Rodrigo Gallego is a personal trainer, movement coach and the creator of Barefoot Movers. He offers live online group training for adults interested in staying active, capable, feeling good and performing well for the long term. His mission is to help people change their relationship with movement, their bodies while re-connecting with the joy and benefits of moving better.

Listen to this episode of The MOVEMENT Movement with Rodrigo Gallego about getting fit over 40 without a gym.

Here are some of the beneficial topics covered on this week’s show:

  • Why it’s important for people to really focus on how their body moves during training.
  • How people shouldn’t have to give up the movement they love as they age.
  • Why people need to find time in their day to do the activities they enjoy.
  • How training shouldn’t feel like a task, it should be fun and enjoyable.
  • How many people are resistant to removing their shoes at first.


Connect with Rodrigo:

Guest Contact Info

Instagram
@barefootmovers

Links Mentioned:
barefootmovers.com

Connect with Steven:

Website

Xeroshoes.com

Twitter
@XeroShoes

Instagram
@xeroshoes

Facebook
facebook.com/xeroshoes

 

Episode Transcript

Steven Sashen:

As you get older, things just get more difficult. It’s just harder to gain muscle or lose weight or run faster or lift more, any of those things. That’s just the way it is. It’s just aging, right? Maybe not. We’re going to take a look at that on today’s episode of The MOVEMENT Movement podcast, the podcast for people who want to know the truth about what it takes to have a happy, healthy, strong body.

Usually starting feet first, as you know those things are your foundation. We’re going to break down the methodology, the propaganda, sometimes the outright lies you’ve been told about what it takes to run or walk or hike or play, or do yoga or CrossFit, whatever it is you enjoy doing. You can do that enjoyably, efficiently, effectively. Did I mention enjoyably? I know I did, because look, if like you’re not having fun, please just do something different until you are, life’s way too short.

We call it The MOVEMENT Movement because we’re creating a movement, that’s going to involve you, I’ll tell you how in a second, not a big deal, about movement, about natural moving, using your body naturally, the way it’s made to move and to be enjoyed.

The movement part that’s involving you is, this is a grassroots kind of thing. So if you haven’t checked out previous episodes, if you’re new to us, go to www.jointhemovementmovement.com. You’ll find the previous episodes, you’ll find all the places you can find the podcast, all the places to interact with us on YouTube and Facebook, et cetera. Then like and share and subscribe and give us a thumbs up, and ring the bell on YouTube. You know how to do it. In short, if you want to be part of a tribe, please subscribe.

All right. More about all that later, but let’s jump in.

Rodrigo, a pleasure to have you here. Why don’t you to tell people who the hell you are, and what the hell you’re doing here?

Rodrigo Gallego:

All right. Thank you.

Thank you, Steven. It’s a pleasure for me to be here. So my name is Rodrigo, my last name is Gallego. I’m originally from Argentina, from a town called Mar del Plata.

I am a movement coach, a natural movement coach. Not very much like your typical gym person. I don’t have a gym membership, I haven’t been in a gym in forever, but I like to move, and I like natural movement. It is my passion to help people move better. I see movement maybe in a different way.

Steven Sashen:

Well before I ask you the question, “Different how?” Which will be the first question, just, for the people who have been watching this podcast, yes this is a weird background for me, my wife and I just moved into this new house. We’re still renovating. This is one of the two rooms in the basement that are the only two rooms we get to use right now. That’s why the lighting is crap, also. So, my apologies, but that’s the way it is.

Anyway, okay. So, “Move different.” Say more about that please?

Rodrigo Gallego:

Well, moving different is, in a way, that I feel like most people are just used to training, on training hard. Not thinking so much in what’s happening with the body when they are doing that. It’s about adding volume, adding intensity, pushing harder and lifting harder, but it’s like, how are you really moving?

So, I like to go one step before that, because I mostly work with people my age and up, I’m 46. So it’s around 40 and 50. Our bodies are very resilient and they can deal with a lot of stuff through many years, but then it’s a time that the body starts talking to us, and if we don’t pay attention, start talking louder and louder until it’s, “Okay, dude, are you going to listen to me?” And that’s when things start breaking down and we have some injuries, and then what happen is we start to believe that it’s just an age related thing.

Steven Sashen:

Right.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Right? So I like to think there it’s not like that. I like, at least, to open the possibility. Okay? Not just because I’m 40 or 50, whatever you are, that doesn’t mean that you cannot move well and continue enjoying life.

Steven Sashen:

It’s funny. So, I’m a competitive sprinter. There’s a fitness guy that I know who wrote a book about how to be fit over 50, and he says, “Here’s the things you shouldn’t do.” And every one of the things he says you shouldn’t do is what I do.

Rodrigo Gallego:

And that’s completely fine. That’s part of the thing, we need to do things that we enjoy, right?

Steven Sashen:

Yeah.

Rodrigo Gallego:

But we need to understand that sometimes the things that we enjoy are also stressors. You’re putting a stress. If you want to do those for long, and do them well, because if you going to sprint, you want to go fast, right? Or as fast as you can.

Steven Sashen:

I resent the implication that, “As fast as I can,” is not fast.

Rodrigo Gallego:

But it’s really good. I haven’t met so many sprinters. From what I know, I think you’re 58, and you are sprinting? That’s amazing. Do you think you’re going to be sprinting in 10 years from now?

Steven Sashen:

Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

Rodrigo Gallego:

You see? That’s what I like. A lot of people will say, “No, I’m going to be what? 65, 68 and sprinting? That doesn’t make sense.”

Steven Sashen:

Some of the guys that I hang out with are 80. They’re obviously not as fast, but they’re training hard, they’re doing well, they run well, and they’re wonderful to hang out with. I mean, I’ve never met a sprinter that I didn’t like, because we’re all insane, because we’re working really hard for something that has no real value. We’re not going to get prize money or anything like that.

And we’re just going to get slower over time, after you get past, in your early to mid 60s, but we still do it anyway, and we’re crazy competitive knowing there’s no value in this, which is sort of like having a secret handshake. It’s like, “Oh, you’re an idiot too? Welcome to the club.”

Rodrigo Gallego:

But really, there is value, because it makes you happy.

Steven Sashen:

It’s the most fun. Part of it is, I’ll tell you, it’s like going to Las Vegas because it’s intermittent reinforcement. You pull the handle, sometimes it works, you pull the handle, sometimes it doesn’t. So at the end of a race when someone says, “How’d you do?” My answer is, “Do you want it with the excuse, or just a number?” The excuse, if I could. Because you can never do it perfectly, and that’s very addicting.

Rodrigo Gallego:

No, but having those things are very important in life. Your life has become so busy, so serious, so stressful, in many ways, that we need to find some activities or some times during the day, that we enjoy.

What I see that happens many times is people have lost track of that. They feel like training is another chore, is something that you need to hate, but you have to do.

Steven Sashen:

I used to joke; I joke about that. I go, kids, we used to play, and now we work out.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yes. I don’t even like that. Work is pretty much not in my vocabulary because it has a really bad connotation, “Work out.” I like playing, maybe training, maybe moving, but working out? Because everybody has that idea, “Oh, I work out. I don’t feel like doing that.” Because most of the time that’s why we’ll say it differently, most of the time is, you need to go hard, you need to really sweat, and tomorrow you need to feel sore, and that is-

Steven Sashen:

That’s the sign.

Rodrigo Gallego:

The result “Oh, that was a good workout.” And it’s like, “Oh, that’s so easy to do.” I can do that without thinking. I make you sweat and be sore tomorrow, but is that really the best use of your time?

Steven Sashen:

Yeah.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Are you enjoying that? If I’m screaming next to you until you give me 10 more, or do that? That’s not enjoyable, right?

Steven Sashen:

Yeah.

Rodrigo Gallego:

And then, we are again talking about people that has a history of life, we all carry with imbalances, we all carry with weak areas, joints that don’t move anymore, and then I’m going to ask you to go super-fast and hard? That doesn’t make much sense, at least in my eyes. There’s different things for everybody and there’s so many ways to get things done.

How I see it, I like to first know that you don’t need to suffer. This shouldn’t be a suffering time. We need to make it in a way that you’re looking forward do it. You, “Oh, I’m going to go because …” I like to call it recess time. It’s like, you’re sitting on a chair, you’re stretching at the computer, you’re running around with so many things, we need to create a space that you can have a good time. That would be the first prerequisite, let’s have a good time.

Okay. Then, what do we do with that time? In my case, what I like to do is to help you figure out what are the things that are not working so well, that if we can improve a little bit, doesn’t need to be huge thing, but if we can start improving, and start noticing how your body’s moving or not, and we start working on that, in a fun way, then the goal would be for you to keep sprinting even for longer. Because we clear that, we clear up the movement, so you move more efficient, and that’s what we’re after. More efficiency movement.

Steven Sashen:

So, conceptually, this all sounds great, and at some point I want to come back to how you got to this, but I don’t want to do that quite yet because I can feel my own desire about something I’m going to ask you about, that I imagine other people listening or watching will have as well.

Mainly, can you give me an example of what you’re talking about? So, somebody comes in with something, what do they actually do with you? What are you doing technically, practically, and also, if you can … How is it different than what most people are calling functional fitness?

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yeah. Well what I will do is, I will see you moving, right? So let’s start, really, with some simple stuff.

Steven Sashen:

Let’s do this. Let’s imagine I come in, it’s a typical runner thing, and I say, “Hey, my knees are bothering me.” What happens next?

Rodrigo Gallego:

Well I will start on the ground. I bring everybody to the ground because I feel the ground is where everything is safe, there is not much balance around, we can relax on the ground. I always recommend people spend more time on the ground because you’re going to be moving in different ways.

We start from the ground and then we will start doing simple movements. First, maybe, we will sit cross-leg, we will start moving the neck, moving the shoulder, getting some … Spine, one of the thing that gets very stiff is the spine. For people our age, the spine doesn’t move much, so then we need to start compensating there.

Then we will get into, maybe, some movement of the hips. You know? Always do this, super simple. But I’m seeing, okay, you can move your hips. Then from there, then we will start doing some reaching. Then I see, okay, how is the foot connecting with the ankle? How is the ankle and the hip moving, and the spine? Then the shoulders?

Then it’s like that give me a nice picture of what’s happening. Just from the 10, 15 minutes on the ground. When you start seeing people, people, and people, and people, most of the time there’s a silver lining. There’s the start because our lifestyle is pretty much similar, so we kind of do about the same. The typical thing, the hips don’t really move, so there not much activation of the posterior chain. Hamstrings and calves are super tight, so there’s not much dorsiflexion of the ankles. Feet, you know? I don’t need to tell you about that. Right?

Steven Sashen:

Yeah.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Feet are almost not part of our body. They don’t even want to show their feet. It’s like, how crazy are we as humans that we decide which part we like and which part are kind of embarrassing?

Steven Sashen:

Yeah.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Right? So many times.

Now people are training with me is like, “Oh, my God. Take my shoes off?” All of them are wearing minimal shoes, but at the beginning it’s like, “Do I need to take my shoes off? Like, really?” It’s almost like get naked, you know? It’s like, “No, just take your shoes off.”

Steven Sashen:

It’s a joke that I’ve only said to certain people who know me well enough that they won’t punch me when I say this. I say something about taking off their shoes and they go, “Oh, I don’t want people to see my feet.” I go, “Trust me, that’s not the worst thing they’re going to see.”

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yeah, it’s funny. Because why? It’s just something that is started and then we don’t continue, but it’s like what is the big problem with the feet?

Steven Sashen:

I think there’s something to it. I think that people know, intuitively, if they’ve been squeezing their foot into some shoe and it’s not moving well, I think they know, again, intuitively, that something’s wrong. It’s not that they’re embarrassed, per sé, about what their feet look like. I think, more often than not, if they’re embarrassed by what their feet look like, it’s because they know there’s something not right.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yeah, totally.

Steven Sashen:

It’s not just aesthetic thing, but there’s just something. I could be wrong, but I just…

Rodrigo Gallego:

No, no, but that makes sense. People are very worried about that, and I say “Listen, imagine since you were one year old they will be putting mittens on your hands, and on top of that, you were walking on your hands for 45 years. How will your hands work today?” And it’s like, “Oh, no.” Well, that’s what we’ve been doing to our feet for all this time. Those are your foundation. If you have weak feet, how do you expect the rest of the chain, ankle, knee, hips, spine, pelvis to work well?

As soon as that chain, and it’s the first chain, we start from the feet. We’re walking, we’re running, we’re jumping. If the feet are not there, or not doing the feet work because they can, then somebody else need to do that job. Then, an ankle is not a foot, a knee is not a foot, so that’s when we start messing up.

So that takes start realizing that first and then say, “Okay, that makes sense.” You know that sometimes that kind of a hard step, like “Oh, okay.” And then they start exploring and they start feeling that and then, with time, the idea is, “Okay, now you’re moving better, now you are connecting more,” and that’s the feet.

Then we start looking at the ankles and the knees and the hips and the spine, and then how those work together, because we have become so disconnected to. Sometimes we train, “Oh, I’m going to train the biceps. I’m going to train my legs,” but the body doesn’t work like that. It works all together. I’m moving my arm, and it’s connect all the way down to my feet. So everything is connected. So doing more of that and understanding that, and then becoming more connected, and when we become more connected, then we can be more efficient.

Steven Sashen:

There’s someone, I wish I can remember who it was, who has a great line when someone wants to break down their body in parts, it’s like, “Now we do arm day. Now we do leg day. Now we do that day.” Because you know every day is heart day, right?

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yeah.

Steven Sashen:

It should be the same way with the rest of your body.

So, you’ve done some analysis and, again, I know when people hear that, they think, “Okay, that’s great, but I’m not seeing you right now, so that doesn’t help me.” So can you give me an example, or think about people who might be watching and listening, if we move past the evaluation phase into the movement phase, can you give people any examples of something that you would do with them, or anything that they could do if they’re watching and listening now?

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yes. The thing that I love and I can tell you so much, and people can do anywhere, is get on the ground, place your hands on the ground, knees and feet. Then from there … So, that will be six points of support. I have two hands, two knees, two feet.

Steven Sashen:

So I have to tell you, just so I’m going to clarify this for people, because as soon as you said, “Get on the ground, put your hands on the ground,” I was imagining sitting and putting my hands next to my butt, but you’re talking about being, basically, on your knees, and then hands-

Rodrigo Gallego:

I’m talking about the classic crawly position.

Steven Sashen:

Yes.

Rodrigo Gallego:

You will be in a crawly position. All four, but it’s really six. So two hands, two knees, two feet.

Steven Sashen:

Yeah, yeah. Yep.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Now, from there, from that position, press into the hands, and you’re going to tuck the toes under. So you’re going to press hands, and from the toes, and you’re going to try to lift the knees off the ground. So we go from six points of support to four points of support. That, if you look at any kid it will be like, “Okay, so what? Now what do I do with this?” For you, no problem, for many people.

But that give you an idea, okay, if that, just lifting the knees off the ground, and you can try it, it’s like, “Okay, now I’m holding my body weight with these four.” That’s a great way to see where we are. Because if that position, that is the most, that’s how we learn how to walk. Right? We were crawling first.

So, if that is hard, don’t go and do. Don’t go and do, you know? Because there’s a problem there. Your foundation is not there. So that will be first one, just feeling the position. Study hold that position. Okay, that is easy. Okay.

Now, take it for a walk. Take it for a crawl. That’s where you start. People are like, “What?” It’s like, “Which leg do I move? Which arm? How?” Then it’s like, “Okay.” That’s a great opportunity because if that is hard for you, you have so much to gain, because everything that you are doing, you’re doing with having that connection. That’s how we learn, on the ground and we start crawling.

Of course, I try to minimize the instruction there because I believe natural movement you start realizing that something doesn’t feel right. You maybe start making some adjustments. Some people take a long time to figure that out, and then I will say, “Okay, let me help you a little bit.”

But somebody will be like, “Ooh, I haven’t done this in very long time.” But as soon they play sports, they move, they have more body control, they figure out. But you can see a lot from that. That is one movement, I will say, if for some reason I need to quit everything, I can only choose one movement that I’m going to be doing, I’m going to probably do my crawling.

Steven Sashen:

To be clear for people, so you’re crawling, but your knees are off the ground? So you’re basically on your feet and hands-

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yeah.

Steven Sashen:

So once that becomes simple for somebody, where does it evolve from there?

Rodrigo Gallego:

No, I know, so I going to give you, if that is very hard, because it happen-

Steven Sashen:

Yeah. Oh, no, sure.

Rodrigo Gallego:

People don’t always listen me, and for some people that can be strenuous. That is where I want to take them, being able to do that. But if you cannot do that, then I will keep the six points of support. Meaning that if the knees don’t hurt you will choose which surface. Grass will be a great one to start. No sand. Sand is much harder, unless it’s hard sand by the ocean, but soft sand, no. Not recommended.

You crawl six points.

Steven Sashen:

Okay.

Rodrigo Gallego:

That will be one.

Another kind of regression will be, when you’re in your fours, instead of keeping the knees close to the ground because you’re holding more tension there, I will bring the hips up. I call it the bear. So now there’s less body weight to deal with.

Some people will be, “Oh, my God. My hamstrings.” Right?

Steven Sashen:

Yeah. It’s funny you say that because part of my warm-up if doing some bear walking. So, basically, hips as high as they can go, hands as close to my feet as they can go, and then crawling. It’s amazing, the first time I did it I was really shocked at how much I felt that in my glutes and my hamstrings, because it didn’t seem like much, but I did 20, 30 meters of that and it’s like, “Wow, that really adds up.”

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yes. That starts adding up, for sure.

And then what you’re going to start doing, then it’s just playing. Because okay, now the bear is fine. Okay. Now do the bear forward and then backwards-

Steven Sashen:

Oh. I haven’t tried that.

Rodrigo Gallego:

And they say, “What?” Now your upside down and you’re going backwards. Where in life we do that? Then you start like, “Oh, my God.” Even people are very fit and connect is like, “Wait a minute, how do I move now?” So it’s playing with that mind and body connection. Where is your body in this space, and how can I start … Because when we don’t move in certain ways, the brain loses that ability. We don’t use it, so then when you put it in the spot, it’s like, “Okay, well, I don’t have it.” Well, we start practicing and then you start recovering that.

Then another progression will be, now we turn around. We are facing out, so more like a supine position, and we’ll do the crab walk.

Steven Sashen:

Got it.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Now, this is a hard done too, because the other one, if you start maybe, we do a lot for the front of the body, so most people have the front is stronger than the back. So maybe, oh yeah, crawling is fine. Okay, now turn around-

Steven Sashen:

Turnover.

Rodrigo Gallego:

And then do some crab, and it’s like sometimes they are glued to the ground. It’s like “Okay, how?”

But of course, it’s always with the attitude of opportunity, because sometimes people will say, “Oh, my God. I cannot believe it.” Don’t worry, that’s great, now we know. Now we know, and you can start addressing this, so then when you go and surf, or you go and play soccer, when you go on a sprint, when you go the thing, your body’s going to be more prepared.

Steven Sashen:

Yes. That’s our doorbell, apparently.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Oh.

Steven Sashen:

It’s the first time I’ve heard it.

Rodrigo Gallego:

It’s rare, right? 

Steven Sashen:

So, crab walking. So, again, you’re basically, start sitting on your butt, hands behind you, and then lift your butt off the ground and move in different directions.

Now, I imagine that people hearing this might think, “Well, what does this have to do with either fixing some problem, or getting stronger for what I’m doing?” I mean, if someone’s coming to you, they already had the idea that they’re going to get help in some way, so they’re reeling to go for the ride.

Say more about what this is doing. Part of what it notice, of course, is that, what we’ve talked about so far, it’s all contra-lateral, it’s all working both sides of the body, in these diagonals. Not just straight lines, not just single joints. Just, it sounds like, from what you’re describing, that alone is a big part of that integration of both sides of the body and that coordination moving forwards and backwards, or sideways as well, I can imagine.

So, all of this is just about getting things reconnected before you can start to address some specific thing that might show up afterwards?

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yeah, for sure. You say it perfectly. The whole idea is to start connecting the body. Start waking up those small stabilizers muscles so then the big muscle can do their job.

Steven Sashen:

Right.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Because most of the time we’re compensating because we don’t have that stability because we don’t use it often enough. So I start by going to the ground and being the whole body, you start connecting lower body, upper body. You start a lot of improving the communication between shoulders and hips. Those are two big engines of the body, and they are meant to work together through the cor. The 360, right? Because people think a core is having a six-pack, and it’s like, “Well, that’s such a,” you know? It’s a 360 from both sides working together. If you see, when we start talking about the crawling, that is the same pattern that you use for your gait, for your run, for everything.

So, this is regressing, going back to the basics, how we learn how to walk, we learn by like that, by crawling. Then we start standing up, and then we are able to start walking. So, going back we can start recreating that process that we did back then and do it now, and you start recovering that.

Then yeah, as you say, it’s across, contra-lateral, because right leg, left arm, and opposite. Lower body and upper body. So, the whole body starts connecting and working together.

Steven Sashen:

You’re reminding me, this whole idea of going back to the basics is so interesting to me because we don’t realize that, over time, we do come up with these compensating movement patterns, and the only way through that, really, or the best way through that seems to be really going back to the beginning, starting at the beginning.

What I’m reminded of, so, I was a gymnast, way back when … By the way, we’re both part of the long hair pulled back club.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yeah, I like your style.

Steven Sashen:

So, I was a gymnast, way back when, and my coach, when I had been … I had already been a very successful gymnast and he said, “This summer, we’re going back to the basics and just doing rounds off.” I was so upset. I mean, it’s like, “But I’m doing all these other things.” Like, “We’re going back to the basics.”

He did this later with some Olympic level gymnast that he’d been working with, where he learned something about which direction you’re supposed to turn when you’re doing a round off, and he discovered that half of his gymnasts were turning, quote, the wrong way. So he said to these Olympic level people, “We’re going back to the basics for the next three months.”

The parents of these people were livid because they didn’t see that as advancing, but for both me and for these other gymnasts, once they went back and cleaned up things, but frankly, we couldn’t have done sooner because we weren’t aware enough about what the basics really should have been like, but once we were there for a couple of months, everything was better even though we weren’t working on any of those other things.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yep, yeah. That’s amazing. That’s what’s, it’s a little bit hard to make people understand that. People want the quick fix. They want a quick fix, but the body doesn’t work like that.

Steven Sashen:

No. How do you get around that with people who are seeing you?

Rodrigo Gallego:

I need to make it really fun. I need to make it entertaining. I do a lot of connecting and talking. I start understand you, and people understand. Some people are not ready yet and it’s fine, but when they start like, “Okay, you told me that before,” and, “That makes sense,” and you’re calm and it’s like, “Oh, this feels good.”

I’m sure it’s, for you, the same with people using minimal shoes. It takes time. “Yeah, I hear that, but I know I’m so used to mine.” It’s like, “Okay, that’s fine.”

Let me tell you my part. I’m going to be honest, I don’t do this because money, I do it because it is my passion to help people. So I want to tell you what I think, and then with that, you do whatever you feel like you need to do. But what I try to do is, “Let’s have fun with this.” Let’s enjoy it and when you start reconnecting your body, when your body feels good, then life is much better.

Steven Sashen:

It’s true.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Life is much better, and you don’t need to stop because you are a certain age, maybe you modify. For me, it’s when, there is a moment that people click. It takes a while, and I kind of know where they are, and you keep working and you keep talking, and then there’s click.

They send me a video, “Oh, I’m moving here.” It’s like, you’re not at the gym, it’s not your training hours, but you’re moving. I say, “Okay, I did my job.”

There’s 24 hours in a day, and we need to start adding more movement. We cannot just think, “I’m going to train for 45 minute, one hour, and then I’m not going to do nothing all day,” because doesn’t work like that.

Steven Sashen:

So, if you’re someone who works at a desk job, I’m guessing that, and I’m saying this half-joking, you’re recommending that when they get up from their desk to go to the bathroom, or to go to-

Rodrigo Gallego:

Crawl.

Steven Sashen:

Crawl, bear walk, crab walk. Yeah. What are some of the other ways, when people come to see you, that you do, the things you do to make it more fun?

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yeah. No, what I say is start incorporating movement through the day. Wherever it is. I always say, okay, when you are waiting for your coffee to be done, instead of being on the chair, why don’t you do a squat on the way there? Or maybe balance on one leg, something like that?

Steven Sashen:

Someone gave me one the other night that I never thought of, which I love, and I love for a lot of reasons. He says, “When you go to the bathroom, before you sit down on the toilet, do 10 squats.”

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yeah. It’s funny, and it’s kind of a joke, but it’s important. It’s really important. You got to start because in order to create this adaptation that we’re after, you need to start training your body in that. It cannot be just three times a week for 45 minute. Then if you going to sleep for eight hours a day, we are still in the negative.

Work, do your thing, when you finish some task, go up and maybe take for a walk. It doesn’t need to be nothing like crawling. If you crawl, amazing, but just go for a walk. Maybe have a kettlebell next to you and you do some lifting. You lift something heavy, you carry. Take it for a, go to a bathroom and carry that kettlebell like a suitcase carry.

Steven Sashen:

You gave me another idea. So, the physicist Richard Feynman got a dog and realized that when you’re teaching a dog a trick, it doesn’t know what you’re saying. You can teach it to do anything, and you can say whatever you want. So he would do something where he would throw a ball across the room and say, “Fetch.” The dog would run in the opposite direction, out the house, around the house, and back in the house.

So, I’m thinking in a same idea. It’s like if you want to do some more moving when you’re in an office, I’m thinking about my office because I actually do this, if I want to go to the bathroom, I can go the short road or I can take the long way around-

Rodrigo Gallego:

Exactly.

Steven Sashen:

Sometimes I take the long way around a couple times.

Rodrigo Gallego:

When you start playing with that, then you start seeing a lot of opportunities. Maybe I’m crazy and I’m weird, but it makes your life a little bit better, more interesting.

Steven Sashen:

Well, let’s start with those. Yes, you are crazy and weird, but you’ve got good company for that.

Rodrigo Gallego:

I feel like we are good.

Steven Sashen:

Yeah. I don’t think we’re going to have a problem with that one.

So, how did you come to all of this? What was your evolution to starting to do this?

Rodrigo Gallego:

Growing up, we used to play a lot. When we were kids, there was not much computer or anything, and I loved sports since my first few years. I grew up in Argentina, so we all play soccer all the time, we were playing outside.

Then I pick up tennis. Tennis was my sport. That was, I don’t know why, but my goal was to become a professional tennis player. I say, “I’m going to work super hard and I’m going to become …” I remember thinking of Boris Becker, remember Boris Becker? He won Wimbledon at 17. He had the record of the youngest player, so I need to beat him.

Then I turn 16 and it’s like, “Oh, my God. There’s something off, this is not going to happen.” So that’s when I stop playing tennis and I started playing more soccer, and that’s the only time in my life that I join a gym. I didn’t know what to do. I was 17 and my friends were going to the gym, and then I did like one year, or year-and-a-half of just bodybuilding. It was really weird. It was a dark cave of lifting with other people. It was really weird, and that was the last time.

After that I become a tennis coach, at that age because I was talking with my coach, my last one, I said, “Man, what you do is so cool.” He said, “Oh, I’m going to go to work,” and he was grabbing his racket. I said, “I want that. That sounds like something I will like to do.” So he’s mentoring, I started coaching, and I started coaching kids and I realized that I’m good at this. I enjoy this. At that time I had much more patience, and maybe I was even more fun. Because with kids it’s a different sport, too.

Steven Sashen:

Yeah.

Rodrigo Gallego:

So, I started teaching, and then I thought of becoming a PE teacher, but then, I don’t know, it was weird, because when I realized this is so easy to me that maybe I shouldn’t do that. Because you need do something harder.

So, and I was good with numbers, so I end up going to college for accounting and economics. Can you believe that? I did four years, full-on, and I was getting really good grades and I was moving forward really well, and then I saw, I’m two years from graduating. I was like 22, 23. Then after that, in Argentina, you put your suit and you start doing taxes for companies, and I got really afraid. I, “What’s going on?”

Then I decided to start traveling. I stopped school, I was in the middle of a semester, I said, “I’m going.” I took my racket. Then I realized that tennis is the same anywhere in the world. Tennis is tennis. I said, “Oh, I can teach tennis anywhere.” This is before internet. There was no internet. That opened my eyes and opened the world. Then I stay on the road like this, like normal, teaching tennis in different places for like 10, 11 years.

Steven Sashen:

Oh, wow.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yes. Then, besides that, I was doing a lot of yoga, I was always swimming, running, surfing, doing all of those sports. I move to teach tennis in Cozumel in Mexico. When I got there, I realized it was a scuba diving mecca.

Steven Sashen:

Yep.

Rodrigo Gallego:

I got no idea, I went there for tennis and it’s like, “Dude, everybody comes here to scuba dive.” So then, I become a scuba diver instructor. I went down, it’s like, “Oh, my God, this is amazing. You can teach people and live here in the Caribbean. I’m doing this.” It was always like that. But then, in those years, I really mess up my shoulder, and-

Steven Sashen:

Ah. Knew this was … This is the thing. It’s like people, they only seem to discover natural movement, especially discovering things about their feet, when something goes significantly wrong. So I knew we were getting there, and here we are.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Oh, yeah. So this time I was living on another Caribbean island and I was doing my job, and then I was surfing, I was playing beach volleyball. I was unbreakable, in my head.

Steven Sashen:

Yeah.

Rodrigo Gallego:

But I was now, this is 27, 28. My shoulder started to hurt and, “Whatever,” that’s not going to stop me. So I continue doing everything like nothing. Then it was getting worse and worse. There was one massage therapist on the island, so I started going to him. He was doing whatever he could, but things are not going better.

From there went downhill and downhill and downhill, and then one day I say, “I need to do something.” The things I like to do, I cannot play beach volleyball. Tennis, forget it. Surfing, it really hurts. Man, this is suck … This is not even 40, I’m not even 30 and my body was breaking down. That was a big wakening. I had to stop traveling, I went back to my hometown because, already, from being a kid playing tennis, I had tennis elbow, ankles issues, knee issues. So I was seeing a physical therapist over there and then his son, that was my age, now he was the new physical therapist. I said, “Dude, I’m done.” He said, “Yeah, you’re done.” So, He was really good, and I stay there for six months just getting treatment on my shoulder. He was really good, but now I realize, he made me believe that we were fragile.

He said, “No, this is not …” I started to feel very different. I wasn’t unbreakable anymore. I started to feel like, “Okay, now I need to take care of my body because my body is very fragile.” So for a long time I was only, maybe, swimming. Then I pick up yoga because, okay, that’s a good way to take care of my body, there is not much things happening there.

Steven Sashen:

Okay. Yeah.

Rodrigo Gallego:

So, I did that, and I like it, I discover that it was really good, but then after the year it’s like, “This cannot be it. There has to be more than this.” That is where I encounter natural movement and all these ways to see fitness.

Because I was always curious and interest in how the body moves, but the typical gym trainer thing was never appealing to me. Seeing people, “Oh, you going to sit here on this machine and you going to do this. Then from here we going to …” That’s not me. But then through natural movement, it’s like, “Okay, this is recovering how the body move. Doesn’t need to be at the gym, you can be at the beach, running and lifting rocks, and throwing stuff and climbing.” Oh, yeah, that’s me.

That’s when I say, “Okay, now this is my thing,” and I went deep, and it is something that I’m going to do forever. This is what I do.

Steven Sashen:

Back to what you said at the very beginning, where most people, they don’t even know they have feet, essentially. Do you remember a moment that sort of woke you up to the importance of natural movement, but especially with the feet?

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yeah. I think it starting when I realize how little mobility I had in my own feet, because when I started doing more of movement and there was, if your feet are not as strong and they cannot move well, right there you have limitation. Right there, right at the beginning. So I noticed myself, it’s like, “Oh, man. I didn’t even know, but my feet are not as functional as they need to be to do all this stuff in a safe way.”

So yeah, that was a big wakening for me, but the good thing is that the body adapts. The body is so cool. The body is really cool because, really, what we do to our body is too much. We don’t even … Also, it’s, “This stupid body, now it hurts.” “Oh, my stupid knee.” “Oh, my stupid shoulder.” It’s like, man, if you will know how much your knee went through before start complaining to you. So it’s realizing that.

And I realize, and I still, but I always say there’s always room for improvement. There’s always room for improvement, and that’s the good thing. This can be a bad thing because it’s like, okay, we are not perfect, but still, if you put the time, if you first realize what it is and you start doing things for that, slowly you going to start improving.

What I always say to all my students, what I want is to have everybody, at least, from one to 10, to be a six all across the board.

Steven Sashen:

Got it.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Okay? So you have balance? You’re a six. Strength? You’re a six. Mobility? You’re a six. Flexibility? You’re a six. Body control, coordination, rhythm? You’re a six. That’s great. Then, if you want to keep going to a seven, eight, 10? Yeah, let’s go. But at least let’s be all a six because that’s achievable for all of us.

Steven Sashen:

Some of the things you just mentioned are all related to natural movement. So there’s strength, there’s balance. Do you remember what you just laid out and how you want to, what you want to address for any of those-

Rodrigo Gallego:

I don’t know about saying in the order, but I say, I think, probably I said strength-

Steven Sashen:

Yeah.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Strength. Flexibility. Stability. I didn’t mention the stability, but stability, people don’t realize how important stability is-

Steven Sashen:

So, in the context of natural movement, especially for, let’s use strength and then flexibility, talk to me about what you do with people for those. Because of course, when most people hear, “Strength,” they’re immediately thinking, “Lifting weights,” et cetera, et cetera.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yeah. Well, first, when we are talking about the strength, it’s how well can you move your own body? Let’s forget about any object yet.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Okay, like the crawling. If you cannot crawl, boy, you are lacking strength. In regard to body weight and strength, if you cannot crawl, let’s work on that strength. That’s strength.

Then other things. I always want everybody to be able to move their own body with ease and control. Because you need to be at least strong enough to do things with your body in different position and different angles. Then it’s like, “Okay, now you’re going to life something.” That is next level, because now we start with your body, now you’re going to be dealing with an object. Okay.

First, we need to have kind of the foundations to be able to do that, then you need to know how, because people have forgotten how to move. So, yeah, I can lift something and make it really efficient, or I can make it really hard on the body. So start recovering that. Then, okay, now you’re moving, you have some control. Okay. Can you do some hinging? People have forgotten how to hinge from the hips. It’s a very super important movement. As I say, the hips are one of the main engines. If you cannot hinge, you don’t have that engine.

Steven Sashen:

I think the thing with hinging, it’s funny, I’ve been doing a lot of things backwards lately, I’ve been doing a lot of walking and running backwards-

Rodrigo Gallego:

Ooh, that’s great. That’s amazing. 

Steven Sashen:

It’s really fun. Yeah, it’s super fun. What’s interesting, I mentioned to my training partner, that what makes it, in part, difficult, is that we don’t have eyes behind our head. Same thing with hinging, we don’t really know if we’re using our hips well or correctly because we don’t have eyes to see what we’re actually doing or not doing. This is where having someone to look at you-

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yes. For that reason, that’s, exactly what you’re saying. I see it even more in men because there is something about moving your hips that is not so manly, in a way.

Steven Sashen:

Did you find, is that different in South America versus in North America?

Rodrigo Gallego:

A little bit. A little bit. Here I think it’s even more restrictions with that. You don’t move that way. So, when I say, “Oh, let’s hinge.” They are doing everything except hinging.

Steven Sashen:

Yeah. No, it’s like American men have never done salsa.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yeah. That takes time to explain them. It’s like, “Okay, we need the glutes.” The glutes is one of the strongest muscles in the body, if you cannot hinge, you don’t use them. If you don’t use them, you’re going to use your quad for everything, and the hamstrings are going to be left alone and they’re going freaking out. So it’s understanding.

Especially, also, everything that we do nowadays is right here in front. Here in front. So now, for example, hinging. If you cannot hinge, you’re not going to be very efficient at lifting the couch. You’re not going to be very efficient in lifting anything because you cannot access those.

Steven Sashen:

Well this is the thing many people don’t understand, is that a lot of back pain comes from having your glutes not functioning to support your back. So if you can’t hinge, if you can’t do a good hip hinge and use your glutes, then you’re not supporting your back well either.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yes.

Steven Sashen:

I mean, I, technically, have a broken spine, and I think my doctors are a little stunned that I’m still running or lifting. I stopped doing stupid things when I lift, I’m not deadlifting 400 pounds anymore, that was just dumb. I mean, it was fun, but kind of dumb. But I think what’s keeping me going is that my glutes are strong and my hamstrings are strong, and I’m always working to make them better. If it weren’t for that support of using that whole posterior chain, my lower back would be shot.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yes. That’s another thing, there’s a lot of people that, I think if they start doing MRIs to all of us, they’re going to find so much, especially 40-plus, just all kind of things that are not how they supposed to be. Right?

Steven Sashen:

Yeah.

Rodrigo Gallego:

But that doesn’t mean that you can still function well, if you start building the support and working around all those, you can still … You know you have a broken back or issues in your spine, but you are still sprinting and doing everything. Because that is the thing that the people don’t realize about movement. Movement makes your body more resistant, too.

Steven Sashen:

Yeah. I think, again backing up to things we said earlier, when you’re looking at your body as just individual parts, that becomes problematic as well. I mean, I’m having a weird flashback to a little over 40 years ago, back when I was a gymnast. There was someone who said to me, “Well, you have flat feet, so you can’t be a gymnast.” I said, “But I’m one of the best tumblers in the world, so there’s something wrong with your theory about feet.” He was equating flat, low arches with lack of strength, and the strength is the important part in that equation. People don’t recognize that.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yeah, it’s very easy. Of course, when somebody hears a doctor saying that, most of the time you going to really follow that.

Steven Sashen:

Yeah. What I did, I was 15 years old at the time, so this was 43 years ago, and my thought was, “Wow, you’re a doctor and you’re clearly a moron.”

Rodrigo Gallego:

That’s amazing. That means that you had a lot of personality back then.

Steven Sashen:

It means that I was as obnoxious then as I am now. I didn’t say it out loud, I was just thinking, “Clearly, these two things don’t make sense. You’re telling me I can’t do the ting that I’m doing, so something is clearly awry.” It’s not an uncommon thing.

So, I want to back up … Actually, wait, where do I want to go with this? This is all really fun, I mean, I love this idea of just integrating these more primal movements into as much of your daily life as you can. Sit on the floor when you can, I do that a lot and I think about it almost every time I do because I realized that, growing up, I never saw people sitting on the ground. I never saw people squatting.

I saw my dad sitting on the ground when he was trying to put together a television stand, and that’s it, so he’s got all the parts laid out around him. But otherwise, I never saw him sitting on the ground.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Again, these things are, society creates. We were talking before about the feet, like, “Oh, you don’t show your feet.” Well, I walk barefoot most of the time, or I use minimal shoes. That’s it. You know how many times people have stopped me and offer me shoes?

Steven Sashen:

I know. I go barefoot a lot, I was in Costco a little while ago … I tell this story often. I was at Costco and one of the employees pulls me over and says, “Is everything okay?” I said, “What?” “Well, you’re wearing shoes today.” He’d never seen me in shoes.

Rodrigo Gallego:

When you look at that, it’s all made believe, right? It’s what we decide, “This is normal, and this is not.” Well, maybe it’s the opposite.

Steven Sashen:

Here’s what’s so funny about the barefoot thing. I live in Colorado where walking around barefoot people look at you weird. Every now and then, if someone says something to me, which is very infrequent, I mean, people aren’t thinking about you as much as you think they are, but if somebody says something to me, I’ve often said, “If we were at the beach right now, would you find this weird?” They say, “No.” I go, “Just pretend we’re at the beach then.”

Rodrigo Gallego:

That’s cool. Yeah.

Steven Sashen:

After the big earthquake, Colorado will be beachfront property, so just pretend it’s already happened.

Rodrigo Gallego:

We get so caught up in those things, that it’s like, really, what’s the big deal? I feel like that’s another part of the thing that I like to incorporate, besides doing what I do with fitness, is just open your mind a little bit. When we close our minds, we think that we are right, we are missing out on so much.

So just, start thinking, “Okay, this is like this, but I think this.” I like to put six on people, and then it’s like, go ahead with that, and then … Because sometimes we just take so many things without really reflecting about them, or without thinking. 

Steven Sashen:

Well this is a very interesting thing, this idea of going back and doing these primal movement patterns and finding ways to have fun. It’s interesting because when you are learning these new things, doing these different things with your body, that does have an impact on the way you think about yourself and what you’re doing.

I was listening to someone talking the other day about Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He says one of the advantages about doing Brazilian jiu-jitsu is that you’re always put in uncomfortable positions and you have to learn to be able to relax and think clearly under very uncomfortable circumstances. Then you start noticing, in your normal life you’re doing the same thing because you’re in uncomfortable circumstances in your life all the time and you can just feel, like, “Oh, this life situation feels like when someone’s about to choke me out and I’m trying to figure out what to do.”

Rodrigo Gallego:

That is amazing. That’s what it’s like, we are missing out when we are only looking at movement just to change the way you look. There is so much more.

For me, also, as a person, is I use it always at the entry skills. Okay, we’re going to move, but with this movement, you can make so many other changes. Because my mission is to make people life a little better. Movement is a very low hanging fruit because as soon as … We cannot change everything in one day, but if you start incorporating movement, and you open up, “Oh, I can move this way, and I can do that,” and then it’s like, “Whoa.”

Another thing that is very important is to sleep really well. “Ah. Okay. How do I do that?” Okay, another really important thing is to eat more naturally. So, play. People start shaping their days in a different way, and that is when it’s like, “Okay, now you have a different life.”

Steven Sashen:

What strikes me as so important about this idea of playing, I just realized that, it was a number of, maybe 10 years ago, I can’t remember exactly, is when they started doing things like adult kickball and adult, what’s the thing where you’re throwing a ball and trying to hit somebody? Dodgeball.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Dodgeball, yeah.

Steven Sashen:

They started bringing back these kids’ games and that was a big deal for people. I remember, back in my 30s, I was hired to work at a place that was, they tried to call it the Club Med of the Northeast, but it was really just like summer camp for adults. I was super excited about this because the idea of going out and playing, doing archery and riflery and target shooting and water skiing, and all these things. For me, it was all about play.

I was a little surprised when I got there, it was just a giant pick-up scene, which I was not as happy. It’s like, “I want to go do things” “Oh, whatever.”

So that playing thing is, again, so hugely important.

Rodrigo Gallego:

We need more of those things. You cannot just live always stress out and busy. Life is more than that, and at least open up a space that you can have fun, express yourself in a different way, play, be silly. Bringing people on the ground is already a game changer.

Steven Sashen:

Yeah. Absolutely.

Rodrigo Gallego:

At the beginning they can be resilient to that, it’s like, “I don’t go the ground.” But as soon as you hit the ground, “Oh, I used to do this when I was a kid. This remind me of this.” That is power of the process, it’s like you still are that. It’s there. It’s there in you, you just need to allow yourself to do that.

At the beginning it’s hard. It’s like, “What is that? What is weird thing that you are doing.” Sometimes people say, “Yeah, I saw you, you do a lot of weird …” People say, “You’re doing weird stuff on the ground.” Like, “I’m crawling. It’s not that weird.” Maybe because it’s me, if you see a kid, that’s not that weird, but it’s me crawling.

Steven Sashen:

You nailed it. I mean, it is interesting that we’re, not only okay with, but we almost expect kids to behave in a certain way, but at a certain point we think that we are not supposed to. When I’m teaching people about barefoot running, one of the things that I’ll do is, if we’re out in a park, I’ll say, “So, if you watch little kids run, they just learned to walk, they’re just learning to run, you see they’ve still got these enormous heads that are bigger than their body proportion. Their head starts to fall and they try to catch up, and they usually can’t do it. I want you to do the same thing.

“Keep your arms by your sides, let them flop as much as you need to, but I want you to lean your head and the follow your head, and then make your head go in weird directions, and don’t let your feet catch up to your head. I guarantee, after the first two minutes, nobody will be paying any attention to you, so just do it until you can do it for fun.”

You see that transition from, “Oh, this is weird. People are looking at me,” to, suddenly, just complete abandon, and people are just doing it and they’re giggling and having a good time.

There’s another movement thing that I like to do with people. I’d say, “Cross your arms,” and they’d cross their arms. And I go, “Now do it the other way.” They go, “What?” I go, “Now take off your pants, when I’m not looking, and then before you go to put them back on, notice which leg you’re about to use, and then use the other leg.” I like breaking up the patterns too, as a form of movement-

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yeah. The brain is such an efficiency machine. If it find out where that is easy, it’s going to go straight there. It’s funny, the same when I start people, “Let’s do this.” They’re going to start in the good side. I say, “Okay, now let’s do the bad side.” As soon as I say something, we are so smart. Our brains and body are so smart.

Steven Sashen:

Yeah.

Rodrigo Gallego:

So smart. We need to catch up with that and understand, “Okay, you’re going to do this, now let’s do it this way.”

Steven Sashen:

This is a funny thing that I was thinking about recently. I’ve had a couple of people analyze my running and my movement lately, some big people who are very well known. I said, and the only way I can do it is by saying this out loud to them, I say, “I’m really looking forward to you finding out what I can improve, and I really want you to look at me and think that I’m the best guy you’ve ever seen.” It’s a combination of I want to look good and I want to get better.

I think if you don’t say things like that, literally out loud, to acknowledge the full reality. “I don’t want to embarrass myself, and I know I’m going to by having you look at me and see things that I didn’t see, and I want better.” It’s an interesting combination-

Rodrigo Gallego:

It needs to be a safe environment, especially for men, again. Women, normally, are more open, and they’re okay to be, maybe, don’t feel that they are the best in the class, but with men, sometimes the ego is like they don’t want to be doing something … If you are strong, you’re going to go and lift, because-

Steven Sashen:

The thing you’re strong at.

Rodrigo Gallego:

If you are un-flexible, you’re going to avoid flexibility at all costs.

Steven Sashen:

Right.

Rodrigo Gallego:

It’s like, “Okay, those are the things that you need to do more. The ones that you don’t want to do is what we should be doing more.”

Steven Sashen:

And … And we can sort of leave on this thought, if you will, that yes, you want to find those things that you avoid, and find a way to do them, and do it in a way that’s enjoyable, in a way that’s fun, a way that doesn’t feel like a chore, that’s really, I think-

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yeah, and it can be done in that way, with an open mind. Also, again, you don’t need to become a yoga instructor, you don’t need to have that flexibility, but improving a little bit, it will free up a lot of stuff.

People sometimes think, “Oh, I will never be able to do that.” You don’t need to do it. Again, go back to six. Can we get to five, six? Because if you get to that level, and then when you get to certain level, it’s very easy, much easier to maintain than to build. Right? So if you can get to five, six all across the board, you are a really functional human.

If you keep doing the stuff to maintain that, and that’s when I say age is only a part of the equation, because if we do what we need to do to get you all across the board a six, and then we do what we need to do to keep you there. Of course, but why you cannot be 80 and still be a six all around? Why not?

Steven Sashen:

I can tell you, about 12 years ago my wife and I were in Finland for the World Masters Track and Field Championship, I had a horrible race, but that’s not important. I cracked under the pressure a little bit, it was my first international race-

Rodrigo Gallego:

That’s a big thing. That’s a big event.

Steven Sashen:

I know. I wasn’t used to … I mean, now it’s not a problem, but then it was. The more important part was I hung out with a lot of the people who were 85 and older. There was one guy who was 101. He came out with his walker, he was having a hard time walking, but he did the field events. He did the shot put, he did the discus, he did the javelin. He would come out with his walker, they’d hand him the shot, which, I think, maybe weighed five pounds for that age, and he throws it, it goes like 10 feet, and the entire audience goes insane.

Rodrigo Gallego:

That’s amazing.

Steven Sashen:

Everyone was thinking, “I just want to be that guy. I want to be that guy who’s 80, 90, 100, who’s still moving as much as he possibly,” or she, in fact, because it was mostly women who were in the higher 80s competing, “I just want to be doing as much as I possibly can then.”

What we’re seeing is that as the baby boomers are aging, they’re doing a little better than-

Rodrigo Gallego:

I think we are. Yeah, for sure. Well, I remember, growing up, you said you’re 58?

Steven Sashen:

Yeah.

Rodrigo Gallego:

I remember people of 58 they were much, much older.

Steven Sashen:

Oh, my God, yeah.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Right? We are progressing in that way, but it’s doable. It’s not crazy, it’s not unnatural to be able to get to those years. It’s about what you do starting today.

Steven Sashen:

Yeah, and again, it’s not like you’re going to be as strong, as fast, as flexible, but that’s not the important part. I love this idea of if you can just be an all-around six, that’s a great place to start. That’s a really important thing for people to come to, is recognizing that.

It’s funny, I had a talk this morning with somebody who was a fitness coach and he was trying to sell me in his program. I was just describing where I was and I said, “I’m trying to lose that last seven pounds of body fat to get a better strength-to-weight ratio.” He says, “I don’t think I can help you because what I do is I get them to where you are. They’d be thrilled where you are. You’re in a different game.”

I’m not trying to become the best in the world, I’m not going to be that. I know the guys that are the best in the world, there’s no way I’ll ever beat them. But if I’m in the top 20, I’m pretty happy. If I’m in the top 15, I’m very happy. If I show up at a track meet, at an international and national meet and they pull me in for a relay, and I’m the slowest guy in the relay but we still do well, I’m thrilled.

When I first started sprinting, my goal was, of course, to win everything, and then I saw the lay of the land and then my goal was just to have people go, “What the hell is he doing here?” Then I would race and go, “How’d the hell that happen?” It’s just different goals as you start to, I guess, maybe get a little clarity about who you really are is part of it too.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yeah, for sure. Your part is your part. For me, what it is I help you get to that level that then you can choose. Because it’s sad to see people that they cannot do any of those things, they are still very young, there’s a lot of life left and they start, really, like how I felt when I was in my 20s. That, “Well, it’s downhill from now, and there’s nothing that you can do.”

Steven Sashen:

Yeah.

Rodrigo Gallego:

That is what I want to change.

Steven Sashen:

So, if people want to find out how they can get your help to make these kinds of changes, and have this kind of fun, how would they find you and get in touch with you?

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yeah, the easiest way will be to find me in Instagram. I’m @barefootmovers-

Steven Sashen:

Barefoot movers plural? Movers-

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yeah, movers. Yeah, because there’s also, it’s community. Barefoot movers. Also, they want to check my website, it’s barefootmovers.com.

Steven Sashen:

Perfect.

Rodrigo Gallego:

But Instagram is a great way because I’m active there and it’s a good way to start conversation. People have questions, I can answer right away. It’s a good place for that.

Steven Sashen:

As a friend of mine once said, when they asked him how to become a millionaire, he said, “Find a way to help people improve their life just a little bit, and then ask them for a little bit of money for that.” So I don’t know what you’re doing financially, nor do I care, but you’re helping people move and enjoy their life a little bit more, and that’s the important part.

I just want to thank you, and I just want to appreciate, there aren’t a lot of people who really, really understand the value of natural movement, and ways of integrating that and ways of playing with that. So it’s always a pleasure to meet someone new who does-

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yeah, thank you.

Steven Sashen:

I definitely look forward to what I can do to be helpful, we’ll have that conversation offline.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yeah, thank you very much, it was a pleasure to meet you-

Steven Sashen:

Absolutely.

Rodrigo Gallego:

It was a pleasure. Another thing that I want to say, that is also, I really appreciate people that do what you do-

Steven Sashen:

Oh, thanks.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Because we need more people of doing things to help people. I think if we change the mindset of, “I need to do whatever I need to do to make money.” That’s not a good direction to go, and when I see people that they work really hard and they put a product out there because they want to help people, that is amazing, and that’s what we need more of. So I want to recognize that on you.

Steven Sashen:

Well, thanks. I mean, I’m never going to slight someone for deciding what they need to do to make a living and support their family, but I can say that we hear from people every day who say things like, “You changed my life.” That’s what gets us out of bed in the morning. Running a business is a very difficult thing, especially a shoe company early on, but the number of people that we’ve heard from, whom we’ve been able to help, and starting with ourselves, we feel it every day, that’s what gets us going, and that’s what makes it really exciting.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yeah, I imagine. Yeah.

Steven Sashen:

Then, again, finding more and more people like you, who understand this, the more we can spread the word, like I said, it’s a movement movement.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yeah, very cool.

Steven Sashen:

So, getting more people involved in the movement part of moving, that’s what’s going to make it work. At a certain point, we’ll hit a critical mass and a lot of this will just become more obvious to people.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yeah, and sometimes it’s easy to just give up because it takes time, as we say earlier. Trying to educate people and tell them this, it’s so much easier to just go with the main thing. You know? “This is easy, you want this? I give you this.” In fitness, it’s a lot. “Oh, give them what they want, so you’re going to have a …” No. No, no.

Steven Sashen:

Well, I asked a friend of mine, the psychologist who said, my friend who said, “Find a way to improve people’s lives a little and ask for a little money in exchange,” he also, I asked him once, “Do you want to give people what they want, or what they need?” He goes, “You tell them what they want to hear, and then when they get in, you show them what they need to hear.”

Rodrigo Gallego:

Yes.

Steven Sashen:

It’s not about being a bait-and-switch, but people are … Like with footwear, people say they want comfort. Great. Well, the way you thought you’d get comfort is not the way you get real comfort. You don’t get it from a bunch of cushioning and padding and elevated heels and pointy toes and stitched shoes. You get it from your body naturally. Once people discover that, it’s like a giant wake-up call.

So this is the thing across the board, is the more that people can discover this new way of doing things that actually works, again, we’ll hit a critical mass and it will become obvious, again, as it was before people started selling solutions to non-existent problems.

Rodrigo Gallego:

Exactly. Yes. That’s amazing. All right.

Steven Sashen:

Well, dude, it’s a total pleasure. Don’t go while I sign off. As I’m signing off, for everyone who’s been on this, thank you. Thank you for being here, I hope you enjoyed this. If you want to find out more about what we’re doing with The MOVEMENT Movement, go to www.jointhemovementmovement.com. You can opt in to hear about upcoming episodes, you can find the previous episodes. You can find out all the places where we share our content on YouTube and Facebook and Instagram and Twitter, et cetera, et cetera.

If you have any questions, drop me an email, [email protected], you can use that for any recommendations you have for other people who you think should be on the podcast, including people who think I’m a complete idiot. If you know someone who thinks I’m totally wrong, I want to talk to them, let’s have some fun with that too.

Most importantly though, whatever you do, please, go out have fun, and live life feet first.

Comments (1)
  1. It was a blast listening to you two talk and geek out about movement. You have the same mindset I have about living and how to reach longevity — keep it active and varied. Thanks for sharing.

    I’m looking forward to more such conversations.

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