Katy Says With Katy Bowman

Cycling is fantastic for cardiovascular fitness, endurance, and getting around—but what happens when it becomes your main form of movement? In this episode, Katy Bowman and Dr. Jeannette Loram explore how cycling shapes the body, from bone health and posture to hip mobility, spinal curves, and pelvic comfort. They discuss why even healthy forms of exercise don't provide every movement nutrient you need, and share practical strategies to help cyclists enjoy the ride while supporting long-term strength, mobility, and resilience.Plus Katy speaks with Tyler Benner, founder of Strong Feet Athletics, about the role of the feet in cycling and what happens when we lock them into rigid compressive cycling shoes for hours at a time. They explore the benefits of a more foot-shaped, flexible cycling shoe and how allowing the feet more freedom may help support lower limb function both on and off the bike.Enhanced Show Notes and Full Transcript0:22 — Dynamic Collective Sponsors2:37 — Introduction to Cycling, the Movement D

What if one simple cue could change the way you walk? In this episode, Katy introduces movement mantras—easy-to-remember prompts that help you improve your gait one step at a time. Learn how small changes to posture, arm swing, push-off, foot placement, and even the routes you choose can make walking feel stronger, smoother, and more comfortable.Plus, Katy and Jeannette talk with the team behind Freet Barefoot about walking culture, healthy footwear, and hiking in all kinds of terrain, before answering a listener question on vibration plates and lymphatic drainage.Enhanced Show Notes and Full Transcript0:00 — Intro & encouraging kids to walk7:15 — Dynamic Collective Sponsors14:20 — The “Mental Ten” for better walking15:00 — Movement mantras for posture, arm swing and push-off18:15 —Vary your route, vary your carry21:25 — Freet Barefoot and walking culture23:00 — The story behind Freet Barefoot 31:05 — Multi-day walks, footwear and foot strength 37:50 — Walking culture and ‘Rights to Roam’ in the UK 43:05

Biomechanist Katy Bowman and biologist Dr. Jeannette Loram unpack emerging research on heart disease, inflammation, cholesterol, and arterial plaque. Inspired by a recent Scientific American article, they explore what plaque is, how and why it forms, and how blood flow patterns influence where plaque accumulates in the arteries. They discuss recent evidence that places inflammation as a foundational piece of heart disease and how the ‘spiky’ shape and structure of cholesterol in plaque has a direct role in the inflammatory pathways and immune system overreactions that occur in heart disease. Katy and Jeannette offer practical insights into how regular activity, varied positioning, and lifestyle choices can help support healthy arteries. They also discuss the importance of scientific curiosity, prevention over treatment, and why understanding the body's processes can inspire better self-care.Enhanced Show Notes and Full Transcript0:00 — Introduction:  the Scientific American article on heart inflammation3:43 —

This is the Men’s Health episode in honour of Father’s Day this month.Biomechanist Katy Bowman and biologist Dr Jeannette Loram discuss health issues more common in male bodies, including abdominal aortic aneurysms, type 2 diabetes, gout, and male pelvic health.Drawing on anatomy, physiology, and lifestyle habits, they explore why men may be more susceptible to these conditions and offer movement and lifestyle solutions to consider. They also take a deeper look at the relationships between abdominal aortic aneurysms, pelvic health, and how chair sitting and sedentary lifestyles may affect both.Whether you're interested in men's health or caring for the men in your life, this episode offers a fresh perspective on common health challenges through a movement lens.Enhanced Show Notes and Full Transcript0:00 — Intro and welcome.2:40 — Conditions more common in men: abdominal aortic aneurysms, diabetes, gout, and testicular issues.3:40 — Thanks to our sponsors: the Dynamic Collective.6:20 — What is an abdominal aor

Biomechanist Katy Bowman and biologist Dr Jeannette Loram explore the fascinating world of vibration: the benefits and costs of impact to the body and the importance of sensing vibration in humans and other animals.Katy and Jeannette discuss how foot impacts during walking may actually form part of the brain’s circulatory system. They also unpack the science of vibration plates and whether they are useful for muscle strength, bone health, and balance. The conversation then turns to running, exploring how it generates vibrations through the body’s soft tissues, how these vibrations may affect performance, and what runners can do about it. Finally, they share some remarkable examples of vibration sensing in animals and consider how modern lifestyles may limit this sense in humans.The discussion on impact and contact with the ground continues with Mike Dally of Earth Runners®, creators of minimalist earthing sandals. Katy and Mike talk about the aims of minimalist footwear in reducing interference between the fo

Biomechanist Katy Bowman speaks with physical therapist Dr Anietie (Tia) Ukpe-Wallace about pelvic health, movement, and self-care.They discuss Tia’s recent book, Tending To Your Womb, a guide to caring for the uterus and pelvic tissues through awareness, movement, and practical self-care strategies. In this episode, Katy and Tia focus on movement-based approaches for uterine retroversion, a pelvic misalignment that can contribute to sacral pain, sciatic symptoms, and constipation.They also explore clitoral atrophy — a reduction in tissue size, tone, and flexibility that can occur during menopause — and share movement and self-care practices to help maintain mobility and function.Tune in and join in for a guided pelvic clock movement sequence taught by Tia.Enhanced Show Notes and Full Transcript0:00 Intro & New Dynamic Collective6:56 Meet Dr. Tia Ukpe-Wallace9:49 Misalignments of the uterus15:30 Symptoms of a retroverted uterus: constipation, sacral pain & sciatica19:55 The pelvic clock: join in with

Biomechanist Katy Bowman speaks with gerontologist and author Dr. Kerry Burnight about her concept of joyspan—a missing piece in how we think about aging well.We often hear about lifespan (how long we live) and healthspan (how long we stay physically well), but what about the quality of those years? Dr. Burnight introduces joyspan as our capacity to experience a meaningful, fulfilling life as we age. In this framework, joy is not simple happiness, but a deeper sense of wellbeing that can coexist with challenge, grief, and change.Katy and Dr. Burnight explore the Joyspan Matrix—Give, Connect, Adapt, and Grow—and how these actions enable us to thrive as we age. Rather than viewing aging as inevitable decline they discuss aging as development, the positives of aging and how to step into eldership.Katy also speaks with our sponsor, Sohail Shariff of Movemate, creators of a unique dynamic wooden standing board that provides continuous, wave-like movement in the body while you are working at your desk or at home.Th

Frailty isn’t just something that happens “later”; it’s a gradual loss of resilience that can begin much earlier than most people think. Katy Bowman and Dr. Jeannette Loram unpack what frailty and pre-frailty mean biologically. They explore the five key hallmarks used to identify frailty, including walking speed and grip strength, and how a large proportion of people in their 30s and 40s already fall on the spectrum of pre-frailty.The conversation also explores the muscle–gut connection, explaining how frailty is influenced by exercise, diet, and the health of your microbiome. Katy and Jeannette also discuss the potential for rapid-onset frailty linked to the use of GLP-1 medications.Most importantly, frailty can be reversed and this episode focuses on what you can do. From simple ways to improve resilience through movement, nutrition, and rest, to understanding how your attitude toward aging might influence your resilienceEnhanced Show Notes and Full Transcript00:00 – Intro + Sponsors  01:30 – What Is Frailt

Inspired by a moving letter from a parent of an adult son with autism, biomechanist Katy Bowman and biologist Dr. Jeannette Loram explore the relationship between movement, health, and quality of life for people with disabilities.They are joined by Kristina Montgomery, a special education teacher at a school for children and young adults affected by autism, and a behavior analyst working with Essential for Living, a curriculum designed for those with learning difficulties. Through her work, Kristina teaches an event-based approach to learning—one that moves away from abstract, isolated skills and instead “stacks” goals within meaningful, naturally occurring events. This approach supports not only skill development, but also health, social inclusion, and caregiver sustainability.Together, they discuss the importance of choosing activities that are meaningful to the learner both in the moment and for future independence, and the shift from instructing a task to modeling it alongside the student. Kristina also s

We dive into the often-overlooked topic of amenorrhea: the absence of menstruation. Biomechanist Katy Bowman and biologist Dr. Jeannette Loram unpack the science with a focus on Functional Hypothalamic Amenorrhea (FHA) linked to energy deficiency in athletes. They explore how intense training and and sport pressures around leanness or weight can disrupt regular hormonal signals, affecting long-term bone density, cardiovascular health, and performance. They also discuss the original concept of the Female Athlete Triad (low energy availability, menstrual dysfunction, and low bone mineral density) and its evolution into RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport), a more holistic model encompassing many aspects of health and wellbeing.The conversation expands into evolutionary perspectives, comparing Western menstrual experiences—from menarche to menopause—with those of hunter-gatherer populations like the Hadza, and questioning what “normal” really means. Ultimately, this episode reframes intense athletics as a

Biomechanist Katy Bowman and biologist Dr. Jeannette Loram explain how just nine minutes of vigorous activity can make a measurable difference for your cardiovascular health. They break down what counts as vigorous exercise, how to gauge it “old skool” without complicated gadgets, and how much is needed based on the movement patterns of the heart-healthy Hadza. Plus, they share nine practical ways to fit short bursts of higher-intensity movement into your day, from running stairs and kitchen dance parties to treading water in a pool.The episode also explores a personal experience related to the menopause transition, including the onset of salt sensitivity, water retention, and hypertension. Katy and Jeannette discuss the link between estrogen and salt management, explaining why the loss of estrogen can make women more susceptible to salt-induced high blood pressure—and what lifestyle shifts can help protect heart health.Enhanced Show Notes and Full Transcript00:00 — Introduction & Sponsors01:50 — Heart He

Biomechanist Katy Bowman and biologist Dr. Jeannette Loram explore the prevalence and underlying causes of knee issues, from popping and noisy knees to everyday pain and osteoarthritis. The knee is not just a simple hinge, and Katy explains its anatomy using a helpful “cube” model that includes bones, ligaments, cartilage, and the meniscus. Together, they clarify the difference between osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis and examine how movement patterns influence the forces and loads placed across the knee joint. Katy and Jeannette share practical strategies for changing knee loading through gait retraining, along with tools to improve muscle strength, stability, and proprioception to help protect ligaments and cartilage. They also discuss why women tend to experience more knee problems due to hormonal and biomechanical factors, and why prehab and post-surgery exercise training play a critical role in achieving better outcomes after knee surgery.Enhanced Show Notes and Full Transcript 00:00 Introduction:

Set yourself up for success: how to create a sustainable movement plan. We walk through their own real-life movement plans to explore the three things every movement plan needs: a clear focus, a small set of daily “ride-or-die” exercises linked to that focus, and movement integrated across the many domains of life—not just exercise.This episode offers a practical, honest look at how to build a sustainable movement plan that actually works, highlighting flexible planning and simple environmental makeovers that reduce resistance and make movement easier to return to—again and again.Enhanced Show Notes and Full Transcript00:12 Movement Plan Introduction00:45 Resources for Your Movement Plan01:30 Sponsor Acknowledgements02:50 The Three Movement Plan Must-Haves03:50 The First Essential: A Movement Focus You Re-Evaluate06:25 Daily “Ride-or-Die” Exercises10:30 Psychological Flexibility: Why Time Targets Often Backfire19:18 Containers for Movement: Exploring the SLOTH Model20:13 Sleep, Repetitive Positioning, and Sup

How cold affects muscles, blood flow, and cardiovascular risk—plus practical ways to keep moving safely indoors and out. Biomechanist Katy Bowman and biologist Dr. Jeannette Loram explore how cold air and cold water affect muscle function, blood flow, heart rate, and blood pressure during exercise. They unpack how vasoconstriction increases cardiovascular demand, and why activities like snow shoveling and cold-water swimming carry specific risks. The episode also offers practical strategies for continuing to move safely outdoors throughout the winter months.Even when winter keeps many of us indoors, movement doesn’t have to disappear. Karri Bowen-Poole of Smart Playrooms joins Katy to discuss how indoor spaces can be designed to encourage movement for kids, teens, and adults. They share ideas for simple, versatile equipment that supports strength, coordination, and play, explain why visible and aesthetically pleasing setups matter, and describe how rotating movement tools over time helps sustain interest as n

As we wrap up 2025, we’re doing a shortened version of our annual recap—part reflection, part intention. Katy and Jeannette share their biggest movement wins, smartest health decisions, and one-word themes for the year, then look ahead to what they’re prioritizing in 2026 (strength, power, simplicity, and efficiency). Then we distill the past year’s episodes into a clear set of movement rules for 2026 including: movement works locally (not just systemically), the 5 S’s of aging (strong, steady, straight, supple, swift) and the reminder that there will always be something else… move anyway.If you only listen to one episode to catch up on the year and set your movement intentions for the next, make it this one.Enhanced Show Notes and Full Transcript06:25 Katy and Jeannette review 2025 and look ahead to 202620:40 The Dynamic Collective22:36 Movement Rule Number One: Movement works locally, not just systemically32:05 Movement Rule Number Two: You should be getting the 5 S's of aging38:46 Movement Rule Number Thre

Katy offers an aging reframe: in middle age, you are not “over the hill”—you are actually at the bottom of a valley, and staying strong and healthy means choosing to go uphill on purpose. Katy and Jeannette unpack the difference between chronological age and biological aging, why modern life may be speeding up the aging process, and how movement and exercise positively influence the cellular “hallmarks of aging.” They explore why exercise needs to increase with age (even when life gets busier and energy feels lower), and how reframing discomfort can make consistency possible—so you can extend not just your lifespan, but your healthspan, too.Katy also speaks with Pack Matthews of Ikaria Design (creator of the Soul Seat) about “active sitting” and why our rest positions matter as we age. Pack shares his personal origin story—using floor-sitting and dynamic postures to counter arthritis. They also preview the upcoming Soul Seat Mini for the smaller people in your life and explore its role in dynamic classrooms.E

Katy & Jeannette dive into the question: can movement really change your DNA? Using clear analogies—like libraries, recipes, and sticky notes—they unpack what DNA is, how gene expression works, and what we really mean by epigenetics (the “on top of” changes that influence which genes get used). They explore how exercise can turn the “volume up or down” on metabolic genes, pro-inflammatory markers, and stress protein genes, and how many of these changes involve altering the arrangement and access to DNA within your cells.Using another accessible analogy of spider webs, they explore how forces on cells (through mechanotransduction) act as a powerful, non-chemical “nutrient” that can literally move your DNA and alter epigenetics and gene expression. This is why exercise and everyday movement not only have systemic benefits but also site-specific effects—and why the distribution of movement throughout your body matters just as much as how much you move.Enhanced Show Notes and Full Transcript00:00:23 “You can’

Katy and Jeannette explore why proper recovery is just as important as your workouts. They explain how short-term recovery between repetitions or intervals restores homeostasis—the steady state of your cells—allowing you to continue a training session effectively. Over the longer term, recovery after vigorous activity supports tissue repair and adaptation, helping your muscles and connective tissues strengthen. Without sufficient recovery, training plateaus can occur, and your risk of illness may increase. Finally, they discuss rest as an essential part of recovery and share strategies such as cross-training, stretching, and massage to support the body’s repair and adaptation processes.Katy talks with Jim Leuty of My Happy Feet Alignment Socks, a simple and effective recovery tool that gently stretches and realigns toes while you rest! Toe-spacers are part of the recovery routine for performers like Taylor Swift, who dance in high heels—and they’re helpful for everyone, particularly if you spend long hours on

What does it mean to raise — or be — a “spicy one”? In this deeply honest and energizing conversation, Katy Bowman and author Mary Van Geffen unpack what it’s like to parent strong-willed, big-feeling kids (and stay sane while doing it). They discuss how movement can support self-regulation and co-regulation, helping both parent and child navigate intensity with compassion and humor. Together, they look at the role of movement before, during, and after heated moments — as well as the art of knowing when to walk away. This episode offers practical wisdom for growing your “calm muscle” and showing up as the safest person in the room.Jeannette chats with inventor, designer, and athlete Tyler Benner of Venn Design — the creative mind behind movement-friendly furniture like the Air Chair and the revolutionary barefoot cycling shoe. They explore Tyler’s “genius energy” and how movement awareness informs everything he creates, from furniture to archery tools and innovative footwear. Enhanced Show Notes and Full Tran

I don’t have time to exercise.” Sound familiar? In this episode, Katy Bowman talks with clinical psychologist and author Dr. Diana Hill about one of the most common barriers to movement—and why it’s really an issue of energy management and prioritization, not time. Drawing from her books Wise Effort and I Know I Should Exercise, But... Dr. Hill shares how recognizing “choice points” throughout your day can help you move past procrastination and toward the exercise you truly want to do. Through practical psychology and real-life examples, Katy and Diana explore how to recognize your stalling loops, reduce transition friction, and align your daily movement habits with your values and genius energy. You’ll learn compassionate, doable strategies for getting unstuck—whether it’s setting your sport shoes out the night before, reframing movement as energy renewal, or aligning movement with your relationships. This episode offers fresh insight and motivation for anyone who wants to move more and make exercise feel po