INTRODUCTION Health is the ability to realize our avowed and unavowed dreams. -- MOSHÉ FELDENKRAIS THE YEAR WAS 2000, the place was Chile, and we were there to com-pete in the World Rafting Championships on the Futaleufú River. Although we'd never met before, both of us had been professional riverpaddlers for some time, an esoteric career choice in the United States, but not unusual in other countries. While rafting is the most fringe sport youcan imagine here, in Eastern Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, it's a thing. Teams in some countries are even funded by their government. That year, the U.S. women's team was made up of very accomplishedcompetitors, longtime champs, a few of them whitewater legends. Themen's team was a little more ragtag, a bunch of adrenaline junkies who'ddiscovered they could make some money risking their lives running ClassV rapids--long, complex, violent channels of water. We first laid eyes on each other when both the men's and the women'screws went down to the river to take a first training run. It was infatuationat first sight. In the Indigenous language Mapuche, Futaleufú means "BigRiver." To those local to the valley, it's referred to as un paisaje pintadopor Dios--a landscape painted by God. The moment we met felt, well,biblical. Totally life-changing. As the two groups prepared to get into rafts, we chatted and flirted in a way perhaps only a paddler could appreciate--and that proved pre-scient. Juliet tightened up Kelly's life jacket, while he loosened hers, away of making fun of each other's safety "style." Juliet was wearing her lifejacket tight because, like her teammates, she was pragmatic. (It's no acci-dent that she has paddled her way to two world championships and fivenational titles.) If you fall into the water and your life jacket isn't snug, it'sgoing to float above your head, which is not going to keep your body raisedand therefore it won't help save you. But as for Kelly and the river guys, well, they had a tradition of keeping their life jackets loose, incautiously--maybe even brashly--choosing comfort over safety. Not a great idea. The life jacket fiddling ended when both of our teams turned theirattention to the business at hand: the roiling, cerulean waters of the Fut-aleufú. We each got into our boats and started down the river, headingtoward the fabled Mundaca rapids. Mundaca is a gigantic chute of water,an elevator with lateral walls as tall as a school bus standing on end. It'sa big, scary place even for seasoned rafters. As we got closer, the women'steam pulled over to the riverbank, prudently studying the rapids beforemaking an attempt. That's how you find the best and safest routes. Whatdid the men's team do? The men's team headed straight into Mundaca.They thought they'd given this Chilean wall of whitewater enough of alook since we'd all scouted it earlier from about a half mile away. But that'slike calling a strike from the bleacher seats. The information was useless. Two seconds into Mundaca the men's raft flipped. Class V rapids are not only high and fast-running troughs of water,they also have holes at the bottom that suck you down into liquid hell.So, when Kelly flipped, he was getting pounded, bounced, and squeezedinto the depths of this big river--but not before watching his $400 paddlefloat downstream. Through it all he was--yes--trying to tighten up hislife jacket in hopes that it would help lift him above the water. Then, suddenly, the women's team pulled up in their raft like superheroes descend-ing upon a city under attack. That's when Juliet reached out a hand to aman she had only met a short time earlier, essentially saying, "Come with me if you want to live." As meet-cute stories go, we think it's a pretty good one--and it shouldbe noted that the women's team went on to take second place and totallysaved the men's team's asses--but that's not why we just told it to you.What we learned that day in no uncertain terms is that you can't forgo thebasics. No matter how many times you've gotten away with it, if you're notproperly prepared, you may find yourself metaphorically (and perhapseven literally) up a Class V creek without a paddle. Built to Move is our life jacket, handed to you, with instructions on how toprepare your body for whatever comes its way, be it aging, injury, or justthe physical aches and pains that can come from living in this chairbound,technology-loving, caffeine-fueled world of ours. With this book as yourguide, you'll stop "throwing" your back out when you make the bed. You'llno longer find yourself uncomfortably bent over when you get up from achair after a long session at your desk. Your shoulders will relax. You'lllose weight and become less susceptible to related diseases like diabe-tes. Your spine will become more stable, your energy renewed, your mindclear. If you're an athlete or devoted exerciser, you'll be faster, stronger,and less prone to wrecking a shoulder or hamstring. Knee aches will fade.What you'll essentially be doing is building yourself one hell of a durablebody. And you'll be doing it in some very unexpected ways. To see what we mean, take off your shoes. That's right: shoes off. Nowfollow these instructions: In an area free of debris, stand with one foot crossed in front of theother. Without holding on to anything (unless you feel very unsteady),bend your knees and lower yourself to the floor until you're sitting in across-legged position. Now, from the same cross-legged position, lean for-ward with your hands outstretched in front of you for balance, and rise offthe floor--if possible, without placing your hands or knees on the floor orusing anything else for support. You have now just taken what's called the Sit-and- Rise Test. So, how'dyou do? Don't worry if you didn't ace it. There's no public service message on TV telling you that you need to practice getting up and down off thefloor. Doctors never mention it. Fitness trainers have other fish to fry. Butbeing able to sit and rise without support is a singular way to tell if you'vegot a body that's dynamic and able to move in ways that will make youfeel alive-- and even help you stay alive longer. Same goes for hitting allthe other usually overlooked benchmarks you'll encounter in this book. The reason we hit you with the Sit-and- Rise Test so soon (we'll revisitit in full starting on page 30) is because we wanted to get you thinkingabout what being able to get up and down off the floor represents: mobil-ity. "Mobility" is a kind of wonky term that refers to something quite beau-tiful: the harmonious convergence of all the elements that allow you tomove freely and effortlessly through space and life. Everything is in sync--your joints, muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia, nerves, brain, and thevasculature that runs through the body. The program in this book--andour life's work--addresses this whole network of movement components.Harnessing its power will help you achieve agility, ease, and quickness ofstep while vanquishing restriction, rigidity, and pain. And, contrary to what you might expect, achieving good mobilitydoesn't call for exercise. No cardio. No strength training. Instead, it's aseries of simple activities that enhance your capacity for free and easymovement, and in doing so also improve all the systems in your body(digestive, circulatory, immune, lymphatic) that are impacted by puttingyourself in motion. You use your body's infrastructure, so you don't loseyour body's infrastructure. Mobility also primes the body for exercise, ifthat's what you want to do. But more important, it primes the body for life. The premise of Built to Move is simple: 10 tests + 10 physical practices =10 ways to make your body work better. It introduces elements of well-being that most people have never heard of before, weaving them intoa plan that everyone can accomplish in one form or another. Like theSit-and-Rise activity you just did, the tests are markers of what we call Vital Signs, indicators of how well you move, how much you move, orhow well some of your other lifestyle activities support movement. You're about to find out things like whether you can raise your arms overheadwithout restriction, if you can balance on one leg, how high (or low) yourdaily micronutrient intake is, and how many hours of sleep you're getting per night. These aren't things that are traditionally known as Vital Signs,but we'd argue that it's just as important to gather information on theseaspects of health as it is to chart your pulse, blood pressure, and choles-terol levels. These Vital Signs provide clues to why you may have aches,pains, and fatigue; they foretell whether you'll be able to recover wellfrom illness or injury; and they serve as a harbinger of how active you'll be as you age. This is info you can use because each test is paired with a physicalpractice--which can be anything from a series of mobilizations to a sleepor eating strategy or a combination of activities--that will help improvethe Vital Sign in question. We've spun them all into a succinct, work-able plan that anyone can do--and, we humbly suggest, everyone mustdo. We've been down in the fitness trenches long enough to learn thatthese are the ten things that matter, no matter who you are or how youspend your time. They are foundational. If you're a thirtysomething whowouldn't be caught dead in a gym and spend most of the day staring at acomputer, they matter to you. If you're a triathlete, a CrossFitter, a retiredgolf enthusiast, or a midlife professional who only has time to hike withyour dog on the weekends, they matter to you, too. It may not seem like a twenty-three-year- old Olympic-caliber moun-tain biker who's been injured for the first time and a sixty-eight-year- oldboomer grandma whose joints are creaky have anything in common, butthey both need the same basic mobility maintenance--ways to address,preserve, and enhance the natural human physical condition. Maybe yourgoal is to swim across a rough ocean channel like a Navy SEAL or run theNew York City Marathon. Maybe you just want to be able to get up fromyour desk after a marathon session of internet surfing without feeling a twinge in your back, or to roll around on the grass with your kids orgrandkids. Either way, this book will help you. And trust us, it's going to feel good. Excerpted from Built to Move: The Ten Essential Habits to Help You Move Freely and Live Fully by Kelly Starrett, Juliet Starrett All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
