We're generally more immobile, live under artificial light, and eat highly processed foods. That's where a concept of living more like our "primal" ancestors was created.

One faction within the primal living movement focuses on the way we move and how that can be closure to the ways our bodies evolved to move.

Primal movement specialist James Attwill-Connolly, known as JC, has made it his mission to address the problems we've all created by living more sedentary lives and the pain - related symptoms that pop up as a result.

He swapped his London boots for bare feet when he moved down under with his wife and children during the turbulent pandemic swept times of 2020.

JC grew up a community called Caerphilly in South Wales in the United Kingdom to parents who ran pubs. Pubs were where he spent most of his young life and developed his ability to read people and the room.

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After 11-years as a personal trainer in London's most exclusive hotels, health and member's clubs, he moved to Pambula on the Far South Coast to be closer to his wife's family.

His work in London was more "aesthetic based" with an overall health agenda and there he worked mostly with actors, models, CEOs, and expecting mothers.

These days he usually gets drafted in for pain and he has turned his focus more to developing his philosophy and treatment practice to better understand "what happens in the body and why".

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He has a big focus on how fascia - a thin casing of connective tissue that surrounds and holds every organ, blood vessel, bone, nerve fibre and muscle in place - affects the body's response to pain.

JC takes a holistic approach to his treatment where he likes to "treat systems not symptoms" and focuses on ways people can incorporate more primal movement or "wilder habits" into their everyday.

The first step of his treatment involves looking at the way someone moves and walks, what he calls a "gait analysis", to understand the compensatory patterns that have evolved based on a individual's lifestyle.

"We tend to look at ourselves in the mirror and it's not unless we have an overexaggerated dysfunction or a compensatory pattern, like we lean excessively to one side, that we notice it because the body tends to find it's own equilibrium which the eyes usually gage that," he said.

The next part of his treatment involves getting to know the person and their physical history, including any sports injuries that person may have had.

"Individual's needs and problems are multi-factorial and unless we have that basic understanding, we can't help people."

According to JC, dysfunction in the body always follows a similar pattern.

"When you have a left hip issue, it's always going to lead to some some of dysfunction or incorrect pattern in the opposite shoulder because as I step forward with my left foot, my right arm comes forward.

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"It's those little things that allow me to figure out whether it's the hip or the shoulder, because if the shoulder isn't doing what it should, the hip is usually compensating.

"Clients who have knee issues tend to have a hip or an ankle issue further down the line and a lot of time those individuals who have knee surgery will find themselves in a position in three to four years down the line post-surgery that something creeps up in the hips," he said.

After looking at the way people move their bodies, he might prescribe exercises or activities for them to follow through with. He is big on exercises that strengthen specific body parts and has a particular focus on involving the "often neglected" feet.

Next he looks a client's nutrition and sleep habits to suggest where people can make improvements to improve their overall health and well-being.

"I do talk a lot because I am very big on education and I want to make sure that I'm giving as much as I possibly can but I also want to make sure people understand what I'm talking about because I do find that a lot of health professionals don't necessarily talk through things and that's unfortunate," he said.

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If there was one tip JC had for anyone wanting to start improving their mobility, it was to roll out the bottom of their foot every single day just using a tennis ball.

"Literally just roll the bottom of your feet, there's no right or wrong, for at least two minutes twice per day for the next fourteen days.

"I guarantee you will feel the difference, it's one of those things that is an untouched area so it's always going to yield results. It's also a position on the body that most of the fascia lines cross.

"By rolling out the feet you can change the position of the hips, the positions of the spine, the position of your shoulders and that's what I try to get people to understand because that's the core of what I do," he said.

JC offers a free first sessions for his clients, but you don't need to be a client to access the wealth of information he shares across his social media platforms.

You can connect with his Instagram at @rewildwithjc where he offers everyday ways people can improve their mobility and strive for a pain-free life.

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