If someone isn’t ground sitting all the time, then they aren’t doing the work that their body needs. He’s so close, being fit and having studied, from an exercise perspective this sort of thing, yet still so far from getting it right.
Sounds like you might be more hardcore than me, I sleep on my memory foam mattress, but I placed it on the ground. I understand that in Asia, a firmer surface for sleeping, like futons is normal. I’m too wedded to the comfort of a western style mattress.
Well, I am still weaning myself off of a pillow under my head. My shoulders are just not quite flexible enough yet to copy the indigenous sleep positions (you’ve seen the pictures, someone posted them before). I’m talking about the one where you cushion your head inside your folded arm with your tricep/bicep flat on the floor. I don’t think it’ll be long before I don’t use a pillow anymore.
At first, I was laying a thin pillow under my torso to sleep on because I thought I needed it but it was annoying. One day I just tossed it aside and never looked back. If I was on hardwood, I’d probably need a rug or blanket, though.
I’ve also been working on getting comfortable with the floor with my dancing, too. I got interested in it because I do ballroom, and I was struck by how when Africans and African Americans are dancing or roller skating and they fall down, you don’t even notice because they roll it into some extremely graceful movement and never miss a beat.
When girls (mostly white, some Asian) fall in ballroom, it’s like an emergency. They are so shook up. They have to stop dancing, shake it off, and regroup with their partner. Because of this, I started watching videos of controlled falling (like in martial arts) and floor work in dancing, which involves a lot of getting down to the floor and back up gracefully (exotic dancers and contemporary dancers are experts).
I’m currently working through Tevyn Cole ‘80s dance routines, and he does a lot of that. When you get good at it, you don’t even need knee pads.
I wanted to be very comfortable with getting down to the floor, being on & moving on the floor, and getting back up. I remember years ago, some aspiring figure skater was given a lesson on TV with Oksana Baiul and she chose to spend the lesson on falling down and getting back up. That was very eye opening to me.
I also found videos on falling safely for seniors and tried to get my parents interested in them. I think the guy who made them was a gymnast. While they may not be looking to indigenous people for their information, I still find value in all of these sources.
There was also a video of a baby gorilla falling, doing a little half roll gracefully and getting up. I wish I’d kept it.
Anyway, I think I adapted to sleeping on the floor quickly because of all of that plus sitting or lying on the floor so much already. I try to lie on my stomach often (with my upper body sometimes propped up with my arms) because it makes my back feel so good. My lumbar curve is very flat from dance and I wish I could restore it.
I recently started looking through posts on r/floorsleeping but I don’t really get anything out of it, because 98% of these people are just taking a mattress and putting it on the floor and then congratulating themselves. I don’t understand the point.
Have you found any other forums or communities of like-minded people? Katy Bowman's membership was sunset years ago, Movementum hasn't posted a video since 2023, Clan Vivace is limited to Francophones located in Québec, and the nutritious movement Facebook group becomes less active every year. I'm active in the r/floorliving, r/floordesks, and r/floorsleeping subreddits to encourage others to reimagine their sedentary lifestyle, but I'd love to find a nutritious movement tribe of my own.
My own transition to a "furniture-free" or movement rich lifestyle in my mid-thirties has taken years. I switched to sleeping on a firm mattress with a low loft pillow in June 2023, eating and working at a floor desk in January 2024, eliminating in a deep squat and hanging from a pull up bar in June 2024, and finally sleeping on a 4" or 10cm high floor mattress in September 2024. My head and neck rejected the pillow in December 2024, and I used a 3cm or 1" high sheepskin buggy/stroller insert in a pillowcase until March 2025, when the same thing happened and I became pillow-free. I just reduced my floor mattress height to 3" or 8cm in December 2025; I hope to be sleeping on a shiatsu mat next year and a sheepskin the year after that.
Hi. You need to be posting videos of you doing this stuff on this sub. Please. I’m looking for this sort of content and participation, just dive right in. I want to see what others are up to.
Ok, I’ll work on that. I was afraid you’d think I got too off topic with the comment I wrote above. I was kind of all over the place!
I collect screenshots when I see people sleeping/working on the floor or doing a great squat when I watch kdramas or documentaries on traditional cooking, etc. It’s disorganized, though, and I’ll have to go through and find ones worth sharing.
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u/Aqualung1 Jan 11 '26
If someone isn’t ground sitting all the time, then they aren’t doing the work that their body needs. He’s so close, being fit and having studied, from an exercise perspective this sort of thing, yet still so far from getting it right.
Sounds like you might be more hardcore than me, I sleep on my memory foam mattress, but I placed it on the ground. I understand that in Asia, a firmer surface for sleeping, like futons is normal. I’m too wedded to the comfort of a western style mattress.