Kelly Starrett – What does it mean to be human?

Let’s Hack Your Future. Here are some of the best advice I have gotten in years. It’s from the movement expert Kelly Starrett. I have applied some of them on my life and the result is amazing 🙂

Let me know what you think below.

1. What does it mean to be human?

2. Who is your No.1 life partner?

2 important questions to ask yourself. Something that Kelly Starrett helps with in a very good conversation with Chase Jarvis on his 30 Days of Genius series. Listen on YouTube, iTunes or here on this MP3-file.

There is of course only one life partner that will be with you from cradle to cradle. And it’s your body. So this is a relationship that you want to flourish all life long. But how do we do that?

Kelly Starrett has just released his latest book “Deskbound” and in it he brings up what to do with an entire species that now does not spend their days like they where born to do. We move our bodies wrong. We sit to much. We crave food and drinks that are bad for us if over-consumed. And most of us don’t get enough of quality sleep.

There is no question that almost everyone of us should have kick-ass bodies, at least until we reach level 70. With full mobility and pain-free living. The chance are that we who make it to 70 around 2050 will live until we are at least 120. And in that time we will want to have flourishing and pain-free life.

Today the trend are going the other way in many parts of western civilization. What can we do to reverse that?

Have a Kick-Ass Body

Because having a kick-ass body is also on par with happiness, success, creativity and productivity. And everyone who runs a company or is a self employed freelancer or entrepreneur, will want to both become and be surrounded with people who kick-ass and radiates positive energy.

Have Posture

How do you orient your body in space? What are your basic position when you sit down to do your work or when stand or walk regularly?

What does it mean to be human?

We are physical machines. And as such we should have primary focus on how train and service our vehicles. How do you treat you most values apple laptop or your brand new car. Would you put soda in the gas tank or pour some soda on your keyboard? And yet soda is so delicious. It was designed to be impossible to resist. Does than mean it’s ok to pour it into our bodies?

The answer is that we many of us take our bodies functioning well for granted, and we have just forgotten, how a well oiled body could and should move. We could all benefit from a real moment teacher like Kelly Starrett or Ido Portal that advocates better moving skills on London Real in 2 episodes: Ido Portal – Move or Die.

Even Kelly Starrett has been a guest on London Real.

Are you fully mobile and pain-free?

Can you sit down on the floor and stand up in rapid fashion without discomfort or pain?

It’s not about getting rid of the coach and sitting on the floor like a warlord – Kelly Starrett

If you take a ball or a bottle and roll it all over your body. Do you have any sore och stiff muscles? Then you have a problem that shouldn’t go unattended.

Breath With Me

Kelly is also a big fan of Wim Hof and his breathing exercises, just like me. If you have hard time doing meditation or mindfulness exercises or find that it don’t get have that big effect on you, you should try Wim Hof’s mechanical breathing exercises. It’s easier to do and you feel the effect right away. They all take about 4 minutes and you can do 1-3 of them in the morning or whenever you need your energy back. He has put them together in an excellent app called: InnerFire.

Do watch the new and awesome documentary with him that came out this winter –>
Wim Hof – The Iceman: Inside the Superhuman World of the Iceman

Get moving

Did you have math teacher or an English teacher when you grow up? You probably did. Did you or do you have a movement teacher? Not just a gym coach, a dedicated moment teacher. Probably not.

If you don’t, you can do what I have done. I have always been active and done both biking, and gym-classes and sports just for fun. But it wasn’t until 2 years ago, that I first started doing first BodyBalance in the gym, and soon after that I did my first Yoga practice. And it did forever change my life. I have always been sore in my shoulder and have a lower back-pain from a life of probably too much working and gaming in front of a computer. And I was really stiff in my upper body. Now 2 years later, thanks to weekly BodyBalance training and the occasional Yoga and a new moment training called Soma Move, I am now very mobile and almost pain-free. I sleep much better and doesn’t wake up with a pain in my lower back anymore.

And it is never too late to get moving. Start doing Yoga, BodyBalance, Soma Move or some Moment-centered Martial Arts.

Sleep and Veggies

Getting enough quality sleep is of course our modern society’s Achilles heel. And it is not just the hours, but it’s important that you have a dark, cool room without noise and disturbing things.

Before going to bed it is great to do some quick stretching and massage your muscles. If you are alone, use a ball or a roller and roll it over your muscles.

And eat more veggies. It’s not a myth, even how much we want it to be 😉

Try to drink less alcohol. And drink more water. Add a pinch of sea-salt and some lemon to your water so that it remains in your body too.

Don’t be heroic. Be consistent

Get as much daily exercise as possible. Walk more. Take walking meetings. Walk in stairs. Or even better run in stairs like I do. I have rules like: If there is a stair I have to run in it when going up. Then suddenly it is not a decision that drains my willpower points anymore. It’s what I do.

Try get in a small moment exercise every hour. Here I have found the absolute best thing on my Apple Watch. It’s a function that for now is worth 10x times what I paid for it, at least. It reminds me every hour if I have sat for too long that it’s time to stand up. It’s function that will add years to my life. It’s hard to put price on that.

Get up and do some kind of fun moment or play.

And if you have to stand find a box or a foot-rail, that they have in the pubs, to put one foot on. Why do you think they have them there in the first place?

It’s much more important to be consistent and do something small each day, than not at all.

Don’t be heroic. Be consistent

The 10-10-10

Sometimes it happens that you have a crazy day and have forgotten all about moving. Then you can do what Kelly does and do the 10-10-10. At 10 o’clock at night or when you get home. Do 10 different moment exercises for 1 minute each. No living human on planet earth can claim that they don’t have time to do that. This is your life partner for life we are talking about here. If the President of The United States have time to move every day, so do you. No-one can say they have more important things to prioritize than POTUS.

Just Do it!

You don’t need to be a Modern Warrior Poet Monk Guy.
There is something every human being can do.
We were born to be in motion.

Start Squat and Balance Club

If you have a hard time motivating yourself, find an accountability partner that is responsible for you doing it. Or start little club for Squatting or doing Yoga or any other moment related things each day together, or virtually together with your phones.

Be a polymath

And don’t get stuck in your life. Try constantly be curious and learn new skills. Have a growth mindset. It’s never too late to start level up your body. Even if you are level 70 or level 80 or even level 90.

Go learn new skills!

Eat, Drink, Sleep and move like a Ninja!

/LordSillion
Your Future Captain

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