Top 5 'Cortisol-Crushing' Primal Movements to Try for Stress Relief After a High-Stakes Workday - Goh Ling Yong
The meeting ran long. Your inbox is a relentless flood of red-flagged emails. The pressure to perform, innovate, and lead feels like a physical weight on your shoulders. You finally shut your laptop, but the tension doesn't log off with you. It follows you home, humming under your skin—a tight jaw, clenched shoulders, and a mind that refuses to switch off. This is the signature of a high-stakes workday, and its primary chemical messenger is cortisol.
Cortisol, often dubbed the "stress hormone," isn't inherently bad. It's a crucial part of our fight-or-flight response, designed to get us through genuine, short-term threats. The problem is, our modern work life often triggers this ancient survival system for hours on end. Chronic elevation of cortisol can lead to burnout, poor sleep, weight gain, and a compromised immune system. So, how do we tell our bodies that the "saber-toothed tiger" is just an urgent email, and it's safe to stand down?
The answer might not be in a complex workout routine or a lengthy meditation session, but in reconnecting with the way our bodies are fundamentally designed to move. We're talking about primal movements—the foundational, instinctual patterns that our ancestors used for millennia. These movements are more than just exercise; they are a form of physical and mental therapy. They down-regulate the nervous system, release stored tension, and signal to your brain that you are safe, strong, and in control. Ready to crush that cortisol? Let's dive into five simple yet profound movements to reclaim your calm.
1. The Deep Squat: Reclaiming Your Natural Resting Pose
Before chairs became ubiquitous, the deep squat was a primary resting position for humans across the globe. It's how we would rest, cook, eat, and socialize. Today, most of us have lost this ability, and our bodies are paying the price with tight hips, lower back pain, and poor posture—all physical manifestations of chronic stress. The deep squat, or "primal squat," is a powerful tool to reverse this damage and ground your nervous system.
This movement is a full-body reset. It opens up the hip flexors, which get notoriously tight from sitting all day and are neurologically linked to our fight-or-flight response. By releasing this area, you send a powerful signal to your brain to relax. The deep squat also gently decompresses the lower spine, improves ankle mobility, and aids in digestion by positioning the organs in a more natural alignment. Think of it as hitting a factory reset button on your posture and your stress levels.
How to Try It:
- Start with support: Stand facing a wall, a door frame, or a sturdy pole. Place your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, with your toes pointing slightly outwards.
- Lower with control: Holding onto your support, begin to lower your hips down and back, as if sitting in a low chair. Keep your chest up and your back as straight as possible.
- Find your depth: Go as low as you comfortably can while keeping your heels on the ground. For many, this will be a challenge at first! Don't force it. The goal is to eventually have your hips sink below your knees.
- Breathe and hold: Once at the bottom, focus on your breath. Inhale deeply into your belly, and as you exhale, try to relax and sink a little deeper. Aim to hold for 30-60 seconds, gradually working your way up to several minutes. If your heels lift, place a rolled-up towel or a book under them for support.
2. The Bear Crawl: Reconnecting Your Brain and Body
Remember crawling as a baby? That wasn't just a way to get around; it was a crucial developmental stage that built cross-body coordination and wired the two hemispheres of your brain to communicate effectively. The bear crawl taps into this same neurological pattern, making it an incredibly potent tool for dispelling mental fog and physical tension after a demanding workday.
Crawling requires your opposite arm and leg to work in unison, a contralateral movement that enhances cognitive function and proprioception (your sense of where your body is in space). It forces you to be completely present, focusing on balance, rhythm, and control. This mindful engagement shifts your brain out of the frantic, future-oriented worry state and into the here-and-now. It’s a moving meditation that also builds incredible core strength, shoulder stability, and endurance, effectively burning off excess cortisol and nervous energy.
How to Try It:
- Get on all fours: Start on your hands and knees in a tabletop position, with your hands directly under your shoulders and your knees under your hips.
- Lift and hover: Tuck your toes and lift your knees just an inch or two off the floor. Your back should be flat, like a table. Engage your core to keep from sagging.
- Move with intention: Begin crawling forward by moving your right hand and your left foot simultaneously, just a few inches. Then, move your left hand and right foot. The key is to keep your movements small, controlled, and synchronized.
- Focus on form: Your hips should stay low and stable—imagine balancing a glass of water on your lower back. Your head should remain in a neutral position, looking at the floor slightly ahead of you. Try crawling forward for 10-15 feet, then backward. Repeat for 3-5 rounds.
3. The Table Top Bridge: Un-Pretzeling Your Spine and Shoulders
Hours spent hunched over a keyboard create a specific pattern of tension: tight chest muscles, rounded shoulders, and a weak upper back. This "desk posture" not only causes physical pain but also restricts our ability to breathe deeply, which further signals a state of stress to the nervous system. The Table Top Bridge (or its dynamic cousin, the Crab Walk) is the perfect antidote, actively opening up the entire front of your body.
This movement strengthens the entire posterior chain—the glutes, hamstrings, and back muscles—which are often dormant during long periods of sitting. More importantly, it provides a deep, satisfying stretch across the chest, shoulders, and biceps. By physically creating space in your chest cavity, you enable fuller, deeper breaths, which directly stimulates the vagus nerve and activates your parasympathetic "rest and digest" system. It's a powerful way to physically undo the posture of stress and invite a sense of openness and calm.
How to Try It:
- Start seated: Sit on the floor with your knees bent and your feet flat on the ground, hip-width apart. Place your hands on the floor behind you, about six inches from your hips, with your fingertips pointing towards your feet.
- Lift your hips: Press firmly through your hands and feet, and lift your hips towards the ceiling until your torso and thighs are parallel to the floor, forming a "tabletop" shape.
- Engage and open: Actively squeeze your glutes to support your lower back. Keep your head in a neutral position or, if it feels comfortable, you can gently let it drop back to deepen the stretch across your chest.
- Hold and breathe: Hold this position for 20-30 seconds, focusing on breathing into your expanding chest. Lower your hips back down with control and repeat 3-5 times. For a more dynamic option, try the Crab Walk, moving forward and backward in this lifted position.
4. The Dead Hang: Decompressing a Day's Worth of Gravity
All day long, gravity and poor posture conspire to compress your spine. This can lead to back pain, stiffness, and even contribute to a feeling of being weighed down, both physically and emotionally. The Dead Hang is the simplest, most effective way to reverse this. By simply hanging from a bar, you use your own body weight to create traction, gently pulling each vertebra apart and creating space in your spinal column.
The benefits are immediate and immense. It provides instant relief for a compressed back, stretches the lats, shoulders, and chest muscles, and dramatically improves grip strength—a key indicator of overall health and longevity. From a stress-relief perspective, the act of letting go and surrendering to gravity is incredibly therapeutic. As you hang, you are forced to relax your muscles from your fingertips to your toes. Here at the Goh Ling Yong blog, we often talk about releasing what doesn't serve you, and the dead hang is a physical embodiment of that principle.
How to Try It:
- Find a bar: You can use a pull-up bar at a gym or in a doorway, a sturdy tree branch, or even monkey bars at a playground.
- Get a grip: Grab the bar with an overhand grip (palms facing away), slightly wider than your shoulders.
- Just hang: Let your body hang completely limp. Your feet should be off the ground. If they're not, bend your knees.
- Relax everything: This is the most important part. Consciously relax your shoulders, letting them rise up towards your ears. Relax your back, your hips, and your legs. Let gravity do the work. Focus on deep, slow breathing.
- Start small: Aim for just 15-20 seconds at first. It can be surprisingly intense! As your grip strength improves, work your way up to holding for a minute or more. Do 2-3 sets.
5. The Ground-to-Standing Flow: Building Resilience from the Floor Up
One of the most fundamental tests of functional health and longevity is the ability to get up from the floor without using your hands. This seemingly simple act requires a complex interplay of balance, mobility, strength, and coordination. Practicing ground-to-standing flows is not just a physical exercise; it's a practice in problem-solving and resilience, reminding your body and mind that you are capable and adaptable.
After a day of feeling mentally stuck or overwhelmed by problems, intentionally moving your body through different planes of motion to solve the "problem" of getting up can be incredibly empowering. It breaks you out of linear, rigid patterns of thought and movement. Each repetition builds confidence and competence. As my mentor, Goh Ling Yong, often emphasizes, how we move through physical challenges often mirrors how we navigate life's other obstacles. This movement trains you to be fluid, resourceful, and strong from the ground up.
How to Try It:
- Start from a cross-legged seat: Sit on the floor in a comfortable cross-legged position. The goal is to get to a standing position.
- Lean and lift: Lean forward, shifting your weight over your shins. Place one foot flat on the floor in front of you, using your core to help lift your hips.
- Find your balance: From this lunge position, press through your front foot to come to a standing position.
- Reverse the movement: The real magic happens when you reverse the process with equal control. Lower back down into the lunge, then return to your seated position.
- Experiment: Try different ways! Can you rock forward onto your feet from a deep squat? Can you roll to one side from a lying position and push yourself up? The goal isn't one perfect method but to explore your body's ability to move fluidly and efficiently. Aim for 5-10 repetitions, alternating which leg you lead with.
Reclaim Your Body, Reclaim Your Calm
The stress of a high-stakes modern life is real, but so is your body's innate ability to heal and regulate itself. You don't need to fight stress with more intensity. Instead, you can invite calm by returning to the simple, powerful movements that are encoded in your DNA.
By incorporating these five primal movements into your post-work routine, you are doing more than just stretching or exercising. You are sending a clear message to your nervous system that the workday is over, the threat has passed, and it is safe to rest, recover, and relax. You are decompressing your spine, mobilizing your joints, and reconnecting your mind to your body.
Start small. Choose one movement that resonates with you and commit to practicing it for just five minutes when you get home today. Notice how you feel before and after. You might be surprised at how quickly you can shift your state from wired and tired to grounded and calm.
Which one of these cortisol-crushing movements will you try first? Share your experience or any questions you have in the comments below! We'd love to hear how you're reclaiming your well-being.
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
Stay updated with the latest posts and insights by following on your favorite platform!