Nutritious Movement - Daily Movement Multivitamin

I debated buying this DVD for some time. I am a fan of Katy Bowman, a Biomechanical Scientist who espouses the benefits of "Nutritious Movement." She is the author of several books as well as the now-defunct blog "Katy Says." She also has several other video releases, including a series of short "Alignment Snacks" available to download from her web site. I purchased several Alignment Snacks and liked them, but it wasn't until I recently read her book based on her blog, Alignment Matters: The First Five Years of Katy Says, that I decided to go ahead and purchase this DVD.

Bowman is not a huge fan of traditional exercise; rather, she advocates moving more, especially in the natural ways of our ancestors. However, she does emphasize the important of stretching as part of movement, and thus her "Daily Movement Multivitamin" contains stretches that she recommends to do daily. The stretches on this DVD are broken up into two routines, but in her short introduction, Bowman emphasizes that it is preferable to spread stretching throughout the day. The Main Menu of the DVD reads as follows:

Play Entire DVD

Standing Exercises

Floor Exercises

All Exercises

Alignment Makeover

Quick Alignment

Bonus Feature: What is Nutritious Movement

Download Printable Handout

If you choose the "Play Entire DVD" option, after the introduction, the Alignment Makeover section comes first. These are five very short (25-45 seconds) segments in which Bowman explains some key alignment adjustments using a helper who demonstrates. The adjustments are Fix Your Feet, Back Up Your Hips, Find Neutral Knees, Align Your Ribs, and Ramp Your Head. In the Quick Alignment section, she reviews all five of these principles together.

I received a copy of the printable handout with my DVD. I will list the exercises as they appear on both the DVD and handout, specifying the Standing or Floor segment; I'm also providing brief descriptions of each.

STANDING (20:48 min; Bowman states focuses on lower body and good to use in a.m.; requires chair plus half-dome or towel)

Head Hang - drop chin towards chest

Head Ramp - back chin up to stack ears over shoulders

Knee Cap Release - relax knee caps

Calf Stretch - single calf stretch with ball of foot on half dome

Pelvic List - lift straight let by activating hip

Top of Foot Stretch - stretch toes behind, tucking foot under

Toe Exercises - work to lift toes individually

Double Calf Stretch - balls of both feet on half-dome, hands on chair/other

Thoracic Stretch - hands on chair/other, arms straight

FLOOR EXERCISES (29:28 min; Bowman states focus is on torso; need strap, block, & bolster or substitutes)

Rhomboid Push-Up - from all 4s, protract/retract shoulder blades

Strap Stretch - straight leg lying hamstring stretch

Abdominal Release - from all 4s, relax belly

Floor Angel - lying on back with shoulders on bolster, slide arms up and down

Crescent Stretch - lying on back, form lateral c-curve or banana

Hand Stretch - stretch individual fingers and wrists

Knee Squeeze - lying with block between knees, ankles apart

Spinal Twist - lying one-leg spinal twist

Legs on the Wall - legs relax up against a wall in a wide V position

In general, I liked the sequence of stretches. Most of them did not feel very intense to me (I am a daily exerciser and a yoga instructor), but I could see how they could be helpful. There were a couple of things I did not like. First, Bowman instructs via voiceover. All of the other videos I have done with her have been live, and I didn't like her more formal, produced style here. Second, the music is awful! It is just the same string over and over, very annoyingly repetitive. I definitely think that the routines would have been much better had Bowman teaching live with no music (or at least a music off option). Still, this is a very solid overall DVD, and I would recommend it.