James LaughlinHigh-performance leadership and executive coach. Covering all aspects of life and career.

80% of us have this coming our way…. Full episode LIVE wherever you get your podcasts.

14 Dec 2025 · 1 min

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0:44

A YouTube interview (hosts Kelly Starrett and Chris Williamson) discussing widespread back and chronic pain. The speakers claim roughly 80% of people will experience back pain and that about one in five people suffer chronic pain; they attribute much of this to reduced natural movement caused by modern conveniences (seats, wheels, smartphones) and repetitive behaviours, using animal analogies to illustrate the abnormality of our sedentary patterns.

Chapters

Everybody gets back pain. 80% of us have got it, get it at some stage, at any point in time, a quarter of the population have got it. We're either sitting all day or we're doing highly repetitive movements all day. And if you went to a zoo.
And you looked at an animal that.
Was just sitting, staring into space all day, or doing.
This highly.
Repetitive, stressed looking movement all day, you would think it's sick.
And that's one of the reasons, you.
Know, chronic pain now is one in five people. And a.
Large percentage.
Of that is because we're just not moving.
We've invented these.
Really amazing things like the polar spacecraft and toasters and Velcro, but two of those things or three of those things, the seat, the wheel and the smartphone, have really sucked our movement out of our life.
And we are an animal, and we.
Are just not moving like an animal anymore.