Move Your DNA with Katy Bowman

Do you walk? Is the nutritional value of your walking the equivalent of eating only. Cheese Puffs for sustenance? Walking, like every natural human movement, comes with its own host of variables that provide our bodies the loads required for optimal health and expression. Listen as Katy gives a clear and understandable explanation as to why we need to consider both the micro- and macronutrients of walking and how to get more of them.

One of the awesome things about Katy Bowman is how much useful content she produces for our human bodies—and this past summer she was crazy busy writing and releasing books for her Whole Body series, filming DVDs and finishing up the new Nutritious Movement Center Northwest. Following her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is fun, but it’s nice to hear from Katy about all the projects she’s been working on.

Back-to-school time is here! A kid needs a decent breakfast to start the school day, but what about movement nutrients? School can bring movement-hindering shoes and desks, long, sedentary days and repetitive loads to a developing body. Whatever your method of schooling, Katy offers some tips to help both you and your wee charges get more of what their body needs. And, if you’re all grown up and done with school and don’t have kids, this episode probably still applies.

Katy’s Got Skin in the Game You squat, you hang, you climb, and you threw your couch to the curb—all for the sake of more natural movement. But are your arrector pili getting their movement nutrients? Wait, what ARE your arrector pili? Katy scratches the surface of that oft-neglected but serious player in your whole body health—your skin! Of course, this vast subject needs more than one episode, but this is a good start on a fascinating topic.

Mail call! Katy answers listener questions! From cracked heels to torso troubles, and psoas release for special populations to flaccid muscles, these aren’t your average call-in questions!

Skinny jeans, tight belts, compression undergarments—when your clothing changes your shape, it also changes how you move and the results can be hard on your body. This episode deals with the choices we make in our everyday wear and how the biological tax we pay for fashion can sometimes be high.

So, this guy—Ben—mentions Katy in a tweet. But it wasn’t just any tweet. It featured one of the coolest, most inspiring transformation stories we’ve come across in a long time. Ben had reached a point in his life where change needed to happen. So he made it happen with a few steps at a time, and ended up with a bucketful of benefits that went way beyond his smaller waist size. Join us as we talk about Ben’s cooler-than-cool inspirational story.

The news lately has been filled with exciting body nerd news: After 56 years perched in high heels, Barbie can now wear flats. That’s big news, right? And two days later, NPR featured a story on lost postures and a theory as to why indigenous people don’t suffer from back pain like First-world folks. Headlines ARE grabby, but it’s always wise to dig a little deeper.

This episode of Katy Says focuses on building and leveraging your community—both in town and online—to help achieve goals of healthier, happier living. Whether sharing chores or meals, trading time or goods, or creating community efforts that benefit everyone, all you have to do is ask, and the rest just follows.

A School Without Walls Most kids in America spend 7 hours a day sitting in a chair inside a building for their education. Other options exist for educating children—one of them is Nature School. In this episode, Katy will describe the nature school in her community, and we’ll share what some other schools in the US and around the world are doing to help decrease our “nature deficit disorder”. We’ll also offer resources and ideas to help you and your kids enjoy the benefits of learning outside.

Getting more natural movement can be challenging in our comfortable, modern-convenience society. Katy shares ideas for movement hacks—using your daily tasks and household furnishings—that will get you thinking about your living environment and everyday chores in a whole-body way.

It’s a hot headline lately—Exercise Less, Move More. But what does that mean? Is exercise really bad for you? Or is it possibly just the Junk Food of Whole Body Natural Movement? In this episode, Katy discusses the distinction between exercise and movement. She’ll clarify “exercise-as-junk-food” and explain the nuances of a healthy movement diet.

The suspense is over…It’s Part 2 of I’m All About the BASE! More of your pressing foot questions get answers, Dani channels Meghan Trainor for Katy, and you’ll learn enough about your feet to start to appreciate how much they matter to your overall health.

Feet—where would you be with them? You’d be footless (which is not as cool as footloose). However, most of us treat our feet as if they were not one of the most important players in our whole-body system. Listen to Katy as she serves up a super slab of foot goodness while answering YOUR foot questions.

Join Katy and Dani as they discuss Katy’s latest book and why it’s a must-read for anyone with feet. Whether you’ve got back pain, neck pain or foot pain, it all starts in the foot. This simple, fun-to-read and practical book is worth more than one podcast discussion, but start here for now!