Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee - #90 Is There Anything Better Than Movement For Transforming The Way That You Feel: Best of 2019

Episode Date: December 28, 2019

Over the past 2 years, I have had the privilege of talking with some of the most influential and insightful voices in the health and wellbeing space. To celebrate, I have released 3 very special compilation episodes at the end of 2019, which happens to also be the end of the decade! In my new book, Feel Better in 5, I split up health into 3 main areas: Mind, Body and Heart. I covered ‘Mind’ and ‘Heart’ in the past 2 episodes of the podcast and in today’s show, the theme is ‘Body’ - we all know that moving our body each day is crucial for our health and our wellbeing - it give us more energy, better creativity, improves our sleep quality and so much more. In today’s episode, you are going to hear some of the best clips on this topic from my podcast. You will hear from the inspirational radio presenter, Vassos Alexander, on just how unfit he was a few years ago, why he started to exercise and how he has quickly become a really experienced and accomplished runner, the medical doctor, Mithu Storoni, who shares how regularly moving throughout the day helps you to buffer the effects of stress, the neuroscientist, Shane O’Mara, who explains how sitting around all day is exhausting and how movement actually energises us, and how walking can reverse aging in the brain. Then you will hear a clip from one of my most enjoyable conversations so far, with the filmmaker, Sanjay Rawal, who shares how we can approach running and, in fact, all movement, in a completely different way and use it as a pathway to transformation. I then share clips from the science journalist and author, Linda Geddes, on how going out for a walk every lunchtime helps you to strengthen your own circadian rhythm and helps you be more alert, Tony Riddle who shares his view on why humans are currently living in conflict with their evolutionary heritage and why he made the decision to remove all of the chairs from his house and finally, the inspirational, Ross Edgeley, who explains why the most important component for any movement practice is adherence - and why choosing a movement that you ENJOY is so important in terms of sticking to it in the long term.  I hope you will find this an inspirational episode as we move from one decade, into a brand new one. Enjoy! There are a wide variety of 5 minute movements in my brand new book Feel Better in 5 - 5 minute bodyweight strength training workouts that require no equipment, 5 minute yoga flows, 5 minute HIIT workouts, 5 minute playful ones and so much more. You can order your very own copy now - Feel better in 5; Your Daily Plan to Feel Better for Life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, my name is Rangan Chastji, GP, television presenter and author of the best-selling books The Stress Solution and The Four Pillar Plan. I believe that all of us have the ability to feel better than we currently do, but getting healthy has become far too complicated. With this podcast, I aim to simplify it. I'm going to be having conversations with some of the most interesting and exciting people both within as well as outside the health space to hopefully inspire you as well as empower you with simple tips that you can put into practice immediately to transform the way that you feel. I believe that when we are healthier, we are happier because when we feel better, we live more. feel better, we live more. Hello and welcome back to episode 90 of my Feel Better Live More podcast. My name is Rangan Chatterjee and I am your host. Today's episode is the third and final

one of the very special compilation Feel Better Live More episodes that I have put together. I hope you have managed to listen to the first two. I know from the comments on social media how enjoyable and useful you have found it to have some of the best bits from previous episodes of the podcast all in one complete episode. Perhaps this is something I will try and do more of in the future. If you want episodes like these, I would just need to find someone to join my team who can help me with that. So if you do want more episodes like these, please let me know. And if you think you can help me curate them, please do get in touch. So the theme of the past two compilation episodes, 88 and 89, have been mind and heart, which are two of the themes I

write about in my brand new book, Feel Better in Five, which has just come out in the UK. In the book, I split up health into three sections. The section that we have not covered yet in these compilation episodes is body, and that is the theme of today's show. We all know that moving our body each day is crucial for our health and well-being. It helps us with our energy, creativity, sleep quality, and so much more. In today's episode, you are going to hear clips from the inspirational radio presenter Vassos Alexander on just how unfit he was just a few years ago, why he started to exercise, and how quickly he has become a very experienced and accomplished runner. The medical doctor, Mitu Sterroni, who shares how regularly moving throughout the day

helps you to buffer the effects of stress. The neuroscientist, Shana Mara, who explains how sitting around all day is exhausting and how movement actually energizes us and how walking can reverse aging in the brain. Then we move on to one of my most enjoyable conversations on this podcast with the filmmaker Sanjay Rawal, who shares how we can approach running, and in fact all movement, in a completely different way, and use it as a pathway for transformation. I then share a clip from the science journalist Linda Geddes on how getting out to move in nature and going out for a walk every lunchtime helps you to strengthen your own

circadian rhythm and helps you to be more alert. Tony Riddle, who shares his view on why humans are currently living in conflict with their evolutionary heritage and why he made the decision to remove all of the chairs from his house. And we finish off with the amazing Ross Edgley who explains why the most important thing in any movement practice is adherence and why choosing a movement that you enjoy is so important in terms of sticking to it

in the long term. I really hope you enjoy listening to this episode and hope that you will find it an inspirational one as we move from one decade into a brand new one. Now, before we get started, as always, I do need to give a quick shout out to some of the sponsors of today's show who are essential in order for me to put out weekly episodes like this one. Vivo Barefoot, the minimalist footwear company, continue to support my podcast and are probably the perfect sponsor for this episode. They are

a minimalist footwear brand who I am a huge fan of and I genuinely think that most of us would benefit from either being barefoot or in barefoot shoes as much as we can. A lot of people feel that barefoot shoes are just for running in, and of course you can do this, but it can take a little while to transition. It is far better for most of us to start living and walking in barefoot shoes first, so that our bodies can slowly start to adapt. These shoes really are very comfortable and enjoyable to wear, and one of the benefits is that you start to feel more connected to the ground and as a consequence, the world around you. If you are keen to get moving more this year, I would highly recommend that you consider investing in some minimalist shoes like

Viva Barefoot. For listeners of my show, they continue to offer a fantastic discount. If you go to vivabarefoot.com forward slash live more, they are giving 20% off as a one-time code for all of my podcast listeners in the UK, USA and Australia. Importantly, they offer a 30-day free trial for new customers. So if you are not happy, you can simply send them back for a full refund. I think getting a pair of Viva Beath shoes is a fantastic way to kickstart your movement practice for the new year. They make shoes for all occasions, both work and play. You can get your 20% off at vivobarefoot.com forward slash live more. Now, on to today's conversation. You know, I've been very interested in seeing what's been in the media about your story, in particular, your story as a runner. And this morning, I was on the train down to London,

and I was looking through some stuff that you'd written. And you wrote a Telegraph article, I think, probably around the release of your last book. And you said your story is pretty simple, really. And I think it was something like you were sitting in a pub, eating a packet of crisps, realising you're a little bit unhealthy, so you decided to run. I wonder if you could expand on that a little bit. Actually, I'll tell you the moment. The moment was, I mean, I was sitting in a pub a lot in those days, but the moment was a set of traffic lights on my way to read the sports news,

I think, at Radio 5 Live. I'd just been playing golf. I was on the late shift, and I, at Radio 5 Live. I'd just been playing golf. I was on the late shift. And I was at a set of traffic lights. And my shirt, unusually for me, because I'd been playing golf, was tucked into my trousers. And I just noticed a little kind of a flop of fat,

quite literally a kind of spare tire wrapped in a yellow golf shirt flopping over my belt. And I thought, oh my goodness, you know, I was in my early 30s at this stage. And I thought, okay, so here's the deal. You're no longer in your 20s. over my belt and i thought oh my goodness you know i was in my my early 30s at this stage and i thought okay so here here's here's the deal you're no longer in your 20s you either stop eating what you like or you start exercising or you get fat um and i remembered a late night drive back from oxford to london with steve bunce. I mean, he's a boxing expert, but he's kind of, he's a well-known sports commentator.

And in his kind of North London bark of a voice, he said, you know, Vas, let me tell you something. I'm getting, I'm getting older. I'm getting fatter. I'm getting happier. And I thought, well, we're going the Buncey route, you know, I'll just get older and fatter and happier.

But something kind of, it didn't ring true. the buncy route you know i'll just go i'll just get older and fatter and happier but something kind of i just didn't ring true something just i just i thought that's all sort of like giving up um and i don't like the i didn't like the idea i was about to become a father i didn't like the idea of being unhealthy so i thought well let me try a gym and i and i'm the same day on the way to the bar at television center the bar is right next to the gym in the old BBC club. And so I went into the gym on the way to the bar and I booked a personal training appointment with a guy called Andrew. Great guy. And I was sort of slightly too scared to the next morning through a mild fog of hangover.

I'm slightly too scared to cancel it. And so I turned up and I hated it. I absolutely hated it. You know, when you first do exercise, having not done exercise, it's not an easy thing. But I sort of stuck with it for a little bit. And then I went for my first outside run around about that time after, I don't know,

a couple of weeks and suddenly it was as if a kind of a fog had been lifted so oh okay this is what this is what exercise can be it just seemed to tick so many boxes yes it was hard and yes actually i i started running and i didn't get to the end of my streak because i came out of my front door and i thought oh my neighbors are going to see me here so they're not going to see me go slowly because I'm, you know, I'm too proud. So I steamed off down the street, got to the end of the street, realized that I actually had run out of puff. So landed, I sort of hung over a wall of a neighbor of ours, getting my breath back. At which point that neighbor with a few other friends came out of her house. I are you doing and i went oh i'm going i'm going for a run she's what you've

just got this far like 200 yards down the street and i went no no i've i've actually finishing my run and i always warm down this is my warm down so i always finish it here by your wall and then i i walk home so having announced to my wife that i was going for my first run kind of two minutes previously i'd got to the wall and then sophie says well we're we're walking that way as well we'll walk home with you so i had no choice but i had to then walk back back through the front door to kind of merciless taunts from caroline my wife said what your first run lasted how long a minute and a half um and yeah, I told her what had happened, but I sort of, I stuck with it.

I just stuck with it. I realized that, you know, it was getting myself not just outside, which is great. And one of the key things I think about running is just doing it outside, but also outside of my own comfort zone. And whether that meant running for,

sorry, this is a very long answer, but whether that meant running for a sorry this is a very long answer but whether that meant running for a for a for a minute and then walking for 30 seconds and then expanding that to two minutes before you walk and then three minutes and four minutes and then suddenly realizing i don't need any walking breaks anymore i can just slow down the run a little bit and then just go and then you know you went it just sort of it just snowballed but snowballed in a good way and and i sort of realized that this is this had been the thing funnily enough because i'd never run before that had been missing from my life what would you say to those people that say you know i'm never going to do an ultra event i'm i'm pleased you asked because i i get caught up in myself because i love these long distance races so much and it's and because for me the

journey was you know every step was a small step I didn't just choose to become an ultra runner and people who who hear me sometimes on the radio to breakfast show think well you know but you're the guy that runs 100 miles and yes I am now I'm I'm doing it again next week but you know but i really wasn't always and i'm absolutely evangelical that you a it doesn't matter how far and b it doesn't matter how fast but it does matter that you just give running a try however unfit you are however bad at it you think you might be however overweight you might be however worried you are that the other people will look at you and judge you when you go running none of that actually matters when you're out running park run is a great place to start because there are you know i mentioned that there

are on the start line of an endurance race they'll be kind of all shapes and sizes and everyone's pleased to see you times that by a 100 at every single park around the UK on 9 o'clock on a Saturday morning, you won't feel out of place. But yes, it's the small steps. It's just getting a little bit outside your comfort zone. And you honestly, so if you're listening to this and thinking running's just not for me, maybe, yeah, you're the guy on Radio 2 who keeps on talking about these stupid distances you run. Yes, obviously running's for you you but it's not for me please i would say just give it a go don't feel

like you have to actually run much when you first start walk and maybe take 10 running paces during your walk and next time make it 12 but every time you go out and you come back through your front door you will not regret having been out and you will think slightly better about yourself and you'll you know you'll sort of give yourself a metaphorical pat on the back for having even done it and then just see where the journey takes you we used to have to do our environment used to nudge us into behaviors in the past not just into moving constantly and we used to actually move doing low to moderate intensity exercise intermittently throughout the day today we have the wonderful luxury of being able to do everything

from these little phones. So we hardly move because we don't need to. We're clever. We don't do things unless we really need to. We're lazy. Okay, that's a good thing. And as a result, we stay in our sedentary jobs. We stay sitting all day long without these natural movements.

And then what I find happens a lot in Hong Kong, and I'm sure it happens in London as well, people try to squeeze in their exercise because they're told exercise is really good for them, and it is good for us, it's very important for us, but they spend the whole day sitting down, and then they do this intense high-intensity exercise in the evening. Now, during the day, our ancestors had stress, we have stress, but every time we get a little stressor, our ancestors had stress, we have stress. But every time we get a little stressor, the movement we do for the next hour or so buffers the effects of that stress away, because low to moderate intensity exercise lowers levels of cortisol. So a little bit of blip of stress and a long buffer of movement, a little blip of stress,

go for a 15 minute walk and you're back to baseline. Okay. So if you had these movement intervals throughout your day, the little blips of stress didn't accumulate throughout the day. Today, we no longer have those buffers. We still get those little blips of stress. So instead, by the end of the day, we have this accumulation of cortisol. So instead, by the end of the day, we have this accumulation of cortisol. And then we go for super high intensity exercise in the evening, and we raise that cortisol even further. And that adds to our stress load, because that accumulates from one day to the next. So this is another example of a new stressor and an absence of a stress buffer. sore and an absence of a stress buffer. Maybe if we're sat down all day or we're certainly not walking, maybe our brain is only in first gear and maybe to get into second, third, fourth and

fifth gear, maybe we need movement, we need walking. So if we're living sedentary lives, if we're sat down in our car to get to work, if we're sat at a desk all day and we sit down to eat our lunch at our desk and we come back and we sit on the sofa in the evening, that for many of us, maybe our brains have not got out of first gear. No, no. And the weird thing, of course, is that sitting around all day is tiring. Yeah. And then you come home after not having done a day digging ditches sitting at your computer and you're exhausted and the reason you're exhausted is because our bodies and brains need movement and that movement generates all sorts of wonderful molecules that feed back on our sense of well-being that facilitate good things in terms of our

musculature in terms of our heart rate and in terms of what's going on in the brain so actually somehow we need to break this i don't i don't have a solution for it except to say that we right at the outset need to bake into design principles for work for for buildings, for all the things that we do. For schools? For schools, absolutely. No question about it. The facilitating movement and making sure that much more movement happens. I think one of the great discoveries or rediscoveries of the last couple of decades in neuroscience is the realization that the brain is a muscle or functions like a muscle. It's plastic. If you work it, it changes dynamically in response to what you do to it. If you leave it, it tends to atrophy. So the parts of the brain that are concerned with learning and memory is a part of the brain called the hippocampal formation. It's also the same part

of the brain that's involved in the processing of information about stress. And it's also very badly affected by depression. And here's, I think, one of the amazing discoveries. We now know with absolute certainty, as certain as we know anything in science, that lots of aerobic exercise, getting out and moving, walking lots, materially affects the volume of the hippocampal formation. It gets bigger as the result of exercise. And the functions it supports get better as the result of exercise. And you can demonstrate this in all sorts of ways. We've done studies, for example, with sedentary college students, and we've made them do forced exercise regimes on bicycles,

on exercise bikes, and shown that molecules that are expressed in the brain, which float into the blood, including brain-derived neurotrophic factor, go up, and memory in these students goes up. But even more dramatically, this capacity is retained right throughout life. So it's never too late. So I'll just pick on one very important study. Art Kramer's group in Chicago have taken a group of about 120 people in their early 70s, divided them into two groups, one who were just left to live their life as randomly into two groups. They live their life as they always live it. And the other group are brought out for a walk three times a week. That's all for about a mile and a half with a physiotherapist in small groups, groups of two. And they're followed for a year or so. And what you see is in the walking group,

improvements in memory, improvements in attention, an increase in the volume of the hippocampal formation, an increase in the amount of this amazing substance BDNF in the blood. And the 72 year olds start to perform on psychological tests at the same level as 68 year olds do. So in a very important sense, you've reversed the functional aging of the brain, whereas the other group who just continue their sedentary tele-watching lifestyle, they continue on a pathway of decline.

Yeah, I mean, that's incredible. And I like the point you're making that it's never too late. That's the important thing. And I like to suggest that you only get old when you stop walking you don't stop walking because you're old just taking a quick break in today's conversation to give a shout out to the sponsors of today's show athletic greens continue their support of my podcast

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live more. I would suggest to people who look at running as painful, who look at running as something that causes injury, to approach running in a totally different way. Instead of looking at running for performance, running for miles, running for body shape, running for burning calories, looking at running as a pathway to transformation. I mean, running will get you any of those previous examples that I mentioned. It's like, if you want to lose weight, running will do that for you. If you want to look better and feel better, running will do that for you. The question is like, how many of us look at running as that kind of tool, as a way to get into our innermost self? And so the prescription for running as an act of transformation requires being soft between your ears, learning how to connect with your

heartbeat, learning how to connect with your spiritual heart, and letting those energies drive your run rather than your GPS watch, rather than thinking about what you're going to eat or what you're going to do afterwards, rather than even listening to music and having some external source pump you up for three, four minutes at a time. If you strip away what's between your ears, you end up having a naturally beautiful experience because running or walking or moving with our feet when done with the right intention is one of the most natural things out there. Yeah, so powerful. So has such potential to be transformative if we reframe the narrative around running, around walking, around exercise. I'm putting that in inverted commas, this whole idea of exercise, actually, in many ways, even that term, you know, by using that term, we Martin, that I realized like I was missing something from running. Even though I'd studied with Sri Chinmoy who recommended this type of running, it's like, I just never sunk in.

So walk me through that. You went out for a run. Yeah. So we're leaving his front doorstep. And first of all, he tells me like, we start running in the morning towards the east to greet the rising sun. And I was like, I've never started a run with that type of intention or that type of relationship with nature. Even when I run at the Grand Canyon, it's like, how fast can I get to the bottom and come back up?

It's like, no, he's like, we start running to the east to greet the rising sun. we start running to the east to greet the rising sun. I was waiting for my GPS watch to go. And I realized like this guy who's like a top ranked ultra marathoner doesn't even have a watch on. And so I take off after him. And I realized as he's running and as he's breathing, he's got a different look in his eyes. And I realized afterwards what that look was,

in his eyes. And I realized afterwards what that look was, that he understood that this particular run could be transformative. Not like the heavens would open up and like all the angels would come down. But like, if you go into a morning meditation, thinking that it's a good thing, and that if you achieve a small sense or small moment of silence, your day is going to be better. You open yourself up to having that small moment of silence. If in a morning contemplative practice, like you're literally just like thinking about breakfast, you know that nothing's going to happen and that it's not going to be a transformative experience. So it's like he started this run with a loose and soft mind. And it was evident in the way he was moving. He wasn't worried about time. He wasn't

worried about distance. He was just worried about his breath. And he later told me there are three reasons why Navajo run. Number one, running is a celebration of life. It's kind of easy to feel when you're running in a canyon. Maybe not so easy when you're running on a street, but point taken. Number two, running as a teacher. Like you said, if you have a hard time, if you're going through a really difficult patch, we all know that if you've got the inspiration to go for a walk or go for a run, know that if you've got the inspiration to go for a walk or go for a run, the problem doesn't necessarily get solved, but it becomes less intense. There's no reason to analyze why, but it just does. Go for a long walk, go for a long run. You're going to feel better about what's

going on in your life. But number three, he said running is a prayer. When you run, your feet are praying to Mother Earth. You're breathing in Father Sky. You're not only asking them for their blessings, you're showing them that you're willing to work for those blessings. And that's running as aspiration. That's running as a cry saying that I'm an insignificant human being and I understand that there's greater forces around me that can feed me in my journey to achieve something beyond me, something deeper,

something more significant than what I can conjure on my own. And I saw that with Sean when he ran. And when he finished, it wasn't like he was stopping his GPS watch, looking through his stats, unplugging his iPod or iPhone. He had a sense of calm that I never really achieved in running. And it wasn't like he started with that calm, but I could see that he achieved something through that run. And I was step for step with him. I didn't have a phone. My GPS watch wasn't working. But after the run, I realized he got more out of that than I did. Like, why? We ran the same pathway. It was maybe even more exotic for me because it was the first time

running in the Sacred Canyon. I should be feeling better than him. I should just be totally blown away. Like, what did I not do? And then afterwards, when he was explaining to me the Navajo philosophy of running, I realized it was simple. I didn't recognize that this run could change my perception of myself. I just didn't know. No harm, no foul, but I just didn't know. And now I know that if I want running to make me a better

person and not just a faster person, it can do that because it always has. It just always has. Since we went from four limbs on the ground to two limbs on the ground, running has been a way, not the only way, but a way to self-discovery. Not the only way, but a way to self-discovery. We now spend 90% of our daytimes indoors, where the light levels are like an order of magnitude lower than they are outdoors. Today is kind of grey and rainy and gloomy. It's probably still...

So light luminance or brightness is measured in this unit called lux and on a day like today it's about 5 000 lux outside on a bright sunny day in the middle of summer it could be as high as 100 000 lux outside but indoors in the kind of standard office it might be two to three hundred lux in my book i i kind of strongly advocate for very small changes to your life. But basically, it involves kind of brightening your daytime and darkening your evenings and nighttimes. But one way, one brilliant way to brighten your daytime is just to get outside, do a little bit of exercise, get up from your desk. You know, if you start cycling to work or walking to work, even getting off the bus or train a stop early and just doing that like last 10 minutes walking, you know, you're getting exercise. You're also out in nature,

hopefully. And that's a kind of stress buster. And, you know, there's increasing evidence that spending all day just sitting down, just not getting up and down again is really harmful to our health. And again, if you're just making little efforts to just get up, just go for a walk around the block at lunchtime or, you know, on your breaks, I think that can make a difference. It'll certainly make a difference to your alertness during the daytime, but you're also strengthening those circadian rhythms, which are so important for our health. So why do you have no chairs in your house? Just because I want to raise as many social extreme eyebrows as possible no um again 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. So 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. 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 percent of the uk are living in urban environments we're spending 90 of our time 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 right so i can 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 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. So beneath all that standing, the upright posture, let's say you have kids, right? So we observed our kids. Because I have a movement background, I was just obsessed and recording bit by 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 all 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 why do you don't have to go to physios or pilates you just have incredible physiology and you can jump run lift carry you can do all these things that we 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 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 and nourish an amazing physiology. 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. 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 turn, revert back into a very old primal pattern, if you believe in evolution, like 35 million evolutions, we're a C-shaped primate.

So 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 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 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 yeah so there's joints that primarily should be offering mobility some offer stability 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 stabilizing 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 and 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's aligned what about someone who's listening to this who is relatively inactive right so they live in a city um you know they want to get healthier that they've started listening to this podcast for whatever reason that they they want some inspiration to get going and they think well there's no way i can do a swim run you know i barely go out i don't go to the gym i don't do much where can they start and how can they apply this in their life i think i love that question for two reasons number one is because i think too often um we are heavily

marketed uh you know the gym or certain sports or you know they'll say oh this is the best way way to to lose weight and it's just like no no no you have to start looking at behavioral science you know only just an hour understanding adherence so do are you actually going to adhere to this way of life um again to go off on a slight tangent international journal of obesity 2008 they did a huge meta study so a study of thousands of studies and Again, to go off on a slight tangent, International Journal of Obesity 2008, they did a huge meta study. So a study of thousands of studies, and they wanted to know what the best diet was for fat loss. Everyone was sitting there going, well, this is amazing. They were on the edge of their seats thinking, oh my God, is it keto? Is it Atkins? Is it South

Beach? What is it? And they said, after analyzing all of these studies, we have found, and everyone was on the tent hooks on the edge of their seats that we have found that weight loss was highest in those most adherent and they went what and they're like yeah the diet doesn't matter sticking to it does and they were like oh so there was this idea that okay so in terms of when you are completely sedentary and you're just setting out whether it's a diet plan or a workout plan look at adherence are you Are you actually going to enjoy this? Is this your okugaki? Are you going to be motivated for intrinsic reasons? Or are you saying, I want to do a triathlon because you get a nice medal at the end? That's probably not the right answer. Pick something that you intrinsically like. What's your okugaki? What are you going to be able to adhere to? I think for some people, they're like,

I used to play tennis as a kid. I've not done it in ages. Cool, then go down your local tennis club. I used to swim, but I've not done it in ages. Cool, then dust off those goggles and get in. Hey, guys, it doesn't matter where you are. It doesn't matter where you start. Just start somewhere and just build from there. That concludes today's episode of a very special compilation Feel Better Live More podcast. That was the final episode of 2019. I really hope you enjoyed hearing those clips that my team and I have put together. Do let me know what your favorite tip was and do let me know who was your favorite guest. You can get in touch on social media, on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and on LinkedIn. If you want to go back and hear the full episode with some of the guests that

were featured today, just go to the show notes page for this episode at drchatterjee.com forward slash 90, and you can see all of the clickable links to the original shows. Now, movement really is a daily essential for our health. Many of us would like to move more, but feel as if we do not have the time. In my new book, Feel Better in 5, I have a whole selection of five-minute movements. Five minutes of body weight strength training that you can do with no equipment at all.

Five minutes of yoga flows, five minute HIIT workouts, five minute playful workouts, and so much more. It really is amazing how much of a difference five minutes can make. Do not underestimate its power. And because they only take five minutes, it means that it is easy to fit into even the busiest of schedules. And it's that daily consistency that gives you the big results over time, not the one hour spinning class that you do once every two weeks. You can pick up my new book, Feel Better in Five, in the UK right now in all the usual places, bookshops, supermarkets, and online retailers. If you do pick up a copy, please do let me know what you think.

Don't forget to celebrate my new book in january 2020 i will be hitting the road and speaking live and doing book signings in various cities around the uk ranging from london to manchester liverpool and edinburgh you can see all the dates at drchatsy.com forward slash events i really hope to meet some of you in person tickets are going super fast. Some venues have already sold out. So please do go to the website and check out which event you may wish to come to. Finally, on this final episode of the year, I really do want to say a heartfelt thank you to each and every single one of you who listen each week, who have written a review on

Apple Podcasts and who constantly share with your friends and family. I really do not take it for granted that you give me some of your most precious and valuable time each week. Time when you are by yourself, in the car, on your commute, out for a run or as many of you have told me in my Facebook group whilst doing your housework. Wherever you listen to my podcast, I am honoured that it has become a regular part of your weekly routine. And I'm delighted to tell you that I have got some absolutely brilliant conversations lined up for you next year. In just a few days, I'm releasing the first episode of 2020 on New Year's Day.

It is a long one, but it's possibly one of the best stories I have ever come across. It really will get you pumped and ready for 2020. Big thank you to Richard Hughes for editing and Vinata Chatterjee and Joe Murphy for producing this week's podcast. That is it for today. That is it for the year. Make sure you have pressed subscribe and I'll be back on New Year's Day with the very first Feel Better Live More podcast of 2020. Remember, you are the architects of your own health, making lifestyle changes always worth it because when you feel better, you live more. I'll see you next time. Thank you.