of movement. Increasing stiffness limits our ability to consciously contract and relax our muscles. Hanna questioned the inevitably of aging and suggested that SMA causes our decline. When teaching, I � Continue reading →

My Ode to the (Self) Serving Artist

The last few weeks I sculpted the shoulders of potters, carved back mobility in boatbuilders, and loosened weavers’ knotted necks. As a resident instructor at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina I taught yoga, did bodywork, and delivered doses of movement medicine to the various studios. I lived among sweaty, grimy, & sleep-deprived folks gleefully exposed to torrents of creativity. They endure elaborate pieces crumbling after hours of work. Or worse yet, someone calling their work “cute.” Yeah,the brooding, � Continue reading →

Dangerous Exercise

Repeatedly, people have tried to convince me that swinging kettlebells is dangerous. I argue that sitting in a chair for over eight hours a day is more damaging to your health. When did we decide it’s so perilous to move? Pop in an exercise video and hear ominous warnings. The voiceover warns, “You should consult a doctor before starting an exercise program.” Years of inactivity will certainly warrant a doctor. We are brilliantly designed for movement. In the confines of � Continue reading →

Kettlebell: An Ancient Tool for Modern Dis-ease

The personal computer offers a profound evolution in how we work, communicate and entertain ourselves. As technology advances our minds, our bodies appear to devolve back into the hunched-over shape of neanderthals. The modern office worker often suffers from tight hamstrings, restricted hips, weak low backs, rounded shoulders and achey necks. Furthermore, the lack of large motor movement contributes to de-conditioned cardiovascular systems and a loss of conscious connection to our physicality. Given our sedentary, mentally-taxing lives we desperately need � Continue reading →

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