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Start here! Your roadmap for healthy, whole-body movement

Many of us become slower and stiffer as we age, which stops us from doing the things we love. Unfortunately, conventional treatments for aches and pains, such as physical therapy or even surgery, only offer short-term relief. Why? Because they’re treating the symptom rather than the root cause.

As you get older, your benchmarks of health, strength and fitness may shift ­– and that’s perfectly ok. But ageing doesn’t have to mean giving up your favourite activities because of poor mobility, or resigning yourself to waking up with creaky joints every day. By embracing natural movements that restore mobility, build function and work with our current capability, we can prevent injuries and preserve health.

Our bodies are all different, so our movement journeys will be different too. You’ll find a ton of free resources across all my platforms including right here on my blog. I know it can be a little overwhelming at first! So, if you’re wondering where to start, this guide will help you figure out your first steps based on your individual needs.

My movement philosophy

I believe our bodies thrive when we have a movement ‘diet’ that’s closer to the way we moved as we evolved before we invented comfortable sofas, restrictive footwear and long days behind computer screens.

You can think of it like nutrition – in your diet, you need macronutrients like protein, fat and carbs, and micronutrients like vitamins, antioxidants and minerals. Movement works the same way!

Our bodies need key movement macronutrients like walking, squatting, and climbing, with lots of widely varied movements all day long including lifting, reaching, and smaller movements that may not even have names, like wiggling our hips. Then if you want, go ahead and add smaller amounts of movement ‘dessert’ activities like spinning class or golf that may not be what your body needs but give you what you love!

But it’s hard to achieve the quantity and quality of movement our bodies crave in our modern culture where we sit in chairs all day, and either move too little, or we over-exercise and end up with chronic injuries. Our bodies end up with inefficiencies and imbalances, the effects of which are often written off as ‘wear and tear’. For long term wellness and a pain-free life, we need to move more – and move more of our bodies – with micro movements that take care of our soft tissues and macro movements that match our natural movement patterns.

It’s my mission to redefine fitness and make movement accessible and fun, so your body can feel amazing. Start small, build healthy habits, and reclaim your body, one movement at a time. So I’ve written this roadmap to help you get started!

 

Figuring out your personal movement remedy

To help you cut through the overwhelm, I’ve mapped out three different pathways, each prioritising a specific body part. All can be done from the comfort of home in just a few minutes each day.

You can follow the options in any order. Use the criteria to help you pick or choose your own adventure! The exercises, habits and movements will set you up for whole body health, wherever you start.

Let's go!

1

If you have foot or knee pain, you want better balance, or you want to transition to minimalist shoes… start with your feet!

2

If you feel stiff and achy, you want to preserve or improve mobility, or you just want a super effective movement ‘multivitamin’… start with whole body joint mobility

3

If you have a pelvic floor issue, back or shoulder pain, or you want to work on your breathing and core strength… start with Ribcage Magic!

Route 1: Show your feet some love

Start here if:

Your movement remedy: Free Your Feet

This free 7-day exercise plan includes the essential exercises that have helped me (and nearly 31,235 of my students) get on the path to lifelong foot health. Think gentle but effective corrective exercises to restore your natural foot strength and mobility, delivered straight to your inbox every day!

Time investment:

10 mins a day

Why Free Your Feet?

This is a great place to start because you’ll likely see improvements quickly. Since most modern foot issues are caused by conventional footwear, even just changing to more minimalist shoes can have a positive impact on foot health. But for best results, you should use the exercises in Free Your Feet to restore function, mobility and strength and help you get the most out of your transition.

And once your feet are happy, you’ll start seeing improvements through the rest of your body. With pain-free, well-functioning feet, all other movement will be easier and safer. Improving foot health can also help tackle issues with your knees, hips, low back, pelvic floor and even neck and shoulders, so you get a huge bang for your buck!

Natural movement add-ons:

Once you’re in healthier footwear and your feet are stronger, make walking a key movement priority in your life, especially outdoors or on natural surfaces. Walking is an essential movement nutrient!

Route 2: Improve your joint mobility

Start here if:

Your movement remedy: Joints for Life 2.0

Whether you’d like to be more active or just maintain your current movement levels, this simple head-to-toe daily routine will keep your joints moving and feeling better for life!

In Joints for Life 2.0, I teach Controlled Articular Rotations (CARs), which are an amazing mobility exercise to improve joint health, reduce inflammation, maintain joint mobility, increase joint strength and resilience, AND improve balance. With this program you can get started for less than half the price of a good massage – and enjoy much longer-lasting results.

Time investment:

15 mins a day

Why Joints for Life 2.0?

Doing the same repetitive activities every day, or not moving enough, can wreak havoc on our joints. Taking care of your joints is an awesome place to start because it helps you do all your other movements better. Plus it helps you become a better mover by improving body awareness.

CARs are a whole-body exercise system that moves all your major joints through a full range of motion, so that you move well whether you’re playing sports or playing with your grandkids.

They add immediate variety to your movement diet, which nourishes cells and tissues, decreases inflammation and makes you feel instantly healthier. They’re also a super effective warm up for other activities (inlcuding mobility training). They’re even a key tool for rehabbing injuries. And they’re soooo portable – I do them at home, partway through hikes (which feels incredible!) and at the beach – wherever makes sense for my day!

Natural movement add-ons:

Get comfortable sitting on the floor and making squatting movements part of your daily routine! This adds more all-day movement to decrease inflammation, improve core strength and increase metabolism.

Route 3: Nurture your core, spine and pelvic floor (a surprising fix with a HUGE impact!)

Start here if:

Your movement remedy: Ribcage Magic!

This free 5-part short video series gives you everything you need to start building better pelvic floor and core function, simply by changing your ribcage position! It’s a quick, simple tool that’s surprisingly powerful. Plus, you can apply it to your all-day-every-day movement and current exercise regime without any additional time.

Time investment:

15 mins to watch the videos

Why Ribcage Magic?

To truly heal pelvic floor issues like diastasis recti, sneeze pee, prolapse and painful sex, we need to make sure our shoulders, hips, feet, spinal mobility, breathing patterns and core function are all in tip-top condition. That sounds like a lot, I know, but there’s one thing that can make a huge difference: ribcage position.

When you know how to position your ribcage properly, you can maintain the integrity of your core, which supports so much of the body and so many of our movement patterns. (Hey, it’s not called the “core” for nothing!) Unfortunately, our well meaning efforts to improve our posture and the effects of time spent sitting have left many of us with a ribcage lifting habit that’s doing nothing good for us in the long term.

In fact, a lifted ribcage compresses our mid-back, sabotages our spinal mobility and prevents core muscles from functioning well. This contributes to pelvic floor problems and pain in our back, shoulders and elsewhere. It even interferes with how we walk!

So, even though it sounds strange at first, learning about ribcage position is foundational for everything else you do. The great thing about this pathway is that you’ll be able to work on your core, spine, pelvic floor and breathing all at the same time, and it doesn’t take much time at all.

CARs are a whole-body exercise system that moves all your major joints through a full range of motion, so that you move well whether you’re playing sports or playing with your grandkids.

They add immediate variety to your movement diet, which nourishes cells and tissues, decreases inflammation and makes you feel instantly healthier. They’re also a super effective warm up for other activities (inlcuding mobility training). They’re even a key tool for rehabbing injuries. And they’re soooo portable – I do them at home, partway through hikes (which feels incredible!) and at the beach – wherever makes sense for my day!

Natural movement add-ons:

Start hanging! Yes, I mean from the monkey bars! (Although of course you can start off slow – hanging with your feet on the ground counts too! Hanging is one of my absolute favourite movement nutrients because it feels sooooo good, and it’s often the missing link in our movement patterns. Hanging can really nourish your shoulders and upper back, build core strength and be a game changer for your pelvic floor. It can be modified for all bodies and most importantly, it’s so much fun! But FYI, it’s only awesome if your ribcage is in the right position!

Disclaimer! Please note that these are general guidelines ­– if you have an existing or more complex issue, you may need some specific pointers and so I suggest you speak to a good physical therapist or doctor. If you need any recommendations just give me a shout.

Ready to build a movement-rich life?

Remember, most movement-related issues can be improved by any of these options, so there’s no wrong choice! It’s a win-win situation! I’d love for you to do all three, one by one, for best results. But start with whichever feels like the best fit for you right now, and take it from there.

Thank you for letting me be part of your movement journey. I’m so honoured and excited to support you!

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