L.I.F.T.

At the last Highland Games in Dunsmuir, I twisted my ankle pretty badly coming out of a throw. I remember doing it, but nothing felt wrong or out of place, it kind of just bounced right back, no swelling, nothing wrong.

Then, about a week ago, my left ankle started to hurt REALLY BADLY when I was practicing some Bagua at a local park. It was actually the pain of the joint being out of place. I could do ankle circles and get the bones to actually “thunk” back into proper alignment.

It’s been like that for about a week now, off and on. So yesterday, I decided to wear “real” shoes, to give myself some added stability, and help my ankle to heal. I’m wearing my old Adidas Samba Milleniums, that I haven’t worn in forever! Actually, I got them right before my FiveFingers, so they’re pretty much new!

The funny thing is, it works!

As soon as I put those shoes on yesterday morning, my ankle felt more stable, and relaxed a little bit. I went and led the play camp, with no ill effect. I was able to play tag with the group (though I was being very conscious of that ankle)!

This experience reminds me of homeopathic medicine – where you take a small amount of something that is “poisonous” or harmful to help your body fight that thing. Similar, too, to the idea behind vaccinations.

Sometimes, the poison is the cure.

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a return to the use of “normal” shoes for good. I’m pretty sure it was the high-soled North Face All-Terrain Running Shoes that were the culprit for my sprain to begin with. Next ‘Games, I’m going to try out the Vivo’s!

It does point out the usefulness of shoes, though.  Orthotics, similarly, are useful for people who have serious foot maladies – for a time!  Any assistive devices are good for people who need them – as long as they’re only used while the person is working on fixing the underlying problem!

The problem with a lot of these corrective or assistive devices is that they become accepted as “normal” after a while.  The person doesn’t work on correcting underlying issues causing the problem.  Then, the device becomes a crutch.  Progress, development and healing stop.  Regression, devolution, and the continuing degradation into disease begins.

No, for me, this is a temporary fix, till my ankle heals up, and I can return to wearing things that let my feet live!

Thanks to my great pal Michael Thomas, of How to Be An Action Star fame, for the inspiration behind today’s post.

I keep digging down to try to find what’s behind all of these claims people are making.

“This fitness program will make you younger, stronger, healthier, sexy, fit, incredible, amazing, and IMMORTAL!”

“The acai super-berry drink will make you so anti-oxidized that oxygen will literally run screaming from you!”

“The Himalayan goji berry super-fuel fruit-of-God drink will make you stronger, faster, smarter, give you the energy of a 7 year old with ADHD, and cause your hair to grow back in a thick full mane that you never even had to begin with!”

Not only that, but each can of that Himalayan goji/acai drink contains the juice from approximately 1 goji berry, and half and acai berry!

Not only that! We’ve made a deal with the Himalayan farmers of the goji bush to completely own the product of their labor – in exchange for one pair of Levi’s blue jeans every year!

But wait!  There’s more!  What you don’t know is that GOJI BERRIES AND ACAI BERRIES GROW ON BUSHES!

OH YES, AND FITNESS MEANS MOVING YOUR BODY MORE, WHICH ONLY INVOLVES YOU.  MOVING YOUR BODY MORE!!!!

YES!  THAT’S RIGHT!!!  WE’RE CHARGING YOU FOR SOMETHING THAT GROWS ON A BUSH BY ITSELF WITHOUT US HELPING OR DOING ANYTHING, AND FOR ANOTHER THING THAT YOU CAN DO YOURSELF (again…uh…without us helping or doing anything?)!!!!

Wait…I’m confused.

When people used to try to sell their “snake oil” “miracle cures” back in the Old West, they’d get run out of town.  If not, they’d get roughed up a bit till they left of their own accord.  Sometimes that didn’t happen till somebody’s unsuspecting mother or brother actually bought the stuff and found out it didn’t work.  Sometimes it didn’t happen till after the charlatans had already packed up and high-tailed it out of town, looking for the next town full of victims!

Where does this come from?

It seems sort of like superstition to me:

Superstition – “a belief or notion, not based on reason or knowledge.” (courtesy, Wikipedia)

But really, superstition is more basic than that.  Superstition is based on the idea that whatever you can think up can be true.  In many cases, what we call “reason” is highly superstitious, because it’s based on our individual reason – and guided by a desire that it be so.

Superstition is what we call it when adults use their imaginations the way children do – but do so seriously…not in a playful manner.

The claims people make nowadays confuse me greatly, because they’re all so thick with the “snake oil” of superstition.

Here’s the deal – life (and I mean, the act of living, of being alive – not the habits that we call our “lives”) hasn’t changed for humans since we differentiated from the other Hominids, 200,000 years ago.  No fruit from a bush is going to make you immortal, or give you superpowers, or offer any more or less antioxidant protection than the blackberries you can pick off the bushes in your local park for free will.

Sorry to break this to you, BUT IMMORTALITY IS A MYTH!  (sorry Ray Kurzweil!)

No exercise machine or program will give you anything other than ideas or toys to use when you yourself go and exercise.

What really heals in all of those cases is the tradition that’s been passed down from generation to generation.  It’s a tradition of knowledge and caring, and it’s what really gets lost in all of the “miracle cures” – whether they’re acai berry superdrinks, or snake oil.  Funny, but in Chinese medicine, the goji berry is a medicinal fruit.  It’s used for specific ailments, at specific times, in specific doses, with specific combinations of other herbs.

Mom, or grandma, always knew what would work, because generations prior had found out through trial and error:
You got a little scrape – rub some dirt on it! (this actually works).
You have a cold – have a Hot Toddy.  That is – drink some alcohol with sugar and go to sleep! (basically what NyQuil recreated in a “grain alcohol” form).
You’re fat – get off your butt and do something you lazy bum!  And no more starchy food for you!
You’re tired – go to sleep!  Or…quit whining!
You’ve got the flu – here…eat this – chicken noodle soup heals.

Love, caring, and concern, and the respected knowledge of those who have gone before us, disappear, bit by bit, and eventually are extinct, never to return.

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Had a blast this past Saturday at Deric Stockton’s gym up in Scotts Valley, CA.  Deric is a 40 year-old powerlifter, still hitting record lifts (and not just PR’s, but National Records – with an 800+ pound squat!).

My good friend Charlie Reid and I first went down to visit Deric about a month or so ago, after Charlie read about his unique approach to somatic relaxation and strength.

Yesterday, we got to learn those techniques first hand. They are nothing short of phenomenal.   I expect that Deric’s approach, called SymmetriCore™, will soon be taking the world by storm.

Charlie Reid Gets Some Assisted Stretching!

The method is a system for developing body awareness, deep relaxation, and powerful movement.  Deric’s realization was that he had only been pushing one end of the muscular spectrum for too long.

If you think of the contraction of a muscle as a spectrum, with total relaxation on one side of the spectrum, and total muscular contraction at the other, what you have in the middle is the “action potential” of that muscle – how much force you can generate from that muscle.

Most of us in the strength world only focus on pushing the contraction end of that spectrum.  We’re taught to lift more, lift heavier, lift harder, more frequently, etc.  Over time, we do end up pushing the contraction end of the spectrum up bit by bit.

However, at a certain point, we end up dragging the relaxation bar up with us as we go.  We become increasingly tense in our “resting state.”  Then, we can’t increase the action potential of our muscles at all.  We’re stuck.

Once you get stuck, funky things start to happen.  Bad things – injuries, plateaus, burnout, boredom, suicidal thoughts, anarchy, despotism, etc.

Needless to say, this approach has worked wonders for Deric.   Though he can squat 800 lbs (4x bodyweight), and deadlift and bench press 500+, his muscles are soft as butter! You can literally put your finger on any muscle on his body and push straight down to the bone, with no resistance!

To learn more right now, you can and should go to Liz Koch’s site, where she has posted her interview with Deric for free.  She also posted an article about Deric’s instruction of the box squat for hip safety.

Alternately, you can contact Deric directly, to find out where the next place is that he’ll be presenting this revolutionary new approach to real “fitness.”

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I had a wonderful dinner at a barbeque at  Jen Fuller’s tonight, who is a most gracious host – lots of good food, drink, and conversation.

Of course, health was discussed at a certain point.  And everyone agreed that one ingredient is more critical to health and longevity than any other – happiness.

My grandmother, for me, is a case in point.

She lived to be 89 years old.  She died last Friday, a week ago, succumbing to cancer after a fight of 7 months.

For my grandmother, happiness was the secret to life, and life was the secret to happiness.

Every day, she once told me, she would wake up and say “Happy day, happy day!  Thank you Lord for another day on this earth!”

That was her attitude toward life.  She loved it, she loved the fact that she was alive, just because she was alive.

She grew up in the hills of Ashville, NC.  She was a hillbilly.  She grew up on a farm, and became a nurse as a young lady.  She was married before she got much nursing practice, though, and soon had two boys to care for (my father and his brother – my uncle).

She was a young lady in the 40’s and 50’s, when it was common to smoke and drink at any time, and for any occasion.  She carried her farm diet with her her entire life – bacon, eggs…fatty foods were common…so were pies, roasts, and the like.  Not “the image of health.”

In fact, one of the funnier more recent stories is from grandma’s visit to the hospital, just last year, for her regular check up.  She was the picture of health.  The nurse asked her, “Mrs. Leeger, do you drink?”

“Yes,” my grandmother said, matter of factly.

“How much do you drink, ma’am?” the nurse asked.

“As much as I want to,” my grandmother replied.

That got the nurse good!  She laughed, and asked my grandmother what, exactly, that meant.

“Well, it depends,” my grandmother said.  “If I’m at a party, and everyone is drinking, well I have a drink every time they do.  If I’m at home, I may just have one or two drinks on my own, or none at all.”

My grandma lived life the way I’d hope to.  She was happy all the time – whether times were good or not.  She trusted that her current situation was all that it could be.  And being all that it could be, it was as good as it could get.

As good as it could get, how could you be sad?  Unless you were just maudlin by nature.

She lived to be 89, without advanced exercise prescriptions, without sets and reps, without a boot camp, without Pilates, or Crossfit, or Powerlifting, or anything else.

She lived to be 89 by being happy – certainly, she had exuberance!

She lived to be 89 by living according to what she knew in her heart was right.

I miss her.

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After a great conversation with one of the people I play with at the foot-camp today, I have quite a bit to say about control.  I’ll try to make it as cohesive (and brief) as possible.

First, many (if not all) of our beliefs and ideas about control are myths.

The word “myth” means “story.”  Human beings have used stories to relate things to one another, probably as long as we’ve existed as a species.

As a story, a myth is always a subjective storytelling.  It is always perspectival – it is always based on the individual opinion or worldview of the person telling the myth.

The source of our myths, or what we accept as a “valid” mythology, has changed in different eras.  However, there has almost always been an individual, or “type” of individual (an office, of sorts) whose stories we agree to believe unconditionally.

This office is different depending on our culture.  It is culturally dictated.  In some cultures, we only believe the myths our shaman tells us.  In others, we only believe the myths told us by our politicians.  In others, those told to us by warlords.  In others, it is the scientist who has myth-telling authority.  It depends on the culture you make yourself a part of.

You can probably have more than one official myth-teller in your culture, but the more you have, the more confusing things become.  When you are part of a political-myth culture, but you have developed strong religious-myth beliefs, you have to find a religious-politician, or a political-religious leader, whose myths you can believe in.

Also, at times, we create our own myths about ourselves, and listen to no one else – “I am not good enough,” or, “I am better than everyone else,” or, “My nose is too big,” etc.  Those are stories we tell ourselves.

All of the stories we tell ourselves, or choose to believe, serve a purpose.  There may not be a single purpose underlying all myths – but on the other hand, there might.  At least in the sense that all of the myths that we choose to believe, as individuals, define who we are or who we can be as individuals.  Not only that, but they also usually define who we are or who we can be within the culture(s) to which we claim membership.

As I mentioned in my last post, much of the dietary information available today is mythology.  It is storytelling, done, sometimes by scientists, but more often by “pop-culture” writers.  Neither telling is the whole truth.  As I mentioned above, any storyteller can only tell the story as they see it…which usually also means that they tell it as they want it to be – for them.

Coming up with solutions to perceived problems usually grants power in most cultures.  One problem might be – “Where do I go when I die?”  The religious storyteller solves this problem with their myth, and they are rewarded accordingly.

Another might be – “Why am I fat?”  Here, the scientists or writer myth-maker tries to solve the problem.  They offer their solution, in expectation of appropriate reward for their effort.

But the story is incomplete.  It is a splinter from the log.  It is the reflection off of a facet of the jewel that is the problem.

In the most recent Exuberant Animal blog post, Frank Forencich cites a report from Robert Sapolsky, noted stress researcher:

“In Scientific American, December 2005, Sapolsky writes:
‘individuals are more likely to activate a stress response and are more at risk for a stress sensitive disease if they…

feel as if they have minimal control

feel as if they have no predictive information

have few outlets for their frustration

interpret the stressor as evidence of worsening circumstances

lack social support’”

Indeed, this is much of what our mythmaking seeks to combat.  It is actually the most important “risk factor” – unhappiness, stress, despair.

All disease is stressful.  Stress, undue stress that we cannot deal with, is a disease state.  For Sapolsky, stress is a primary concern.  It’s what he studies.  It’s his area of myth officialdom.

While all of these perspectives are important, valuable, and enriching, we need to make it a regular habit to step back from our mythologies and look at the gem itself.  Even though we can’t take it in (because, ultimately, it is All That Is), we can move back and play with the interrelationships between the myths we’ve chosen to believe in.

In this sense, taken together, all of the risk factors we hear about – dietary cholesterol, fats, refined or processed (re-pro) products (for instance, re-pro products like high fructose corn syrup, or re-pro products like car exhaust), stress (of any sort that we cannot resolve – emotional, psychological, physical, environmental), lack of movement, excesses and deficiencies of any sort – are equally to blame, and play an equal role in mortality.

The degree to which we can mitigate those risk factors is the degree to which we can live a healthy human life.  That life will go through developmental stages, cycles of growth and degeneration, of vitality and illness.  That process includes birth and death, creation and dissolution.  Depending upon how many of those risk factors that we have to deal with, over what duration and in what quantity, we’ll live, on average, 75-100 years.

This hasn’t really changed that much since the beginning of the human species.  In Ancient Greece, for instance, Aristotle lived to be 62.  He died in 322 BC.  That was 2300 years ago.  Sophocles, the playwright, lived to be 90.  That was in 400 BC.  Plato was about 76 when he died, in 348 BC.  Cicero was 63, in 43 BC.  Most of the “upper class” of Ancient Rome lived to be in their mid sixties or beyond – if they weren’t killed before then (cultural/environmental risk factors).

While the global averages for lifespan have increased in the past two centuries, thanks to the advent of available medicine and hygiene, the human lifespan has remained relatively unchanged.  If we live in an area low in risk factors, we live a good while.  The greater the risk factors, the lower our lifespan.

Most important is this – Understand that you choose the myths you participate and believe in.  Then change the ones that aren’t conducive to your health, happiness and longevity.

Find an environment that’s not just “not-stressful,” but that actually makes you feel exuberant!  Find a culture that supports your exuberance, and take part in it as often as possible.  Understand your myths, and get rid of the ones that are harmful.

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I just read the most recent post over on “Mark’s Daily Apple,” called “The Definitive Guide to Saturated Fat,” and wanted to share my response here, on my blog, because I think it’s pertinent to the continuing diet debate in our country.

Here’s my comment:

I wonder about dietary information beyond “eat what’s natural (i.e., non-processed food, or efls’s, and being as “natural” as possible (untampered with, organic, etc.)), in season, from your local area.”

These studies all seem to point to one thing – people live for about 75-100 years.

The folks from the areas with higher mortality rates live in places where medical care and hygiene are comparatively low; and in some cases, where warfare or death due to violence is comparatively high.

The human body, like any organism, has a high degree of adaptability (which is why we’re still around), and it seems to me that the body will find a way to subsist on anything “natural” as long as it isn’t poisonous (either as a quality or as a quantity (excess)).

Fats, carbohydrates, proteins…whatever, in any crazy combination, as long as you aren’t getting too many or too few of one over the other two, which doesn’t really happen if you’re eating the way mentioned in the first paragraph.

After all of the reading I’ve done, having lived to this point and met people from all kinds of places and walks of life, etc., I really wonder about this topic a lot.  As a lot of people mention, there is very little evidence that saturated fat intake (or cholesterol level) are directly correlated to heart disease or mortality, particularly when taken by themselves (without adding other risk-factors like smoking and other stressors).

Most people, especially in “first world” countries, where healthcare is efficient and swift, live to be about 75-100 years of age.  The outliers eat EFLS (edible, food-like substances, per Michael Pollan), have high levels of stress, genetic diseases, etc.

I don’t know…I may be completely off base about this.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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For those who don’t know, I’ve been practicing Baguazhang now for the past few years. At first, I was lucky enough to study under George Wood, back in VA.  When I moved out here to SF, it’s become difficult to get to the group that practices my style (Gao Style) out in the East Bay, so I’ve mostly been on my own.

One of the greatest realizations I’ve had recently about my practice came from my involvement with Exuberant Animal, and it was this – I was being way to “serious.”

Martial arts are pretty serious stuff.  Most of the time you’re learning how to fight someone, and that usually means doing pretty significant damage to that person (or risking having that damage done to you!).  Also, most teaching is done in a very strict, regimental fashion.  While my teacher was a more “enlightened” teacher in this way, he is also very strict.  Not only because he learned in Taiwan, and studied very very diligently for many years to hone his practice in a more “traditional” setting, but also because there is a need for structure and form in the art (or any art), which cannot be attained lightly.

However, this isn’t very different from play, or the attitude of someone who is truly “playful.”

Watch children on the playground. Some are involved in frivolous, meaningless behavior.  But most of them will cycle in and out of frivolity to grave seriousness when confronted with a new, difficult or challenging task or game, or when the “stakes” of the game become heightened.  When we play at the foot-camps, we’re very lighthearted and loose for a while, and then suddenly things turn serious when a new challenge is posed.  We have to do something on one leg, or with our eyes closed, and attention is brought down to a very fine point.

[Note - much of this post plays on ideas I've recently learned from James Carse's book "Finite and Infinite Games."  He makes distinctions between "finite players" and "infinite players."  Essentially, the difference is this - where finite players play within boundaries (and to do so, establish boundaries), infinite players play with boundaries.  When I say "play," I'm referring to infinite play here.]

Play is not always frivolous (though it is sometimes).   Usually, “play” refers to an attitude of openness.  It’s that openness that makes people who play more vulnerable than those who do not.   It’s also that openness that makes people who play more sensitive – but also better able to deal with their vulnerability and sensitivity.   They don’t take things so “seriously” (in a dramatic way), because there is no “prize,” or “goal,” or “title” in particular that is being played for. Instead, the game is being played to explore limits and boundaries, to find the possible, to be surprised, and thereby to become educated – to learn.

When I began to apply this approach to my martial arts practice, it suddenly became very “easy.”  Not physically easy, but the mental/physical blocks I had to “fitting it in to my day” disappeared.  Suddenly, practice wasn’t a chore to be “fit in” anymore, but a learning experience that I look forward to, and actually miss if I don’t get to do it!

What if you were to apply this attitude in different areas in your life?   Let’s take, for instance, one of the most challenging areas for many people (definitely for me) – relationships.   They can be work relationships (boss, or co-workers), romantic relationships, family relationships, or others.

The more “serious” the relationship is, the more difficult it can become to maintain a sense of sanity or self within that relationship.  Things become “heavy” and very serious.

Now, if you were to approach your relationship playfully (not frivolously – at least, not always), you might not put so much stock in the immediate words being said, or the things being done.   Instead, you’d look for creative ways to approach the relationship.  You’d listen a lot more (as Carse also says), because your focus would be on the other person’s reaction to you, rather than what they are doing to you.

This approach can be used for anything, actually, should be used toward everything in your life.  Instead of seeing things as finite goals, observe the process that is occurring when you do those things, and where you are in that process, how you affect and effect it – and then play (creatively explore) within it.

This mentality takes some getting used to.  Strangely, it’s very hard to do at first!  We have a definite bias against being “childlike” in our culture – which  means that we disdain playfulness (it isn’t “adult” to play) – which you’ll come up against (maybe even as you read this post).  However, I think it’s an enriching experience, and deserves a try.

Try it, and let me know what you think.

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Here is another sequence of quotes from James Carse’s book, “Finite and Infinite Games.”

“We make use of machines to increase our power, and therefore our control, over natural phenomena”

“As the machine might be considered the extended arms and legs of the worker, the worker might be considered an extension of the machine.”

Who is in control?

“All machines, and especially very complicated machines, require operators to place themselves in a provided location and to perform functions mechanically adapted to the functions of the machine.”

You can't do this without me here.

“To use the machine for control is to be controlled by the machine.”

You may only move like this.

“To operate a machine, one must operate like a machine.  Using a machine to do what we cannot do, we find we must do what the machine does.”

You did not obey the machine.

“Machines do not, of course, make us into machines when we operate them; we make ourselves into machinery in order to operate them.  Machinery does not steal our spontaneity from us; we set it aside ourselves, we deny our originality.”

Screw those machines! Let's have fun!

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Just finished reading James Carse’s book “Finite and Infinite Games.”

Finite and Infinite Games

I can’t recommend it highly enough.  It’s incredibly dense for such a short paperback book (177 pages).  It might take a while to get through, but it’s worth the consideration and effort!

The  book isn’t strictly about “games” in the sense that we usually consider them, but applies the concept of play to human life in general – one of the things I like most about it!

Regarding fitness and health, here’s a nice quote for you:

Physicians who cure must abstract persons into functions.  They treat the illness, not the person.  And persons willfully present themselves as functions.  Indeed, what sustains the enormous size and cost of the curing professions is the widespread desire to see oneself as a function, or a collection of functions.  To be ill is to be dysfunctional; to be dysfunctional is to be unable to compete in one’s preferred contests.  It is a kind of death, an inability to acquire titles.  The ill become invisible.  Illness always has the smell of death about it: Either it may lead to death, or it leads to the death of a person as competitor.  The dread of illness is the dread of losing.
One is never ill in general.  One is always ill with relation to some bounded activity.  It is not cancer that makes me ill.  It is because I cannot work, or run, or swallow that I am ill with cancer.  The loss of function, the obstruction of an activity, cannot in itself destroy my health.  I am too heavy to fly by flapping my arms, but I do not for that reason complain of being sick with weight.  However if I desired to be a fashion model, a dancer, or a jockey, I would consider excessive weight to be a  kind of disease and would be likely to consult a doctor, a nutritionist, or another specialist to be cured of it.
When I am healed I am restored to my center in a way that my freedom as a person is not compromised by my loss of functions.  This means that the illness need not be eliminated before I can be healed.  I am not free to the degree that I can overcome my infirmities, but only to the degree that I can put my infirmities into play.  I am cured of my illness; I am healed with my illness.

(pp. 91-92)

The crux of this book is critical for those of us who want to change the way fitness is approached – by ourselves or by the “industry.”  “Functional” fitness, all the rage nowadays, is part of a larger outlook on life that confines individuals to boundaries, and attempts to confine Nature similarly.

In order to create change, we have to change the way we speak about things.  We need perspective.  This book will help.  Get it!

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I went to the field where I lead a play-based fitness group the other day, and saw this at the baseball diamond:

HOME! NO! BACK! NO! WAIT! RUN!

If you can see it, someone got creative with the chalk lines the day before, and basically scribbled all over the field!

Immediately I imagined two teams coming to the field that day, ready for battle, finding the rules slightly changed…

Then I thought of how much fun it would be to play on a field like this, especially after weeks or years of the same old straight lines connecting first, second, third, and home.

My friend Charlie Reid was at this park with me a few days prior to the development of the new baseball rules, and we watched a little league team playing.

“How boring,” I said.  All of the kids stood in the outfield and waited in line for their coach to pop fly balls out to them.  I presume it was for practice, but it could’ve been some kind of weeding process as well.

“Yeah,” Charlie said.  “It would be so much better if you rotated positions every play, like you do in volleyball in high school.  If no one had a set position, everyone would have to adapt to the demands of new positions.  No one would get stuck in the outfield, or on the bench.”

“Wow!  That’s a great idea!” I said.

We watched the kids in the outfield, standing in line, waiting for fly-balls…

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