What are “movement-colored glasses?”
Hi, I’m Katy B., and when I look at the world, I see movement. If you’ve ever recognized a friend by the way they walk, or felt certain two people were related because of their matching gait patterns, then you’ve had a glimpse at how I see the world. But MCG vision shows more than individual bodies—I see movement (or the lack of it) woven throughout our biology and culture. Things I’m often thinking about: What are the effects of labor being mechanized or outsourced to other humans? How do sedentary societies impact the environment? How does wide-spread sedentarism affect public health (and therefore the economy), national happiness, and mental health on a societal level?
Humans are driven by many forces, and the desire to conserve energy runs deep in our DNA. Coupled with our environments that make it easy to outsource our movement, and now we have to start addressing our own psychology when it comes to making the choice to move or not. How does psychological flexibility affect actual muscle flexibility? What is movement, anyway? How do the Greek influences of the WEIRD, Western mind affect the way we think, talk, and research movement? How do Indigenous cultures relate to movement? And why should we care about any of this?
And, as a biomechanist by profession (and obsession), I also really do love writing about body parts, although I mostly do that over at my education company Nutritious Movement. Movement-as-nutrition is key to understanding the essentialness of it and the collapse (within body parts or systems) that happens without the right movement inputs. I’ll probably sneak in anatomy and physiology bits now and then.
I’ll be fully launching MCG in January 2026 (to stay sane, I’ve been choosing to work on projects slowly, taking my time). If you’re here because you’ve read a book or article of mine, or heard me on somebody’s podcast, I’d love it if you’d subscribe!
About Me
Biomechanist, movement nerd, glasses-wearer (occasionally), long-form writer. I’m also a parent, so you can look forward to my movement-colored glasses being pointed towards kids and the sedentary habitats they’re growing within and what to do about it. I’m stressed about my teens right now, which is the appropriate response when you’re parenting the digital natives, barely speak the language, and are responsible for keeping everyone healthy and alive (which includes teaching the language that nobody taught us).
You can find my writing and expertise featured in places like NPR, New York Times, The Guardian, Psychology Today; me chatting about movement on the BBC and CBC radio, and on the Today Show, and also in papers and magazines like Good Housekeeping (setting up my household up for movement got quite a bit of press back in the day). My favorite way to teach movement is through the books I write, and through hour-long exercise classes—where learning about movement feels the least theoretical. (You can come to those live in-person classes in Washington state where I live, or get access to them online via my virtual studio.)
P.S. Before you get any ideas about me being too fancy, if I listed “what I’m all about” by time spent, it’s actually cooking and dishwashing (by hand when I can, because I like taking my mind off “more important” things with the movements it entails).
P.P.S. A lot of human movement used to be found in food, and can be now too, if we make some adjustments to the way we approach eating. The fact that our bodies need us to both move and eat is really an efficient set-up when it comes to motivation. Outsourcing almost all of our “food moves” hasn’t led to better outcomes when it comes to eating or moving, so look for writings on that too.
Join the Movement movement
Over the last ten years or so more and more movement professionals are understanding that humans need more movement than a handful of weekly exercise session can provide, especially if they’re sitting down the rest of the time, and that exercise doesn’t even have to be the exclusive road to moving more—physical activity and movement are broad categories. I started calling this phenomenon the Movement movement. Expect articles on all of this too, although some of those will be slightly expanded excerpts from entire books I’ve written on these topics already.
I coined the term “vitamin community” in my book Movement Matters. While I believe that in-person community is the truest spirit of the term, we can all use ideas and inspiration when it comes to the practical application of the concepts I wish to illuminate here. Subscribe and participate in the comments section, or support this work with a subscription.
