physical

What if I told you there was something relative simple that could possibly make your taller, better looking, and less likely to suffer from sports injuries or joint pain? You probably wouldn't believe me, but there is and when I heard about it I couldn't believe I didn't think of it before.

When you look at pictures of hunter-gatherers and others living a traditional lifestyle, what you see depends on what you are looking for. To most Americans they just seem vaguely fit, but there is something more going on here. Physical therapist Esther Gokhale was looking for why so many modern humans suffer from back pain, but traditional cultures don't despite the fact that they often perform very laborious work. Esther noticed that they carried themselves differently and also noticed from old Western pictures that this used to be the norm. Now we are a nation of sloucher and it not only affects our back and our look, but internal organs as well.

This was a wake up call for me. As a former gymnast, I once had what I thought was decent posture, but over the years I've definitely developed the dreaded slouch by hunching at the computer. Last winter I suffered from awful upper back pain, which required a visit to a chiropractor. Thankfully it hasn't returned, but I've been on the lookout for something that could prevent an issue like that. Chris from Modern Paleo and Nick from Paleo DC raved about Esther, so I bought her book 8 Steps to a Pain Free Back. I've only completed one of the steps and already my physical wellness after a day of computer work is much improved. Another thing I noticed is that my mood is better. A day of hunching= a night of fatigue for me.

What's really cool about the book are the pictures of hunter-gatherers and agrarian peoples like the man above. It's interesting because she posits a theory that humans need to learn correct posture from parents and other elders. While that might seem counter-intuitive, it makes sense to me since I've read about ape populations losing important survival skills like this with domestication, especially if a zoo population is built out of orphans. 

So I'm definitely excited about this book and look forward to posting about my results. At the tech conf this weekend I started noticing how bad the posture problem is. Food is an issue, but disease of civilization are multi-factorial.