Longevity Series – Move Naturally

Listen in this order

• Ep 40 – Longevity Series: How To Be Healthy At 100
• Ep 41 – This episode

Episode Resources

• Listen to ‘Bones’
• Watch the ‘Bones’ music video
• The Blue Zones by Dan Buettner
• GMB Fitness
• MovNat
• Foundation Training
• Down Dog (yoga app)
• Ep 38 – Want More Energy And Better Health? Do This…
• Ep 32 – An Orgasm A Day Keeps The Divorce Lawyer Away

Welcome back to The Nick Broadhurst Show. I’m your host, Nick Broadhurst. You can catch all of my work including my music, my music videos, podcast episodes, blog posts, social media, everything I do is on my website at www.iamnickbroadhurst.com.

And if you want to check out my music just search for broadhurst on Spotify, iTunes, wherever you listen to music. And that song we started with today is a song called Bones. And it’s very fitting today because today we’re going to be talking about movement.

And for the music video for Bones, which is so epic, my gosh, you’ve got to check it out; I had to get into serious shape. And I used some of the things I’m going to be talking about today to get into shape.

And that was basically six weeks of fight club style training combined with some other things to balance that out. And this music video has won lots of awards. I just think it’s so stunning. You can check that out at iamnickbroadhurst.com/bones. And I will also link to it today in the show notes at iamnickbroadhurst.com/41.

So this is the second episode in my longevity series. And I want to encourage you to listen to this series in order, for sure, because it will save me, number one, from going over things over and over again in each episode and becoming a bit repetitive and redundant, but also I’m going to be doing these in a sequential order.

So start back at episode number 40, which you can get at iamnickbroadhurst.com/40. And that will give you an overview of the longevity series, what it’s all about, why I’m doing it, and what the blue zones are which I’m going to be talking about.

But today we’re going to be focusing on one of the nine pillars of longevity. And this pillar is moving naturally. So, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that moving our bodies is obviously important for our health.

And I just want to point out something before we get started. And I think this is really important. And that is that, if your body is not the way you want it to be, then perhaps you may need to change your perception. Because one way I like to look at the body is that it is a beautiful messenger.

Our bodies are a vehicle for transformation, of evolution, of enlightenment in fact. Our bodies remind ourselves of what we are not doing, the things that we’re neglecting. So it’s important that we don’t shoot the messenger. Our body is a beautiful messenger, it’s a teacher.

So I encourage you to listen, to tune in to what your body is trying to tell you. If you don’t feel well, if you have a sore back, if you have tight hips, if you have circles under your eyes, these are all signs the body is trying to communicate to you that it may be time to change and adapt. So I just wanted to start with that before we get into it.

Now, in the blue zones, which we’ve discussed in episode number 40, the key difference with the way that they move is that they move their bodies naturally. Movement is built into their days, it’s not a chore.

For example, if they want to visit a friend, they may have to walk two miles just to go and see their friend. They don’t think of that, it’s just part of going to see their friend, and farming is a huge part of their lives. So it’s very very natural. It’s in built. It’s not something they think about, they just do it.

Now in the Sardinian blue zone, they’re mainly shepherds. So every single day they’re hiking over rough ground, miles and miles. That’s just part of their day. And in Ikaria, Greece, it’s very similar in many ways.

In Nicoya in Costa Rica, they tend to work in the fields from 6am to about noon or even maybe 2pm at the latest. And in the book, The Blue Zones, there is this awesome story, which I want to share with you, I just love this.

So, Dan Buettner was hiking for a few hours to try and find a traditional Nicoyan village. He wanted to see how people would have lived 50 or 100 years ago. And he’d been told about this little village, so he was hiking through the Costa Rican jungle and he came across this man in the fields and he asked where this village was and he said, “Well, you’re here, you’re looking at it right now.”

And this man was, he thought, was about 60 years old, he was totally ripped, deep tan. And so he invited him to his house, they started chatting and Dan Buettner starts asking him questions about his life. And the whole time this farmer is just looking at his axe, he’s just wondering when can he get back to his work.

And he’s living very very simply. We’re talking about a timber shack, dirt floors, and you know, a really really simple way of living. And finally he says, “Look, I just really need to get back to my axe. I’ve got to go and chop some wood. I need to get back to the farm.” So they finished the conversation, and as Dan leaves he asks the man, “Oh, by the way, how old are you?” And he says, “Oh, I’ve just celebrated my ninetieth year.” Isn’t that cool?

Now, in Okinawa, they garden for hours every single day growing their own foods, so they’re constantly squatting; standing up, squatting, bending over, squatting. That squatting movement is such a natural movement, which we should all be able to do. And for me the idea of gardening for movement and health, like seriously, is there anything better than that? That’s like heaven.

And they also in Okinawa, they have very very little furniture in their homes. So they’re constantly are getting up and down off the floor all day long. And for old people, falling is one of those things which really brings you undone. It happened to my nana, she was 96. She fell, she was driving her own car, she was looking after herself, she fell over and then it was all downhill, and she passed away not long after that.

So as we get older we want to make sure that we can take care of our bodies in a way which stops us from the most basic things, like you know, we want to stand up and not fall over. So having minimal furniture in their houses make sure that they are constantly up and down all day long. They eat on the floor; they’re sitting cross-legged, always squatting. It’s an amazing, simple thing. Now that I think about it, it’s just part of their life.

And how many 90 or 100 years old do you ever see squatting? I’ve never seen one personally. But this is a basic movement we should all be able to do and not just do it, but hang out in the squat very comfortably. And it’s something which Melissa is working on, she’s pretty good. It’s something which I’ve always had, luckily. I guess I’ve always moved my body. But the squat for me is very very comfortable. I can hang out in the squat for hours if I needed to.

And then if we look at the Seventh Day Adventists in California, they have a really big focus on spending time in nature and hiking together which I just think is beautiful. They believe that the body and the soul are one. And that when you die, there isn’t a conscious soul floating about. They believe that they are lying in an unconscious state and God will resurrect them upon the return of Christ.

So for Adventists the body truly is the temple of the Holy Spirit and that God communicates through their bodies. Now, that’s an amazing thing because it just means that they are very very conscious of taking care of their body, taking care of their vehicle, it’s a religious experience for them. So hiking and the way that they eat, which we’ll talk about, is a huge part of that.

And of course if you’re outside, what’s a huge benefit of this? You’re getting sunshine. And one common thing in the blue zones is that the centenarians that were studied all had amazing levels of vitamin D, really deep tans from that constant exposure to sun. Not burning but just constant, gentle exposure.

But I wanted to shift now into some of my favorite movement tools. And these are all things that I’ve done over the years, but they have a focus more on optimal function of the body, not so much esthetics, building muscle, those sorts of things, but some of these can definitely give you an amazing physique, absolutely. But it’s not the focus. The focus of these things I’m going to share with you is about getting the most out of your body. Truly, treating your body like a temple.

And the first thing I want to talk about is a thing called MovNat and I will link to all of these in the show notes at iamnickbroadhurst.com/41. And MovNat is called fitness for the real world. And when you reconnect with your body’s natural movement, then everything from getting out of bed to moving furniture to playing with your children will feel totally different. It’s inspiring. It’s empowering.

And it’s amazing how your body responds to practicing such basic, natural movements. The complex and adaptable movement patterns practiced in MovNat basically promote a clarity and a restful state of mind as well, which is really powerful. So this feeling of competence, this feeling of peace and grace is the feeling of being your true self. And that comes from being empowered in your body, and mastering some of these basic positions like a squat.

The next one I want to share with you is called GMB fitness. It’s a combination of martial arts, gymnastics, and physical therapy. And I’ve done lots of their programs and I absolutely love these guys, seriously. It’s so good what they’ve put together. And you work on everything from basic movement patterns and mastering positions, again like the squat.

And I believe everyone needs this. Everyone needs to master these basic basic positions. And you can go all the way through to advanced gymnastics if you want to, there’s no gear needed, it’s bodyweight training.

And for me I’ve just purchased one of their programs; it’s called Focus Flexibility because I want to shift into focusing on mobility and I want to do be able to do the splits. It’s one of those things I’ve always wanted to do, and after that I’ll move onto the handstand as well. Being able to hold a handstand with no support for one minute is one of my goals for this year.

The next one is called Foundation Training and this is really cool, so cool. It sort of reminds me a bit of yoga but not really. It puts you into positions which can feel super strange but are incredible for your core strength; I’m not talking about doing sit-ups at all.

And you can do this in as little as 10 minutes a day, and it’s all designed to reduce pain and increase strength. And the focus of foundation training is decompressing the spine. Because when we sit at computers and doing the work that we do, we are compressing our spine.

So foundation is about decompression and it’s pretty amazing. And it looks simple but I tell you, it is pretty challenging to hold some of these positions. So definitely check out foundation training. It’s something you could put in at the end of your yoga or you can replace yoga with it if you wanted to for a while. It’s really awesome stuff.

The next one is called Down Dog. It’s an app. And I spoke about this in episode number 13, iamnickbroadhurst.com/30, which was called ‘My Morning Routine Secret Weapon’. And it’s a yoga app and basically you can choose different variables and the app will create for you a routine that every single day is different.

And Melissa and I both did this this morning and we both said to each other, “How good is this app? It’s so good!” It is so good. And yoga for me, honestly, I mean, there are few things in life that are better for your body than yoga, let’s face it. And Down Dog makes that fun, makes it easy. So definitely check that out.

The next one is 10,000 steps, which I spoke about in iamnickbroadhurst.com/38, which was called ‘Want More Energy And Better Health? Do This’. And this is basically the premises of getting 10,000 steps a day. So rather than going over that, just check out that episode, I go into the signs of it, how you can track it, how long it takes, and again, we’re talking really about basic movement stuff here. 10,000 steps should be a basic requirement to keep your body healthy and strong.

And then there’s things that you just find fun, like I love surfing. Anything that makes you play and move your body in a fun way is just a bonus. So again, don’t include that as fitness, it’s just movement, it’s fun stuff.

And the last one I spoke about in iamnickbroadhurst.com/32, ‘An Orgasm A Day Keeps The Divorce Lawyer Away’, and that is sex. And sex is a really amazing way to move your body. I mean seriously, is there a better way to get a 6 pack, a set of abs, than making love? I don’t think so.

So my question for you today is, how will you move your body today? What can you build into your day so it becomes a natural part of your life and not an effort, not a chore? Can you walk to the shops, can you bike to work, can you always take the steps?

And at airports for example I always take the stairs, I never take the escalators. And at home I have banned taking the lift. We only have two flights of stairs from our car to our unit and it’s amazing how easy it is just to press that button and jump in the lift. But instead, we take the stairs.

And one little thing you can do, one little tweak, is to take two steps at a time with a straight back upright posture and this is going to open your hips, strengthen your core, and it gives you strong glutes. So simple.

And I just love the concept that they talk about in The Blue Zones, it’s called inconveniencing yourself. It’s such a simple thing. Do things which are slightly more inconvenient, which make you move slightly differently. And the stairs is a perfect example, walking to the shops is a perfect example.

When you go for a walk on the beach or in the bush, take a plastic bag and pick up rubbish so you’re bending down. Every time you pick up a piece of rubbish do a squat. So easy this stuff, but so important. And this is key when it comes to longevity, is moving naturally.

So just take that slightly more active harder option always. Just make that part of your daily philosophy. And this little bit I promise you, it builds up and it makes a huge different. Especially over our whole lifetime, God that’s for sure.

So for all the show notes and everything I discussed today, head to iamnickbroadhurst.com/41. And I’ll link to all of the epic tools that I’ve mentioned here. They are so good. And I’ve done them all, I love them all, and I swap around depending on what I feel like at the time. And you can also get a full transcript of this show.

And don’t forget, make sure you hit the subscribe button on your podcast app so all of these episodes in the longevity series, because there’s ten of them, they’ll all pop up in your new podcast feed, and you won’t miss an episode.

And please do head into iTunes or your favorite podcast app and leave me a 5 star review and tell me what you want to hear more of, because I love reading your reading comments. I love hearing from you and I love your suggestions, because let’s face it, doing 5 episodes a week, it’s a lot. And I love getting ideas from you guys, it gives me that burst of inspiration I need to get up in the morning and do this podcast, which I love so much.

And remember today to look up, see the beauty around you, see the beauty within you, move your body, but remember to be gentle with yourself. Take care of your beautiful vehicle that is your body. It is such a gift. It’s such an amazing messenger. It’s always reminding you of what you are not doing, the things that you’re neglecting.

So just tune in, listen; listen to what your body is trying to tell you. What is your body telling you today? Be love to yourself, be love to others. And as always, have a beautiful day. I love you heaps. Ciao.

I would love to hear from you, so please tag me @IAmNickBroadhurst on social media, and use the hashtag #TheNickBroadhurstShow, or leave me a comment below (I read every single one!). And if you could take a minute to leave me a 5 star review on iTunes I would be very grateful.

P.S. Always listen to your intuition (and your doctor or practitioner) before trying any new health practice