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Move Your DNA Restore Your Health Through Natural Movement
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Move Your DNA explains the science behind our need for natural movement - right down to the cellular level. It examines the differences between the movements in a typical hunter - gatherer's life and the movements in our own. It shows the many problems with using exercise like movement vitamins instead of addressing the deeper issue of a poor movement diet. Bet of all, Mov
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Paperback, 240 pages
Published
October 15th 2014
by Propriometrics Press
(first published September 25th 2014)
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Gavin
On the contrary, Bowman is a notably eloquent, and maturely articulate writer.
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Start your review of Move Your DNA Restore Your Health Through Natural Movement

I 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 th ...more
The first part of the book is fairly technical discussing adaptions of th ...more

I'm a great fan of Katy Bowman's and read everything she's written that I can get my hands on. I wanted and expected to give this book 5 stars, but I had two problems with it: I couldn't understand from her written instructions how to perform many of the exercises in the book (perhaps more pictures or links to videos would have helped me), and that at the end of the book, I was more confused than when I started. I had a specific question and not only wasn't it answered, but I felt I was given co
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Dense with information! I borrowed this from the library, but I've added it to my Amazon wishlist now, and I pinned some DVDs from her site for good measure. In the meantime, as we can't make all the changes at once nor absorb all the information at once, the changes we are making are more walking and less sitting! (And I'm throwing in some of the stretches that seemed most immediately pertinent into my daily routine.)
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No thanks, I'll sleep on my comfy bed rather than curled up on some tree roots in my backyard. I'm pretty into wearing shoes too.
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Clear out the nightstand, cos this is my new bible.
I consider(ed) myself to be a very healthy person. I exercise tons, and eat good, whole foods. Unfortunately I am exercising wrong, and so are you. Exercising, walking, standing, sitting, sleeping...
Katy Bowman proposes that we need to think of movement the same way we think of food. Our "movement diet" needs to be natural and varied, and it isn't optional.
The first half of the book explains basic biomechanics and cell function, relating to a " ...more
I consider(ed) myself to be a very healthy person. I exercise tons, and eat good, whole foods. Unfortunately I am exercising wrong, and so are you. Exercising, walking, standing, sitting, sleeping...
Katy Bowman proposes that we need to think of movement the same way we think of food. Our "movement diet" needs to be natural and varied, and it isn't optional.
The first half of the book explains basic biomechanics and cell function, relating to a " ...more

As I started this book, I was astonished that the person writing the forward was “the first person to circumnavigate the planet by human power” without any training! With such lack of intelligent training how could I not be turned off. Fortunately, that was not the author of the book.
The title led me to expect intimate details of cell biology. Nope! Not there! Even though the book doesn’t talk about telomeres and other DNA related aspects like I expected, the author demonstrates a solid understa ...more
The title led me to expect intimate details of cell biology. Nope! Not there! Even though the book doesn’t talk about telomeres and other DNA related aspects like I expected, the author demonstrates a solid understa ...more

This is a great book to read, if you want get a basic understanding of what ”natural movement” means. It turns out, sitting is not really the new smoking, and standing is not the cure for everything. Varied and diverse movement is the key, so try to sit and stand in as many ways as possible.
The book has giving me a great desire to get my own garden, as doing garden work must be one of the truest expressions of natural movement.
The book has giving me a great desire to get my own garden, as doing garden work must be one of the truest expressions of natural movement.

Fucking amazing. Life-changing. Dense with research. Katy Bowman is a formidable researcher and writer, and all round brain. Funny too. Explains 95% of what’s been going wrong with my body. Everyone should read it. Cannot recommend it enough. Has ramifications for everything. I took so much away from this book and will keep going back to it as I seek to change my lifestyle.

this book calls for a shift in the paradigm that associates all body movement with exercise. I enjoyed it immensely and have already been putting into practice the various, subtle, easy and common sense movements into my day. I particularly related to the idea that our modern day, sedentary bodies are similar to orcas in captivity. we are designed and capable of much more than sitting in front of tvs, phones, and computers.

Katy's thoughts on natural movement really resonated with me and isn't something that I've seen a lot before. The book had great detail and easy exercises, but it was hard to remember everything listening to it on my commute. I'll be listening again and trying the techniques.
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My old teammate recommended this book to me and it was fascinating! Full of facts that I didn’t *know,* exactly, but that make PERFECT SENSE when Katy presents them. I loved it. I’ll think about it all the time. This is a rare book in that I think it will have an actually effect on how I live my life.

This book is about the concept of natural movement and practical ways to use this science to improve our health. Bowman explains that the biomechanics of the way we habitually move puts certain "loads" on our bodies on a cellular level, and these loads have far-reaching consequences to our health. This concept is brand new to me - or at least until I read this book I did not pay a lot of attention to natural movement, natural footwear, or anything paleo. The natural movement "movement" is relate
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May 22, 2019
Sonja Tyson
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
diet-and-exercise
I loved this book. I've always been a great walker and can't agree any more strongly with the author on its importance. My mantra is that walking is the base of the fitness/health pyramid. I'd give up all other physical pursuits before walking, not that I have to make that choice, thank God. She argues we all need to squat more, sit on hard surfaces, move more in general. She also thinks pillows and mattresses have turned us into the Eloi. I'm not about to give up comfortable chairs, beds, and p
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Super interesting look into movement vs. "exercise." I'll be taking a lot of this forward to help with my goal of being able to move with ease for the entirety of my life.
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"Despite our great fortune to live in a time when we aren't at great risk for communicable diseases, we are, in fact, dying - slowly, in bits - from our natural tendency to do as little as possible. Our unquenchable desire to be comfortable has debilitated us. Ironic, as there is nothing comfortable about being debilitated. The paradox - that advancements to make our lives less physically taxing have taxed us physically - is profound and has led to an emergent scientific hypothesis. Perhaps the
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I read a brief excerpt from this book which had me worried it was going to be a very technical read but was pleasantly surprised by its conversational tone. Very readable. The more detailed bits are either in sidebars or are woven nicely into the text.
This book had some missing pieces for me regarding positioning and outlook when it comes to mobility.
Exercise is only a very small part of movement; it's what you're doing all the time you need to keep in mind.
That said, the book does contain exer ...more
This book had some missing pieces for me regarding positioning and outlook when it comes to mobility.
Exercise is only a very small part of movement; it's what you're doing all the time you need to keep in mind.
That said, the book does contain exer ...more

I listened to this whole book while walking! It would be hard not to, since at the beginning of each chapter Katy tells you how many approximate miles you could walk while listening to her citing the virtues of consistent movement. I finished just in time, as the book is a prerequisite for the Move Your DNA weekend I just attended; the instructor offered hands-on guidance to the correctives prescribed in the book.
I most enjoyed Chapter 8: It's Hard to Rest in a Zoo, where I learned about the bio ...more
I most enjoyed Chapter 8: It's Hard to Rest in a Zoo, where I learned about the bio ...more

This book was everything I was hoping it would be - an instruction manual for incorporating movement into every day to impact not just your strength but your health. This whole body approach to wellness is encouraging to me as someone who doesn't have - or want to make time for - exercise but who does want to move more - and in better ways - on a regular basis. While they're are "exercises" included, many of these can be done as part of your regular routine. I found some of the descriptions of e
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The loads we experience in today’s world differ hugely from the loads people experienced a hundred, a thousand, and ten thousand years ago. Yet we blithely accept that our health issues—which so many of us share—are genetic. Genetic, a term we’ve internally defined as beyond our control. Whether out of convenience or ignorance, we have failed to address the habitat in which our genes dwell, and the impact of the way we move on the state of our health.Illuminating. Essential!

Some really interesting ideas about nutritious movement and about how we hurt our bodies by repeating the same movements over and over. Our current day life skews our gait and the way we move and we are not moving naturally.
I think I'd have to read this a couple of times to get everything out of it. I've never read anything quite like it.
She has DVDs and I think I'll be checking them out of the library. Some really fascinating and new ideas about how to live well in your body and how to move. ...more
I think I'd have to read this a couple of times to get everything out of it. I've never read anything quite like it.
She has DVDs and I think I'll be checking them out of the library. Some really fascinating and new ideas about how to live well in your body and how to move. ...more

A strong, rational, and funny voice amid the self-important, testosterone filled "natural/paleo/primal" movement books and videos. Bowman asks us to rethink not only how we move, but also the language we use surrounding movement. These subtle shifts, according to Bowman, will undo the behaviors created through repetitive loading (sitting in chairs, sleeping on beds, not squatting, staring at close things). It isn't a new routine to add to your day, it is a recalibration of what we do all the tim
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Nov 06, 2014
Zach Gray
rated it
it was amazing
Recommended to Zach by:
Machiko
Shelves:
science,
betterment
Wow. Move Your DNA provided a completely new way of thinking more than anything else I've outside of The Elegant Universe. Bowman teaches that a variety of everyday movements done properly is better than a traditional exercise regimen. This was a good first exposure to the Movement movement, but the instructions for techniques I think will be easier to grasp if I can see them, which is why I plan on ordering a couple of Bowman's videos.
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A call to action that can't be ignored
Katy Bowman has a gift for doing two things: breaking down the intricate world of human biomechanics into pieces that the last person can understand (and move forward with if desired), and making the process a hell of a lot of fun. She totally changes the paradigm of proper movement away from "exercise" and thrusts it into a world of necessity, health, longevity, and more.
I recommend this book to everyone! ...more
Katy Bowman has a gift for doing two things: breaking down the intricate world of human biomechanics into pieces that the last person can understand (and move forward with if desired), and making the process a hell of a lot of fun. She totally changes the paradigm of proper movement away from "exercise" and thrusts it into a world of necessity, health, longevity, and more.
I recommend this book to everyone! ...more

Tons of good info on how to add movement to your routine and not be bound by the notion that you have to go someplace to exercise x amounts of times a week.
I got recommended this book after mentioning online that I was trying to just move my body more and that I had ditched formal exercise.
The book contains many images (and I wish it had more) which are very helpful, since trying to conjure up the image of a very specific body posture just based on verbal description is not always easy.
I got recommended this book after mentioning online that I was trying to just move my body more and that I had ditched formal exercise.
The book contains many images (and I wish it had more) which are very helpful, since trying to conjure up the image of a very specific body posture just based on verbal description is not always easy.

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. ...more
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. ...more

Mar 27, 2015
Jer
marked it as to-read
Just listened to the author speak with Joe Rogan for 3 hours on his podcast. Loved listening to this woman. She knows her stuff and how to share.
Joe Rogan Experience : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ub5O... ...more
Joe Rogan Experience : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ub5O... ...more

Fantastic information and perspective about how out bodies respond and adapt to the ways we move. Katy's enthusiasm for the topic is contagious. I heart Katy Bowman. :)
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Katy Bowman has earned an international reputation for educating the general population on alignment and load-science, and as a result has helped thousands to reduce pain, increase bone density, improve metabolic health, and solve their pelvic floor mysteries. She is known for her radical, counter-culture health directives that happen to be based in the hard science that she has made her life’s wo
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“Our current model sets both food and movement as a negative. Eating food (a biological imperative) makes us feel guilty, and we turn movement (also a biological imperative) into punishment. Atonement”
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“The paradox of the modern world is this: Not only do we do less, physically, than ever before, but we also almost never do nothing. Our bodies, deprived of large movements, are inundated with subtle-yet-continuous physical stimulation from noise, light, data, etc. This constant stream of input is a two-fold stressor, as not only is the frequency of certain environmentally induced loads extremely high, the types of input we are experiencing are unnatural.”
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