The One Resting Posture Your Body Forgot After 60 (It's Not a Stretch) — Transcript

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1. 0:01Sometime after 60, most of us quietly
2. 0:03stopped getting all the way down to the
3. 0:05floor. Not [music] because we decided
4. 0:07to, we just stopped and the body took
5. 0:10the hint. [music] What I'm about to show
6. 0:12you isn't a stretch. It isn't a workout.
7. 0:16It's a resting position you already
8. 0:17owned for the first 30 years of your
9. 0:20life. And I think you can own it again.
10. 0:23You know the moment. I mean, you're
11. 0:25rising from a low couch and your hand
12. 0:27reaches for the armrest before you've
13. 0:29even decided to. You lower yourself to
14. 0:32pick something off the floor and there's
15. 0:33a small sound now on the way back up. A
16. 0:36sound that wasn't there 10 [music] years
17. 0:38ago. Maybe you're pushing up from a low
18. 0:40garden bed, one hand pressed on your
19. 0:43thigh for leverage, or a grandchild
20. 0:45wants you down on the carpet, and part
21. 0:47of you [music] quietly does the math.
22. 0:49How am I going to get back up? None of
23. 0:52that is weakness.
24. 0:53>> [music]
25. 0:53>> It's a posture your body is filed away
26. 0:56because you stopped asking for it. I
27. 0:58stopped asking for it too. And then I
28. 1:01found out what happens when you ask
29. 1:02again. I want to be honest about what
30. 1:05took me by surprise because it changed
31. 1:07how I thought about my own aging. There
32. 1:10are three things here. The first is what
33. 1:12this position actually is and it's older
34. 1:15and stranger than do a squat. The second
35. 1:18is why the body abandons it right around
36. 1:21our age, almost on a schedule, [music]
37. 1:23and why that reason is oddly good news.
38. 1:27And the third [music] is the one thing
39. 1:28that makes this feel impossible on the
40. 1:30first try. The thing that had me holding
41. 1:33a door frame like a man on a ship and
42. 1:35exactly [music] how to take it apart so
43. 1:37your body cooperates. Stay with me
44. 1:40because the third one is where most
45. 1:42people quit and it's the part nobody
46. 1:44explains. So here's the position. It's
47. 1:47the deep resting squat. All the way
48. 1:50down, hips low, heels flat, sitting
49. 1:53between your own feet. And I already
50. 1:55know the face you might be making
51. 1:57[music] because I made it, too. That's
52. 1:59not for me. My knees, my balance, I'm
53. 2:02past that. But stay with the reframe for
54. 2:05one moment because it [music] matters.
55. 2:07This is not an athletic feat. It is the
56. 2:10oldest resting position there is. Before
57. 2:13there were chairs, before any of us had
58. 2:15a couch to sink into, [music]
59. 2:16this is simply how human beings sat.
60. 2:19Waiting, cooking, talking, resting. Your
61. 2:23body isn't being asked to perform.
62. 2:25[music] It's being asked to remember. In
63. 2:28the older traditions, it even has a
64. 2:30name. In the yogic world, it's called
65. 2:32[music] malasana, the garland pose. And
66. 2:35it wasn't treated as a stretch or a
67. 2:37shape to achieve. It was a place you
68. 2:40rested in, sometimes for long stretches,
69. 2:43the way you might settle into a favorite
70. 2:45chair. You still see it today across
71. 2:47much of the world. People in their 70s
72. 2:50and 80s folding down into this position
73. 2:52at a market or a doorway without a
74. 2:55second thought, then rising out of it
75. 2:57without a hand for support. They never
76. 3:00filed it away. We did. Somewhere between
77. 3:04the office chair, the car seat, and the
78. 3:06recliner, we handed the job of holding
79. 3:08[music] us up to furniture. And the
80. 3:10body, grateful for the rest, let the
81. 3:13skill go quiet. So when the title says,
82. 3:16"Your body forgot this posture." I mean
83. 3:19that almost literally. The capacity is
84. 3:22still in there. It's the memory of using
85. 3:24it that faded. Here's the part nobody
86. 3:26[music] told me, and it's the reason I
87. 3:29kept going. Your hips didn't rust. They
88. 3:33went unused. [music]
89. 3:34And unused is a completely different
90. 3:36problem than broken because unused is
91. 3:39reversible. When you stop taking a joint
92. 3:42through its full range, the body being
93. 3:44efficient stops maintaining what you
94. 3:47don't seem to need. The ankles lose a
95. 3:50little bend. The hips lose a little
96. 3:52depth. The tissue around them tightens
97. 3:55to match the smaller life you've been
98. 3:57asking for. None of that is damage. It's
99. 4:00the body listening a little too well and
100. 4:03it [music] listens just as closely when
101. 4:05you start asking for the range back.
102. 4:07That's the whole reason this works at
103. 4:09our age at all. There's a piece of
104. 4:12research worth mentioning carefully
105. 4:14here. Scientists [music] looked at how
106. 4:16well people could lower themselves to
107. 4:18the floor and rise back up using [music]
108. 4:20as few supports as possible. No hand, no
109. 4:23knee down if you could manage it. And
110. 4:26they found a link. [music] The people
111. 4:28who could do it with less help tended to
112. 4:30live longer than those who [music]
113. 4:31needed more. Now, I want to be careful
114. 4:34with that. It's an association, not a
115. 4:37promise. Sitting down to the floor is
116. 4:39not a magic switch for your lifespan,
117. 4:41[music] but it tells you something real.
118. 4:44The ability to get down to the ground
119. 4:46and back up under your own power is
120. 4:48quietly tangled up with how well the
121. 4:50whole body is aging. And that ability is
122. 4:53exactly what this posture keeps alive.
123. 4:56So, let me show you how to actually get
124. 4:58there. Because the wrong way is to drop
125. 5:01into a full squat on day one, wobble,
126. 5:04panic, and decide it's not for you.
127. 5:07We're going to take it apart. First,
128. 5:09give your heels something to stand on.
129. 5:11Roll a towel or use the thin edge of a
130. 5:14book and let your heels rest up on it.
131. 5:17That small lift does most of the work
132. 5:19your stiff ankles can't do yet, and it
133. 5:21[music] changes everything about how the
134. 5:23position feels.
135. 5:25Second, put a sturdy chair in front of
136. 5:27you and keep both hands on the seat. The
137. 5:30chair isn't cheating. The chair is what
138. 5:32lets you lower slowly instead [music] of
139. 5:34dropping the last few inches. And third,
140. 5:37stand close to a wall if your balance is
141. 5:40uncertain. [music] So there's always
142. 5:41something a few inches behind you. Now
143. 5:44from there, you don't go all the way
144. 5:46down. You go only as far as today
145. 5:49allows. You bend the knees, keep the
146. 5:51chest tall, and let your hips travel
147. 5:53down toward the floor. [music] An inch
148. 5:55is fine, 3 in is wonderful. And the
149. 5:58moment you feel your heels want to lift
150. 6:00or your lower back want to round, you
151. 6:02stop. That's your edge for today, and
152. 6:05it's the right place to be. You hold
153. 6:07there for one slow breath, feeling the
154. 6:10weight settle into your feet. And then
155. 6:12you rise, using [music] the chair as
156. 6:14much as you need. That's the whole
157. 6:16thing. down as far as today allows. One
158. 6:19breath [music] and up. And honestly, try
159. 6:22the first inch of it right now, wherever
160. 6:24you are. Stand up, rest a hand on the
161. 6:27back of a chair [music] or the kitchen
162. 6:28counter, and just let your hips sink an
163. 6:30inch toward the floor and come back one
164. 6:33time. Feel where your body says that's
165. 6:35enough for now. That spot, that's your
166. 6:38day one. Everything we're doing is about
167. 6:41that spot moving lower on its own, a
168. 6:43little at a time. Let me tell you what
169. 6:46it was actually like for me because the
170. 6:48honest version is more useful than the
171. 6:50polished one. Day one, I got down maybe
172. 6:544 in. Both hands white knuckled on a
173. 6:57chair. Ankles that felt like they
174. 6:59belonged to someone else. It was
175. 7:01humbling. I nearly talked myself out of
176. 7:04it right there. By the end of the first
177. 7:06week, and this genuinely surprised me,
178. 7:09the heels stopped fighting me. I could
179. 7:11feel them [music] settling a little
180. 7:13closer to the floor. I needed the chair
181. 7:15a touch less on the way down and the
182. 7:17whole thing started to feel less like a
183. 7:19test and more like sitting. By day 30,
184. 7:23the [music] change wasn't dramatic, and
185. 7:25I want to be truthful about that, but it
186. 7:27was real. Lowering myself to the floor
187. 7:30had stopped being an event I braced for.
188. 7:33I could get down to play a board game on
189. 7:35the carpet and get back up without the
190. 7:37sound, without the plan, without the
191. 7:39reach for the wall. That's it. That's
192. 7:43the whole reward. And after 60, it's an
193. 7:45enormous one. So, here's what I'd love
194. 7:48from you. Try that first inch today
195. 7:50[music] and tell me in the comments how
196. 7:52far down you got. Heels up or heels flat
197. 7:56on the floor. Be honest, mine were up
198. 7:59for weeks. I read them and there's
199. 8:01something quietly encouraging about
200. 8:03seeing where everyone starts because the
201. 8:06point was never a perfect squat. The
202. 8:08point is that the position isn't gone.
203. 8:11It was only waiting for you to ask for
204. 8:13it again.