GOATA (Protect your joints for life)

[Dave_Fit]

So this is me WOATA walking/running, you don't know how bad it is until you see it for yourself. I hope after 3-6 months I can post a video that is at least somewhat GOATA. I know the vid isn't great but toes are out, heels are not away and I don't look back chain (my hips are forward somewhat)

 

[RealNeat]

So this is me WOATA walking/running, you don't know how bad it is until you see it for yourself. I hope after 3-6 months I can post a video that is at least somewhat GOATA. I know the vid isn't great but toes are out, heels are not away and I don't look back chain (my hips are forward somewhat)

Whoa is it the video or are you a very large human! Your shoes are stylish but don't look very functional, maybe a nice barefoot shoe with an insole could help your progress.

I like this one, Primus Trail Knit FG Mens

 

[Ben.]

So for me getting into some of these GOATA positions, I have noticed my left leg doesn't want to bow (knee out) with ankle bone high as much as my right, but my right doesn't want to corner (knee in) with ankle bone high. I also notice when getting into child rocker (on knees on floor, but on heels, toes pointed in, heels out), my heels do not turn out very far at all, there is definitely a lack of mobility in the ankle/feet. I have been consciously been walking on the outside edge of my feet, with toes straight for days and it's becoming more natural. I am also consciously keeping my hips back behind my midline ever so slightly (staying back chain) maybe an inch or two back from where they want to naturally sit.

my heels are not as far out to the sides as either of these, even when I physically try to bend my ankle out more with my hand there is little movement. Definitely frozen in a bad pattern, need to keep working on this.
View attachment 33347

From what I gather so far, top things to do daily.

1. minimal shoes. I ordered these Barefoot Minimalist Shoe I don't have them yet, should be here Sunday.
2. walk with toes straight ahead, hips slightly back, walking on outside edge of feet rather than heel toe
3. Child rockers a couple times a day. On knees, long back, rocking butt toward heels and from side to side
4. corner hinge (butt on wall at quarter squat position, 1st and 2nd toe straight ahead, weight on outside of foot and up on ball, hands on chest, knees pointed in without allowing ankle to collapse, and hinge at the hip leaning over multiple times.
5. bow hinge is same as above but knees pointed out
6. GOATA drop in

7. GOATA resting postures
GOATA resting squat View attachment 33349 cross leg sit View attachment 33350 on one knee sit View attachment 33351



I have no real idea as to how often to do some of these but I have been going with daily as they are supposed to be natural movements.

Thank you very much for this great and simple overview.

I have incoorporated standing straight/toes pointing eachother and pushing my knees actively to the sides (outwards, left knee to the left, right knee to the right). Doing this while walking or waiting at the bus station. I automaticly distribute the weight as you (or GOATA in this case) describes it should on my feet and it actually helps create the arch that is not present in people with flat feet.

I woudn't believe the intense response i get if i didn't try it. Right leg, especially the ankle is extremely blocked. I also "feel" the entire chain up to my shoulderblade and neck, where i've been having issues ever since my health "journey/misery" started. Amazing but also very blocky and exhausting. Especially the squad actually seems to cause dizziness when i go **** to grass for a longer period of time, prolly some bloodflow/nerves obstructed somewhere?

Whats even more incredible however, is the response i get when "walking". i've been walking with barefoot shoes for over 5 years now and i believe they caused more issues since i live in the city walking on a hard surface all day and never did some additional work to re-educate my moving-pattern/walking-habits, which with barefoot might have been necessary in retrospec. Also this "knee" pushing while keeping the toes straight makes some glute muscles work which seem to be severly underdeveloped from all the sitting-lifestyle.
Back to the response... while walking that way, my chronicly cold extremeties get realy warm, i feel reliefing drainage from my head/neck downwards (lymph freeing up?) and tense jaw/neck muscle loose up. It is realy cool, however i don'T know how i can make this movement and posture a permanent habit for my unconscious resting state.

Looking forward to your future reports david.

 

[Dave_Fit]

Whoa is it the video or are you a very large human! Your shoes are stylish but don't look very functional, maybe a nice barefoot shoe with an insole could help your progress.

I like this one, Primus Trail Knit FG Mens

I’m 6’4” tall and 212 lbs so yes on the larger side of things. I ordered a barefoot style shoe it actually arrived this evening. You are right the shoes I have on in the video are not good. I’ve only been attempting some basic GOATA for about 2 weeks.

 

[Dave_Fit]

Thank you very much for this great and simple overview.

Whats even more incredible however, is the response i get when "walking". i've been walking with barefoot shoes for over 5 years now and i believe they caused more issues since i live in the city walking on a hard surface all day and never did some additional work to re-educate my moving-pattern/walking-habits, which with barefoot might have been necessary in retrospec. Also this "knee" pushing while keeping the toes straight makes some glute muscles work which seem to be severly underdeveloped from all the sitting-lifestyle.
Back to the response... while walking that way, my chronicly cold extremeties get realy warm, i feel reliefing drainage from my head/neck downwards (lymph freeing up?) and tense jaw/neck muscle loose up. It is realy cool, however i don'T know how i can make this movement and posture a permanent habit for my unconscious resting state.

Looking forward to your future reports david.

Ben,

You’re welcome I’m glad you are finding this info useful. I’m really fascinated by it all and think the GOATA guys are really onto something huge.

I have experienced similar things. I have a pronounced better posture after walking toes straight on the outside edge of my foot. I’m consciously also pushing my hips back ever so slightly as I walk, maybe 1-1.5 inches back from where they normally rest. It’s getting easier to walk this way and my toes are pointing much straighter when I’m not conscious of what I’m doing and catch myself.

The drills I’m doing are child rockers roughly 150-200 reps a day divided over 3 times. 50-60 reps only takes about 1-2 min. I’m also doing bow and corner wall sits for time 1-2 times every other day. I’m only a little over a minute on each. I’m doing drop ins on opposite days of wall sits 15-20 reps per side 1-2 sets a couple times a day. I figure I’m investing 10-15 min a day. And these are divided into 3-4 min sessions. All of these can be easily looked up on YouTube. I pepper a few other moves in as I discover them and feel like I understand them well enough to do them correctly.

I’ve noticed improved neck and head posture and mewing seems easier now. I also have clearer sinuses, did realize they needed to improve but they have.

My arches are getting a little sore some days. I’m sure it’s because they are being used as intended and sore from the lack of that use. Also glute medius is sore from the drop ins for sure. My knee feels much improved. Ankle too. My right hip is a little unhappy but it’s the longest standing injury and most impinged. Sitting at my desk or in my car it burns a little after prolonged sitting. The rockers really release it as well as some GOATA hip stretches that I’m still trying to master.

One passive thing to try is GOATA sleeping posture.

 

[Dave_Fit]

Found this video of me WOATA AF doing trap bar deadlifts about a month ago.

Notice my toes out, inside ankle low, knee cave from start to mid way up (it's bad guys). This is not good. I'm going to replace these with landmine squat presses, GOATA style.

 

[Dave_Fit]

In searching out GOATA and devouring everything I can find. I have found some coaches who are calling BS. There are only two reasons I see for this. GOATA is so simple and they missed it, and so did most mainstream scientists so you can't fault them, but if you were coaching someone and had been doing it in a way that promotes injury and someone pointed a light right on on it, it would be tough to swallow. They start asking for studies, and talking about force plate production etc. GOATA recognizes that your reverse gear is the one you want to lift heavy things with, and play tug of war with etc. The problem comes in when you are a forward locomotion (moving) being who is using backward locomotion mechanics to move forward. The other reason they may call BS is they haven't looked at GOATA critically long enough and they have not seen it. They have not had that Eureka moment. It's really simple when you see it (get it) and impossible to un see.

We get stuck in bad movement patterns mainly from sitting in chairs, and cars, and wearing shoes that don't allow our feet to move properly. also not dropping down into a full squat we lose that range of motion, hips are stuck, knees don't pivot, ankles are frozen, and likely one or all hurt to a degree. Then add traditional weight lifting to it, and in my case 37+ years of it, you can see how you would only reinforce those bad movement patterns always using your reverse locomotion engine.

The nervous system will do what you ask it to do repeatedly. Proof is in my feet, they pointed out when walking (not extreme) but definitely out. I have consciously been walking toes straight ahead landing on outside edge of my foot, hips slightly behind my midline. Sometimes I lose focus and then realize and look down, my feet are pointing much straighter only after just a few weeks. Lying in bed on my back watching TV, feet were splayed wide, now they are barely splayed at all.

I definitely have a very long way to go as evident by my videos, but these little positive signs I'm seeing are encouraging.

 

[Dave_Fit]

GOATA land mine squat to press

View: https://youtu.be/yxnOq3mbWEk


Excellent video on all the facets of the drop in. A little long but he covers all the parts so well.

View: https://youtu.be/EwkmZPXcQLY


I’m really intrigued by this one, trying to decide if it fit GOATA criteria, looks like it does to me.

View: https://youtu.be/lXxg1IhWZMw

 

[Dave_Fit]

So I have to report that walking toes pointed straight, landing on outside edge of foot, and doing a limited number of GOATA moves daily has made a profound difference in my right knee pain, and has improved my posture significantly. Also have zero nasal congestion, where before it was minimal, now it's none (this could be due to other factors but maybe its part of it).

 

[shanny]

So I have to report that walking toes pointed straight, landing on outside edge of foot, and doing a limited number of GOATA moves daily has made a profound difference in my right knee pain, and has improved my posture significantly. Also have zero nasal congestion, where before it was minimal, now it's none (this could be due to other factors but maybe its part of it).

Hey Dave, I know this thread is a bit old, but how are you doing? I work with athletes all day long correcting this stuff. One thing I noticed specifically is that you may want to work on hip internal rotation specifically. This is very important on the stance phase of gait, and likely why you've had a toe out gait pattern. You want your acetabulum to be able to roll over your femur on the stance side as the oppositional side swings. In my experience, "forcing it" from the bottom up (just turning your toes in) may not be addressing the lack of hip mobility. If you want some strategies, PM me!!

 

[Nick]

I've been implementing the GOATA gait pattern and some of their exercises to the best of my ability with the limited free resources available. After walking with feet relatively straight for a decade thanks the Esther Gokhale's book, adding the rotational component was pretty easy for me. After implementing their ideas a bit it almost becomes self evident how all the "woata" behaviour is damaging, like looking at the way duck foot leads to collapsing the ankle and the knee by default. After doing some of Ben Patrick's/Poliquin's reverse sled and paying attention to the foot and hip, it also became clear to me what the goata people mean by "reverse movement" patterns being used to move forward. I think the goata people are on to something really important that no one else is talking about, but I do wish they were better at communicating because I think it's holding the ideas back from gaining more acceptance.

When I first came across them I was completely turned off by some of the ways they talked and especially the stuff about vortex math/fibonacci numbers etc. I only gave it another chance months later because I had some heel cord pain that wasn't going away, and the GOATA stuff got rid of it quickly. Some of the things they say that activate many people's BS detectors like the "mathematics", calling everything "technology" etc. I've tried to show their videos to some people who would benefit from trying the ideas out but they tuned out once they heard the fibonacci numbers talk and didn't really give it a chance. It also doesn't help that they consistantly draw 65ish degree angles and call them 45 degrees, they even sell a mat with a 65 degree angle labelled 45 degrees and in the descirption call it a "45 degree right triangle."

 

[Dave_Fit]

I've been implementing the GOATA gait pattern and some of their exercises to the best of my ability with the limited free resources available. After walking with feet relatively straight for a decade thanks the Esther Gokhale's book, adding the rotational component was pretty easy for me. After implementing their ideas a bit it almost becomes self evident how all the "woata" behaviour is damaging, like looking at the way duck foot leads to collapsing the ankle and the knee by default. After doing some of Ben Patrick's/Poliquin's reverse sled and paying attention to the foot and hip, it also became clear to me what the goata people mean by "reverse movement" patterns being used to move forward. I think the goata people are on to something really important that no one else is talking about, but I do wish they were better at communicating because I think it's holding the ideas back from gaining more acceptance.

When I first came across them I was completely turned off by some of the ways they talked and especially the stuff about vortex math/fibonacci numbers etc. I only gave it another chance months later because I had some heel cord pain that wasn't going away, and the GOATA stuff got rid of it quickly. Some of the things they say that activate many people's BS detectors like the "mathematics", calling everything "technology" etc. I've tried to show their videos to some people who would benefit from trying the ideas out but they tuned out once they heard the fibonacci numbers talk and didn't really give it a chance. It also doesn't help that they consistantly draw 65ish degree angles and call them 45 degrees, they even sell a mat with a 65 degree angle labelled 45 degrees and in the descirption call it a "45 degree right triangle."

completely agree, particularly with "vortex math/fibonacci numbers etc." It always sounded like some street smart guy trying to sound super smart. Who knows maybe there is something to those statements but they haven't ever clarified them in anything I have watched. I still think they are on to something big and imho have wrongly tried to make it sound more sophisticated which as you say does set of the B.S. detector.