As we leave our toddler years, we grow bigger and stronger muscles. We now have other options. Unfortunately, these other options do not come close to matching the efficiency and grace of our innate system.
As children, we follow our elders. This is not good. Modern, "civilized" human beings are ignorant of the vital link between 'how we fall' and 'how we lift.' As young children, we have no capacity to resist the dictates of society. We adopt its bad habits. We begin to commit our weight in a direction other than straight down. Our balance points are tiny. Our misdirected falling causes us to begin to topple. For survival, our brain immediately takes over, summoning muscles that hold us in place and that keep us relatively centered. This 'success' in sustaining uprightness costs us dearly. We begin to take our uprighting for granted. We stop paying attention to the means we are using to gain this end.
When we mis-direct our falling and lose balance momentarily -- falling backwards or off to the side -- we fail to notice. When this happens, we also fail to notice all the muscular effort that we employ to brace and right ourselves so that we can continue to function normally. This high level of stress becomes part of our moment-by-moment experience, but out of our awareness.