Welcome back to First Principles, our Sunday soiree to discuss all the things that weekdays just aren’t as amenable to. I’ve got something very exciting this week. It’s called Quests.

But before that, do you brachiate?

Ha ha. Sorry. I’m sure that was a bit of a random jump. I’ll explain, using a photograph to begin with.

[Source: Wikipedia]

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Did you see the brachiation? No?

Here’s another one, this time of a human.

[Source: Wikipedia]

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I’m sure you’ve got it by now. To brachiate means to move about by hanging and swinging. Primates are largely unique in their ability to brachiate, aided by freely rotating wrists, short fingernails, smaller thumbs, and most importantly, flexible shoulder joints.

Of course, we humans diverged from our primate ancestors by choosing to travel on the ground using bipedalism instead of through the trees using brachiation. But, our shoulder joints, spine, and body structure still haven’t fully made the evolutionary shifts. Worse, we’ve transitioned from walking around to sitting around in just a few hundred years.

When is the last time you recall swinging from monkey bars? Or hanging from a pull-up bar without gloves, tape, or assistance? Most modern people lose this skill as they do not use it regularly, but it can be vital to having healthy and functional shoulders. The shoulder joint is a ball and socket joint, similar to the hips, which allow for glide and rotation. If our arms generally hang to our sides, why are our shoulder girdles designed to rotate? Were we designed to hang overhead? The shoulder girdle: Think about this joint of the body. Unlike the spine, hips, knees, and ankles, the shoulders are not loaded while standing upright against gravity. With that said, why do so many modern-day humans suffer from pain caused by cervical spine disc bulges, herniations, stenosis and spondylolisthesis? If we aren’t routinely walking on our hands (I don’t know about you, but I’m not), how do issues like shoulder impingements, rotator cuff, AC joint injuries, frozen shoulders, and carpal tunnel syndromes come to be? And even further, why are humans physically deteriorating as we advance technologically? Perhaps the issue is not only the movement patterns we are overusing but also about the positions and postures we were built to do but no longer utilize.

Why We Took a Break From Brachiating & Function of the Shoulder, Boundless Body

Kids are brilliant at brachiating. You see them swinging gleefully from jungle gym bars in parks. Us adults though, by and large, suck at it. 

I’ve been learning to brachiate for the last week, and I can tell you, it’s been incredible for my recurrent rotator cuff, neck, and shoulder pain. I’m up to three reps of 60 seconds each from a doorway pullup bar. In fact, my fitness mantra for 2024 is, “Bro, do you even brachiate?” 😬

My 2023 fitness mantra was, “Bro, do you even barefoot?”

Why did we go off on this utterly random “health-bro” sidequest this Sunday, you must be thinking? Does Rohin write some other health newsletter, and did I accidentally get sent that?

No. This is very much First Principles. Welcome to First Principles “Quests”. 

These are the sections we have for you today. 

1. Introducing FP “Quests”
2. #FPPodcast 🎙️
3. #SilentSunday photos 📸
4. #FPBooks 📚
5. #FPLinks 🔖

For the last few weeks, Jonathan, Anushka, and I (and starting last week, Hari, our new intern!) have been discussing how to tap into the incredible depth and diversity of insights and experiences we have among the FP Community.