This book by biomechanist Katy Bowman is more philosophical than her previous books, which included more nitty-gritty details and science (there is some of that here, still, just not nearly as much). This one goes beyond how our movements alter our own bodies and vice-versa and explores how our movement, or lack of it, shapes our societies and environments.

It was a good reminder and an inspiring read, though a bit repetitive at times.

This pretty much sums up the book:

"Sedentarism is very much linked to consumerism, materialism, colonialism, and the destruction of the planet. If you're not moving, someone else is moving for you, either directly, or indirectly by making STUFF to make not moving easier on you." (p 10) ( )

It is interesting to watch Katy Bowman's work evolve over time.

In Movement Matters she expands on paradigms she introduced in Move Your DNA (MYDNA). In MYDNA one theme is that your every day movements and lack of movements, affect your body down to your individual cells and the expression of your DNA. The counterpoint in Movement Matters is that your everyday movements or lack of movements, affect the world, the environment, and even people who live thousands of miles away.

Another theme in MYDNA was that your environment affects the way you move, (ie. we have chairs everywhere and this means that instead of having to move your body from the ground to standing you only have to move your body from the chair to standing, and thus many people lose the ability for the greater range of motion (ground to chair). In Movement Matters Katy expands on how your environment and culture affect the way we think about movement, about how our society has been immobilized through cultural norms.

Movement Matters is filled with essays and topics that are both new and familiar to those who follow Katy's work. There are lots of great quotes, and things to think about.
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