Katy Bowman

This is an extremely important book if you plan to have a standing work-station. Bowman teaches that just standing is only marginally better than just sitting all day, and in fact, can be injurious if not done with proper alignment. She suggests movement at all possible times, whether it is the micro-movements of posture and balance, or stretches during breaks, or while sitting, or walking while you are on the phone. When you do sit, there are movements to do then as well. After explaining show more all this, she then gives a set of examples to follow, with photos to help.

To the amusement of my co-workers, I now have a tray of river rocks to stand on at various times of the day. I can also be seen doing odd things like getting down on the floor and then up again for no apparent reason. Here's hoping that by the end of the year all of my various aches and pains will be a thing of the past. show less

This may be the most important book I read this year. A collection of Katy Says blogs, the format isn't my favorite. Also, it would have been nice to have a proper illustration of the human anatomy in it to refer to, especially the bones and muscles. A book which was more informative and organized by the issue would suit my style better. However, in spite of the bloggy cheerful, chattiness, I kept reading because this is good stuff. Foundation of health stuff.

I have suspected that there was show more something I was doing wrong physically, because all of my pain issues seemed to occur on my right side. Plantar fasciitis symptoms, sciatic nerve issues, wonky knee, all on my right side. My chiropractor, doctor and physical therapist could only tell me how to "try" to get rid of these pains. They couldn't tell me why I was getting them on my right side. Low and behold, after reading the first few "blogs" in this book, it all became crystal clear. I was walking with my feet out (especially my right foot) and tilted. Not aligned. I knew I did this, but it didn't occur to me how important it was. The book moves through the body, pointing out correct alignment and how to stretch each muscle to achieve proper alignment. This is mind bending stuff. Took me two months to read, because as I read I was working on changing my movement habits of a lifetime. I guess I will spend the rest of my lifetime working on my movement habits. In two months, I can feel the difference. My feet are sore, but sore from muscle usage, nothing a little massage and stretching can't take care of. I haven't had a sciatic twinge, although I can still feel that the muscles there need to be loosened. It's amazing folks. My next step will be to look at her other books and see if I can find one not written as blogs. Also to sit down and write out my movement/health goals for the year. An inspiring read that I will refer to often. show less

am a huge fan of Katy Bowman. Her holistic yet thoroughly scientific approach to health and wellness is extremely fascinating and incredibly effective. I have experienced first hand how releasing tensions and correcting alignments can fix seemingly unrelated health issues--and thus believe her when she says that the majority of chronic ailments our society suffers, have mechanical components that are largely unaddressed.

The first part of the book is fairly technical discussing adaptions of show more the muscles and cells at microscopic levels. While it may be a bit much for some people I love the technical details and kind of wished for even more.

The middle part of the book mostly describes how our modern environment causes our body to adapt into adopting damaging chronic positioning that cause us to restrict our ranges of motion. For instance don't sit on your tail bone, stand with your feet straight instead of pointing out, drop your ribs, ramp you head back over your shoulders instead of jutting it forward, straighten your legs instead of keeping your knees bent.

She also points out the irony in that even those who are diligent exercisers are usually still sedentary for the majority of the time, and that the exercises most of us do for health are just more inputs that cause us to adapt to restricted ranges of motion instead of ones that promote greater ranges of motion and thus why many extremely fit people suffer from poor overall health. She also discusses the psychology of how if you are participating in movement as part of you daily life versus as a compartmentalized chore or activity, the greater an impact it will have on your overall health.

Then in addition to adjusting your daily habits of sitting, standing, walking, etc she does offer some corrective exercises that can be done to help us mimic some natural motions we often miss in our modern lives. While the descriptions are thorough and contain pictures and also excellent notes on how our body can try to "cheat" to avoid the desired effect, I recommend watching her free youtube videos or downloading some of the $5 classes she offers, as videos are a better media for explaining exercises clearly.

It is difficult to do a complete synopsis of the ideas she presents --and thus why she has written three books and has tons of videos, interviews, blog, etc, but once you have absorbed enough of what she says you get the bigger picture of how it is all connected. show less

This is a paradigm-shifter of a book. I read it, was highly resistant to the message, backed off, listened to a few of the KatySays podcasts, came back, read it again, and felt like a wall fell.

Read it. Now. Then read her other books. Then circle back again. Rumor has it her upcoming book shifts the natural movement paradigm even further, and I can't wait.