One individual may perceive his losing fight with gravity as a sharp pain
in his back, another as the unflattering contour of his body, another as
constant fatigue, yet another as an unrelentingly threatening environment.
Those over 40 may begin to call it old age. And yet all these signals may
be pointing to a single problem, so ubiquitous in their own structure as
well as in the fellow men that it has been ignored: they are off balance.
They are all at war with gravity.
Gravity is one of the great organizing principles of our world. Our well-being depends, in part, on our ability to adapt to it. Unlike animals, we face the challenge of carrying our weight upright on a relatively unstable two-point base. This skyward orientation requires more sophisticated support and adaptability.
Evolution has seen to it that most of us are born with the prerequisites for a body that is well integrated into the gravitational field – that is, a body that carries its weight close to a central vertical axis. If we put our bodies to dynamic, non-repetitive use, most of us would enjoy...