Why Movement Is Superior To Exercise & How To Unlock Total Body Fitness - With Katy Bowman

The Model Health Show

Shawn Stevenson

Fitness, Health & Fitness, Motivation, Wellness, Nutrition, Health, Sex, Selfhelp

4.8 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2025

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In today’s culture, it’s easy to be sedentary. Most people have access to food, entertainment, and work without having to move much at all. And of course, a sedentary lifestyle has been shown to be linked to a whole host of chronic diseases. The question is: how do we become more active in a culture that encourages a sedentary lifestyle? Today’s guest, Katy Bowman is a biomechanist, bestselling author, and expert in all things movement, mobility, and functionality. She’s back on The Model Health Show for another engaging conversation on how (and why) to add more essential movement into your daily routine. In this conversation, we’re going to cover how our sedentary, convenience-based culture removes opportunities for movement, the difference between movement and exercise, and specific ways to improve your functionality—from your eyes to your feet. Katy has an insightful way of teaching these movement principles, and I know you’re going to take away something that changes the way you think and move. Enjoy! In this episode you’ll discover: An important distinction between movement and exercise. (12:52) Why reducing movement to its parts is like dissecting an apple. (15:44) The problem with outsourcing our movement for convenience. (17:58) Why labor can be an important category of movement. (19:28) The importance of the eye-brain connection and how to strengthen it. (25:31) How working on your spinal curvature can improve your outcomes as you age. (28:47) The role your feet play in whole body movement. (34:50) A simple stretch you can use to improve the functionality of your feet. (53:19) Why simply sitting on the floor can increase your mobility. (56:36) What we can learn from the way that kids move. (59:58) How to improve your physical workload in middle age. (1:01:45) Why we need to broaden our definition of exercise. (1:04:23) Items mentioned in this episode include: Fromourplace.com/model - Get 10% off toxin-free, ceramic coated cookware with code MODEL! Peluva.com/model - Get 15% off barefoot shoes with my code MODEL! Whole Body Barefoot by Katy Bowman - Learn how to improve the function of your feet! Move Your DNA by Katy Bowman - Read about the power of movement! Connect with Katy Bowman Website / Podcast / Instagram Be sure you are subscribed to this podcast to automatically receive your episodes:  Apple Podcasts Spotify Soundcloud Pandora YouTube This episode of The Model Health Show is brought to you by Our Place and Peluva. Get 10% off toxin-free, ceramic coated cookware by using my code MODEL at fromourplace.com/model. Peluva’s barefoot minimalist shoes support postural alignment, proprioception, and overall functionality. Get 15% off your order by using code MODEL at peluva.com/model.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are now listening to The Model Health Show with Sean Stevenson.
0:04.7	For more, visit themodelhealthshow.com.
0:11.5	Today you're going to experience a masterclass on movement.
0:16.4	You're about to discover how our modern culture has removed most of our normal movement
0:22.6	inputs and is messing us up.
0:26.7	You're also going to discover why exercise simply cannot replace movement.
0:32.9	You're going to understand the distinction.
0:35.4	Yes, exercise is incredibly valuable, but you're going to hear an
0:40.2	analogy that's going to make all of this make sense. You're also going to discover why more and
0:45.0	more people need therapy today due to dysfunction with their vestibular system, aka the system
0:51.9	that helps you to keep your sense of balance. Do you remember when you were a kid
0:56.6	just spinning around for no good reason at all? I was supreme merry-go-round pusher, all right?
1:05.0	You run. Get on. Everybody hop on to merry-go-round. You know Sean got those wheels. So I run, spin us all around, jump on, and we all getting dizzy AF together. All right. You try and pull that today. Guess what? Guess what? They're going to have to come find you. All right? You're going to be laid out somewhere that throw up all on your shirt just completely
1:29.3	run amok from your own system all right what happened how can we do that when we're a child but then
1:36.1	even you know a decade later it is completely just that system gets thrown off so easily and so today
1:42.6	again there's a kind of an epidemic going on that
1:44.7	a lot of people don't know about unless you've experienced this with having issues with maintaining
1:49.1	one's balance. And, you know, of course, there's vertigo. It's like one avenue of that, but there's
1:54.1	many different manifestations of dysfunction with the vestibular system. And with that, as one aspect
2:00.8	of training the vestibular system, we with that, as one aspect of training the vestibular system,
2:02.6	we're going to uncover the importance of training your eye and vision parts
2:07.6	and why so many people are dealing with vision challenges today.
	...

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