L.I.F.T.

My friend JR Atwood posted a great TED talk by Liz Coleman, regarding the nature of education in our day and age.

I’m more concerned with something more foundational – the use of common sense.

My father is in the hospital. He’s been in before – most seriously, when he underwent emergency surgery to replace his aorta with a gortex tube, four years ago.

He’s been having some issues, and went back in recently. The doctors have him on so many medications, it’s hard to tell what’s causing what.

And that’s my problem.

The doctors have no faith in the human body to heal itself.

In days of old, before “internal medicine” (which is anything but “internal” – consisting as it does, mostly of “external” items leveraged against the internal state), the body was regarded as a delicate and powerful system. To attain health, one usually only needed to do things (or do fewer things) to return that system to balance…

Called “homeostasis” – the balance of activity within the body.

What’s Up, Doc?

Where did the faith go?  Where is the faith in the human body to heal itself?  Only in “alternative” medicines?  Even there, many alternative practitioners have taken on the cultural values of US culture, and peddle pills and external “cures.”

Doctoring the Evidence

Another faith disappeared around the same time as the faith in the human body – faith in the healing power of the Earth.  I don’t want to get too crazy with this (you’ll be calling  me a “hippie” in a minute if I’m not careful, boxing me in), but the point is salient.

As the values of “science” (the “expertism” that Liz Coleman mentions in her talk) overtook common sense, it killed any other thought process or options.

When society realized that this expertise-value could be used to sell more products, it took the reins.  As people have become more and more inculcated in the idea of “the expert,” other options disappear.

And so does common sense.

Doctor My Doctor

Now we’ve reached  a point where it has become commonsense to refer to “experts” for our opinions – for our common sense.

My father lies in a hospital bed tonight.  The doctors have not healed him at all.  They can’t figure out what’s wrong.  Because they’re incapable of asking questions.

The foundational of all common sense is found in a single question:

Why?

A relatively recent research study reveals a connection (of some sort) between muscular strength and longevity.

The article, “Association between muscular strength and mortality  in men: prospective cohort study,” says that “Muscular strength is inversely and independently associated with death from all causes in men, even after adjusting for cardiorespiratory fitness and other potential confounders.”

This is not an insignificant study.  The researchers used data from the Cooper Institute in Texas, and included 8762 men aged 20-80 in the study.

Why might muscular strength be correlated with longevity?  Well, there are a few reasons I can think of off the top of my head.  Here’s one:

For one, balance is highly correlated with muscular strength.  While the “scientists” among us will argue about “tonic” (the so-called “anti-gravity” muscles), and “phasic” (the “mover” muscles) muscles, I can tell you from personal experience that, when someone isn’t very strong, they aren’t very stable – and that “working on stability” (as much “functional training” does nowadays) by balancing on one leg on a Bosu ball, is the long, slow, hard road to stability…working on “gross strength” has much faster and better results.

Anyway, as we get older, we tend to lose muscle mass, strength, and with it, balance and proprioception (spatial awareness).  A lot of this has to do with lack of use in old age.  Some of it is “programmed.”  That being said, falls and related fractures, etc., can lead to death, or can lead to further lack of movement, which becomes more and more fatal the older we get.

The bottom line – get stronger.  My next post will be about this…

Nature is the missing link in our culture.  We’re out of touch with it, out of contact with our source.

When was the last time you took a walk in the woods?  Not for any specific purpose, just to go take a walk.  Unfortunately for many of us, nature is hard to get to.  When we do get to it, it’s frequently overloaded with other human visitors, taking away the tranquility we might have expected to enjoy.

Let me give you an idea of how important regular contact with the natural world is.

Japanese researchers noted a significant decrease in all stress markers in their study comparing subjects in an urban environment to the same subjects in a wooded environment.

Another recent study by Australian researchers found that time spent outdoors increases physical activity levels in children, and results in a significant decrease in the chance of being overweight later in life.

Finally, for brevity’s sake, this 2005 study found that walking on cobblestones significantly improves balance and reduces blood pressure in older adults.

What do all of these studies have in common?  They’re “discovering” the “benefits” for human beings of being an animal again.

Why do I put the word “discovering” in quotes?  It seems redundant, and silly to say, but these “discoveries” are just “revealing” things that should be obvious – human beings are animals.  We come from nature.  We’re meant to be in natural settings.  We’re meant to move on a regular basis, in natural areas, and to deal with all of the challenges those settings present – uneven ground, balance, swimming, carrying, lifting, running…

Go back to nature.

Hiya!

Just wanted to blog briefly about something I’ve noticed in the “elite” personal training world. Within the past ten years or so, thanks to a few advocates (who will remain unnamed), Physical Therapy methods have flooded the Personal Training arena.

To name a few tools – Swiss balls, Airex pads, Bands and Tubing, Blood Pressure Cuffs, etc.

To list a couple of “techniques” specific to Physical Therapy that have invaded the Personal Training realm – Transverse Abdominus (TrA) Activation, Rotator Cuff exercises, “stabilization” exercises, etc.

Why does it make me cringe when I see some trainers take, week after week, someone obviously extremely overweight, and put them through a contingent of Physical Therapy-based exercises? Why? I’ll tell you why.

First, because these guys are Personal Trainers, not Physical Therapists. It’s like going to your family physician for surgery on your knee. You go to an orthopaedic surgeon, not a GP. I hope…

Second, because those techniques they’re using aren’t entirely evidence-based. I hate to tell you, but you can’t activate your TrA in isolation.  There’s little evidence that using a Swiss/stability ball for exercise is any better than doing the exercise on a bench, the floor, or a stable surface.  Sucking in your stomach before you lift something heavy can be disastrous for your spine.  Core training is not the end-all be-all of conditioning.

While people with a history of lower-back pain, or dysfunction/disease/disuse of muscular conditioning in the abdomen may need some prone work to “wake up” their TrA, continued isolation work is just wasting time. For one thing, the body just don’t work like that. Better to focus on the hoop created by the TrA, Internal and External Obliques, and the Thoracolumbar Fascia. Here’s a great article with some ideas about abdominal training, most of which has been borrowed from the pioneering work of Stuart McGill.

Training on unstable surfaces for general conditioning (i.e., not for a specific therapeutic purpose) doesn’t amount to a hill of beans in most cases. Several recent studies have shown the same levels of activation of main and supporting musculature in exercises performed on stable surfaces versus the same exercise performed on labile surfaces (swiss balls, airex pads, etc.). The biggest thing it does is decrease the amount of force you can create with your prime movers (the muscles doing the bulk of the work), and increase the work of the trunk, or stabilizing muscles.  While that might be fine after you’ve given those prime movers some serious work to do, relying on it as your main stimulus is counterproductive, and boring.

The point of these tools is to increase proprioceptive demand in certain circumstances, with certain needs. If you want to improve your or your clients’ balance, use the Indo Board. Or just close have them close their eyes while doing their regular routine. (BE CAREFUL! I’m not taking responsibility for your actions here!)

Okay guys, just had to vent. Sorry…more later! But if your trainer is having you do a split-squat with one foot on a stability ball and one foot on a balance board with a Bodyblade in your hands, and you aren’t joining Cirque du Soleil or Ringling Bro’s anytime in the near future, start asking them WHY?!!

I just got back from the Exuberant Animal summit in lovely Leavenworth WA at the Sleeping Lady retreat center.

All I can say is WOW! It was a truly transformative experience. There were about forty of us at the summit – trainers, physical and cognitive therapists, bodyworkers, scientists, corporate professionals – and it felt like one big family reunion.

We got to spend a lot of time playing. We also got to hear from some great teachers. I highly recommend the work of these folks, put them on your to-read/see/meet list!

Gary Avischious, from the Coaching School

Dr. Stuart Brown from the National Institute for Play

Dr. Kwame Brown of the International Youth Conditioning Association

Deborah Forster, cognitive scientist from the University of California San Diego

Dr. Peter Hercules, author of Liberating the Caged Human Animal

Scott McCredie, author of Balance – In Search of Your Lost Sense

Mick, the Barefoot Sensei, from the Land Itself – http://walkingmountain.org/

And of course, plenty from the man himself – Frank Forencich.

The weekend was so full of life, I’ll be processing everything we learned for the rest of my life! LIFT has changed as a result as well…particularly in the form of: MORE PLAY