Click on NOTE CATEGORIES to browse by topic, read through the entire archives, or type a topic in the search box.D: Hello! It’s Dani, and I’m here with Katy. How’s it going today?
K: You know. Good, always.
D: Yeah, you’re a busy, busy girl.
K: This is my fourth hour of recording this morning.
D: Yes. Well, hopefully your voice will hold out for us. And then you can go play outside or take a nap. Is that on the schedule for today?
K: Yeah, sure, as a mother of two young children, after working for four hours. Going and taking a nap is –
D: Because I’m sure they don’t want your attention at all.
K: No!
D: No.
K: Take a nap. Hello?
D: All right. Today is going to be super fun, because we have a bunch of questions for you.
K: Yep. We’re going to do 100 questions, right?
D: We’re going to try and do 100 questions. That is the goal, that’s what we’re aiming for.
K: There’s no ‘try.’ Come on, Star Wars!
D: Well, who are you? Okay, only do. Only do. All right, so for those of you listening, tuck in, because we might be here a while.
K: 100 Questions in 30 minutes. We can do it! We can.
D: All right.
K: Do you have them numbered so you can give me an update of where we are?
D: Of course I have them numbered.
K: Give me a shout out when we’re at 50.
D: Okay, I’ll try and remember that. I just got back from vacation, so I’m still on rum and sunshine time.
K: Yeah, I don’t want to hear about it.
D: 50. 50. 50. Got it, it’s there. All right: there’s no try, only do. (Imitating Yoda) Let us go, let us begin. Okay.
K: (imitating Yoda) Begin the podcast we will now.
D: Take a breath, relax your throat. Are you ready?
K: Was that the first question?
D: No.
K: Damn it! Yes, I’m ready.
D: Number one, here we go. What’s your middle name?
K: Ann.
D: Is moving in good alignment enough to ward off a dowager’s hump?
K: No. You’re more than just your movement. You are how you eat, how you think, what you drink, what you breathe.
D: How can I relax my quadriceps when I’m standing up?
K: Stop using them while you’re standing up. So put your butt against a wall.
D: When are orthotics appropriate?
K: Whenever you think they are.
D: How can I transition away from them?
K: By doing the corrective exercises and learning about where your body should be in space and the loads that you need to create all of the time.
D: Are releasing and stretching the same thing?
K: No.
D: If you were a fly on the wall – and I’m talking a really loud fly – in a traditional fitness class, what quick 3 things would you want to tell the instructor to change?
K: The music, um,
D: Would you rather she put on some Prince?
K: Or he. Um, yes. Or no, I guess it just depends on the song. So it’s usually the music.
D: Okay, 2 more.
K: The tempo – like, why are we doing the same thing for one hour? And I don’t know. Can I say, is “I don’t know” a good answer?
D: Sure. It’s your answer, that makes it a good answer.
K: Change your clothes when you’re done. I don’t know.
D: What’s your favorite color?
K: Turquoise.
D: Mine, too!
K: Aw, friendsies forever.
D: Any suggestion or help for varicose veins in the lower leg, if you’ve already got them?
K: Yes. I put a section on varicose veins in Don’t Just Sit There, which is the
D: E-book
K: Mark Sisson’s work alignment, because that’s something that comes up with standing at work all day. So, yeah. That’s where those – because it’s a big, obviously a big, long answer. We could do a whole show on varicose veins, so put that down. But, uh, yeah. That’s where you can find more.
D: Do you have any tattoos?
K: No.
D: What’s the best way to release the pelvis from a chronic, stuck, posterior tilt?
K: The best way? Do everything that I’ve said to do to mobilize your pelvis.
D: What do you sleep on if you don’t sleep on a bed anymore?
K: I sleep on a foam topper. So, um, like that 2” piece of foam that you can buy that usually people put on top of their mattress.
D: Like an egg carton?
K: It’s not an egg carton, it’s just flat.
D: Okay.
K: So we have those. We have a king sized one and we have a double one in the same room because we all co-sleep, and flannel sheets. Oh, I love flannel sheets. And that’s it. And a blanket and a comforter because it’s freezing where we live right now. But yes, I sleep on – I do not sleep directly on the hard floor regularly. But I do sleep on a couple inch surface that squishes down. I can definitely feel the floorboards beneath, but that’s my padding.
D: Okay. Given no structural abnormalities, such as tongue-tie or cleft palate, are breastfeeding and chewing tough food the only things needed to properly develop your jaw and airway?
K: No. I’m sure speaking, drinking – I think there’s many, many things – most of which we don’t even know – that go into forming the entire body. Laughing, smiling, you know? Who knows.
D: How do I decide on which alignment snack to buy?
K: Ooh, there’s usually some sort of description of the body part. Find the one that intrigues you or that resonates like “I need to know more about that,” or “that part’s bugging me.”
D: Coconuts or almonds?
K: Coconuts.
D: Should a person who has ‘perfect’ vision still practice relaxing the eyes?
K: Yeah.
D: Would it be beneficial to sleep in a psoas release position?
K: I think it would be uncomfortable.
D: What color is your Squatty potty?
K: I have two. One’s white, and the other one – well, actually my Squatty Potty is white. My other squat platform is plywood.
D: Why don’t they make a travel Squatty Potty?
K: I don’t know. Ask Squatty Potty. I think they’re working on one, though.
D: Good, because I’m going to build one if they don’t.
K: All right.
D: Can I correct pelvic rotation and internally rotated femurs with acute injury to the coccyx by gradual re-alignment work, or do I need intervention from a manual therapist?
K: Probably a little bit of both is most helpful.
D: What was your poorest subject in school?
K: Art.
D: How many pull-ups can you do now?
K: Zero. Chin-ups I can do 4 or 5, but I haven’t worked on a pull-up yet. I was like, “I can’t do a pull-up!” but then it occurred to me that I never work on pull-ups. I just go to chin-ups because I can do them. So that’s my new thing with this move. So as soon as the hallway monkey bars get built. Ask me that question again in 12 weeks.
D: Will do.
K: all right.
D: What’s your favorite movie of all time?
K: Oh, gosh. Of all time?
D: Of all time.
K: No! It’s too hard! It can be a genre?
D: No it’s not. Nope.
K: Of all time?
D: One movie.
K: One movie, of all time. I’m looking – I’m looking. I’m cheating! I’m looking at, I’ve got – Whale Rider.
D: That’s a good one.
K: I know. And I said that, I didn’t pick
D: Is that true?
K: No! The truth is Top Gun, but if I say Top Gun, I don’t seem as awesome in my mind as if I say Whale Rider. Whale Rider really is – I think Whale Rider is the favorite movie that I’d love to have, but it really is Top Gun.
D: You don’t know how cool you are for saying Top Gun, so. We’re free to be you & me, man. So just say whatever you want. You ready?
K: Whale Rider. Whale Rider. It’s actually a double feature of Top Gun
D: And Whale Rider. All right! Next question. I’ve been doing correctives for a few months. When is that popping and clicking in my hip going to stop?
K: If all you’re doing is correctives, not for a really long time, if ever. Correctives are one teeny, tiny part of it. The more you change – the more you change everything, the more you know, the faster it comes along. But months, weeks, still not very long on the human timeline. I mean on your, personal movement timeline.
D: Favorite article of clothing you own.
K: Um..it is a black shirt that I’ve had since I was in college. Like, undergraduate college. I’ve had it since I was about 20, and it was an REI, like a thermal layer. And it’s still what I will put on 3 days a week. I love it. It’s – the hem’s falling out, but it’s amazing. I love it.
D: It’s black.
K: It’s black.
D: Okay. I’ve been doing stretches and chiropractic for my chronic vertigo, and once I added in some psoas release, I woke up for the first time in weeks with no vertigo. Think it’s a fluke?
K: No.
D: When I squat to poo, should my pelvis be neutral?
K: Neutral? No.
D: Can a kid hang and swing themselves out of shoulder girdle alignment issues with plenty of lifestyle changes and time spent hanging without doing the correctives?
K: Um, yeah. I don’t think that – I think that correctives for kids are frequent, loading behaviors. I don’t even think of correctives for kids. They just need movement. A ton of it. Way more than you can imagine.
D: Do you use a paper or a digital planner?
K: Neither. Isn’t that insane? Neither. I don’t. I don’t have – I just, my mind does not work that way. Yeah, I don’t. Explains a lot, right?
D: totally. We have to talk. Okay. What’s your favorite alternative to pain medication?
K: I don’t take any medication or alternative medication. I don’t have pain. So are you saying for other people, or for myself?
D: Well, other people.
K: I don’t know. I don’t get into that.
D: Are the ‘sticky bits’ you refer to in Move Your DNA the parts where fascia and muscle connect wrong, or are they spots where sarcomeres heal the wrong way?
K: Neither. It’s tissue – abnormal tissue growth.
D: If you walk at 5AM, what time do you go to bed at night?
K: Hopefully by 9, usually by 10.
D: What is your concept of a fruitful day?
K: A fruitful day is a day that I got at least 5 miles of walking, that I got at least 5 hours of time spent with my family, and – and some published item, whether it was a blog post or a book or something I’ve filmed. Some piece that went out to educate people.
D: What’s your opinion on memory foam pillows? Or, rather, any pillows?
K: Your pillow is an orthotic.
D: what do you think about inversion tables?
K: I don’t.
D: What about hand and headstands on a regular basis?
K: For what purpose?
D: Kale chips or potato chips?
K: That’s a – potato chips.
D: Would you ever get up on a trapeze again?
K: Vegetable chips. Can I just throw in my own answer?
D: Root vegetable chips?
K: Yes. Beet chips
D: Okay, we’re counting that as #37.
K: We’re not to 50 yet?
D: No! Would you ever get up on a trapeze again?
K: Yes.
D: What country would you most like to visit?
K: Greece.
D: Does shaving, waxing or completely removing body hair affect the function of the arrector pili muscles?
K: ooh, that’s a good question. I don’t know – I mean, I would say yes, it has – it would affect their function because the amount of work they would have to do would be less because the weight would be less. But – okay, this is where I go off. This is where we don’t get 100 questions in 30 minutes, because this is something that I would – I am very, very interested in, and someday when my children are grown and I go back to doing a lot more research, I am fascinated by the loads to the body that come from mobilizing – come from hair that mobilizes due to whole body movement. Like, when you move, your hair moves, and then that, then, is making motions in other places. And so I’m always very interested in the areas that have naturally occurring hair. Yes, there is the function of warmth, but I think that we don’t necessarily always think back to, ‘what are the loads that are created by the hair that should be there?’ So. Um, are we at 50 yet?
D: No! I’ll tell you. You let me – that’s my job. You answer questions, okay?
K: I figure if I ask you that enough that counts as like 12 questions.
D: Actually, it takes more seconds out of our – stop it!
K: Okay, sorry. Sorry.
D: Do you ever plan on writing an academic paper on the utilization of neutral legs, pelvis, and rib cage to assess spinal curvature objectively?
K: I do. I actually am working on a paper looking at the non-specificity of the way current spinal measures are being done. So that – yes, that there has to be a baseline that everyone’s taking their measure from. So that’s in progress. Do I think it’ll change anything? No, I do not.
D: If you ever worked in an office, would you be the straight arrow or the incurable prankster?
K: Straight arrow.
D: If you could design a school, what would the ideal day look like?
K: 2.5 hours long.
D: Flat feet: what’s the best way to help?
K: Learn how to move better and then do it.
D: Were you ever a runner?
K: Yes.
D: Chocolate or vanilla?
K: Chocolate.
D: Is there a connection between weak pelvic floor in males and premature ejaculation?
K: Perhaps, although I don’t think I would call it, ‘weak pelvic floor.’ I think that there’s a relationship between pelvic alignment, muscle length, force productions, and premature ejaculation, yeah.
D: Is hanging absolutely taboo if a person has a partially torn or frayed labrum in the shoulder?
K: I don’t know if it’s taboo as much as it’s not helpful and it wouldn’t be the appropriate step.
D: Do you like cake?
K: Mmmm….not really.
D: What’d you eat for dinner last night?
K: Chicken.
D: Can snoring be corrected with proper alignment?
K: I’ve had a lot of people – yeah – notice changes in their snoring behaviors based on what they do with their (audio breaks)
D: That cut out for a second. And that was 51, so here we go! We’re doing all right. We can do this, let’s do it. Yams or sweet potatoes?
K: I don’t like either one of those things. I don’t like starch as a whole, and I don’t like sweet starch. Beets! Taro! Sorry.
D: That’s all right. My feet fall asleep when I fall asleep on the floor. How can I alleviate this?
K: You can fix the tight muscles in your legs.
D: Do you pick flowers or just look?
K: Pick.
D: Aside from the calf stretch, what exercise or stretch have you personally gotten the most benefit from?
K: Mmm..spinal twist. The spinal twist vs. the spinal roll – recognizing the difference and practicing the former.
D: Which corrective exercise do you personally find most challenging to do?
K: Mmm…that’s a good one. I don’t know. I don’t think I find any of them challenging to do. I think I find all of them challenging to do because I’d rather be doing something else.
D: Would you consider running for President of the United States of America?
K: Yes.
D: Do you like the musical, Cats?
K: Yes.
D: How do you get a pinky toe that has curved into the fourth toe to straighten back out again?
K: By working on your whole body.
D: What book can you read again and again?
K: Oh, that’s a good question, but I’m going to cheat. I read the Letters of Richard Feynman probably once a month.
D: What, in your opinion, is the biggest challenge for modern humans with regard to natural movement? The short answer.
K: Your mind.
D: Oh! That’s great.
K: Is it? Is it really?
D: No, the answer was great.
K: Oh, okay.
D: It’s the truth and it’s short.
K: It is.
D: And then I just wasted all that time. You know how northern Europeans are supposedly they digest dairy products better than those of like a Mediterranean descent? Does genetic heritage influence what natural, human movements are more beneficial to us? Or is it pretty much the same all across the board.
K: ooh. I think there’s so little known about how to actually quantify natural movements into loads that it would be decades before that question is answerable, but that’s why I think in Move Your DNA I focus on all the basic stuff, like, squatting to go to the bathroom. You know, stuff in general that’s pretty straight across the board.
D: Pick your super power if you could have one.
K: Sarcasm.
D: Gee.
K: What?
D: Do you think that someone who’s worn minimal shoes for 5 or more years could still develop a problem from transitioning too quickly? And those are in double quotes.
K: Sure.
D: Okay.
K: Sure.
D: How often do you change your position on the floor when you’re reading, computing, or working?
K: As much as you can, probably every 7-8 minutes.
D: Do you like to do the crab walk uphill?
K: No.
D: What’s your favorite winter boot thus far?
K: You know, I just got these new Merrells. I don’t know what they’re called – sorry, Merrell. But they’re just, they’re kind of fashion-y boots and I’ve been hiking in them and doing everything and they fit really well, they weren’t sloppy. They’ve been my favorite so far.
D: Do you take your contacts out every night?
K: Yes, I have. My whole – I’ve never slept accidentally or on purpose in my contacts, because I am such a straight and narrow, like, that’s not the rule. I have to take them out! I’ve never – it’s been my whole – a nightmare my whole, entire life that I’ll accidentally fall asleep with them in.
D: If you could only do one stretch today, what would it be?
K: Spinal twist.
D: Could a pelvic organ prolapse be fixed naturally?
K: I’ve had many people who have.
D: Who is your favorite scientist?
K: Richard Feynman.
D: Do you meditate regularly?
K: Yes.
D: Cat person or dog person?
K: Dog.
D: Where’s the tongue supposed to be when you’re resting, against the bottom of the mouth or pressed to the roof of the mouth?
K: Pressed to the roof of the mouth as I understand it.
D: Just like, “Everybody Wang Chung Tonight,” what action would your name be if it were a verb?
K: What? Well, tell me what yours would be. That will help me understand.
D: No! This is not the 100 Questions for Dani.
K: Okay.
D: Oh, no, no, no.
K: Okay, see you threw me off. I’m not a words person, so I have to go – what’s a verb again?
D: So, like, “everybody Katy Bowman tonight,” what would that – because when you’re Wang Chungin, we’re assuming you’re out there shaking it on the dance floor, right? So you’re – (sings) Everybody Wang Chung tonight. So if everybody’s going to Katy Bowman this afternoon, or whatever that song is, what action would your name be, if it were a verb?
K: I think it would be some sort of walk-squat hybrid.
D: Oh, that’s good. All right. Baby stroller or arm carry?
K: Oh, come on.
D: These are questions that people ask.
K: Arm carry.
D: If you could have any job in the world, which one would you want?
K: I would be Leonardo DaVinci.
D: Does foam rolling or self-myofascial release replace stretching?
K: No, they’re different loads.
D: Would you ever try skydiving?
K: No.
D: Why would a muscle start to contract while it is being stretched?
K: Either – either (laughs) Maybe the Katy Bowman should just be halted speaking. Either your – you are consciously protecting – the staccato speech – I don’t know how to say it. Either you are consciously trying to stop the motion from happening, or that the organs within the muscle are stopping the motion for, I want to say, for a protector-y reason, but that would also be the Katy Bowman which would be randomly making up words.
D: Making stuff words up. Those are good, though.
K: Just making words up that, you know. Anyway. Also trailing off your sentences, with just whatever. That could also be the Katy Bowman.
D: Okay. If a person has had their Achilles tendon cut during a surgery, should they practice the calf stretch?
K: It depends on how much it’s been cut, and also what you were told you could or couldn’t do. I mean, if you were not told – if you were not told that you couldn’t walk uphill, the calf stretch is the same loads as going uphill.
D: Was writing all those books hard?
K: No.
D: What music were you listening to last?
K: I was listening to Pandora this morning, and I was listening to the “Sugar, Sugar” channel. Like, the Archies.
D: (singing) Aw, Sugar. (hums) Yeah. Okay.
K: And also, Ozomatli was the last song on there, so. There you go.
D: A great way to start the day. Is pain always a sign to stop doing what triggers it?
K: I don’t think so, no. But I think ‘pain’ is a really, really big category that is defined internally.
D: Do you play a musical instrument?
K: I do, a little bit.
D: What do you play?
K: That is a question, or you wanting to know?
D: Well, it’s part of the question.
K: Is that a question?
D: It’s 86, it’s number 86. It was either going to be, “if not, what would you play?” but “what do you play?”
K: Accordion.
D: No way!
K: Mm-hmm.
D: Oh, man! I knew I loved you! Serious? You are the best nerd ever! Accordion. I had an accordion at my wedding!
K: Did you really?
D: I love accordion music.
K: I do, too.
D: You’re such a good nerd.
K: I know, but I gotta drag it out. It was – I played it as – up until a teenage year, and then I dropped it because I wasn’t cool because I was playing the accordion. It had nothing to do with anything else. But yeah, it’ll be my – actually, I want to find a squeezebox. It’s just like, now that we’re in this little home, in front of our fire, I’m like, I should drag out a squeezebox.
D: Yeah, concertina.
K: Yep. (sings) In and out. Know what I mean?
D: I used to have a concertina. They’re cool. Wow. My hero. Are we ever going to have a Restorative Exercise® skating party?
K: Yes.
D: Does stretching a muscle warm it up? Like, in quotes?
K: I don’t know. I don’ t know what they mean by ‘warm it up.’
D: I think it actually means does it create heat? Because it was in quotes. So we’ll just move along.
K: Well, if it was warm it up to create heat, it wouldn’t be in quotes if it actually, literally meant warm it up, right?
D: Oh, then I don’t know what they mean.
K: I don’t know.
D: Which do you see more of in your work: tight hamstrings or tight quadriceps?
K: I see both at the same time.
D: When people are being retrained how to walk, like after an accident or a stroke, is it possible to actually teach them to walk with a posterior driven gait versus hip flexion?
K: Is it possible? Uh, I’d say yes. Is it done? I’d say no. Because most rehabilitation is done on a treadmill.
D: And the follow up to that is, if so, then in general wouldn’t everything else they are dealing with be better as a result of learning how to walk with a posterior driven gait?
K: I don’t know if everything would be, but I think that, you know, posterior push off takes care of many other things besides just walking.
D: Do you eat any kind of stuffing during holiday meals?
K: Um, yeah, I don’t as far as Thanksgiving goes. I make it a point – I don’t really celebrate with a traditional way that it’s been done in which stuffing is a component? This year, for example, we’re just cooking all our food outside on a fire, so I don’t think you’ll see the traditional fare at our house. I have, though, in my life. That is a – that’s something that someone wants to know?
D: Swear to God.
K: Okay.
D: You said anything.
K: Okay, all right.
D: Do you ever eat candy?
K: Yeah. I do. Like, I had a couple pieces of Halloween candy. I don’t buy candy for my house, in general, but sure.
D: What was your favorite book when you were a child?
K: The Trixie Belden series.
D: Boxers or briefs or free-balling it?
K: I love my life. I don’t even know how to answer that question.
D: That’s my husband’s question! So you have to answer!
K: Ohhh. I have a follow up question? I would say whatever makes you happy and healthy. I don’t mean you; I mean him.
D: Which culture do you think best represents natural alignment?
K: I don’t think there is any culture alive. There hasn’t been a culture alive for a really long time not influenced by globalization and modern living, so I don’t know how I could quantify that.
D: What is the one thing you want Move Your DNA to get across to those who read it?
K: You are how you move.
D: Do you have any pets?
K: No.
D: Would you be creeped out if a bunch of us moved to Sequim?
K: No.
D: And number 100, what makes you happy?
K: Um…just about everything. Life. Life makes me happy.
D: We totally did that in 30 minutes!
K: Whaaaat!
D: How awesome was that?
K: That was amazing!
D: Yes. Is your brain exhausted or do you feel like, invigorated?
K: I think it’s invigorated and I’m glad I didn’t see the list ahead of time.
D: You were awesome. You were awesome.
K: I think that’s 30 podcasts in the last 8 weeks that has made me a super-answerer.
D: Yeah, and it’s kind of fun to answer some questions that aren’t alignment related, don’t you agree?
K: And also, yeah, I think –
D: Katy’s a person, too, man!
K: I’m just a regular person! I think – I feel the pressure to expand, because I just did an interview yesterday, actually, for – it was part of someone’s research. There’s a woman researching women science communicators and the public, and she’s interviewing us. She was like, what’s the hardest thing about being a science communicator? And my answer was, you’re reducing. Science involves quite a bit of reduction. You’re reducing something to be able to investigate how it works, but also you’re trying to speak to the masses of people who don’t have the same base of knowledge that you do. So I’m constantly filtering, like, what’s the lesson that you need before this thing that you’re asking? People ask a question, but the answer, if I just gave it to you, you wouldn’t even make sense. Most people don’t have the context for the answer, so I – every question seems to be a 17 minute long answer, and it could easily be a year-long answer that I’m filtering for you what I think you need to know right now. But my answer will be different the next time you ask the exact same question, because you will have had that 17 minutes of answer. So it’s been relief, right now, to just give you one or two words and go, you’ll have to fill in the blanks at another time, because every question begets more questions – as it should.
D: that’s something I think about all the time with you, is that you can’t – you can’t just give the Cosmo magazine answer.
K: No. No, and I’m done doing it. It’s not helpful anymore. I think our need to put out Solve X in 5 steps has really helped people shape this understanding that all they need to do is these 5 things. Or all they need to do are these 5 things? Ugh. My god. I guess my worst subject would probably be English. I’m not going to go back and change that answer, but it’s not helpful anymore. And I am willing to not be in all of the top magazines and – I just don’t want to do that anymore. I just invite you on this very long and in-depth journey with me if you’d like to come.
D: Sounds good to me.
K: All right.
D: Thank you so much for just the time and your voice and your thoughts.
K: And my accordion.
D: Yeah, boy. I have a little flutter in my heart for ya. That’s um, that’s –
K: I’m a little nerdier than you thought, huh?
D: Well, and that’s my big, whenever I say, “my favorites are the accordion,” people are like, “Ah! Nerd!” so now there’s 2 of us, so there’s like a gang of us.
K: The accordion gang.
D: Okay, well, you have an awesome afternoon.
K: All right, buddy.
D: All right. Bye-bye.
