Natural Movement is a Nutrient

Over the past few years, my movement habits quietly fell apart. A couple of frozen shoulders, some housing instability, and long stretches of intense desert heat—factors beyond my control—made it hard to stay active. And the truth is, getting out of shape sneaks up on you. You don’t notice it at first. You adapt, shift, and endure. But eventually, it catches up with you. And when it does, you can’t rush your way back. You also have to sneak up on it.

So I’m doing just that. I’ve started walking 30 minutes, twice a week, indoors at a community center or mall to stay out of the heat. After a few weeks, I’ll bump up to three days a week. Once that feels second nature, I’ll reintroduce light weight training, some stretching inspired by Katy Bowman’s work, and maybe a little dancing when the mood strikes. No pressure, just steady momentum. If you're returning to movement after a hard season, I see you. Start where you are. Small steps count.

Movement as Nutrition

When we think about nutrition, we tend to think about food. Vitamins, minerals, calories, fiber. But there’s another essential nutrient I’d like you to consider today: movement.

Years ago, I trained with Katy Bowman, a biomechanist and movement educator, who introduced me to the concept of movement as a form of nutrition. Her idea is simple but profound: just like your body needs a variety of foods, it also needs a variety of movements.

Designed for Movement, Living Without It

Human beings evolved in a world that demanded movement. We walked long distances, crouched to cook or gather, squatted to rest, climbed to harvest, carried water, dragged firewood, knelt to tend the sick or young. Our daily survival required us to constantly push, pull, reach, bend, lift, twist, balance, and shift our weight. That diversity of movement wasn’t “exercise”—it was just life.

But modern life has done something sneaky: in the name of convenience and comfort, it’s engineered movement out of our days. We’ve raised our chairs, toilets, beds, and tables so high we no longer need to squat or use the full range of our joints. We’ve paved over the uneven ground that once kept our ankles and hips nimble. We’ve turned carrying into wheeling, and standing into sitting, for hours on end.

These shifts aren't neutral. When you stop using a part of the body, it begins to degenerate. In cultures where people still sit on the floor, such as in parts of Japan or rural communities worldwide, mobility often remains intact far longer into old age. Not because people are “fitter,” but because their environment still demands full-body movement.

The takeaway isn’t that modern tools are bad. (Chairs are not evil. I like a good chair as much as anyone.) But if we don’t intentionally reintroduce natural human movements into our daily lives, we lose strength, mobility, and function—not because we’re aging, but because we’re disused.

Not Just Exercise

I find it ironic that we create environments for ourselves that require minimal effort and movement, and then pay to spend 30-60 minutes ‘exercising’ at a gym, often in ways that do not mimic natural movement at all.

But let me be clear: I’m not anti-exercise. There’s absolutely a place for structured workouts in a healthy life. Strength training, especially weight-bearing movement, can be incredibly protective, helping preserve bone density, boost metabolism, and support hormone balance. And practices like Tai Chi, martial arts, dancing, and even brisk-and-slow walking intervals (a technique common in Japanese longevity research) blend rhythm, strength, and mindfulness in ways that are deeply nourishing.

That said, working out isn’t where the magic starts. The fundamental transformation begins when you rebuild a life that requires your body, not just for 30 sweaty minutes, but throughout your whole day. Walking to the store, squatting to garden, dancing while you make dinner—these are not “extra credit.” They are foundational.

You can hit the gym three times a week and still be movement-deprived if the rest of your day is sedentary. Most of us have designed our lives to avoid effort—cars, chairs, screens, delivery apps—but our bodies haven’t evolved to keep up. They still crave natural, functional movement throughout the day.

If you do make it to the gym, choose movements that reflect what your body evolved to do. Machines like Nordic trainers mimic the full-body action of cross-country skiing. CrossFit-style workouts, when approached safely, replicate natural human movement patterns such as squatting, lifting, carrying, pushing, and pulling. Tai Chi, Qi Gong, and Yoga not only engage muscles and joints but also offer neurological, emotional, and spiritual support, which matters more than most fitness trackers can measure. Be sure to find an instructor or video series that accommodates your flexibility and ability. Many people have hurt themselves doing yoga, including me.

Exercise is a kind of medicine, but like any medicine, the dose and form matter. High-intensity training performed without proper rest can spike cortisol levels, increase the risk of injury, and even strain the heart. The goal isn’t to punish your body—it’s to give it just enough challenge to stimulate repair, without tipping into breakdown.

So yes, exercise, especially with weights. Move with intention. Challenge your body. But don’t forget: a life rich in natural movement may be just as powerful as a perfectly periodized training plan. And for many of us, it may be the more sustainable path to long-term health.

(I love Qi Gong and Tai Chi for structured movement and exercise, and walking and dancing for more freestyle and heart-pumping fun.)

Movement Isn’t Always Engagement

Another truth from my training: movement isn’t just about muscle engagement—it’s about muscle release. Chronic tension, especially the kind we don’t notice (clenched jaws, tight glutes, lifted shoulders), can quietly drain energy and cause pain. A healthy body can activate and relax as needed.

One of the first things Katy had us do in our training was to “lift and lower” our kneecaps. I looked down at my knees and demanded that they lift and lower, but nothing happened. What on earth was going on? When Katy had me lean the top of my back against the wall, it worked. Diagnosis: I was keeping my quads tense all the time, and you need to relax them to lower your kneecaps. I was stunned. I thought I was in control of my muscles, but the truth is, my brain had lost contact with many of them. Can you do it?

Even more profound was that almost everyone I went through the training with, including myself, cried when we finally—and I do mean finally, as it took each of us many minutes to be able to do it finally—relaxed our “stomachs.” Women, in particular, can habitually pull in their abdomens. But this is not building core muscles. It’s harming posture, digestion, and necessary relaxation.

Body awareness meditations can help you assess and start to repair the communication between your muscles and brain (so to speak). Other effective modalities that help address this include Clinical Somatic Education, Feldenkrais, and the Alexander Technique, among others. I’m happy to take a deeper dive into these in the future, if you’re interested.

How to Add More Movement Nutrition

Here are a few ways to naturally and gently incorporate movement back into your life, without turning it into a chore.

• Make tasks slightly harder on purpose. Park farther away from your destination. Water plants with a can that needs refilling. Take multiple trips with groceries instead of one overloaded haul.
• Walk when something is nearby. Library, post office, corner store—if it’s walkable, walk it.
• Use a pomodoro timer when you’re at the computer. Get up every 25 minutes for 5 minutes. This can make a huge difference. Standing desk? Treadmill desk?
• Dance or march in place between episodes of a show. One episode, five minutes of movement. Repeat. It adds up.
• Sit on the floor. And get up again. It’s a functional movement goldmine.
• Sweep, vacuum, and do a little manual cleaning. It’s movement disguised as tidying, and it may also have mental and spiritual health benefits.
• Reach overhead. Even small stretches to grab something off a shelf support shoulder mobility.
• Relax your muscles. Take time each day to check in and release any tension or clenching. Try body awareness meditations or somatic movement practices.

Big Picture

Movement is not about punishing workouts or chasing a goal weight. It’s a daily nutrient, just like water, sleep, and greens. And it’s not too late to bring it back in.

Start where you are. Don’t try to sprint toward some ideal. Sneak up on strength, flexibility, and ease one walk, one stretch, one relaxed muscle at a time.

Thanks for being here. May your body find the movement it needs—and may you enjoy it as well.

Katy Bowman on moving more without exercise

From Scratch Farmstead has even more great ways to add movement

Dr. Greger on walking benefits

Check out my full website.

Check out my bookshop.org store for books on movement and related topics.

(This blog is not intended to diagnose or treat disease. I am not a physician. Please consult your physician for any medical advice. Thanks.)