DeKalb County, in Atlanta, GA, has mandated recess for k-5 students.
It’s definitely a step in the right direction! Hopefully this can be extended in duration and scope, from 15 minutes, and 5th grade, up to an hour and all the way through high school.
Keep your fingers crossed. If you’re in Atlanta, sign the petition!
A recent article in Discover online describes the discovery of an English podiatrist that:
“Traditional English feet, Jackson says, tend to be broad and somewhat pointed–the toes form a steep angle from the first to the fifth. The Celtic evacuees, in contrast, had toe tips that were almost level with one another, and their feet tended to be longer and slimmer–except for a bulge at the base of the big toe, where bunions form.”
This led to the formation of plenty of bunions in those of Celtic descent.
What interests me here is that the article title, “Human Origins/Language/British Feet,” uses the word “language” in it, though there is no reference to language in the article.
I don’t think it’s incorrect, however!
As the Barefoot Sensei told me during my stay with him, language and walking are very intimately connected.
Since then, I’ve been doing some digging of my own.
More soon!
Everyone who comes to see me, who comes to train with me, wants me to record numbers.
They want to record their weight. Their bodyfat level. Their heart rate. Their VO2max.
They want me to record the weights they use. The number of repetitions. Their speed.
And that’s fine. I’m happy to oblige.
But I’m not always happy with what lies beneath those requests.
When I’m unhappy about it, it’s because my clients are looking only at their numbers. They’re succumbing to the externally-focused drive of our culture. They’re looking at magazine cover-models, movie stars, their neighbors and friends, or anything other than their own bodies.
It’s fine to track your progress with different measures. However, the primary concern of anyone engaging in an exercise program should be to become more who they are. To be more in their own body – to learn how to move, to build strength, and to feel the full measure of that strength-in-movement within.
When a month has gone by, and the weight on the scale has gone up, it’s usually because relatively heavier muscle is replacing relatively lighter fat in the body.
But the externally-focused individual just sees the higher number. And that blocks them from feeling themselves what the effects of the exercise have been. Do you feel thinner, more fit, happier? Do your clothes fit more loosely (or more tightly, in new areas, like the shoulders and thighs, perhaps)?
The other thing that happens is that people become fixated on strength goals. “I want to bench press 315.” Ok, great. What happens when you plateau at 285 for a few weeks?
The externally-driven person will tend to want to push past this plateau, instead of allowing what the body actually needs at this point – more time.
There are many methods for getting past plateau’s – focusing on the eccentric (lengthening) portion of the movement, doing partial reps, overspeed/power work, etc.
But usually, what the body needs when it hits a plateau (that is, if you’re still applying the same level of mental intensity to your lifting), is some time to accommodate to that load. The plateau is your body speaking to you. It’s saying “give me eight or ten weeks at this load,” “play with this weight for a while,” or even “back off.”
If all you can hear in your head is a number (315), you won’t be able to hear that voice, telling you what you really need to be doing.
This tendency is cultural. We put the Type A personality on a pedestal in this country. To our own detriment. It is also a choice. You do not have to push things all of the time. You can choose to slow down and listen.
However, that’s extremely difficult, because everything around you says you should push.
The tendency for people to constantly quote scientific research to support their claims, and the equally damaging tendency to believe people who do that, is another example of this external-focus.
Science is based on the law of averages. It is not concerned with the individual. And you are an individual. You are not an average. Nor are you average.
First, listen to yourself.
I think it’s past time that we human animals expanded our concept of ourselves – of what constitutes a “human animal.”
For the past few millenia, we’ve changed our ideas ever so slightly. While we’ve seen religions rise, evolve, and fall (for some), civilizations the same, philosophical ideas, societies – all have come into existence and fallen out. Our recent era in history, for the past sixty years or so, has seemingly been one of increasing stability.
The societies that came up since WWII are largely the same. Some borders have changed, some names. But for the most part, we’ve had a stable go of it. While the Cold War, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf Wars, and all the other battles since then have not been minor events, they’ve also not represented major shifts in civilization.
So let’s take this time of stability in civilization as an opportunity to shift things on a different level.
The one thing that has remained the same through almost all of the civilizations in the past few thousand years has been the perception of the human animal as a distinct “being,” separate from its environment. While many Eastern (and most American Indian) religions/philosophies believed in the unity of man and nature, they still largely held the two as separate. Distinct.
My previous post was about the external organ of the human body. That is – the environment-as-everything-around-us.
That’s the “macroscopic” view of the “human” part of the organism that represents Life.
Where’s the “microscopic” view?
That’s what this post is about, the planet called “You.”
There are over seven billion human planets on this planet – all supporting life.
You are an ecosystem.
The “Your Body Is A Planet” article on Discover.com says that 90% of the cells in your body are not yours, but belong to microbes that live in, on, and off of you.
1 Athlete’s foot fungus
2 Vaginal flora
3 Firmicutes and Bacteroides
4 Human papillomavirus
5 Head lice
6 Dental streptococcus
7 Demodex mites
8 Shingles
9 Fossil viruses
10 Staphylococcus
The above image and list are from Discover.com – http://discovermagazine.com/2007/jun/your-body-is-a-planet
To boot, the National Institutes of Health has a Human Microbiome Project, which is attempting to understand the microbes that live on the human body.
To quote, “The HMP will address some of the most inspiring, vexing and fundamental scientific questions today. Importantly, it also has the potential to break down the artificial barriers between medical microbiology and environmental microbiology. It is hoped that the HMP will not only identify new ways to determine health and predisposition to diseases but also define the parameters needed to design, implement and monitor strategies for intentionally manipulating the human microbiota, to optimize its performance in the context of an individual’s physiology.”
While I love the concept behind the project, the stupid human’s constant desire to mess with things scares me. So, while we should get more in touch with the planet “You,” we also need to watch out for people telling us what to do with our inhabitants.
Keep your science off my microbes!
Ok dirty birds, before you get any ideas, let me tell you what “external organ” I’m talking about:
The environment.
Yes, I said it! But I don’t mean “the environment,” as in what you try to save by driving a Prius, or by recycling. Well, I sort of do, but I think the word has been cheapened by those things a bit.
The environment is everything external to you. Yes, it is the “natural” world – trees, earth, dirt, grass, birds, animals, etc. It is also your house, the street you live on, your friends neighbors and enemies, your children, your parents, the airplane flying over your house.
Again, “the environment” is everything external to your body.
The “internal organs” of your body are these:
Adrenals — Appendix — Bladder — Brain — Eyes — Gall bladder — Heart — Intestines — Kidney — Liver — Lungs — Esophagus — Ovaries — Pancreas — Parathyroids — Pituitary — Prostate — Spleen — Stomach — Testicles — Thymus — Thyroid — Uterus — Veins
The internal organs of the body are “collection of tissues joined in structural unit to serve a common function.” More importantly, they are the functional units of your body. They work in harmony to allow you to live. Without any one of them, you die.
Your “external organ” is the collective “thing” outside of you, that similarly supports your life. Without any part of your external organ – without plants and animals for food, or plants and sunlight and water for air, or dirt, or the people around you, or the birds, or anything else – you die.
The "Carbon Cycle" - Your External Organ Breathes
Now consider your actions in relation to this external organ of your body. For the people who are so detached from their own body that they cannot feel it or relate to it, this won’t mean much – but it might be a path back to the body. It might be easier for them to first understand their relationship to their external organ.
Another Cycle of Your External Organ
A recent New York Times article, Phys Ed: The Best Exercises for Healthy Bones (thanks for passing it along, Mary) declares that “the best exercise is to simply jump up and down, for as long as the downstairs neighbor will tolerate.”
Well…maybe. But who the hell wants to do that?
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I’m really sick of reporters with no experience in the field having free reign to write whatever they want about health and exercise.
If you read the article, you’ll find that “scientists” are in dispute about how bones respond to exercise, and what type of exercise is best to build bone.
Except, that is, that explosive/heavy weightlifting builds bone well.
But cycling and running are in dispute. In fact, running might even cause the loss of bone, when calcium lost through sweat or in metabolic processes is replaced by bone material.
Wait…hold on reporterer…go back a step…
Explosive movements and heavy weightlifting build bone.
Ok. Well then why the heck aren’t we recommending those activities?
The best thing to do, instead, is to make a joke out of it. “The best exercise is to simply jump up and down, for as long as the downstairs neighbor will tolerate.”
Why make a joke out of it? “For as long as the downstairs neighbors will tolerate?” Why are you jumping indoors? Why aren’t you going outside and jumping? Why are you jumping in place? Why aren’t you running around and jumping onto and over obstacles of varying heights?
That activity also builds the skills of balance and proprioception, which might help to prevent hip fractures even more than the concomitant building of the bone itself! If you never fall, you don’t need rock-hard hip bones.
And that’s not why I have my clients jump, and lift heavy stuff. I’m not concerned with their bone density. That’s a bizarre, reductionist view of the body that I don’t want to buy into.
I have them do those activities because that’s what human bodies are meant to do.
For the last time – YOU ARE AN ANIMAL! You respond best to what all animals best respond to – sunlight, clean water, un-molested foods straight from nature, and lots and lots of physical activity of all types.
The thing all of these “scientists” miss is the big picture – the human body as a whole, as an animal.
If you sit all day, your bones get weak. If you eat a crappy diet, your bones get weak. If you run for a long time, and don’t replenish the nutrients you’ve lost, your bones get weak. Cycling isn’t even a weight-bearing activity, so I’m not sure why the article focuses on it so much…
Also, in response to one of the comments made by a researcher quoted in the article, I’m pretty sure there’s been research that shows that calcium lost during endurance exercise is compensated for by bone if it’s not replaced soon. I’ll have to double-check that. I wouldn’t be surprised, though – most researchers are so caught up in trying to keep grants rolling, etc., they don’t even know the research that has been done in the area they themselves are studying.
Which speaks to another issue I have with this type of reporting. Science is a process of exploration. It is curiosity. It is asking questions and trying to find the answers.
IT IS NOT THE PLACE OF SCIENCE TO MAKE RECOMMENDATIONS.
We put science in such a place of authority in our country that brains shut off like lights in a blackout. I can see them all the way down the street, blinking off. No thinking required. Science has me covered. The scientists will tell me the right thing to do. The government will talk to the scientists and protect me.
Bullshit. Turn your brain back on.
I take such offense to this, because people who don’t know any better are going to read this article, and others like it.
What is someone going to do who reads this article? They’re going to say, “oh to hell with it…exercise isn’t helping my bones…” or “I need to jump up and down more!” Which is silly!!! I mean, if you’re just jumping up and down in place…ridiculous. See the above comments about balance and proprioception and nature and the requirements of a healthy animal.
And what about the bones in your arms? How do you get those stronger? Jumping up and down doesn’t put any strain on your arms.
How about crawling? Explosive pushups? Heavy bench pressing?
Oh no…we shouldn’t do that! Let’s just play patty-cake until the downstairs neighbors complain!
Bread and butter?! Yummy!!! Ohhh....
On page 169 of his book, Gary Taubes quotes Albert Einstein, who once said that “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.”
Why didn’t Gary take Albert’s words to heart?!!!
This book is awesome, in every sense of the word. It is a comprehensive look at the research surrounding diet and obesity, since research in that area began.
It is also incredibly dense and difficult to read, and, I think, poorly structured. Themes, dates, studies, characters, are repeated throughout the book. I wish Gary had hired an editor!!!
That being said, the book is still incredible. It’s an amazing look into the vagaries of science – that there is essentially only conflicting evidence around the diet-heart, or cholesterol-heart hypotheses, and that those ideas have been driven mostly by fame-hungry researchers, or by the impetus of the thrust of research itself (once the general tenor is set, research tends to continue in the same direction). It is a fascinating look at human dietary physiology.
Earlier today, I was speaking with a client about this book, and saying that I had reached the point (at page 384…roughly 80 still to go, after two months of plodding) where I wished Gary had produced a Cliff Notes version of his book.
Then, lo and behold, on page 453-4 of the book, he does. I’ll quote the entire “summation” here, because I think the message is important. It goes against everything we’ve been told for the past 30-50 years. But that stuff wasn’t really backed up by anything at all. Read the following passage, and if you’re still interested, read the book!
“As I emerge from this research, though, certain conclusions seem inescapable to me, based on the existing knowledge:
1. Dietary fat, whether saturated or not, is not the cause of obesity, heart disease, or any other chronic disease of civilization.
2. The problem is the carbohydrates in the diet, their effect on insulin secretion, and thus the hormonal regulation of homeostasis – the entire harmonic ensemble of the human body. The more easily digestible and refined the carbohydrates, the greater the effect on our health, weight, and well-being.
3. Sugars – sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup specifically – are particularly harmful, probably because the combination of fructose and glucose simultaneously elevates insulin levels while overloading the liver with carbohydrates.
4. Through their direct effect on insulin and blood sugar, refined carbohydrates, starches, and sugars are the dietary cause of coronary heart disease and diabetes. They are the most likely dietary causes of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and the other chronic diseases of civilization.
5. Obesity is a disorder of excess fat accumulation, not overeating, and not sedentary behavior.
6. Consuming excess calories does not cause us to grow fatter, any more than it causes a child to grow taller. Expending more energy than we consume does not lead to long-term weight loss; it leads to hunger.
7. Fattening and obesity are caused by an imbalance – a disequilibrium – in the hormonal regulation of adipose tissue and fat metabolism. Fat synthesis and storage exceed the mobilization of fat from the adipose tissue and its subsequent oxidation. We become leaner when the hormonal regulation of the fat tissue reverses this balance.
8. Insulin is the primary regulator of fat storage. When insulin levels are elevated – either chronically or after a meal – we accumulate fat in our fat tissue. When insulin levels fall, we release fat from our fat tissue and use it for fuel.
9. By stimulating insulin secretion, carbohydrates make us fat and ultimately cause obesity. The fewer carbohydrates we consume, the leaner we will be.
10. By driving fat accumulation, carbohydrates also increase hunger and decrease the amount of energy we expend in metabolism and physical activity.”
I’m going to go have a donut and some ice cream!!!
UPDATE – 2011
God-bless the ability to change our minds!
I read this book while in grad school, and understood some of the science, but had little time to really dig deep into Taubes’ arguments.
Needless to say, I also never stopped eating any sort of carbohydrate or modified my diet in any way (see my last statement…I literally did that that day…).
Since that day, I’ve read more deeply, and seen the ridiculous extent to which “paleo” and other low-carb advocates have gone in deriding carbohydrates of all sorts, and trying to push their bizarre dietary agenda on the world.
For instance – read this post.
So now, read this post, for the most comprehensive and thoughtful look I’ve ever seen at the carbohydrate/fat/obesity debate.
I’ve been a fan of Joe DeFranco’s for a long time now. For those who don’t know, Joe is a trainer in New Jersey, who runs DeFranco’s (his) Gym.
I bought his new “Built Like a Badass” program, and I think it’s really really good.
One of the things I like most about Joe’s approach is that he keeps strength training and skill pretty well separated. And, he says this in the FAQ section of the program:
“Go out and use your new-found strength/athleticism and experience new things such as hiking, playing catch with your kids, playing pick-up basketball or whatever you want to do.”
It’s an intense, intensive, 12-week, 3-day-per-week, weightlifting program, that uses the major traditional lifts (bench, dead, squat) as its anchors.
Can’t argue with that.
Further still, Joe has provided active links in the workout descriptions to videos of either him or his athletes performing the exercises.
Anyone out there will benefit from this program. I highly recommend it – and I’m not “affiliated” with Joe in any way, other than that he’s a strength coach who uses his brain.
At dinner last night, I made a comment similar to this. And it has stuck with me, so here it is!
Once you’ve broken something, it’s never the same again.
It may not necessarily be “worse.” Sometimes things need to break down in order to build up in a way that is more appropriate, or “better.” Bones do this in response stress. I put “worse” and “better” in quotes, because there’s really no qualitatively “better” state – only more appropriate or less appropriate, and even then, only more-/less-appropriate-for-the-given-demand.
For instance, bone reforms along lines of stress in people with bad posture as much as (if not more than) it does for people with good posture. Over time, the person develops the “dowager’s hump.” The situation is essentially permanent at some point. And, physiologically, they are “broken,” and, like Humpty Dumpty, cannot be fixed.
So watch out for what you break. You won’t be able to fix it.
All of the myths of our culture must be related to one another. How? You tell me. But if they’re all visible in our culture, they’re tied together somehow.
The “quick fix” myth is diabolical. I think it arose out of the need for the “producers” of the country to create more consumers. The more extreme your claims are (says Goebbels), the more likely you’ll be to get people to buy it.
5-Minute Abs! Lose 100 Pounds! Tone Your Buns With Shoes!
Take a pill and cure your ill!
Snake oil!
It’s a bad way to look at things. It takes away personal responsibility for having gotten to the state you’re in. It can be fixed with a pill.
But it never is. The pill, the DVD, the shoes – they never fix anything.
Hard work does.