Built to Move

Built to Move is a collection of 10 simple tests and practices you can use to instantly improve your mobility, fitness, breathing, eating, and sleeping, thereby increasing your freedom and quality of life all around.

The Starretts define mobility as “being able to move in the ways nature designed us to move.” Therefore, they recommend going back to movements and positions we used all the time as children.

The first one is sitting cross-legged and getting into and out of that position without needing any support. Our bodies were built to sit on rough terrain and without back support. Sitting cross-legged maintains our hip joints’ natural range of motion.

To test your ability to sit cross-legged, stand barefoot, cross one leg in front of the other, and lower yourself into the cross-legged position. Try doing it without using your hands or knees for support. Then, rise again in the same way. You can extend your arms forward if it helps, but try not to touch anything. Can you do it?

If you start with a score of 10 and deduct one point for every time you struggle or need support, how many do you end up with after sitting down and getting up again? 7-9 is okay, 10 is ideal, and anything below 7 means you have room to improve.

Practice this movement every day for a week, spend 30 minutes sitting on the floor each day, then re-do the test and see how you do.

Pro tip: You must do this barefoot. Socks will be too slippery. Your feet will give you the grip you need.

Between the summers of 2016 and 2017, I walked 10,000 steps every day for a year. On some days, it was serious work to hit that mark. I didn’t always feel like taking a 45-minute stroll just to make my target. But I did learn several lessons. One of them was that walking gives you time to think. I had so many more good ideas. Another was that walking provides a great baseline of health. It’s one of the easiest, most accessible ways to move. It also gets you out of the house and is a great time to be mindful. To get an idea of how much you’re walking, use a step tracker, smart watch, or your smartphone, to count your steps from morning to night for three days in a row. What’s the average? 2,000? 6,000? 500? Chances are, you’re not walking enough. While early humans likely got in 12,000-17,000 steps a day, for us, 8,000-10,000 is already a solid number — if we maintain it consistently, that is. Plus, at 8,000 steps a day, you’ll already burn twice as many…