Chapter 29: Anti-Gravity Mode (AGM)
You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. ~ James Clear
Dropped in mid-journey? Walk Straight is best experienced from the beginning.
We’ve all been there. It’s late, the house is quiet, and you need to get from here to there. But the floor in front of you has a history of squeaking at the most inopportune time. So instead of strolling, you do the quiet walk. Everyone’s got one. Maybe you rise onto your tiptoes, bend your knees a little too much, hold your hands up like a cartoon burglar. It all looks slightly goofy from the outside. What makes it effective is what’s happening on the inside.
We do something similar when someone scoops us up, and we try to make ourselves feel as light as possible. To the person doing the lifting, the difference between a body that lightens itself and one that is asleep or offering dead weight is unmistakable. Our actual weight hasn’t changed; something internal has. The quiet walk and our attempts at weightlessness animate our muscles in resistance to gravity, producing a shift into what I call “up-gear.”
That internal change is a doorway into something we instinctively know how to do but rarely choose to access: the ability to negotiate with gravity as we move through the day rather than collapsing into it.
When you sit down in a chair or on the toilet, do you drop down the last inches? Do you feel compelled to bend forward when you sit or reach back to feel for what you are about to sit on? Do you subconsciously squeeze muscles trying to control velocity? Do your knees collapse inward, flop outward, or does the pelvis tuck under? Gravity’s pressure, amplified by downward movement, compounds weakness and inflexibility. And yet, even though we instinctively use “up-gear” when we’re thinking about lifting or lightening the body, when we go to sit, we tend to do the opposite.
We spot the chair, shift into “down-gear,” and away we go into gravity’s flow. Boom, the challenge increases. But there is another way. Just as you “lighten” your body to walk quietly, you can draw on “up-gear” to use oppositional force to promote deceleration during descent. When you sit, instead of thinking, go down, think stand up. Your mind tells your body to rise as it lowers. “Up-gear” doesn’t negate gravity, but it sure changes the impact.
Anti-Gravity Mode (AGM)
Building on the same premise of harnessing natural responses established in “up-gear” Anti-Gravity Mode (AGM) taps into the Vertebral Erection mechanism, the involuntary lengthening response to substantial load placed upon the head.
Anti-Gravity Mode (AGM) leverages this inherent capacity into an actionable skill.
Previously, I described it like a little switch inside our body that recruits the muscles that make up the spine’s most efficient internal support. When the top of the spine at the neck is lengthened against gravity, the switch is flipped, and instantaneously, like magic, the abdominals and muscles of the spine draw in and up, creating space between the vertebrae and support from sacrum to skull. Simultaneously, as the spine lengthens away from the shoulder girdle, a natural release and separation occur, activating the stabilizing relationship between the shoulders and the back of the upper arms…the ultimate spinal reset. I asked, why would it exist in our body if it wasn’t meant to be a primary musculoskeletal operating system? My answer? It is.
The spinal column is too often secondary to movement. Anti-Gravity Mode (AGM) makes it primary. For example, when given posture guidance, common cues direct us to lengthen our neck by tucking the chin or drawing the jaw back. The neck may appear longer, but the effect is achieved by flattening its natural curve. Other common prompts, such as lengthen through the crown of the head, often elicit equally ineffective responses. The chest lifts. The lower back curve extends. The shoulder girdle rises. The neck stretches. The chin tips up. These are all understandable reactions, but the spine is not lengthening or elongating; it is accommodating.
For some, Anti-Gravity Mode (AGM) is as obvious as finding a new gear in a car once you know it’s there. For others, it involves several stops and starts, getting acquainted with the body, opening new lines of communication between the nervous system and the brain, releasing tension, and perhaps the ego. However, once recognized by the nervous system, Anti-Gravity Mode (AGM) can be accessed regardless of position or activity.
For discovery, however, seated is the best place to begin as it reduces the influence and distraction of the pelvis and legs. For now, I’ll offer just enough sitting structure to allow Anti-Gravity Mode (AGM) to emerge clearly. We will tease out standing and sitting later.
Sitting With Intention - Bare Bones Alignment Components
Find a place where you can sit with your feet on the floor.
Feet and knees facing straight, aligned with the inner rims of the front pelvic bones.
The space between the knees is approximately the size of your fist. Feel the sit bones directly under your body against the surface of the chair and relax your chest. If thigh size prevents the knees and feet from falling directly beneath the anterior pelvic bones, bring the thighs as close together as possible without squeezing, and slide the feet into alignment beneath the centers of the kneecaps.
Anti-Gravity Mode (AGM) - Discovery Process
Look in a mirror and adjust your head so that it is level and your profile is in a vertical plane. Then look into your eyeballs. I’ve found this helps the brain and nervous system sync with the body.
Relax the muscles that aren’t required to remain upright. Place your fingers along the vertebrae of your neck, starting just below the skull. Gently palpate the muscles to wake up the nerves along the back of the neck. This tactile feedback helps establish a clear line of communication.
With as little effort as possible, draw the vertebrae toward your fingers and up away from the torso, while the rest of the body remains relaxed.
Resist the impulse to:
push the head back
use the jaw to push the neck back
drop the chin or head down
lift the chest
Allow the torso to remain stable. Face forward. Eyes straight ahead. Jaw and chest relaxed.
When the muscles of the neck activate and lengthen, you’ll feel them coming from deep inside the spine toward your fingers, along with a perception of length in the neck. The front and sides of the neck, jaw, and chest remain relaxed.
If the Sensation Is Elusive
If this feels abstract, you can use your hands to activate oppositional force through counterpressure.
Begin again from the seated position.
Place one palm on the top of the skull, directly over the spine. Apply gentle downward pressure. Meet that pressure with an equal upward response from the spine, not the torso.
Place the other palm on the backside of the upper skull and add gentle horizontal pressure. Again, resist evenly.
Notice the increase in abdominal stabilization in response to the oppositional forces between your hand against your head and your head against your hand
This requires very little force.
Avoid leaning back. We are waking up the spine’s innate systems of support. This work depends on nuance, not effort.
If you feel the impulse to pull the chin or jaw inward, gently jut the chin or jaw away from the spine. When the chin and jaw are actively doing something else, they’re effectively removed from the equation. Once you feel the spinal muscles activate from within, release the jaw and chin.
Alternate Entry: Head Down
Another way to discover Anti-Gravity Mode is with the head hanging down, as if looking at a phone or book in your lap.
Allow your head to hang down.
Observe the weight of the head pulling on the neck.
Without changing the orientation of your head, think of gently drawing the back of your neck toward the ceiling.
As you do this, notice the muscles of the neck become animated, offering lift and support.
Resist the impulse to:
lift from the back of the head
lift the upper spine
Even though the head remains down, it is no longer hanging. The head is now supported by the spinal muscles, and the spine is supported by the innate systems within the torso.
This contrast, between passively existing under gravity and actively resisting it, is Anti-Gravity Mode.
Returning Upright
Once you’re acquainted with the sensation of support and length in the neck, gently roll the head and neck back on top of the body with as little effort as possible.
Keeping your fingers on the back of the neck while the head is still down can help you feel the animation in the spine and use that proprioceptive feedback to guide the movement from the inside and back of the spine.
When upright, open and relax the chest using as few muscles as possible.
Yes & No Exercise
While practicing Anti-Gravity Mode, add a slow roll of the head down and up (Yes) and rotate side to side (No). The chin, jaw, and chest remain relaxed. The movement is essentially nodding yes and no from the spine instead of the more common approach that prioritizes the muscles of the chest and front body.
What Comes Online
As the spine organizes itself upward, you may register a subtle lift deep inside the torso, an activation behind the ribs, or a full abdominal event throughout the ribcage extending toward the pubis. Don’t try to help it along.
You may also become aware of the relationship between the neck, the backs of the arms, and the shoulder blades as the spine distances itself from the shoulder girdle. Pay attention to the natural recruitment of muscles inside your torso.
Observe the sensation of the spine lengthening away from your tail as your chest and pelvis remain stable. You might feel a stretch along your entire back as the curves of the spine become shallower. Notice how meeting pressure to the back of the skull activates muscles in the ribcage, then the ribcage to the pubis.
This is your innate system responding, not you consciously turning on muscles.
Practice Notes
We are conditioned to imagine height and support coming from the front of the body: chin up, chest lifted, legs taut. It can be deeply beneficial to replace this with imagery of height and support emerging from the back and center of the body.
When the spine, chest, and shoulder muscles are tight, as they often are with habitual head-forward posture, this process can be challenging, but it is absolutely possible. With practice, as the spine becomes more flexible and the muscle suit more balanced, it becomes increasingly accessible.
Practice patience. Never use force. Force is counterproductive here.
Anti-Gravity Mode may reveal itself immediately or require exploration. Keep practicing. It’s worth it. In addition to reviving the body’s innate systems of structural support, it softens the spine’s curves and reclaims space around the vertebrae and joints.
Moving Forward
Up-Gear and Anti-Gravity Mode live in you, always at the ready.
Weave short reminders into the rhythm of your day: feel the skull float as you brush your teeth, sense the spine elongate while waiting for coffee, notice its influence as you sit down in your chair and rise from the table. Anti-Gravity Mode is step one on the way to turning daily activity into nature’s mobility training.
Have something you’d like to add? Questions? Comments? I’d love to hear it! Drop down and share below! XxD
Loving the feeling of sitting in my work chair using AGM - Didn’t think I could also feel my abs so much while working! 😂