Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee - #219 BITESIZE | How To Connect With Nature for Greater Health and Happiness | Tony Riddle

Starting point is 00:00:00 Today's Bite Size episode is brought to you by AG1, a science-driven daily health drink with over 70 essential nutrients to support your overall health. It includes vitamin C and zinc, which helps support a healthy immune system, something that is really important at this time of year. It also contains prebiotics and digestive enzymes that help support your gut health. It's really tasty and has been in my own life for over five years. Until the end of January, AG1 are giving a limited time offer. Usually they offer my listeners a one-year supply of vitamin D and K2 and five free travel packs with their first order. But until the end of January, they are doubling the five free travel packs to

Starting point is 00:00:51 10. And these packs are perfect for keeping in your backpack, office, or car. If you want to take advantage of this limited time offer, all you have to do is go to drinkag1.com forward slash live more. Welcome to Feel Better, Live More. Bite size your weekly dose of positivity and optimism to get you ready for the weekend. Today's clip is from episode 71 of the podcast with natural lifestyle coach and barefoot endurance athlete Tony Riddle. In this clip, he explains that when we connect with nature and our natural state, we can all experience greater health and happiness. Why do you have no chairs in your house?

Starting point is 00:01:46 Just because I want to raise as many social extreme eyebrows as possible. No. We are a species destined to be innately empowered, wild, and connected, right? And the way that comes around is that we have this amazing physicality social and spiritual self and when you understand the physical self again one of those fundamental physical needs is movement and play okay so um i used to own a pilates studio and so i thought that was on the rung of the ladder of movement and most of the people that come and see me, it was really symptom relief. You know, trying to reconfigure a posture that was basically compromised by modern life. And it's the modern part of life, which is a sedentary lifestyle. Now, 83% of the UK are living in urban environments. We're spending 90% of our time

Starting point is 00:02:39 indoors. What are we doing in that time indoors? Most of it's sitting, right? So if we're sitting in one posture, and I have a Pilates studio that's designed for symptom relief, why keep dealing with the symptom? Why not go to the cause, which is the chair? And then if I look to nature for the perfect example, because I looked at the natural world and the natural beings of the world for the solution, because again, we can only look to nature for a natural condition, so i can do that through sleep rest play whatever it is in this case it's right look at the chair does a chair exist in nature no and then we look at okay there's studies that show there's a hundred different rest

Starting point is 00:03:15 positions on the ground so if we then look at there's a hundred different rest positions on the ground once you understand them you can see that they're little micro nutrients of the macro skill of actually standing up right so so beneath all that standing the upright posture let's say you've got you have kids right so we observed our kids i because i have a movement background i was just obsessed and recording bit by bit by bit of their movement which is their motor skill milestones how they unravel so they have various different rest positions on the ground that enable them to become upright beings, right? None of that involves a chair, but they manage to get completely upright. They have the best postures ever, right? Up until the age of six, seven, you don't have to go to physios or Pilates, you just have incredible

Starting point is 00:03:58 physiology. And you can jump, run, lift, carry, you can do all these things that we're having to relearn and reconnect with. They already have it. So for me, I had to remove the chair because I had to be the best example for my kids. So if I'm sitting, my kids are going to want to sit. I can't say to them, no, you're not allowed on the chairs. You have to keep unraveling all these hundred different rest positions. So partly it was to be the best example of a human being for my kids to observe the behaviors. But mostly it's just every one of those rest positions helps feed

Starting point is 00:04:26 and nourish an amazing physiology. But then the macro skills can come from walking, from running, through jumping, through lifting, through carrying, through throwing, defending, swimming. All of those things, the hierarchy within them is the posture. And the micronutrient or element of that macro skill of the posture is all the ground rest positions. Unfortunately, when we sit, it's detrimental to the posture because we get locked in the hips, locked in the ankle. We revert back into a very old primal pattern, if you believe in evolution. 35 million evolutions, we're a C-shaped primate. When we sit down, we then start to take on the C-shaped spine of the primate. It's very quick. And then if you start to then put a pad in front

Starting point is 00:05:11 of you or a computer in front of you or a screen in front of you, you adopt even more of a C-shape, which we call slumping. But really, it's just adopting a very ancient spinal position. Then when you stand from that, of course, the head position is totally out it's forward of the base of support which means then when i simply walk or i run or any of those things it means i have to keep striding further and further out because otherwise i'd fall over if the foot wasn't there so it's just it's just understanding that the ground rest positions is nature's cure really for a lot of the ills that i see within people's posture or within their physiology. So there's joints that primarily should be offering mobility, some that offer stability,

Starting point is 00:05:54 the pelvis should be offering stability, and the fracal spine should be offering mobility. When we sit down in a chair, it defies all of that. But when you upload the rest positions on the ground, like simple things like kneeling I'm doing now up on a chair, this is a single leg kneel, but it's the single leg squat just the same it nourishes the ankle stabilizes the knee immobilize the hips and then i can build my posture above it so it's opening up the locomotive joints and then allowing the muscles and the tendons within that system to understand their role which then we can become more efficient minimize the risk of injury aesthetics, we just have a system that understands its role. Therefore, I'm going to be physically stronger and look physically stronger and more empowered because my posture is aligned.

Starting point is 00:06:33 I look to the natural beings and natural places of the world to find ways of living that are more in sync with our human biology. And again, I found that the closer i could take people to nature the more i can heal them um i talk about this guy a lot it probably drives him nuts but he's now 78 his name is yahudi gordon so he was um he was a pioneer of the active birthing movement so natural birthing he almost rewilded childbirth right for instance um so he came to me um how many when he was 72 six years ago and he was crumpled up stooped and he said i really love i love to learn how to walk and i was like 72 year old wants to learn how to walk right it's interesting okay so let's have a look so then we

Starting point is 00:07:16 went through rewilding feet um ground living so ground resting positions for a 72 year old went all the way through it through kneeling started off culturing in the kneel first then single leg kneeling then double leg kneeling and then eventually got to the squat and he's now squatting so he sets his timer for 30 minutes a day incrementally five minutes here six minutes there whatever and builds his 30 minutes like the edo portal squat challenge right and then he can build 30 minutes a day and then it builds into a new habit he then straight away it was footwear footwear had to go out right and he's doing vivo barefoot right we're all familiar with vivo right yeah everyone knows on this podcast exactly and we're on the big vivo event this weekend and so straight away it's vivos for him

Starting point is 00:07:53 so he now wears vivos the whole time doesn't own another pair of shoes um from ground rest positions we went into hanging and hanging then through hanging positions because you have to understand that we're talking about sapiens which is 270 270,000 years, let's say. Underneath it all, we're arboreal as well, so we've got practices that go way back. If you believe in evolution, there's that 35 million years somewhere. If you climb down the phylogenetic tree, you understand that we had amazing brachiating abilities. We were hanging, swinging, climbing. When you start to incorporate those again, it enables you to get back to the wrist the elbow and the shoulder and scapular components of well we have that in us we're brachiating apes just the

Starting point is 00:08:29 same we still have the same capabilities and then that enables the rib cage to lift and when i get the rib cage up i can do all the stretching i like for the thoracic spine i've done it with people for years and years and years only when i started to use hanging it was like wow okay now they're getting the strength to hold it there this This isn't about the flexibility. Everyone bangs on about flexibility, but you need flexibility and strength. And that kind of comes in with mobility and strength and conditioning. So I could then strength conditioning this guy, Yehudi's posture through hanging, doing active arches, and then into bent arm strength. He's now physically much stronger. Through that process 72 year old has now climbed Everest base camp Bhutan Mount Kenya yeah he's just it's just wow and we've done I've done a whole natural lifestyle

Starting point is 00:09:13 number on him so he's office set up with a bar so he can walk through hang on the bar he has a mat that he can squat on to kneel and then he does his meditation does his breath work and then he has a standing desk that he operates at squats and stands squats and stands and then he does his meditation, does his breath work. And then he has a standing desk that he operates at, squats and stands, squats and stands, and then walks down to the tube in his vivos. People say, ah, would you like a seat? And he goes, no, no, no, no. And he hangs on the bar above. He's basically become, at the age of 78, an opportunist. So he's finding ways of living again that are enabling him as a 78-year-old to thrive. And when he meets people that are enabling him as a 78 year old to thrive and when he meets people that have known him for years and years they're like wow man what's going on you look amazing and it's because he carries himself better he sleeps better physically just it's just a better being you know

Starting point is 00:09:56 what if someone's listening to this and go Tony that sounds great uh what you're doing what your 72 year old buddy has done well that's just too much to me. Has the train already left the station? Has culture moved on? Why are these things still relevant? And what would you say to someone who's listening to this who's sceptical and says, it's too late, I can't do that into my life? Well, again, I'd say a 72-year-old dude

Starting point is 00:10:18 rocks up at my door and look what he's doing now. He's a completely empowered being because underneath it, innately again, we're wild, we're connected and we're empowered beings, right? So it's never too late. And it's also, you just have to look at the environments differently. And I say, try and become more of an opportunist, right? So it can be the tube, right? I can choose to sit, right? But I'm going to, if I have an office environment and my HR department don't like the idea of standing desks, right? And they don't like the idea of you moving around too much. Don't sit on the tube because you're going to be sitting down for eight

Starting point is 00:10:49 hours, right? That's what you have a choice there. You make a choice between this is the old self and this is me going to be go return back to my wild, innate, empowered state, right? Because we're born with that naturally. So how do I do that? Okay. Simple things, right? Can be, okay, here's an opportunity. We're doing a podcast now. do that okay simple things right can be okay here's here's an opportunity we're doing a podcast now i can be sitting or i can be kneeling i know that kneeling is nourishing the ankle the knee and the hip right um in your everyday life i think just get out try and get out to nature and move more you know i have this thing about setting timers you know average urbanite spends 90 their time inside at least try and get your 10% you know try and

Starting point is 00:11:25 set a timer for two hours 24 minutes and try and be outside for two hours 24 minutes you know get to a local park we're blessed in London right London's incredible right as a urban experience because like eight million trees three thousand parks right there's 30,000 allotments and three million gardens right so really there's enough there if you go in search but you can find it and get out into nature and just nature has just the same ability to drop us into that parasympathetic state as breathwork 100 that even nature scenes so you know have nature scenes even on your um screensaver and then when you get the opportunity you know 10 get to nature sit under a tree read a book if you have to answer emails even just get out get out into the park another nice way to do your meetings out there you know there's a lot

Starting point is 00:12:08 said for that kind you know set up a meeting and say do you mind if we walk and the more you just look at these little up those the better you feel and then the better you feel you go okay i'm gonna have a go at this so you could even say right for this month alone what are the physical needs so let's look at the physical human needs right right? You have movement, you have sleep, you have rest, you have play, you have food, you have sunlight, you have air, right? Right, let me get, or let me work on one of those a month, right? Let's work on movement this month. Let me work on empowering myself. I'm going to choose to, and it's choose, you choose to do this. I'm going to choose to sit less. Or I have Tuesday, I blog about a Tuesday, right? It's Tuesday, morning peeps, it's that wonderful day of the week. It's Tuesday, right? It's the day where you make wonderful choices. Choose wisely,

Starting point is 00:12:48 right? We're known as the sapien means wise. Let's be wise in our choice. So let's say I'm going to choose, I'm going to have a picture in my mind of how I want to be. And I'm going to pick Tuesday to behave like that. I'm going to choose how it is I want to be. And every time you do it, you'll think, oh my God, it feels amazing. And then when it starts to choose how it is i want to be and every time you do it you'll think oh my god it feels amazing and then when it starts to do it starts to unravel and unravel into every day yeah every hour suddenly you'll look for more nourishing things that are going to help nourish physically socially and spiritually the closer you can get to having your physical social spiritual needs met the closer you are to being more human hope you enjoyed that bite-sized clip please do spread the love by sharing this episode with your friends and family and if you want more why not go back and listen to the full conversation with

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Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee - #219 BITESIZE | How To Connect With Nature for Greater Health and Happiness | Tony Riddle

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