The Craig Van Cast

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Website: craigvan.com
Book: https://www.amazon.com/UnSit-Your-Ultimate-Guide-Sitting-ebook/dp/B096QYSM4Z
Course: unsityourback.com

If you open any book on biomechanics, you'll find a central concept that describes the base layer of functional human movement - Proximal Stability, Distal Mobility.

Healthy bodily movement is built on being stable toward the centre - spine, core and torso - and mobile away from the centre - hips, shoulders and limbs.

For the spine, I started by developing stability strength, especially in its neutral position, its most stable and resilient shape.

⚠️ Most people lack spine stability from decades of relying on a backrest for support while sitting. However, not many people are training neutral spine stability, and an epidemic of back issues is the consequence.

For the limbs, it's all about movement proficiency, measured by how much range our joints have and how much strength and control we have throughout those ranges. Range PLUS strength.

⚠️ Most people have no idea how far they are from optimal ranges yet still spend most of their energy on strength or fitness instead. It is difficult to concisely describe how much more resilient mobility will make you compared to fitness. Injuries and early onset ageing are the obvious consequence.

These basics are just that, basics. Of course, many variations of these concepts are possible beyond this foundation, but I believe this is the best first step we can take to access them.

🪑 Sitting directly opposes this healthy base of movement - sitting creates proximal instability and distal immobility, or proximal mobility and distal stability. The consequences of this are terrible. We have a planet full of people who feel old by as early as 30 or 40 years of age and believe it normal. 🤯

Website: craigvan.com
Book: https://www.amazon.com/UnSit-Your-Ultimate-Guide-Sitting-ebook/dp/B096QYSM4Z
Course: unsityourback.com

If you open any book on biomechanics, you'll find a central concept that describes the base layer of functional human movement - Proximal Stability, Distal Mobility.

Healthy bodily movement is built on being stable toward the centre - spine, core and torso - and mobile away from the centre - hips, shoulders and limbs.

For the spine, I started by developing stability strength, especially in its neutral position, its most stable and resilient shape.

⚠️ Most people lack spine stability from decades of relying on a backrest for support while sitting. However, not many people are training neutral spine stability, and an epidemic of back issues is the consequence.

For the limbs, it's all about movement proficiency, measured by how much range our joints have and how much strength and control we have throughout those ranges. Range PLUS strength.

⚠️ Most people have no idea how far they are from optimal ranges yet still spend most of their energy on strength or fitness instead. It is difficult to concisely describe how much more resilient mobility will make you compared to fitness. Injuries and early onset ageing are the obvious consequence.

These basics are just that, basics. Of course, many variations of these concepts are possible beyond this foundation, but I believe this is the best first step we can take to access them.

🪑 Sitting directly opposes this healthy base of movement - sitting creates proximal instability and distal immobility, or proximal mobility and distal stability. The consequences of this are terrible. We have a planet full of people who feel old by as early as 30 or 40 years of age and believe it normal. 🤯

Send me a message!

If what we eat fuels us, becomes us, interacts with all our layers, and shapes what we become, then we have a host of implications to think about when choosing what to pass through our system.

Not many foods are absolutely good, nor many absolutely bad, and dose can turn something good into bad, even water.

Each of us is as biologically unique on the inside as we are on the outside. And our unique needs change over time; at different life stages, after injury or illness, when our activities change, if we’re a woman cycling through the month.

Despite our analytical arguments over which specific diet is the best for all humans all the time, there is no constant anywhere in nature - days and nights, seasons, droughts, and migrations are a few things that prevent it. Even our different geographical histories mean that each of our ancestors had access to different foods. The only constant in nature is change, and surely that's what our DNA is most familiar with.

Looking at eating through these lenses makes it clear why we don't see much agreement in nutrition. And why with each decade of nutritional science, we backpedal on a few fundamental assertions. Or that despite whatever we have learnt, most people are still victims to their diets.

So what can we do about this? How on earth could we possibly know how to navigate our nutrition through all that uncertainty?

You can probably guess that it’s not by figuring out the one nutrient, supplement, hack or diet that your friends are raving about. And it's probably not in that book or TV show that's trending.

No.

Trying to generalise any diet is inherently disregarding our unique and dynamic needs.

What we need are principles and some solid self-awareness. We need to understand a few meta ideas, and we need to start paying attention to our personal experiences. There is no black or white in real life, especially in nutrition.

If what we eat fuels us, becomes us, interacts with all our layers, and shapes what we become, then we have a host of implications to think about when choosing what to pass through our system.

Not many foods are absolutely good, nor many absolutely bad, and dose can turn something good into bad, even water.

Each of us is as biologically unique on the inside as we are on the outside. And our unique needs change over time; at different life stages, after injury or illness, when our activities change, if we’re a woman cycling through the month.

Despite our analytical arguments over which specific diet is the best for all humans all the time, there is no constant anywhere in nature - days and nights, seasons, droughts, and migrations are a few things that prevent it. Even our different geographical histories mean that each of our ancestors had access to different foods. The only constant in nature is change, and surely that's what our DNA is most familiar with.

Looking at eating through these lenses makes it clear why we don't see much agreement in nutrition. And why with each decade of nutritional science, we backpedal on a few fundamental assertions. Or that despite whatever we have learnt, most people are still victims to their diets.

So what can we do about this? How on earth could we possibly know how to navigate our nutrition through all that uncertainty?

You can probably guess that it’s not by figuring out the one nutrient, supplement, hack or diet that your friends are raving about. And it's probably not in that book or TV show that's trending.

No.

Trying to generalise any diet is inherently disregarding our unique and dynamic needs.

What we need are principles and some solid self-awareness. We need to understand a few meta ideas, and we need to start paying attention to our personal experiences. There is no black or white in real life, especially in nutrition.

Send me a message!

Many ideas I want to share about health and vitality require us to agree on a perspective. I've been using a framework to interpret events in my body and mind, and it has served me well.

It is easy to respond well to health and vitality. Responding optimally to injury and illness is where we have an opportunity.

Responding pessimistically makes me feel like a victim, blaming causes beyond my control (misfortune or bad luck). I also land up feeling like there is nothing to gain, only to lose, and this creates depression.

Responding optimistically helps me see the obstacle as a gift to develop a deeper understanding of myself and to grow. It also has a sense of meaning that comes from knowing this is the most important information (injury/illness) I need right now to take my health to the next level. Together, this creates the sense of having something to gain from this temporary limitation.

Being optimistic makes the whole experience more comfortable, from my genes upward. Instead of being set back, I have an opportunity to move forward and become a better version of myself. These are the victories. By shifting my perspective, I am inspired into learning and action, instead of being depressed into inaction.

What appears to debilitate us can become the key to enabling us.

Many ideas I want to share about health and vitality require us to agree on a perspective. I've been using a framework to interpret events in my body and mind, and it has served me well.

It is easy to respond well to health and vitality. Responding optimally to injury and illness is where we have an opportunity.

Responding pessimistically makes me feel like a victim, blaming causes beyond my control (misfortune or bad luck). I also land up feeling like there is nothing to gain, only to lose, and this creates depression.

Responding optimistically helps me see the obstacle as a gift to develop a deeper understanding of myself and to grow. It also has a sense of meaning that comes from knowing this is the most important information (injury/illness) I need right now to take my health to the next level. Together, this creates the sense of having something to gain from this temporary limitation.

Being optimistic makes the whole experience more comfortable, from my genes upward. Instead of being set back, I have an opportunity to move forward and become a better version of myself. These are the victories. By shifting my perspective, I am inspired into learning and action, instead of being depressed into inaction.

What appears to debilitate us can become the key to enabling us.

Send me a message!

Health expresses itself through our genes, which are controlled by the inputs they receive.

Of the many inputs which determine our fate, the way we eat, move, and think are the most important, for three reasons:

• far-reaching, they have significant system-wide effects
• inescapable, there is no pause to our process, for better or worse, these inputs never cease 
  • every moment we are becoming what we do
• controllable, many other input signals are not in our control, these are completely.

Each one of these three domains is so influential that to ignore any one of them would leave a gaping hole in our vitality.

Conversely, to fully engage with all three simultaneously opens up new possibilities for healing and thriving.

If you're hoping for medicine or technology to save you, they don't work very well on top of decades of unoptimised behaviour - first be your best, then see how you can supplement that if you must.

If you haven't optimised your eating moving and thinking they are probably harming you.

Take responsibility for what genes you put on every day, they will reward you with an aliveness that can only be appreciated through direct experience.

As much health as we are missing is the depth of life we are not experiencing.

Health expresses itself through our genes, which are controlled by the inputs they receive.

Of the many inputs which determine our fate, the way we eat, move, and think are the most important, for three reasons:

• far-reaching, they have significant system-wide effects
• inescapable, there is no pause to our process, for better or worse, these inputs never cease 
  • every moment we are becoming what we do
• controllable, many other input signals are not in our control, these are completely.

Each one of these three domains is so influential that to ignore any one of them would leave a gaping hole in our vitality.

Conversely, to fully engage with all three simultaneously opens up new possibilities for healing and thriving.

If you're hoping for medicine or technology to save you, they don't work very well on top of decades of unoptimised behaviour - first be your best, then see how you can supplement that if you must.

If you haven't optimised your eating moving and thinking they are probably harming you.

Take responsibility for what genes you put on every day, they will reward you with an aliveness that can only be appreciated through direct experience.

As much health as we are missing is the depth of life we are not experiencing.

Send me a message!

Is it possible that the very bias we have called self-serving is one of the ways we do ourselves the most disservice?

Let me know what you think!

Is it possible that the very bias we have called self-serving is one of the ways we do ourselves the most disservice?

Let me know what you think!