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“Promoting the World’s 21st Century Challenge: | ||||||||||||||||||
| Wave of the Future: Aligning with our Past From navigating the Australian outback, to scaling the mountains in the Andes and the Himalayas, to trekking vessels of water and baskets of goods across sub-Saharan Africa, the world’s traditional cultures have evolved ways of moving to sustain life and maintain health which have served for centuries, and which have much to offer our comparatively sedentary civilized society. In particular, as regards skeletal health, it is notable that African women have the world’s lowest incidence of bone fractures. Yet we all share the same gravitational field (save for astronauts, who return to earth with bone loss of as much as 2% per month). Could it be that there is wisdom in the water carrier’s walk? That by modeling their manner of moving, as nature meant, and adopting attributes of their graceful gait, we, too, can strengthen our bodies, reversing bone loss and increasing bone resiliency, while we restore our health and boost our biological optimism in the face of our culture’s current concern with osteoporosis? This is the working premise of Bones for Life® [BFL] — an experiential training in optimal human biomechanics, whose precise, practical, hands-on approach to autonomous mastery of posture and movement is being championed in the United States and Canada by our growing organization. FMI’s aim is to spread the word about this innovative life-enhancing program, promoting its teachings, and encouraging its recognition, investigation, and acceptance among academic, scientific, research, and medical centers throughout North America. | The BFL program’s key concern is with safety. As an initial step in attaining and maintaining an optimal weight-bearing posture, you learn to align your spine with its innate design, so as to protect its vulnerable joints from injury. Then, later, while intelligently “using your head” — literally — to sustain bone-strengthening loads, you learn to walk once more as nature intended, allowing yourself to lengthen while you strengthen, and improve while you move. How does this help your bones? Bones are constantly remodeling; osteoclasts break down old tissue, while osteoblasts generate healthy new cells. When we learn to walk again with a dynamic spring in our step, as humankind has done for centuries, the rhythmic pulsations stimulate growth, fortifying bone tissue in accordance with Wolff’s Law. With this age-old answer to the modern mystery of osteoporosis we are already achieving some remarkable results. For improved health and well-being, we invite you to safely explore integrated patterns of natural movement and weight-bearing posture embodied by indigenous people worldwide, and enhance your body’s innate intelligence — at the personal as well as at the cellular level. | ||||||||||||||||
FMI ° P.O. Box 694 ° Portland, ME ° 04104 © 2008 Foundation for Movement Intelligence | ||||||||||||||||||