What does it mean to be physically disabled in our culture? 

• Does it mean you are in a wheelchair? 
• Does it mean you have to walk with a cane or walker? 
• Does it mean you need special orthopedic shoes to walk without pain?
• Does it mean you need a special chair to get up and down?
• Does it mean you need an expensive orthopedic bed to be able to sleep?
• Does it mean you can’t walk up and down stairs without holding the handrails?

There are many examples one could give about what it means to be physically disabled, but I contend we aren’t looking at the idea of physical disability broadly enough. Even if none of the conditions above apply to you, it’s likely you are already functionally disabled and have no idea. The worse news is, the more you ignore your disabilities, the worse they will get, no matter how old you are. 

The Oxford English Dictionary defines disabled as “a physical or mental condition that limits a person’s movements, senses, or activities.” The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines disabled as “impaired or limited by a physical, mental, cognitive, or developmental condition.” 

I’ve written in previous blog posts, for about 97% of our species’ existence, we’ve crawled, run, climbed, sat on the ground, squatted to go to the bathroom and have children, carried heavy things, walked many miles, and so on. As a species, we’ve traditionally been very, very active either for day to day survival or play. Many non-Western cultures are still active in this way. While they may have other issues like getting enough food and clean water, they generally aren’t as profoundly sedentary and movement-challenged as our culture. 

The large majority of people in our culture would find it very difficult to walk two miles to a creek each day, fill their water bucket, and carry five gallons of water two miles back to their hut. Five gallons of water weighs 41 pounds. Using one’s body in this way, every day, builds strength and resilience that you aren’t going to get with two to three thirty-minute workouts each week. The exception will be if you are a gym rat that spends hours and hours working out each day. Even then, you may be very strong but lack mobility and flexibility. 

Some might argue, “but why should I have to carry a bucket of water two miles or regularly squat on the ground? I have indoor plumbing and a Lazy Boy recliner?” Fair point. Here is the problem. Your body DEPENDS on that type of daily activity to stay healthy and function correctly. Our muscles, bones, circulatory system, detoxification pathways, etc, all depend on widely varied movement to function correctly. Movement physiologist, Katy Bowman, refers to it as Nutritious Movement. Our bodies have evolved for movement in all its various forms and the daily exercise of survival over the past 200,000 years. MUCH longer if we look at our non-Homo Sapiens ancestors. That is what our bodies expect and need. Unfortunately, most of us come home from a physically easy job, sit on an overly-comfortable couch, watch a big glowing box for hours on end, and then fall asleep on an overly-comfortable bed. We don’t take long walks, we don’t carry heavy things, we don’t climb or hang, we do nothing that puts our incredibly agile body through its paces. We lock ourselves into invisible casts simply by not being aware of the problem.  

When we don’t expose our body to frequent and varied movement patterns, we develop back pain, knee pain, neck pain, shoulder tightness, and other “unexplainable” aches and pains caused by an extremely sedentary modern lifestyle. These aches and pains then further prevent or discourage people from starting a regular exercise program, especially later in life, when they most need it. At this point, you are functionally disabled. You may not be in a wheelchair yet, and you may not be using a cane; however, you are well on your way. 

That’s not even the biggest problem. The biggest problem is, the longer you continue these patterns of dysfunction and personal physical neglect, the more functionally disabled you become until, at some point, you become truly disabled.

This is happening to younger and younger generations. I have clients in their 30s and 40s who failed every single of the simple tests below when they first came to see me. I’m 50 years old and can do every one of them with one exception. The unsupported squat still eludes me. That is because I didn’t begin to focus on it until I was 45 years old. After a career in the United States Marine Corps, I had A LOT of physical dysfunction. I was more interested in getting a lot more of my defective physiology sorted out first before focusing on the squat. I WILL be able to do it at some point, though, because I practice. 

Below are some tests you can try for yourself to see how disabled you’ve already become. I will detail why each of these is important and how they are ancestrally relevant in a future blog post. 

• Can you squat (not a deep knee bend) with your heels on the ground unsupported?
• Can you squat with your heels on the ground supported?
• Can you get up off the ground without using your hands?
• Can you carry 40lbs at least 50 yards?
• Can you hang from a bar for 15 seconds, 30 seconds, longer?
• Can you balance, unsupported on one foot at a time for 30 seconds, or more, without putting your other foot down?
• Can you walk at least a mile under any conditions of heat and cold?
• Can you walk barefoot on hard surfaces without pain?
• Can you lie facedown on the floor and turn yourself over onto your back without using your hands or arms?
• Do you feel like you would be capable of carrying or dragging a significant other or child out of harm’s way?

These are not superhuman activities and shouldn’t be anything hard for you. These are all things our ancestors, men AND women, did all day, every day, and many cultures in the world still do many of these things every day. These cultures may not “work out,” as Americans think of it. They are still structurally healthy and functionally better off than a muscle-bound person who can’t walk barefoot or hold a proper squat. If there are one or more of these tests you can’t do, you are functionally disabled. True disability isn’t very far behind. 

The good news is, it doesn’t have to be this way. There are things you can do, a little each day, that will begin to undo your current disabilities and help you get back to full function. I teach two different methods to combat this problem and will discuss what they are in a future blog post. I also encourage you to check out Katy Bowman’s series of books, starting with “Move Your DNA, Restore Your Health Through Natural Movement, Expanded Edition.”

No matter how old you are, unless you have a chronic debilitating disease, there is still time to make progress undoing your disabilities. Stay tuned for an upcoming blog post that discusses this, or feel free to reach out and contact me at: info@coachdsnaturalrunning.com or 813-498-0226. 

Good health,

Coach Warren Dickey