Focus:
Sharing freely what we have been given.
Repetition:
Freely I have received, freely I will give.
My healing is meant to overflow.
I am a vessel of healing for those who come after me.
Moving Like Our Ancestors
This week we are going to increase our movement! We have been moving gently for a long time now, stretching our fascia, walking, and moving what we can as often as we can. Now it is time to build on that foundation and become strong. We are going to do it the ancestral way, and we are going to do it in a way that honours the bodies God gave us as men and as women.
Imagine a Rural Village 1,000 Years Ago
Close your eyes for a moment and picture a small rural community a thousand years ago. There are no gyms, no treadmills, and no workout videos. Nobody is going for a run to burn calories, and nobody is doing burpees in the barn. And yet these people were strong, capable, and moving nearly all day long.
Picture the women. They are carrying water from the well and carrying babies on their hips and backs. They are kneeling in the garden, squatting by the fire, and sitting on the floor to work. They are churning butter, kneading dough, milking, scrubbing laundry by hand, and hanging it to dry. They are walking to gather herbs, eggs, and berries, and carrying full baskets home. They are bending, reaching, twisting, lifting, and getting up and down from the ground dozens of times a day. In the evenings they are dancing and singing with their families.
Now picture the men. They are splitting and hauling firewood, digging, plowing, and building walls, barns, and homes. They are lifting stones and timber, carrying heavy loads over long distances, and working with large animals. They are hunting, which means long, quiet walks with the occasional short, hard sprint. They are wrestling and competing with each other in games of strength. Their work was heavier, and their bodies were built for it.
Both men and women walked most of the day, often barefoot or in thin shoes, on uneven ground, outside in the sunlight. Both rested when the sun went down. Their movement was varied, it was purposeful, it was done in community, and it followed the rhythm of the day and the seasons. This is what we want to mimic.
Why Men and Women Move Differently
Men and women are not the same, and our movement does not need to be the same either. Men carry more muscle, have more testosterone, and recover from heavy strain differently than women do. Men can benefit from more intense weight training than women. Heavy lifting, carrying, and pushing and pulling heavy things is exactly the kind of work a man’s body was designed to do, and it builds the kind of strength that lets him protect and provide for his family.
Women’s bodies are beautifully sensitive to stress signals. Our hormones are listening to whether we are safe, whether there is enough food, and whether it is a good time to be fertile and to heal. When a woman pushes her body too hard, too often, it can read as danger, and her cycle, her thyroid, her sleep, and her healing can all suffer.
This does not mean women should be weak! We can all benefit from being strong. Women were carrying children, water, and baskets all day long, and that is real strength. We simply build it in a steadier, gentler way, with moderate weights, our own body weight, carrying, and lots of everyday functional movement.
Ladies, you may notice that you have more energy for strength work in the first half of your cycle and want to move more gently in the days before your bleed. Listen to that; it is your body communicating with you.
Why Strength Matters for All of Us
Muscle is so much more than how we look. Muscle is where the body stores and uses much of its blood sugar, so strong muscles help keep our blood sugar steady. Strong muscles protect our joints and keep our bones strong. Muscle helps us stay independent as we age, getting up off the floor, carrying our groceries, and picking up our grandchildren.
Movement is also how our lymph moves. The lymph system does not have a pump like the heart does; it depends on us moving, breathing, and contracting our muscles to carry waste out of the tissues. When we move, we are helping our bodies detox and helping our fascia stay supple and hydrated.
Why We Advise Against HIIT and Cardio
High intensity interval training (HIIT) and long sessions of cardio have been sold to us as the way to be healthy, but they are not how our ancestors moved and they are not what a healing body needs. Both of these push the body hard into the sympathetic state, the fight or flight side of the nervous system. Heart rate climbs, adrenaline and cortisol rise, and the body gets the message that it is running from danger.
Now think back to everything we have learned about the nervous system. Most of us came to this protocol with a nervous system that was already stuck in fight or flight. Doing HIIT or pounding out miles on a treadmill tells a nervous system that is already afraid, “You are right, we are in danger.”
This is why we advise against HIIT and cardio especially for those who have had nervous system disorders. If you have had dysautonomia, POTS, chronic fatigue, anxiety, panic, seizures, or any other nervous system disorder, intense exercise can bring on a crash that lasts for days, and it can set your healing back. It is not that you are weak or lazy; it is that your body is asking for safety before it can build.
Chronic cardio and HIIT also raise cortisol over and over, which pulls on our minerals, our thyroid, our adrenals, and our blood sugar. We sweat out minerals we are working very hard to rebuild. We increase our need for recovery at the same time that our body is trying to put its energy into healing the gut, rebuilding the microbiome, and repairing our cells.
Our ancestors did have short bursts of hard effort, a quick sprint during a hunt, or running to catch an animal that got loose, but these were rare, they were short, and they were followed by rest. They did not do them on a schedule five days a week.
There is also a mindset piece. “No pain, no gain” and “push through it” are the very same habits of rushing and overriding our bodies that we have been working so hard to unlearn. We want our movement to leave us feeling better and more alive, not wiped out.
Our Keywords: Mobility, Ancestral, Floor Work, Fascia, Lymph, and Breath
- Mobility is keeping our joints moving through their full range so we can squat, reach, twist, and bend with ease.
- Ancestral movement is walking, carrying, climbing, crawling, squatting, and lifting the way people moved before modern life.
- Floor work is sitting on the floor, getting up and down from the floor, crawling, rolling, and stretching on the ground, which our ancestors did all day long.
- Fascia work is slow stretching, twisting, and gentle pressure to keep the web that wraps every muscle and organ hydrated and free.
- Lymph movement is gentle bouncing, dry brushing, walking, and deep breathing to keep our lymph flowing.
- Breath work is learning to breathe slowly and deeply through the nose and into the belly, which tells the nervous system that we are safe.
Free Teachers Online
You do not need a gym membership or an expensive program to do this. There are so many people online who teach this kind of movement for free. Search the keywords mobility, ancestral, floor work, fascia, lymph, and breath, and follow the teachers who resonate with you.
Just like we talked about in Week Twelve, choose teachers who are calm, who are healed themselves, and who encourage you to listen to your body. If a teacher is yelling at you to push harder, uses shock value, or leaves you feeling anxious or depleted, give yourself a break from them.
How to Begin This Week
If you have a nervous system disorder, start very small (five minutes is enough), and stop before you feel tired. Notice how you feel the next day, not just right after, and write it in your journal. If you feel wired, shaky, crashed, or have a flare the next day, do less and move more slowly.
Here is a simple rhythm to try.
- Walk outside every day, barefoot on the earth when you can.
- Sit on the floor instead of the couch for part of each day and practise getting up and down without using your hands.
- Do a few minutes of mobility, fascia stretching, and floor work in the morning.
- Do a few minutes of gentle bouncing or dry brushing to move your lymph.
- Practise slow belly breathing through the nose before bed.
- Add strength two or three days a week.
Men, this can be heavier lifting, carrying heavy sandbags or buckets, splitting wood, pushing and pulling heavy loads, and working with your hands. Women, this can be body weight work, moderate weights, carrying groceries, children, and water, gardening, squatting, and lunging.
Carry things often! Carry your laundry, your wood, your groceries, and your little ones. Garden, build, clean, and do the real work of your home with your whole body. Dance with your family.
Strong Enough to Serve
We are not moving to punish our bodies or to change how they look. We are moving because we were made to move, and because a strong body is a body that can serve. A strong mother can carry her children, a strong father can protect and provide, and a strong grandparent can keep up with the little ones.
Move with gratitude, move outside, move together, and let your strength grow slowly and steadily.