Week of 8 January 2024

Built to move

Back in the middle of 2023, when I was dealing with a painful back injury, I came across the book Built to Move by Kelly Starrett and Juliet Starrett.

I’d seen the book mentioned in a review and it sounded interesting so I eventually got around to buying it.

The book claims to have “ten essential habits to help you move freely and live fully”. In my injured state, I knew I had to keep moving and this book offered some lifestyle changes and physical practices that I could build into my recovery.

Each of the ten habits has a chapter that includes an assessment to give you an idea of where you are, and some specific exercises, recommendations and mobilisations to explore.

Some of the practices are ones I already knew about. Not sitting as much, getting enough sleep, walking every day, and making better food choices (though the book has specific recommendations around protein and vegetables). There are also practices that directly target areas that have been problems for me, in particular, the range of motion in my hips and shoulders.

So I read the book and started to do some of the work last year.

The 10-day Built to Move challenge

I’d forgotten about this work but a couple of weeks ago, Kelly and Juliet announced a 10-day Built to Move challenge based on the book. I decided to sign up.

The challenge each day was to work with a chapter of the book by doing the assessment. Then you could try out some of the exercises and mobilisations, with the idea of starting to string some of the habits together and build a sustainable daily practice. There were links to the videos on the website so you could see how to do them.

It kicked off on Wednesday our time, with chapter 1. This is one of my favourite chapters for the book because it’s all about sitting on the floor.

The test is whether you can sit down cross-legged on the floor and get up again without using your hands or anything else for support.

I can!

The challenge continued over the next 10 days, so there’s more to come on this next week.

All I’ll say is I did this far from perfectly and that’s okay.

We went to visit family on the weekend to make up for not being able to go at Christmas so that’s my excuse!

The holiday that wasn’t

Our trip to Victoria to visit family wasn’t the trip we’d originally planned. But it was good to see them and hang out for a few days.

I took my camera just in case I felt like going for a walk.

I did, but I didn’t take any walking shoes so it wasn’t the long walk I usually do when I come here.

Still, it was nice to get away, and nice to be feeling well enough to actually do the trip.

Week 2 summary

What was the best thing about this week?

Getting to have our holiday that we missed over Christmas.

What did I notice this week?

The green bird in the back yard.

What did I learn this week?

The Pet Shop Boys have a movie called It Couldn’t Happen Here, which is where the film clip for “Always On My Mind” is from.

What I’m reading this week

• The Confidence Gap by Russ Harris
• Body, Breath and Being by Carolyn Nicholls