Troubleshoot your human machine and resolve the deeper alignment issues affecting your health.

Through her blog, Katy Says, biomechnist Katy Bowman has been educating hundreds of thousands of people about optimal alignment and natural movement since 2007. Alignment Matters contains the first five years of her short essays, in an easy-to-follow format. Starting with the feet and working all the way up to the head, Bowman's clear, enaging text lays out a 'user's manual' for the human body, including stretches, habit modifications, spiritual insights, and enough belly laughs to soften even the tightest psoas.

Couch potatoes, professional athletes, and everyone in between all have something to learn about their bodies. With Alignment Matters, they will be well on their way to understanding the human machine.

Katy has charmed and educated all body nerds for years with her unstoppable imagination and barrier-breaking communication skills...You will find yourself engrossed by her seamless intertwining of biomechanical authenticity, humbleness, humor and humanity.-Jill Miller, Creator of Yoga Tune Up, Co-founder of Tune Up Fitness Worldwide.

Calling on science and her own sparkling wit, Katy gives brilliant insight into the 'hows' of moving beyond a chair-bound culture to reclaim whole-body vitality.-Paul and Gail Dennison, creators of the Brain Gym program for movement-based learning.

Without the information from this book...my body would not allow me to pursue my fitness goals and be strong enough for the task of raising my four active kids.-Kara Douglas Thorn, co-author of Hot (Sweaty) Mamas: Five Secrets to Life as a Fit Mom

Contents

Introductions
Feet and shoes (and what gets stacked onto them)
Knees, hips, ad back
Pelvic floor (and what gets stacked onto it)
Gettting to the CORE of it
For the ladies
Arms, elbows, wrists, and hands
Shoulders (and what gets stacked onto them)
Pregnancey, childbirth, babies, and children
Walking and gait
Cardiovascular system
Returning to natural movement
Your body-the big picture
Mind mechanics
Motivation/When you need a kick in the pants
Miscellany
Resources
Credits
Index

This may be the most important book I read this year. A collection of Katy Says blogs, the format isn't my favorite. Also, it would have been nice to have a proper illustration of the human anatomy in it to refer to, especially the bones and muscles. A book which was more informative and organized by the issue would suit my style better. However, in spite of the bloggy cheerful, chattiness, I kept reading because this is good stuff. Foundation of health stuff.

I have suspected that there was something I was doing wrong physically, because all of my pain issues seemed to occur on my right side. Plantar fasciitis symptoms, sciatic nerve issues, wonky knee, all on my right side. My chiropractor, doctor and physical therapist could only tell me how to "try" to get rid of these pains. They couldn't tell me why I was getting them on my right side. Low and behold, after reading the first few "blogs" in this book, it all became crystal clear. I was walking with my feet out (especially my right foot) and tilted. Not aligned. I knew I did this, but it didn't occur to me how important it was. The book moves through the body, pointing out correct alignment and how to stretch each muscle to achieve proper alignment. This is mind bending stuff. Took me two months to read, because as I read I was working on changing my movement habits of a lifetime. I guess I will spend the rest of my lifetime working on my movement habits. In two months, I can feel the difference. My feet are sore, but sore from muscle usage, nothing a little massage and stretching can't take care of. I haven't had a sciatic twinge, although I can still feel that the muscles there need to be loosened. It's amazing folks. My next step will be to look at her other books and see if I can find one not written as blogs. Also to sit down and write out my movement/health goals for the year. An inspiring read that I will refer to often. ( )

I recommend this book to every single person. Katy Bowman is a biomechanist who has devoted her career to curating scientific research (she reads roughly 1500 journal articles, across multiple disciplines a year!) and educating the masses in an entertaining way. Her main message is: if you spend the majority of your time with your body in proper alignment (and what you think is proper alignment, probably isn’t), and get consistent movement, then you will minimize your risk in contracting a whole host of modern diseases including: foot, knee, back, hip or neck pain, osteoporosis, heart disease, fertility, pelvic floor disorder, dysmenorrhea, menorrhagia.

I have bought a few of her videos, and in doing the exercises and paying attention throughout the day to how I stand and sit, I have significantly improved many issues. I will not go into details because it is a bit TMI that I don’t want to share with the entire internet, but suffice it to say that primarily calf and hamstring stretches relieved symptoms that seemingly had nothing to do with the calf and hamstrings. Starting from the feet and lengthening the proper muscles, allows for proper alignment that fixes problems higher up. The stretches she recommends are just slightly different than anything I have been exposed to (and I have a fairly wide breadth of knowledge and experience in regards to various fitness paradigms, etc). Those differences provide amazingly significant results.

This book is a collection of five years of blog posts that have been grouped into related topics. I wasn't sure if it was necessary to buy the book and spent a few weeks reading her blog (www.katysays.com) first. The book is more organized than the blog which makes reading related ideas easier and ensures that you don’t miss some stuff. Also there IS some content in the book that is not available on the current blog.

Get this book, and her other book, read the newer entries on her blog, follow her on Facebook, watch her YouTube channel, listen to her interviews, buy some of her videos. All of it is immensely fascinating, often humorous, and most likely will make your quality of life significantly better now and in the long run. ( )