Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Tim Anderson on the Power of “Movement Resets”

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello, and welcome to Muscle for Life. I'm Mike Matthews. Thank you for joining me today. And I have a question for you. When's the last time you rocked, rolled, or did some head nods? And I'm not talking about the things that you would do at a heavy metal concert, which, remember? Remember what those were like?

Starting point is 00:00:22 Remember shows, in-person events. I have a hazy recollection. Now I'm talking about very simple exercises. I can't really call them exercises. I guess really just kind of like movements, right? That you can incorporate into your routine, your wellness routine, and they can act as a sort of a reset that can improve the quality of your movement patterns that can reduce pain, improve your sleep, and even help you lift more weight in the gym. Now, if that sounds too good to be true, I understand. That's honestly what I thought when I first came across Tim Anderson's work, but it was endorsed by Dan John. And if you're not familiar with Dan John, check him out, check out his work, check out his books. A good guy. I've had him on

Starting point is 00:01:10 the podcast, a lot of experience as a strength and conditioning coach. And he had a lot of good things to say about Tim and Tim's work. So I checked it out and liked what I saw, contrary to my expectations, and got him to come on the podcast and get into the nitty gritty details of really what is a pretty simple idea. The idea is that as we get older and we spend more and more of our time sedentary, just sitting around working, sitting around eating, sitting around watching TV, we forget how to move properly. We forget how to move in line with how our body is designed to move. And Tim has created these simple resets, as he calls them, to help us restore these original movement patterns and the original strength, hence the name of his brand, that we

Starting point is 00:02:01 should have. And that we actually did learn when we were little and we were learning to walk and move in accordance with how our body is made to move. And so I wanted to get Tim on the show to share his unique take on improving mobility, improving movement. And in this episode, we talk about things like how to breathe properly, the benefits of relearning some of these key movement patterns like crawling, rocking, and head nodding, some common movement dysfunctions, and how they manifest in the gym, outside of the gym. Tim shares some very simple practical resets

Starting point is 00:02:37 that you can start doing right away and see how they work for you and more. Also, if you like what I'm doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, definitely check out my health and fitness books, including the number one best-selling weightlifting books for men and women in the world, Bigger Leaner Stronger and Thinner Leaner Stronger,

Starting point is 00:02:58 as well as the leading flexible dieting cookbook, The Shredded Chef. Now, these books have sold well over 1 million copies and have helped thousands of people build their best body ever. And you can find them on all major online retailers like Audible, Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, and Google Play, as well as in select Barnes and Noble stores. And I should also mention that you can get any of the audiobooks 100% free when you sign up for an Audible account. And this is a great way to make those pockets of downtime, like commuting, meal prepping, and cleaning, more interesting, entertaining, and productive. And so if you want to take Audible up on this offer, and if you want to get one of my audiobooks for free, just go to www.buylegion.com and sign up for your account. So again, if you appreciate my work and if you want to see more of it, and if you want to learn time-proven and

Starting point is 00:03:54 evidence-based strategies for losing fat, building muscle, and getting healthy, and strategies that work for anyone and everyone, regardless of age or circumstances, please do consider picking up one of my best-selling books, Bigger, Leaner, Stronger for Men, Thinner, Leaner, Stronger for Women, and The Shredded Chef for my favorite fitness-friendly recipes. Hey, Tim, thanks for taking the time to do this. Mike, thank you so much for having me, man. I appreciate it. Yeah, yeah. I'm excited for this interview because your niche is very unique. You don't teach exercise or fitness or even mobility as many people understand those things. And I actually

Starting point is 00:04:36 came across your work first through Dan John. And I believe in one of his books, he had mentioned you and your work. And then I went and checked it out and really liked it. And so here we are. And I think for this interview, we should start with maybe you can explain your unique method of, I mean, I guess maybe you could say it's mobility, quote unquote, but again, it's not. When many people these days, when they hear mobility, they think of maybe stretching or playing around with bands or lacrosse balls or foam rollers or massage guns or something. And not to knock those things per se, but what you do is different. I think we should start by maybe you can explain to people how you address, I mean, human movement

Starting point is 00:05:20 and what you are working toward with people. I'll try. So I have a company called Original Strength and it's really named after what we're just trying to help people rediscover, which is their original strength. It's not a, like you said, it's not really exercises. It's just more or less reminding people how they were designed to move through tapping back into the original movements that they were born with. We were all born with a developmental sequence inside of our nervous system that was designed to get us strong, tie us together so that we could explore our world. And we never lose that developmental sequence. So those commands or that original operating system, it stays in us throughout our life. And it's really supposed to be the

Starting point is 00:06:01 foundation for all the movements that we're designed to make. And the cool thing is, is that no matter what age you are, you can always tap back into that original operating system or, you know, the developmental sequence. And it does the same things at 99 that it did when you were two. It strengthens your nervous system, gives your brain great information and ties your body back together. So it's really not exercise as much as, or even teaching people how to move. It even teaching people how to move. It's reminding people how to move. And what are some of these fundamental movement patterns? The first one is really the mainstream. Everybody's heard about it now is breathing. I think of that book. That was good timing. I think it's just called Breathe. And I think it

Starting point is 00:06:38 was released like right at the beginning of the pandemic and it has sold very well. Yeah. And so, you know, we all came into the world breathing a certain way. We were designed to breathe a certain way. So it's really going back to that original breath, so to speak. That would be the first one. And the next one would be another reset or movement would be head control, just remembering or relearning how to move our eyes and our head the way that we're designed to. And then there's, you know, rolling around on the floor, rocking back and forth on your hands and knees, or just rocking back and forth in general, really, and then engaging in your gait pattern, like crawling or marching or walking.

Starting point is 00:07:13 And for people hearing these things, Matt, can hear people thinking, oh, that sounds interesting, but is the implication that we have forgotten how to do these things correctly? Like I don't know how to move my eyes around or my head, or I don't know how to crawl. Can you elaborate on that? Kind of, yes. I mean, you would be surprised that a lot of adults don't know how to crawl. Yeah, yeah. No, I don't say that to challenge you. I'm just playing devil's advocate for people wondering, huh? So we learned these things when we were younger and then we kind of unlearned them or we developed bad habits. And then the idea is to get back to that. And then what are the benefits of getting back to being able to do these things properly? Yeah. So all of us moved pretty well as

Starting point is 00:07:56 children because we were just following the program. We didn't have any other choice, you know, we're laying around all day and we got to learn how to move our big watermelon heads so that we can get strong enough to actually get up and start, you know, walking around. And, you know, the design of the human body is movement builds the nervous system. And so what happens with us though, is that for various reasons, either technology or culture or whatever, we learn how to not move as much as we get older, either through the school system, through employment, whatever, entertainment, but we just don't.

Starting point is 00:08:27 Laziness. Yeah, sure. But no, and a lot of us don't move our eyes and our heads the way we're actually designed to move them. We're really good now at fixing our eyes in a certain spot on a certain screen or, you know, in one direction, or we have, maybe we wear glasses and we only move our eyes in that small little frame of reference, because if we go outside of that frame, we can't see as clearly. So little things like that really add up to make huge differences in how we're supposed to move versus how we do move. But to your question, I guess, yeah, when you go back to your original program, it pretty much makes, I call them miracles, but it just makes wonderful things happen.

Starting point is 00:09:05 Full expression. You have more mobility again. You have strength again. Maybe you don't hurt or ache anymore. Like the brakes come off your body and you feel better. And what type of movements when you say rocking, what do you mean by that? Like, because I know you have different, you have like rocking pushups and rocking chair and you have different ways that this can work. So just generally like the reset or the powerful movement that you were born with, rocking would be rocking on your hands and knees. So if you said you had a three-year-old, you've probably seen once after a while, like maybe six months or two years somewhere, they got strong enough to push themselves away from the ground and got up on their hands and knees. And then your child had its head on the horizon. And then they just

Starting point is 00:09:49 rock back and forth sometimes, or they rock back and forth to learn how to take that first crawling step. But just literally getting on your hands and knees with your head on the horizon. Yep, that's it. So I had somebody, what's his name? I believe it was Sam Visnick. I had him on the show. I've had different people, PTs and other experts talking about different types of mobility and ways to address chronic pain. Is your approach, is working through these resets, is this something that is for people who have problems right now? And you just mentioned it can help people address pain, lack of mobility, probably just various types of physical dysfunctions.

Starting point is 00:10:25 Are there benefits for people who don't have any particular problems? I mean, any of us who lift enough weights, there's always something that's bothering us at least a little bit, unless we're like 21 and invincible. But if we are 30 or above and we train hard, there's always the little thing. But for people who don't have any acute problems, there's nothing that's really getting in their way from doing their workouts and maybe just living a kind of active lifestyle. Can they benefit from doing the types of things, doing these, practicing these movement patterns? Oh, absolutely. So, here's the thing. We're designed in some fashion to do these movements throughout our entire life. Like for instance, you're designed to breathe how you were born to breathe your entire life. And so every breath

Starting point is 00:11:11 should be a good information for your nervous system. Every breath should be something that helps your body and your nervous system feel safe and give it good information so that you can express yourself optimally, full potential. And what is that by the way? What is a good breath? A good breath would be filling your lungs up from the bottom to the top, using your diaphragm to let your belly, your sides, and your low back expand. So if you think of your lungs as a container, a lot of adults, most adults just breathe up into the top part of the container using their accessory breathing muscles.

Starting point is 00:11:40 But we're designed to fill the lungs up from the bottom to the top, filling the lungs up to not only get air, but it actually helps strengthen our inner core, the very center of our bodies. Diaphragm is an amazing muscle. So a proper breath would just be belly breathing is what some people call it, but it's really more than that, but it really is. It's using your diaphragm optimally. But to your question, yeah. So if somebody that's 30 years old, super fit or super gym goer, yes, these movements would benefit them because they're the foundation of all movements. And honestly, they would make whatever they love to do in the gym, they make it easier, more accessible. Think full expression.

Starting point is 00:12:14 You can lift heavier weights. You can move better. And so those little niggles and wiggles you were talking about that lifters get sometimes in the gym, there's a chance that you don't get them. get and sometimes in the gym, there's a chance that you don't get them because when everything's in place and everything's working optimally, a lot of those overuse injuries or those strains don't have to happen. And what are some common movement dysfunctions then that you see in people who are otherwise fit and healthy? Like you might see the issue, but they wouldn't know that it's an issue because they don't feel any major acute pain. Maybe again, there's little things here and there, but if they were to correct them, they would realize what they're missing out

Starting point is 00:12:51 on. You know what I mean? So that's, that's probably a little bit more broad and hard to really narrow down, but things like forward head carriage, tendonitis, achy knees, achy low back. I mean, you probably are familiar that a lot of gym goers as big and strong they can pack on all kinds of muscle maybe they look good but their back still hurts their knees still hurt when they walk up and down the steps so they look better but they don't necessarily feel better so and really the body is designed to feel amazing and so it's one thing to look good but it's another thing to feel good right so what So what if you could have both? What if you had no aches or issues and you were full of energy and you didn't just look like you could pick something up, but you had enough energy to pick something up and that when you left the weight room, that your quality of life was just awesome. that. And are there some common movement pattern dysfunctions that you see though among, I mean, you're speaking to a lot of people who, I don't know if they would consider themselves weight

Starting point is 00:13:50 lifters or bodybuilders per se, maybe, but it'd be more like a lifestyle kind of weight lifter or bodybuilder, somebody who probably does a fair amount of resistance training, also probably does some endurance and is very into their fitness, but also has a life that not hardcore gym rats per se. So are there common, again, movement pattern where you see it, you go, oh yeah, well, the achy knees or the achy back. Here are some common reasons that people have the achy knees or have the achy back. You know what I mean? Dude, but this is going to sound weird, but okay, here's a few. One, they're mouth breathers. That can cause an achy back. You know what I mean? Dude, but this is going to sound weird, but okay, here's a few. One, they're mouth breathers. That can cause an achy back or achy knees. Wow. Interesting. How does that work? You don't have to go off on a long tangent, but I have to

Starting point is 00:14:32 ask. Well, so if you're a mouth breather, the chances are very high that you're breathing up and you're using your accessory muscles and that you're filling your lungs up from the top, not the bottom, which means you're probably not using your diaphragm to stabilize your spine, which means that you could have a sluggish pelvic floor, weak transverse abdominis. So your inner core unit is just not on board. So if your spine is not stable, well, maybe that's why you have an achy back. And if you're not tied together in your center, and when you're trying to generate power, you're maybe you're trying to exercise to be healthier, you go for a run to be healthy, but you don't have a solid center, you're kind of

Starting point is 00:15:03 hollow. So maybe your knees ache because you're not transferring force well through your center because you have energy leakages through your center. And all of that could be because of open mouth or mouth breathing. Interesting. And let's take rocking. So what are some common dysfunctional movement patterns or just, I guess breathing isn't a movement pattern, but other just dysfunctional kind of habits maybe that people have that rocking, I guess breathing isn't a movement pattern, but other just dysfunctional kind of habits maybe that people have that rocking and I guess learning to rock properly and getting comfortable with that helps correct. One could be forward head carriage. And what does that mean exactly? Say when they walk into a room,

Starting point is 00:15:37 their head enters the room before their body does. So, their head is in front of their body, not over their spine, up over their shoulders. And what kind of problems can that cause? Oh, well, so it is a lot. So your head, the average human head weighs between like 10 to 14 pounds. And if it's stacked up over your spine, you don't notice it. And that's not a big deal. But if it's out in front of you, it's like the weight magnifies tremendously. So it can cause a lot of neck tension, a lot of neck pain, which can cause nerve issues

Starting point is 00:16:04 in the neck, which could cause issues down the arm, nerve pain down the arm, tendonitis, wrist issues, finger issues, shoulder issues, rounded forward shoulders, things like that. I mean, those would be the big ones for us. because of how many of us do just sit mostly on a computer all the time. Something that I know I have to try to just always stay aware of maintaining good posture, preventing my head from slumping over. So, and so you said the magic word, right? So posture is a reflex. It's not necessarily a position that you hold or trying to hold. It's just a position that you have. And so rocking restores the reflexive posture position, puts the proper curves in your cervical curve and your lumbar curve. Yeah, that makes sense.

Starting point is 00:16:50 And if people, anybody listening, if you just picture the position you have to get in, then that, I guess it does mirror the position you want to be in when you're upright. Is that correct? For the most part. So good, better, best, right? Like just rocking back and forth is good, but the optimal position would be with your head on the horizon. And that's where the cervical curve comes in. Now, when you stand up, your head is still going to be on the horizon, but now your body's going to be more underneath your head.

Starting point is 00:17:12 That's a counter curve though, to your lumbar curve. So yeah. So still though, you have those two curves and you get those naturally from getting on all fours when you're a child. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. And what are, you may have already given a couple of the other moving patterns, but if you did, I'm not remembering, but so we have breathing as an important, just element of staying functional and feeling good and being able to fully express the physical potential that you have. We have rocking and what else is there? So say crawling is a pattern. Oh, like crawling. Yeah. And that is just, to me,

Starting point is 00:17:46 it's like the apex miracle movement. It connects both hemispheres of your brain, makes your nervous system very efficient, which allows your body to move very efficiently. But it also teaches, you know, it said it connects your torso. It connects your opposite hip to your opposite shoulder. If your body's an X crawling is what ties the X together on the front side and the backside makes you super, super, super resilient because it just, it makes your body strong. I call it gentle strength training. Interesting. And I'm going to ask this question again, just because I think it's a good question. I'm curious. What common movement dysfunctions or just physical dysfunctions or dysfunctional habits can crawling help correct? A lot. It can help

Starting point is 00:18:26 restore posture itself because again, you're in that same similar position. If you've ever watched people walk or run, you've probably see a lot of runners, but some runners look beautifully. They run beautiful and some runners look like that can't be good for you. It looks like it hurts. So those runners are typically not tied together very well, and they don't really own their gait pattern. They're not using their shoulders to rhythmically mirror their hips. And you've probably seen people walk. Walking is a great example too, where you see people walk, but their arms aren't swinging.

Starting point is 00:18:55 They're just there or they're holding something either way. So those are movement patterns. It's still your gait pattern, but it's not your true gait pattern. Like you can get from A to B, but the gait pattern is actually designed to keep your nervous system and your body tied together. So when you're not using all four limbs. When you say tied together, what do you mean exactly? It's literally, it's kind of like, okay, so strength is built from the center out.

Starting point is 00:19:19 The first layer of strength is through breathing. The next layer of strength is added on through head control, learning how to move your head because every muscle in your body is attached to the movements of your head, especially your center muscles around your abdomen and your back. And then rolling ties the opposite shoulder to the opposite hip first. That is the first movement of the gait pattern. Rolling is. Rocking is still a gait pattern movement and it starts to now, it teaches the joints how to stabilize. It teaches the shoulders and the hips how to, for the stabilizers to stabilize the joints so the prime movers can move the joints,

Starting point is 00:19:50 which is preparatory for crawling, which is preparatory for walking. So tying the body together, literally I'm talking about these things, each one of these movements in the developmental sequence lays a foundation of strength in the center. And then the next developmental aspect lays another layer of strength on top of that. All you're doing is

Starting point is 00:20:08 you're building a movement foundation and that's called reflexive strength, which is just your body's ability to anticipate movement as it happens before it happens, react to it. It's the difference between if you start walking and you trip over something and you fall on your face, or you trip over something and you barely notice it because your body quickly catches itself and you just keep continue on in stride. Yeah. Or you slip and then do you your face or you trip over something and you barely notice it because your body quickly catches itself and you just keep continue on in stride. Yeah. Or you slip and then do you catch yourself or? Yeah. Like even on ice, if you have your solid foundation of reflexive strength, you're a lot likely to survive a fall on ice or not fall at all versus end up in a hospital.

Starting point is 00:20:40 So crawling literally ties your nervous system together because it takes your left brain and your right brain and it lays neural connections down over the corpus callosum so that those hemispheres can communicate very, very efficiently. And then physically, it teaches all your stabilizers how to stabilize while your prime movers move. And everybody uses the word core center because, I mean, there's really not really a better word to use though. In your center, it- Your trunk, I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. In your trunk, it makes it very strong and resilient. And that's where when we walk, when we run, when we express our gait pattern, when we hit, when we throw, when we swing, that's where force is generated from and where force transfers through. If you like what I'm doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, definitely check out

Starting point is 00:21:28 my health and fitness books, including the number one bestselling weightlifting books for men and women in the world, Bigger Leaner Stronger and Thinner Leaner Stronger, as well as the leading flexible dieting cookbook, The Shredded Chef. So you had mentioned that crawling can help address dysfunctional. You're talking about just the way people walk or the way they run. And then I had cut you off on this tight end. I just wanted to make sure that if there's anything else that you think is worth mentioning in terms of any issues that people listening might recognize in themselves, like, oh yeah. Like example, I'm sure some people have realized that they don't really use their diaphragm the way that you're talking about. They do tend to just

Starting point is 00:22:12 breathe kind of shallowly and they just kind of feel their upper chest area, upper abdomen just swell. Or some people thinking that, yeah, they do lean their head forward. And is there anything else that you wanted to mention in terms of just, again, dysfunctional movement patterns or habits that crawling can help address? So a reset is a reset. I will answer your question. So it could be the reset your body needs is crawling, or it could be the reset your body needs is rolling.

Starting point is 00:22:39 Whatever gives your nervous system the information it looks for that takes the brakes off your body is good. So in that sense, crawling for some people could do a miracle that breathing could do in other people because whatever their nervous system is looking for. But some other patterns that like, if you were like, well, why do I need this? Do I need this or whatever? It could be like, say your squat pattern. Can you squat butt to calves and sit there and hang out all day long? If not, why? Chance a lot of times it's because you don't have your reflexive strength in your center. Something's not firing. It doesn't have to be

Starting point is 00:23:09 an ankle mobility issue. What if ankles were only tight because your body didn't trust that your spine was stable and it was trying to look for places to keep you from moving into trouble. So it made other places stiff. It could be that when you do a pushup, your center lags, like your chest comes off the floor before your belly does. I mean, like I'm trying to talk exercises so that people can maybe get an idea of it. It could be just your ability to focus and concentrate. If you have a short memory or you can't think well, it could be that you don't have any energy during the day and you're not sleeping good at night. And those aren't necessarily movements, but they're quality of life issues. That are impacted by our ability to move properly. Yes. And those aren't necessarily movements, but they're quality of life issues. That are impacted by our ability to move properly.

Starting point is 00:23:47 Yes. And breathe properly. Because movement affects everything. It affects your autonomic nervous system. So if you're not breathing well, or if you're not moving well, the chances are you're in the sympathetic nervous system mode or the fight or flight mode and not the rest and digest mode. And if you're living there, well, how's your quality of sleep? How's your anxiety levels? How's your stress levels? How is your ability to make good decisions when you're moving well and your nervous system feels safe? Well, you can digest your food better. You have less inflammation in your body. You have a balance of your hormones. Everything's

Starting point is 00:24:18 working optimally. You can think better. You can sleep better. You're not stressed out all the time really. So it affects, it's global. It's everything about you is affected through how you move. Talk to us about rolling. What do you mean exactly? Just for those of us trying to picture rolling in which way? You can roll in a bunch of different ways, but literally like, so if you've ever seen a child roll on the floor from their back to their belly or from their belly to a back, that's rolling. And adults, wonderful things happen when adults do that too, especially when adults learn how to roll segmentally or like an ocean wave versus a log. So there's different ways to roll. It is optimal for the nervous system when the nervous system learns how to roll segmentally

Starting point is 00:24:55 piece by piece by piece. And how would that look? So I'm picture like a corkscrew kind of movement. Yes, that's it. That's it. So say if I was laying on my back and I wanted to roll to my belly, if I use my eyes and my head I wanted to roll to my belly, if I use my eyes and my head to initiate the roll, then my cervical spine started rotating, then my thoracic spine started rotating, then my lumbar spine started rotating, then my hips and pelvis came over and then my legs came over. That would be piece by piece by piece versus a log roll would be say I want to roll over and my head, my spine, my hips, my legs, everything moves as one piece and everything flops over together. Yeah, you just flop over like a fish.

Starting point is 00:25:29 Makes sense. And how much time do people need to spend with these basic movements to start seeing results? Change happens at the speed of the nervous system. So depending on the person's issue, as soon as they press reset, it is like a system reboot or a system reset. Their squat can instantly change. Their aching knee can instantly go away. Their military press can instantly be 10 pounds heavier, depending on how strong they are. It is that fast and it's that simple. Now to keep those lasting changes, they just need to show up every day. One of the things I love about Dan John is he talks about showing up all the time, just be consistent, just show up. And really you're designed to show up every day. Anyway, you're designed to do these movements

Starting point is 00:26:11 every day anyway. So once you get them reintegrated back into your nervous system, it's just easy to maintain, but I guess starting out 10 minutes a day is, is great. Yeah, that's fantastic. And what would you recommend for people wanting to experience this? And feel free to tell them to go check out any resources you have so they can understand exactly what to do. But where should people start? If somebody's listening, thinking, sure, 10 minutes a day, if it delivers one-tenth of what Tim's talking about, that sounds pretty good to me. So I've got a book called Pressing Reset, Original Strength Reloaded. That's pretty much everything we're talking about, how to do it, why to do it, and how much to do it.

Starting point is 00:26:52 And it gives you a little routine in there to do too. So that's a great starting place. I've got another book called Discovering You that goes through a daily 10-minute program movement plan that you can do with these same movements in there. And that is literally designed to help you feel amazing every single day. I've got free YouTube videos on the Original Strength YouTube channel. There's probably three to 400 videos on that about how to roll, different ways to roll, different ways to rock, how to crawl, different ways to crawl, how to breathe, all that kind of stuff is on. And that's all free on YouTube.

Starting point is 00:27:23 Yeah, that's great. And if you were to give people a simple template, let's say they, I mean, some people are going to certainly grab a book and read it. Other people will go to YouTube first maybe. And what's a simple template for those 10 minutes? Okay. Spend your first couple of minutes breathing, then do some rolling, then do, you know what I mean? How would you program that? So I'm super simple. So we have five main resets. So I spend two minutes per reset. So 10 minutes, two minutes of diaphragmatic breathing in whatever position allows you to find your diaphragm the best, two minutes of eye and head nods, head rotations, two minutes of rolling around on

Starting point is 00:27:57 the floor, two minutes of rocking back and forth, and maybe two minutes of crawling. That's it. That's great. And so I'm assuming people could head over to your YouTube channel and you mentioned you have a lot of different variations of these things, but they could probably just grab something that makes sense to them, something simple, straightforward, and just start there, I would think, right? Yeah. So you could do what I just said right there just to improve the quality of your life. Once you get used to that, you can make it more challenging to like actually use it as a strength training template without going to the gym. Or if you wanted to enhance what you're doing at the gym, you could start pairing your, the movements that you like to do, like say barbell back squats with rocking, you know, you could superset the resets with the movement to clean up the movements

Starting point is 00:28:37 as you're doing it to keep your nervous system fresh so that you can actually do better. You've anticipated my next question. Is this something that people should do? There's probably no wrong way it sounds like per se, but what are some of the, I would say, team approved ways of using these techniques? Like for example, where I go to initially is like, oh, I would wake up and do my 10 minute routine first thing in the morning morning. I do a little, it's about 10 minutes, actually, some stretching. It's really just a few yoga poses that specifically have just helped with, I had an imbalance in my hips and it helped address just between internal and external rotation on the left and right side. It helped address that. I like to do things to open up my

Starting point is 00:29:20 shoulders. And again, it's like a 10-minute routine I do in the morning. So that's where I go. But it's interesting that you just mentioned, you also can do these things in between your lifting sets, which is probably not where a lot of people would go because a fair amount of people listening, I've spoken about this and written about it. So I think a fair amount of people listening know that it's not a good idea to do intense stretching in between weightlifting sets, for example, but this is not that. Right. No, no, this is not stretching. This is, it's like you're adding juice to your nervous system so that you can, like, if you're using it from a performance aspect, you're literally just turning up the volume on your nervous system so that your movements are crisp and clean and fresh and feel better. But from a daily standpoint,

Starting point is 00:30:01 I'm pro whatever works for the person. I find that most people, if they don't do it early in the morning, they lose it because the day takes advantage of them and they get behind and then it's just harder to overcome. It doesn't require in an absolute sense that much energy, but when it's 8 p.m. and you've had a long day, just getting off the couch can feel like a challenge. Yeah, because that gravitational pull of the couch, I mean, it does, but that's real. That's like most people, if they don't do it in the morning and start the day out right, the day gets ahead of them. And then it's just easy to let excuses happen or just, you know, life, life just gets in the way. But having said that, I have a lot of, a lot of friends that love to do it right before they go to bed because it improves how they sleep. I mean, for people listening, I guess, just to interject, I mean, it is something you could,

Starting point is 00:30:58 if you, let's say you're going to wind down and watch some TV at night or after dinner or whatever, I mean, you can't just get on the floor, right? And. So think about it though, like right before you go to bed, if you practiced diaphragmatic breathing for two minutes, or you say you rocked back and forth, which soothes your emotions and soothes your mind, rock back and forth for two minutes and then lay down and practice diaphragmatic breathing for two minutes while you're in bed. And then next thing you know, it's morning time. That sells me because as I've gotten older, I used to be an invincible sleeper when I've talked about this, these to be an invincible sleeper. When I've

Starting point is 00:31:25 talked about this, these days are over. But when I was in my late 20s, I was working most evenings and I'd work pretty late, maybe 11, 1130, go to bed by 1145, fall asleep in five minutes, blackout unconscious for six and a half hours, maybe six hours and 45 minutes. And that's how I would just naturally wake up. And that was it. I did that for years and years and with no symptoms of being underslept. But now that I'm 36 and I have two kids and I'm a lighter sleeper, I can't sleep through the night anymore. I mean, it just doesn't happen. It is truly a rare occasion. Now, fortunately, I'll wake up and I have to go to the bathroom maybe once or twice and I can fall back asleep so I can be rested and good. But I've noticed because of that, I need more sleep. Just wearing a sleep tracker, I need to make sure now that I'm probably seven and a half or so, that's good. Eight plus is a little bit better. I noticed that difference where when I was younger, I didn't notice it. And the quality of my sleep is just not exactly what it was when, I don't know, 10 years ago, it just has changed. So when you're talking about that to me, I'm like, yeah, sure.

Starting point is 00:32:34 I'm in. I'll try it. I look forward to hearing how it goes. The idea, it sounds relaxing if nothing else. Well, so then it takes sleep and it makes sleep the reset that it's supposed to be too though. So when you sleep well, if nothing else. Well, so then it takes sleep and it makes sleep the reset that it's supposed to be too, though. Like, so, you know, when you sleep well, everything functions better when you're not getting. Yeah, of course. I mean, I talk about that. I think that is, I'm not big on biohacking.

Starting point is 00:32:55 I think it's mostly bullshit, but getting enough sleep is, there it is. You want the ultimate biohack, life hack, one weird trick for doing anything you want to do better, it's get enough sleep. And I'm with you. I do not believe that the body is made to be hacked. I think that's crazy. Yeah. And you really, if you look at, I mean, fundamentally, I agree that the philosophy is a bit odd, but then if you actually look at a lot of the methods that are endorsed, it's mostly bullshit. It's mostly just marketing bullshit.

Starting point is 00:33:28 So that's the good thing about just moving how you're really made to move is that it's just natural and your body responds really well to what is designed to do because it's getting the information that it's looking for. And you had mentioned rocking in between sets of squatting and how that can help. What about a recommendation for something to do in between? If we just maybe stuck with the big lifts, right? We have the squat. A lot of people listening are squatting at least once a week, if not two or three times a week. They're deadlifting probably at least once a week. They're doing a fair amount of bench pressing, overhead pressing, you know, a lot of strength training with probably a little bit of bodybuilding kind of thrown into it. Do you have some recommendations for things they could do in between maybe sets of a bench press or an overhead press or a deadlift? Yeah. So, and you know, again, a reset's a reset. You might find that rocking cleans up all of those things for you. But if you're looking for more movement specific things, like you can pair, like say the bench press or the overhead press with head rotations while you're

Starting point is 00:34:29 on all fours, like looking over your shoulder, trying to find your back pockets with your head that frees up the neck, helps loosen up the shoulders. I mean, it's just, it's a tremendous movement. It might be that when you're doing deadlifts that you do head nods, the body follows the head. So turning on the anterior and the posterior chain through head nods before you pull something heavy up off the floor could be a great, great reset in between your deadlift sets. Nice. And I'm just envisioning doing that in the middle of the gym. I love it. Being on all fours, rocking, looking around. If you want to be less conspicuous with your deadlifts, you could like, you know,

Starting point is 00:35:02 when you hinge and grab the bar, you can get in your deadlifting position and do your head nods right there as a super set between your deadlift sets. And to be fair, these days, a lot of people are working out at home. They've figured out how to put together simple home gym setups. Yeah. Yeah. New world. Yeah, totally. And you've mentioned a few times about this idea of finding your reset, finding what works for you. And one thing might resolve a whole bunch of issues, or it may resolve a couple or may cause a couple of improvements, and then something else will change things in other ways. I'm just curious, what are people looking for then? Obviously, if there's a problem and doing something that you've talked

Starting point is 00:35:45 about makes the problem better, okay, that's obvious. But if there's not particularly a problem, are people looking for then something that just causes a noticeable positive change? I'm just curious because this idea of finding your reset for anybody wondering, how do I know if I have the ones that are good for me or should I just keep doing all of them? Just do all five. You're designed to do all five anyway. Every breath you take for your entire life is supposed to be a diaphragmatic resetting breath. It is. Every step you take through your entire life is supposed to use all four limbs. Walking is nothing more than crawling, standing up. It's supposed to be a reset. Walking is supposed to be the strength exercise that gets

Starting point is 00:36:29 you to be 99 years old with full health and vigor. So you just do them every day. And then eventually you won't have to set aside time to purposefully do them because they're just in your nervous system and you're going to be doing them anyway, just like you were supposed to do. I don't think we would be doing much crawling unless we intentionally did it. Right. But I mean, you, again, you could crawl for a strength training if you wanted to and get crazy strong, but that's a hard sell for a lot of people too, but no. So yeah, we're designed to walk, but the gait pattern is using four that mirror each other. And that keeps the brain healthy, keeps the brain from having issues when you get older, like it may help with a cognitive issues like dementia, things like that, but it definitely keeps the

Starting point is 00:37:09 body tied together also. I like it. I like it. Well, this was a great interview, Tim. I really appreciate you taking the time. Lots of interesting information and very practical takeaways. I know that there are quite a few people listening who are going to be checking out your stuff and setting aside 10 minutes a day to see what they can get from it. And again, I like the idea of doing a little pre-bed routine. That's cool. So thanks again for taking the time to do this. And let's let everybody know where they can find you. You mentioned, I believe, two of your books and you mentioned obviously the name of your company. But if you want to share with people the best

Starting point is 00:37:44 place to find all of your things, obviously your website and any social media platforms that you're active on. And if there's anything in particular, also like anything new and cool you have coming that you want people to know about. So we actually teach original strength to professionals, personal trainers, chiropractors, physical therapists, doctors, and we teach it all over the world. If you're interested in the courses and how to use it and how to help people with it you can go to originalstrength.net if you're interested in from an exercise standpoint or performance standpoint we have a website called osi-online.com we have follow along strength routines different modalities whatever you're into whether it's clubs kettlebellsbells, sandbags, whatever. And it's

Starting point is 00:38:25 basically how to marry your recess with those and, you know, follow, you know, do programs like that. And if you just want to learn how to, if you just want to feel good, just, and, you know, want to learn how to roll and crawl and stuff, just check out the YouTube channel, original strength, YouTube channel. That's great, man. Thanks a lot for doing this and everybody listening. Give it a try. Hey, it's 10 minutes a day. All right. Well, that's it for this episode. I hope you enjoyed it and found it interesting and helpful. And if you did, and you don't mind doing me a favor, please do leave a quick review on iTunes or wherever you're listening to me from in whichever app you're listening to me in,

Starting point is 00:39:05 because that not only convinces people that they should check out the show, it also increases search visibility. And thus it helps more people find their way to me and learn how to get fitter, leaner, stronger, healthier, and happier as well. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then simply subscribe to the podcast and you won't miss out on any new stuff. And if you didn't like something about the show, please do shoot me an email at mike at muscleforlife.com, just muscle, F-O-R, life.com, and share your thoughts on how I can do this better. I read everything myself and I'm always looking for constructive feedback, even if it is criticism, I'm open to it.

Starting point is 00:39:51 And of course you can email me if you have positive feedback as well, or if you have questions really relating to anything that you think I could help you with, definitely send me an email. That is the best way to get ahold of me, mikeatmustfullife.com. And that's it. Thanks again for listening to this episode, and I hope to hear from you soon.

Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Tim Anderson on the Power of “Movement Resets”

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