FOUNDATIONS: MOVE
Movement Is Medicine
If food is the foundation, movement is the spark that brings it all to life. Your body is designed to move, and when it does, everything works better your energy, your focus, even your relationships. When it doesn’t, stiffness, pain, and fatigue creep in, pulling down your mind and mood with it.
That’s why in this program we don’t just “work out.” We practice moving like healthy humans are meant to.
The Core Idea: Fundamental Movements
Your spine and your limbs are capable of an incredible range, but it all comes down to a few key patterns:
Bend forward and back (flexion and extension)
Lean side to side (lateral flexion)
Rotate (twisting)
Squat and hinge (to sit, lift, and stand with strength)
Push and pull (to move things away or towards you)
Balance and locomotion (to stay steady and move through space)
Train these movements regularly, and you build resilience. Ignore them, and your body gradually loses the freedom it once had.
Why This Matters
Science is clear: strength, mobility, and balance are some of the best predictors of healthy ageing. Studies even show that the ability to get up and down from the floor without support is linked to longevity. Movement is not just about looking fit, it’s about being capable, independent, and confident in your body for the long haul. It’s about being able to say more yes’ and less no’s in life. Here’s a quote to live by:
“Be the oldest person in the gym (yoga studio), and the last one in the nursing home.”
How I Train
In my sessions both personally and those I train, we combine yoga, mobility work, and strength training. Together they create balance:
Yoga brings awareness, flexibility, stability and breath into movement.
Strength training builds the muscle and bone density you need for daily life.
Mobility practice keeps joints healthy and reduces injury risk.
Cardiovascular work trains the heart and lungs to support your whole system.
You’ll experience them in different ways, sometimes as separate sessions, often blended together, but always in a way that respects your body’s design.
The Consistency Factor
Just like with nutrition, it’s not about one perfect workout. It’s about small, repeated actions. A few minutes of stretching in the morning. A walk at lunch. Showing up for your training session even when you don’t feel 100%.
Movement doesn’t just add years to your life, it adds life to your years.
Dance Yourself Free
Over the summer I spoke at an event and asked a simple question: why do we want to get fitter?
The answers usually fall into two camps. The first is after a health scare. The second, the more common one, is the hope that fitness will make us happier. And there’s some truth in that. Movement does release those “happy chemicals”: dopamine, which gives us pleasure, serotonin, which creates a sense of contentment, and even adrenaline (often dubbed a stress chemical),, which provides a short burst of energy.
But here’s the catch ! Getting fit doesn’t guarantee happiness. In fact, in the chase for body perfection or fitness goals, many people (and I include myself here) lose sight of the happiness that’s already available in the present moment.
This is where yoga offers a different path. Yoga is a practice of presence. Through postures (asana), breathing techniques (pranayama), and sound (mantra), it teaches us to settle into the here and now. Your fitness, the postures, the breathing exercises, the walks are not the finish line, they are the starting point.
And there’s another way to experience this blend of movement, presence, joy, and freedom and its my preferred way; dance.
The ancient Greeks, who left us such a wealth of wisdom, also saw dance as medicine for the body and mind. They understood what we too often forget, when you let yourself move freely, without judgment or analysis, you return to a deeper sense of being alive, happier, lighter, more whole.
The word ecstasy comes from the Greek ekstasis literally “to stand outside yourself.” For the ancient Greeks, dance wasn’t performance or entertainment. It was a doorway. In the wild parties of Dionysus, people danced to shed the mask of everyday life, to let go of their persona, and to taste freedom. Professionals, law makers, those living serious, worthy and responsible lives, would come to let loose.
Fast forward two thousand years and we’re rediscovering the same truth: when you dance without choreography or judgment, you step into something bigger than yourself.
Modern science is catching up with what the ancients knew. Studies on ecstatic dance and trance show that rhythm and movement alone, (without drugs or props), can shift the nervous system, lift mood, and create states of flow. Brain scans confirm that music lights up the reward and emotion centres of the brain. And when we dance together, social bonds deepen and stress hormones fall.
Why does this matter? Because most of us spend too much time “in our heads.” Ecstatic dance offers a safe way out, a reminder that you are more than your thoughts, more than your to-do list. For a while you are pure rhythm, energy, and presence.
I’ve put together a playlist to guide you through your own session, you can walk, run, dance, whatever, just move. Start slow, building heat, and land in stillness. You’ll find it in my upcoming app, alongside yoga flows, breath practices, and guided relaxations.
Think of it as another practice in your toolkit: not about being good at dance, but about feeling free in your body, steady in your mind, and open in your heart.
What will you let go of when the music starts?
The LUMEN App: Coming October 14th (preview Oct 6th)
Imagine carrying a whole studio in your pocket. Yoga sessions, breathing practices, meditations, strength training, nutrition guidance, inspiring talks and podcasts, even playlists to lose yourself in, whether that’s in dance, in the gym, or on your mat.
That’s what this app is: my work, my passion, my voice, all in one place. You’ll be able to follow guided practices at home or in the studio, book sessions with me online and in-person, and connect with a gifted community who are walking the same path.
Here’s what you’ll find inside:
Yoga, meditation, hypnotic relaxation & breath-work for calm, focus, and resilience.
Strength & mobility training to keep your body capable.
Nutrition principles that are simple and sustainable.
Talks & podcasts to inspire fresh perspective.
Playlists that carry you into movement and freedom.
Booking made easy for private and group sessions.
There will always be a free community section for everyone to enjoy. And if you want more depth, the monthly membershiphundreds of programs, updated regularly, for less than the price of a coffee.
This is more than an app. It’s my way of sharing two decades of learning in a way that helps you live life fully stronger in body, clearer in mind, and more open in heart.
The app launches October 14th, with previews rolling out over the next week. I’d love you to join me and help others find the app.
Enjoy the playlist below and commit to MOVE today.
Love Stuart