How Jellyfish Teach Us 
to Live Longer (and 
Walk Better)

If you’ve ever cursed your knees halfway through a long city walk, or considered abandoning your evening plans for the comfort of a well-padded chair, Nicklas Brendborg’s Jellyfish Age Backwards might offer a surprising bit of hope. Aging, he argues, isn’t the inevitable slow-motion collapse we’ve been taught to accept. Nature, as it turns out, has a few tricks up its sleeve, and we humans can borrow some.   Take the so-called ‘immortal’ jellyfish (Turritopsis dohrnii), which - when stressed -can actually rewind its biological clock and start over. While we’re not about to sprout translucent bells and drift off into the current, we can switch on our own repair systems with a few well-timed nudges: intermittent fasting, movement, and the kind of recovery that doesn’t involve any kind of sprawling on the sofa with Netflix and nachos.

Brendborg points to hormesis, which is essentially the art of controlled stress. A little heat from a sauna, a little cold from an ice bath, and yes, the kind of exercise that you dread before you start but gives you a feeling of superiority once you get going. These small doses of stress flip the body’s internal repair switches, clearing out cellular clutter. It’s the biological equivalent of spring-cleaning your mitochondria.   Now, here’s where the jellyfish meets the pavement: one of the simplest, most powerful longevity habits is just moving- walking, running, climbing stairs. But modern life punishes us when we try. The wrong shoes? Blisters, sore knees, shin splints. And suddenly you’re wondering if your desk chair is actually a better friend than your gym membership.

Which is why it’s worth saying that longevity starts at ground level, with what’s on your feet. You might not be able to age backwards, but you can make walking easier on your joints with ergonomic shoes that cushion, support, and make movement feel more like joy than work. FitFlop’s cushioning midsole technology was designed for exactly this reason: to make walking forgiving, addictive, and at the same time, totally stylish.   So maybe the human version of ‘aging backwards’ isn’t all about green juice and collagen supplements (although they help too) . Maybe it’s about creating the conditions for better movement, better recovery, and a body that feels a little less like it’s working against you. A great pair of shoes, a hit of hormetic stress (brisk walks in the cold count), real food, deep sleep, and a shift in mindset. Instead of chasing “anti-aging,” we could be chasing “pro-mobility.”   Because if there’s one thing Jellyfish Age Backwards teaches us, it’s that we can’t stop time. But with the right habits- and the right footwear- we can certainly move through it more gracefully.