You Are Disabled And Don’t Know It

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

Natural Movement and what it means for modern humans

This post will explain the idea of Natural Movement and how I coach it. 

Natural Movement is a health & fitness discipline based on the practice of ancestral human movement skills. It encompasses the skills of breathing, ground movement, walking, running, jumping, vaulting, balancing, crawling, climbing, lifting, carrying, throwing, and catching.

Although human beings lived in the wild for 97% of our existence on Earth, we no longer live in our natural ancestral setting. As domesticated humans, we have become physically fragile and lost the rich diversity of movement previously enjoyed by wild humans. Our daily movement repertoire now consists of a few commonly overused movement patterns. Essentially we have gone from being the gentleman on the left to be the gentleman on the right.

Modern common movement patterns are standing in line at the store, sitting behind a desk, sitting behind a car steering wheel, walking to the mailbox, and sitting on the couch at night watching a large glowing box. If you’re an athlete, you could add linear running and linear weightlifting as additional habitual movement patterns. Very rarely do adults in developed countries find themselves climbing trees, crawling, or spending any time on the floor. Never straying from these consistently limited movement patterns eventually “casts” your body into unnatural postures. You wouldn’t want to leave your broken arm in a cast any longer than necessary. Disuse of your whole body is a very similar process as what happens to a broken arm in a cast too long. It leads to health problems, physical dysfunction, and pain. 

Natural Movement training aims to regain diverse evolutionary and biological movement patterns to restore and maintain health, fitness, well-being, happiness, and even a sense of freedom. Developing a Natural Movement practice sets a healthy baseline of agility, mobility, and flexibility to support a healthy lifestyle or additional athletic endeavors.

Natural Movement training is conducted one-on-one, in small group classes or large group classes. For one-on-one training, a movement assessment is conducted. Then a training plan is derived based on the results of the movement assessment. Small group and large group training sessions are conducted based on beginner, intermediate and advanced skills. Training is done outdoors. All training begins with a Natural Movement warmup, then proceeds to a period of skill introduction, then skill practice, then skill challenges. Skill challenges take the form of movement courses in which clients are required to use a combination of Natural Movement skills they have practiced to navigate a challenge course successfully. See the examples below. 

How do you know if you should start a Natural Movement practice?

  • Do you sit for work 6-8 hours per day?
  • Do you have neck, back, hip, or knee pain even though you haven’t been injured in those areas?
  • Do you have trouble getting up off the floor without using your hands?
  • Do you find it difficult to stand on one leg for 30 seconds, and then the other, without losing your balance?

If you can say yes to any or all of these, you need to do something soon before your physical degradation gets any worse, no matter your age. It is especially crucial for people in their 40s and 50s. Things will not get any easier for you, and the degradation will only pick up speed if you don’t find a way to hold it off.

Practicing Natural Movement is simple and can be done every day. Ultimately, a Natural Movement practice can help restore a range of human movement patterns, which will make your body more robust and less prone to injury. There are different methods of learning Natural Movement. I teach a system called MovNat. It’s a straightforward, replicable process for teaching someone to move in varied ways, starting from extremely easy and progressing to more advanced movement. I will go more into more precise examples of MovNat movements in subsequent posts, or you can contact me directly via email or text with any questions. info@coachdsnaturalrunning.com or (813) 498-0226  

Regards,

Coach Warren Dickey

Natural Running and what it can mean for you

This post will explain Natural Running as well as the different ways I work with clients related to Natural Running. 

Natural Running IS NOT barefoot running, although it can be done barefoot. Natural Running is how the human body evolved to run and how human beings have run since we first existed. Natural Running means running with efficient biomechanics, centered around landing lightly on the forefoot, falling forward with gravity, then pulling your foot off the ground, instead of pushing off with muscular force. If you are running physiologically correctly, you don’t need a massive, overbuilt shoe. You can run miles and miles in minimal shoes, such as the Xero HFS running shoes on the left or a pair of Luna Running Sandals on the right. 

You may ask why landing on your forefoot is essential to running. Most people don’t realize it, but your lower leg and bare foot are a highly sophisticated shock-absorption and energy-return system. Landing on your forefoot is the first step in activating this shock-absorption, energy-return system. Landing on your heel doesn’t initiate this process and can increase the amount of shock your body absorbs with each step. Additionally, most people’s lower legs and feet are significantly unconditioned from a lifetime of being sedentary and being locked in shoes; they don’t function correctly. For 97% of our species’ 200,000-year existence, we’ve either been barefoot or worn extremely minimal shoes (think leather moccasins). We’ve only had shock-absorbing shoes with high, cushioned heels since the early 1970s. It makes sense humans would have a natural, built-in shock absorption system. From the 1960s to the 1970s, we transitioned from low-cushion “track” shoes, like the one on the left, to high-cushion “jogging” shoes, like the one on the right. The former required a forefoot-strike, and the latter encouraged and allowed a heel-strike. This was the first time in history human beings had ever regularly run with a rear-foot or heel strike.

There are several different ways I work with runners related to Natural Running based on the types of clients I see. 

  • Some clients want to run faster or stronger but don’t want to change their running style. These are usually runners that haven’t had any injuries yet. A lot of my middle school and high school cross country and track runners are this way. While I introduce them to the forefoot strike, higher tempo, and using gravity to run faster, most want to do traditional run training. We determine their goals, then I put them through a system of body conditioning, speedwork, resisted running, and goal-pace running to increase speed, strength, and endurance. 
  • Other clients have been runners for a while but have injuries or are new to running and want to start out moving correctly from the beginning. We spend a lot of time restoring lower leg and foot function with drills and exercises, so they learn to run in a way that won’t injure them. Then we begin to rebuild their running style using a forefoot strike and gravity. Once comfortable with their new running style, we can start working on refining and improving their technique to further minimize injury and increase speed.  
  • Some runners wish to prevent injury and run closer to nature, either barefoot or in minimalist shoes. The same system I use to train other runners still applies, but we also spend a fair amount of time improving foot function, training barefoot, and doing things like “texture training” to reintroduce the feet to moving naturally and feeling the earth. 

Practicing Natural Running is simple, but you must unlearn old habits, learn proper technique, and allow the lower legs and feet to re-adapt to a correct human running style. Ultimately, Natural Running can help make any runner more robust, efficient, and less prone to injury. There are a few different ways to learn and practice Natural Running. I teach the POSE Method of Running since it’s a straightforward, replicable process for teaching someone to run physiologically correctly. I will go more into precisely what the POSE Method of Running entails in subsequent posts, or you can contact me directly via email or text with any questions. info@coachdsnaturalrunning.com or (813) 498-0226

Regards,

Coach Warren Dickey

Why I offer the training I do

My first blog is a long time in coming. I owe it to people to provide information that will help them understand what they get if they want to train with me and what my perspective is on why this type of training is necessary. I’m currently out of the country and have some time on my hands, so I’m trying to take advantage of that time.

What it gets down to is this, I am VERY concerned for my fellow human beings’ health, fitness, and mobility, especially as they get older. Not just now but into the future as we continue to become more dependent on technology and eventually become a space-faring species. Although we have many opportunities to enhance our health, fitness, and mobility, our culture doesn’t emphasize those things as THE most important things to consider, and it shows. If we don’t learn some lessons from our ancestors soon, there will be detrimental impacts on our species for the long term. 

When you see me use the terms “our culture” or just “culture,” I’m referring primarily to Western Culture or WC. Examples of WC countries are European countries, the UK, Australia, Canada, and the United States. Many cultures in this world don’t have the level of technology and convenience WC countries do, so their movement patterns are more like our ancient ancestors. Subsequently, they don’t suffer from many of the maladies of being sedentary that WC countries do. I think we can have the best of both worlds if we adopt the perspective that healthy movement and fitness are essential. 

I offer four types of coaching: Natural Running training, Natural Movement training, Kettlebell training, and Home Habitat Assessments. I will write in more detail about those topics in subsequent blogs. For now, I will explain the concerns that led me to become interested in these topics, start training in these topics, and eventually become certified to teach these different training modalities. 

I am a 30 year veteran of the United States Marine Corps. At my 20-year mark, around 38 years old, I noticed that the physically challenging lifestyle I had been leading took its toll. My body began to stiffen, and I began to have knee and ankle injuries. I also began to have trouble maintaining the weight and body composition I wanted. I noticed that others my age were suffering the same issues. When I looked at Marines that were ten years older than me, they were in a much worse situation. They had all kinds of aches and pains and walked around like they were made of wood. That was alarming. Obviously, the problems I was running into are not exclusive to those that serve in the military, and I eventually realized it’s a problem the broader culture experiences. Up to that point, I had been very conventional in my outlook on diet, weight loss, exercise, lifestyle, and so on. So the traditional perspective on this would be that I was “getting older,” and all the things that were happening to me were “normal.” That wasn’t good enough for me, so I began researching how “normal” this getting older process was in the larger picture of our species history and other cultures worldwide. 

The real learning for me began in 2009 when I ran the Disney marathon and had HORRENDOUS plantar fasciitis and knee pain for almost a year after it was over. That was my 16th marathon, so I wasn’t new to running those distances and knew how to train for them. Exactly a year after that marathon and endless visits to my podiatrist, I discovered a book called “Born To Run” by Christopher MacDougall. See the recommended reading section of this site. This book’s information was my first hint that your average American, surrounded by technology and comfort, wasn’t using their body as nature intended. The key words there are “nature intended”. I also learned the running shoe industry didn’t necessarily base their running shoe technology on sound science or how the human body works when running. You would think using the baseline of a trained forefoot-striking barefoot runner (as nature intended) as a “control” versus a shod heel-striking “modern” runner (test subject) would help determine which types of footwear and running gait were better for the human body. That’s not what was happening.

Shoe manufacturers have gotten better in the past ten years. With so many minimalist options, all types of runners have better choices now. I’ll write more about that topic in a different post. So I spent a year training to run barefoot, culminating in running the 2011 Goofy Race and a Half Challenge. This Challenge consisted of running the Disney Half Marathon barefoot on Saturday and the Disney marathon on Sunday in 4mm Luna Sandals. I was physically fine after both races and enjoyed walking around the Disney parks with my family during the evening. In contrast to two years before, I could barely walk after finishing the 2009 Disney marathon with expensive, over-built running shoes.  

The realization I had been running unnaturally was a serious wake-up call. This made me wonder what other concepts I was duped into believing even though there was no evidence they would be helpful, healthful, or correct for a human animal. Once I got rid of my plantar fasciitis and knee pain by learning to run physiologically correctly, I began to look for other things I mistakenly believed. These tended to fall into two groups. They were either beliefs instilled through product marketing OR were the product of me never questioning misinformation I absently absorbed from the broader culture. I was interested in those things that would create maximum health, mobility, and fitness, especially as I got older. So my research began. 

Some of the things I learned were: 

* Most runners in our culture have no idea how to run based on how the human body functions

* People in our culture begin to stiffen and become less agile as they get older BECAUSE they get “casted” into specific body postures due to only being in certain positions such as sitting in a car or sitting on a couch instead of moving in all the ways the human body has evolved to move

* Maintaining fitness and mobility doesn’t require you to go to the gym to workout; instead, they are a lifestyle choice that can easily be maintained through a little bit of effort each day in your own home or pretty much anywhere you go

* Aging members of modern hunter-gatherer groups and other non-WC cultures tend to stay fit and mobile as they age, so aging doesn’t necessarily have to mean the end of these two things 

* Most people in our culture design their homes for comfort and aesthetics without considering fitness and mobility

* Most people in our culture avoid exposure to the outdoor elements of cold, heat, wind, and rain, which reduces physical and mental resilience. 

* In our culture, most people’s eating habits don’t seem to be decided through experimentation to see what works best for their health and body type but instead through whatever the latest news headline is, whatever they are being marketed to as healthy, what tastes good, or what’s cheapest

I’ve noticed many more things that I apply to my own life, but the items above led me to provide the services that I offer with Coach D’s Natural Running. I have not yet completed a nutritional certification, so I don’t offer any nutritional counseling services. 

The final key to understanding why I provide the services I do and why you should consider training with me or someone like me is anthropology. I dig pretty hard into anthropology, trying to understand how our ancestors moved, slept, ate, and lived day-to-day. The genus Homo has been around for about 2.5 million years, and anatomically modern humans have been around in our current form for about 200,000 years. Even though agriculture is thought to have begun 12,000-10,000 years ago, “modern” human culture has only been around for 6,000 years, starting with the Sumerian civilization. This means we’ve only had “civilization” for around 3% of our species’ total time on this planet. For roughly 97% of our species’ existence, we lived in the wild like other animals and eventually became hunter-gatherers living in tribal bands. 

This means we: 

  1. We were exposed to the elements daily 
  2. Carried heavy things regularly
  3. Regularly climbed trees and rocks to find food or get away from predators
  4. Walked barefoot on all kinds of uneven terrain 
  5. Relocated regularly to hunted/gather food in new locations 
  6. Were consistently exposed to the sun
  7. Regularly engaged in periods of fasting when we couldn’t find enough food 
  8. Sat on the ground, rocks, tree stumps, logs, and whatever else we could find to sit on 
  9. Had to continually be on the alert so that we didn’t become meat for another predator

That 97% of what our species has experienced is still what our bodies need to keep us healthy and fit, mentally and physically. Our species is evolved from the ground up to be in motion. The comfort of our current culture is literally killing us. 

In our culture, we have gradually moved away from the environment that has molded and shaped incredibly adaptable, resilient, fit, innovative, bold human beings. We are shadows of our former selves. For many of us, our biggest accomplishment for the day is getting up in the morning and actually making it to work on time. Then the rest of the day is spent sitting around an office environment with air conditioning. Only to be followed up by going home in an air-conditioned car and sitting on a plush couch and staring at the enormous glowing screen in our living room for several hours while we mindlessly shovel sugar-filled food and beverages into the hole on the front of our face. Other than socially sitting around fires (versus TV) in the evening, our current lifestyles are quite literally the opposite of how we evolved. Your body and mind adapt to the stressors you throw at it. If neither ever experiences any stressors, then they get weaker and less adaptable. When I say stressors, I’m not referring to forcing your body to adapt to a high sugar diet (physical stressor) or the evening news (mental stressor). I’m referring to going out for long walks or runs (physical stressor) or learning a foreign language (mental stressor). 

I coach plenty of clients who have no interest in understanding how our ancestors lived and moved, and that’s fine as long as they are exercising. Nonetheless, my ultimate goal is to help people understand where they came from and why they still need to follow their ancestors’ examples of moving and living to maintain health, fitness, and mobility in the modern world. We are ABSOLUTELY becoming physically weaker with each generation, and the incidence of mental illness is rising. Our species is headed for disaster if we can’t figure out how to reconnect to the ancestral side of who we are and where we came from. 

Whether you are male or female, young or old, if you can’t do the following things, you need to do something to help yourself before it’s too late.  

  • Get off the ground without using your hands
  • Walk at least a mile relatively easily
  • Do at least ten push-ups without using your knees 
  • Be able to hang from a bar or straight tree branch for at least 15 seconds
  • Roll up into a sitting position from lying on your back
  • Comfortably sit cross-legged for at least five minutes
  • Stand on each foot for at least 30 seconds without losing your balance
  • Carry a 45lbs weight at least 15 meters (49 ft)

The choice is yours. Do you want to end up like the fellow in the orange recliner, or do you prefer to end up like the fellow in the yellow shirt? The former is obese and headed for poor health and immobility. The latter is fit and sitting comfortably in a normal human squatting position. Both are valid life choices. I’m not judging. I’m pointing out that you should actively choose instead of a choice being made for you through inaction or ignorance.

In this blog, I’m not going to preach, nor will I tell you what YOU should do. I’m going to offer perspectives that you may have never considered before; you make your own choices for how you want YOUR life to turn out. I’m here if you need me. 🙂

Regards,

Coach Warren Dickey