The Forgotten Axis: How Reclaiming Lateral Movement Can Rewild the Modern Body

Some six million years ago on the East African savanna, our ancestors made a pivotal evolutionary gamble. They rose up on two feet. This transition to bipedalism was a triumph of the sagittal plane, the axis of forward and backward motion. It freed our hands to carry, create, and conquer. It allowed us to see over the tall grass, to become the planet’s most formidable persistence hunters. Our bodies became exquisite machines for walking straight. But this victory came at a cost. In our relentless march forward, we began to forget the other dimensions of our physical selves. We began to forget the forgotten axis: the frontal plane, the world of lateral movement.

The Great Domestication: How Modern Life Caged Our Bodies

If evolution started the process, modern life has brutally finished it. We have engineered a world that is almost entirely sagittal. We sit in chairs, staring at screens. We walk on flat, predictable pavement. We drive in cars, moving in straight lines. This environment is a cage for our biology. As biomechanist Katy Bowman argues, we have effectively domesticated ourselves. Our bodies, once adapted for the complex, varied movements of a wild landscape, are now shaped by the chair and the corridor. The consequences are profound. The World Health Organization has declared our sedentary lifestyle a global health crisis, linking it to a terrifying list of chronic diseases.

But the damage is deeper than metabolic. This single-plane existence has led to a collective amnesia in our muscles and nerves. The powerful hip abductor and adductor muscles, crucial for side-to-side stability and power, have gone dormant. Our sense of balance, our proprioceptive acuity, has been dulled by predictable surfaces and supportive shoes. We have become masters of the forward march, but aliens in our own lateral space. We are strong in one direction, but fragile and unstable in all others.

Rewilding the System: The Neurological Spark of Moving Sideways

Is this decline irreversible, a one-way ticket of evolution? The science of neuroplasticity suggests a more hopeful answer: the blueprints of our wilder past are not erased, merely dormant. Our brains and bodies are remarkably adaptable. The decision to consciously re-introduce lateral movement is more than just exercise; it’s an act of “rewilding.” It’s a spark that can reawaken a slumbering system.

This reawakening happens on three levels. First, there is the muscular memory. When you perform a side-to-side gliding motion, as on a ski simulator, you are sending a wake-up call to those neglected lateral hip and core muscles. You are reminding them of their evolutionary purpose: to stabilize the pelvis, protect the knees, and generate power in a different dimension. Second, there is the neurological awakening. Learning or re-learning a complex motor pattern like gliding literally reshapes your brain. As research in Nature Reviews Neuroscience confirms, it forges new neural pathways in your motor cortex, improving coordination and control. You are not just building muscle; you are upgrading your own internal software. Finally, there is the sensory revival. The constant, dynamic balance required in such movements is a feast for your proprioceptive system. It forces your brain to process a rich stream of data from your joints and muscles, recalibrating your sense of balance and making your movements more intelligent and adaptable.

The Modern Campfire: Tools for Reclaiming Our Physical Heritage

This process of reawakening our body’s latent abilities doesn’t require us to abandon our modern lives and return to the savanna. Instead, we can forge a new relationship with technology, using thoughtfully designed tools not as further cages, but as keys. A device like the MERACH Ski Machine can be seen as a modern campfire—a place where we can intentionally practice the movements that reconnect us to our deeper physical heritage. It provides a safe, controlled environment to explore the forgotten axis. The smooth, low-impact glide allows us to rediscover lateral motion without the jarring forces our domesticated bodies may no longer be prepared for. The “fun” it provides is the intrinsic joy of rediscovering a lost piece of ourselves, the pleasure of a body remembering its own multifaceted potential.

Conclusion: Movement as a Language

Think of movement as a language. Our evolutionary history gave us the capacity for a rich, complex vocabulary—running, climbing, squatting, twisting, and moving sideways. The modern world, however, has reduced our fluency to just a few repetitive phrases, mostly spoken in the forward tense. We have become physically illiterate, and our bodies are paying the price. Reclaiming lateral movement is like learning a new, vital part of our native tongue. It makes our physical expression more complete, our bodies more resilient, and our experience of being in the world more vibrant. It is a step sideways, but a giant leap forward in the journey to rewilding our bodies and reclaiming the full, magnificent potential of our human inheritance.