Built to Move: The Sunday Times Bestseller

Functional at the level that allows us to do everything we want and need to do?

“Mobility” is a kind of wonky term that refers to something quite beautiful: the harmonious convergence of all the elements that allow you to move freely and effortlessly through space and life.

when you don’t have a chair back to depend on, you turn on more musculature, build greater stability, and avoid the weakness that can lead to back pain. If you can choose a backless seat, go for it. Don’t, however, make it a big balance ball, which is a popular desk chair replacement these days.

The right-angle seated position is embraced by only a third to a half of people in the world, writes Cranz, a professor in the architecture department at the University of California, Berkeley. People in non-Western countries, she points out, might squat to wait for the bus, kneel to eat, sit cross-legged to write a letter. This may account for why

The Test Stand next to a wall or steady piece of furniture if you think you will need help. From there, cross one foot in front of the other and sit down on the floor into a cross-legged position without holding on to anything (unless you feel very unsteady). Now, from the same cross-legged position, rise up off the floor, if possible, without plac

In a joint study ultimately published in a 2014 issue of the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, the researchers gave the Sit-and-Rise Test—the same one we previewed in the introduction to this book and which we’re now going to ask you to take again—to 2,002 men and women, ages fifty-one to eighty. Then the scientists went about their busine

Before you go forward, keep a few things in mind. You get a gold star if you can both sit down and rise straight up from the cross-legged position without using any kind of assist. That shows you have basic, baseline hip flexibility. But it’s also okay to use an assist. Place a hand (or two) on the ground, roll forward onto your knees to brace your

Sometimes it’s all we can do to sit on the floor while we watch a movie (stay tuned to learn why this seemingly passive activity enhances mobility), eat three vegetables, and get a good night’s sleep.

The program in this book—and our life’s work—addresses this whole network of movement components. Harnessing its power will help you achieve agility, ease, and quickness of step while vanquishing restriction, rigidity, and pain.