L.I.F.T.

I want to start here by talking about the social conformity experiments of Asch and Milgram back in the 1960’s.

Asch had people seated in a room, with a leader at the front. Six of the seven people sitting down were in on the experiment (“confederates”). Only one of them, number 7, was the “experimental variable.” There were cards with lines drawn on them, and the people were asked to identify the relative lengths of the lines.

When the subject was allowed to make his/her own decisions about the length of the lines, they were 99% accurate. When the other people (the confederates) were allowed to answer about the lengths of the lines first (incorrectly…as in, “A is shorter than B,” when it is not), the subject would conform to their answer 35% of the time.

In Milgram’s experiment, someone in a position of authority (a confederate) dressed in a lab coat, instructed the subject to ask questions to an unseen person in the room next door via a microphone/speaker system. Also, the subject was to administer electric shocks to that person if they gave incorrect answers.

The subjects would deliver “450 volt shocks” (there were no actual shocks administered, the screams and pleading of the person in the room next door were acted) 65% of the time.

Milgram said that part of the results were due to the conformity effect Asch noticed. But also, that part of it was due to “the agentic state theory, wherein, per Milgram, the essence of obedience consists in the fact that a person comes to view himself as the instrument for carrying out another person’s wishes, and he therefore no longer sees himself as responsible for his actions. Once this critical shift of viewpoint has occurred in the person, all of the essential features of obedience follow.”

One of his later experiments combined conformity and obedience, and noticed significantly greater compliance in the subject.

Social Conformity Is Evident in This...hold on a sec...where'd I put my blow-dryer...

Putting Your Best Foot Forward with Chuck Wolf
On Saturday, I attended a conference put on by the WAC Academy and the University of San Francisco, featuring Chuck Wolf, on the topic of “how the muscles and actions of the foot affect the hip, gluteal complex, and spine. By changing body angles, utilizing reaches, understanding how the foot functions, and applying the concepts from the Flexibility Highways, the fitness professional will come away with methods to enhance traditional exercises into a truly three dimensional chain reaction movement.”

Chuck was a really nice guy, and has a long history in post-rehab athletic conditioning. He walked around and said hello to everyone before the conference started, introducing himself and getting to know folks.

Yeah...you tell em Sammy!

But…those shoes…
You know how they say that women often look at a man’s shoes to learn more about him? I do that too…for everyone. When I looked at Chuck’s, I was shocked. He had large, Adidas, what looked like motion-control sneakers on. What Mick Dodge would call “flower pots,” and Tom Brown would call “foot-coffins.”

I began to wonder what Chuck was going to tell us about the foot and ankle.

Been There, Done That
I’ve been in this industry long enough, and been to enough of these seminars, to know not to expect too much. Most of the time, the information you get is rehashed, recycled stuff from the PT world. Chuck, as it happens, works in a PT clinic in Orlando. He hangs with those guys. That’s his social crowd…uh…social conformity…hint…hint…

Starting out, he talked about the structure of the foot. The bony structure. We didn’t get into musculature, except for the gross musculature of the shin – gastroc/soleus, anterior tibialis.

Chuck actually said that “the control of the ankle comes from the shin.” While I agree with him to a point, I strongly disagree with him in every other way.

There are something like 25 muscles in the foot, and three layers of musculature within the foot itself. The bottom of the foot is laced with muscles. So, if you want to talk about things “from the ground up,” you need to start there. On the bottom of the foot.

4 layers of foot muscle...courtesy Frank Netter

Knee-Jerk Reaction
I’ll admit that I quickly tuned out. The other trainers there were doing some sort of social-conformity thing. They were very interested in speaking in PT lingo – “pronate, supinate, evert, invert, abduct, adduct.”

These last two, by the way, are apparently defined in certain circles, opposite to the normal understanding – that is, by judging whether a limb or body part is ab/adducting by the motion of the distal portion (furthest from the trunk of the body) of the limb to the proximal portion. I learned that abduction is when you move the limb or body part away from the midline, and adduction the opposite. And I’m not clear on the reasoning for the new definition. If you can enlighten me, please do!

Anyway, they wanted to “dig deep,” but only into what he was presenting. Not into the topic itself. Which I guess is fair. I guess.

Chuck said that flat footed people have a greater incidence of ACL tear. That may be, but why is that the case? He didn’t say. Actually, a few studies (here’s one) have shown that people with flat feet have lower risk of ankle injury than those with high arches.

There it is! Right there! I can see it!

Yes, I know the ACL is in the knee, not the ankle. So you’re saying the strain isn’t transferred to the ankle, but instead, goes up the chain to the knee. I guess I can understand that, to a point. But usually, soft tissues change structure to match kinetic patterns. So the argument that a person with flat feet automatically has pre-stressed ACL’s is suspect to me. If they had flat feet their whole life, wouldn’t the ACL conform?

Is it flat feet that cause ACL tears, or is it poor motor patterns?

Haile Gebrselassie hasn’t had any problem being one of the world’s greatest long-distance runners for years in spite of gross over-pronation:

The point of this section, though, is what gets missed when you skip over the bottom of the foot, and move straight to the calf and ankle.

Or, also, what gets missed when you skip over the most basic reflex patterns that stem from the stimulation of the bottom of the (bare) foot? See this paper for ideas about that.

This little cutie knows what I'm talking about...

Where’s My Cookie?
Look, I can see the multitude of perspectives there are on the human body. I can smell them and taste them too. I’ve touched those perspectives with my own hands. Trust me.

I have two problems with what happened to me on Saturday:
1. The body is not that complicated.

2. The way of addressing it in these complicated (and contradictory) terms, only causes confusion and dismay. And,

3. People seem to have turned off their brains…they’re just following anyone who stands up and says “follow me.”

I’ll explain the way I look at the body in another post…so STAY TUNED!!!

Sorry for the rant…hahaha…

A recent article in the New York Times called “O.K. Russia, Time to Work It,” talks about a trainer in Moscow, Alex Reznik, who is in charge of the gym in the Moscow Ritz Carlton.

When I was a kid, when the Soviet Union still existed, and Communism was still the Red Scare, the Russians were terrible monsters of strength, crushing opponents in the ‘80 Olympics, and in movies like Rocky 3.

I must break you, Comrade.

The Ruskies Are Coming!
Granted, the US didn’t participate in that Olympic games, protesting the USSR’s involvement in Afghanistan. But (after the Russians boycotted the ‘84 games in Los Angeles) they crushed the 1988 games.

As long as I’ve been around, though, the Russians have had a reputation for toughness. Even in the recent past, guys like Pavel Tsatsouline have guided American fitness enthusiasts by a tough-as-nails rubric, and fighters like Fedor Emelianenko have shown what slugging it out with sledgehammers pullups and pushups can do in the Octogon.

The Russian Experiment

Wah Happan…?
The article points out the old Soviet value of physical education and fitness. This new gym culture, it says, is really only representative of the ultra-elite. It also says that even some of Reznik’s ultra-rich clients still show up with alcohol on their breath (and that some of them are seeking additional “supplementation” still legal in Russia).

But what has happened?

I imagine it’s the same thing that’s happened over here, in the Capitalist US. With prosperity comes laziness. Is that true? When calories are cheap, it doesn’t really matter how long you hit the treadmill.

What I wonder most about, is the “newsworthiness” of the story itself. What are supposed to learn by reading this piece of journalism? What is being communicated? Why is it important?

You tell me.

A recent article on the Boston ABC-online site makes a great point – Share a Trainer, Save Money at the Gym.

There’s so many benefits to training with groups, that it’s almost silly to comment on it.

So I will!

Training with others will do a few things:

• Save money (if you’ve hired a trainer)
• Provide support and motivation
• Create an atmosphere of creative competition
• Reduce anxiety and perceived effort
• Builds community

Is that enough?

I won’t cite all of the research that shows that the above effects “actually happen.”  Instead, I’ll just ask you to consider your own experience with physical effort, solo and in groups.

While a few people are very motivated to do physical things alone, many (I’d say most) are not.  Most folks are more motivated when there are others around.

The best example I can think of is, of course, kids on a playground.

Some kids play solo…for a little while.  Usually the split is (from my “professional observation”) probably around 20 percent solo playtime, and 80 percent group or partner play.  I think that ratio is probably a little different at different developmental times, but probably remains close to that until kids stop being active (whenever that is for the individual).

My new training location is setup really well for partner and small-group training, so I’m really looking to promote that in the near future.  It helps people to save money, and provides all of those great benefits above.

If you’ve ever considered working with a trainer, find a friend who has been thinking along similar lines, and then look around for a trainer who trains small groups or pairs.

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…

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

I’m a big fan of barefooting whenever possible. However, in the city, I almost always wear either my Vibram’s, my Vivo Barefoots, or my Brooks Cross Country Flats.

A recent news piece by the San Diego News Network explains why – some asshole(s) buried razor blades in the ground in a children’s park. Not only that, but it’s happened before.

I’m always very cautious in the parks around SF, and try to be very cautious when I’m in the streets as well. As the old saying goes – an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

That goes for things like – using good form when lifting weights; making overt agreements with play partners when you’re playing games; going slowly at first, then speeding things up; warming up; and now – playing in the park!

Scout your area first, look around for broken glass or other hazards. Wear shoes. If you’ve looked around, and feel safe, you can go barefoot, but I guess you do so at your own risk.

Oh yeah, and if you see or hear of some idiot planting razor blades in a public space – call the police and report them.

Neala Schwartzberg’s recent article on Examiner.com details the new “outdoor gym” in Albuquerque NM.

The fitness area consists of a walking course, with stations along the way where you can enjoy some reps on HealthBeat fitness equipment.

Funny, but this seems like something I remember from long ago…

Oh yes!  Parcourse trails!

We used to have those in Virginia when I was growing up.  But they disappeared by the time I left.  I think there are one or two still standing, neglected, soon to be replaced by “HealthBeat” courses.

Sleeping

Awake

Imagine the difference in caloric expenditure between sitting in a chair and pushing some levers (like pushing yourself away from your desk all day…”office fitness?”), versus hanging from a rope with your feet on a piece of log and having to traverse a line of similar dangling targets.

Imagine the difference in attentive demand.  Sitting (zzzzzz) versus stabilizing yourself while moving and holding on for dear life.

Granted, the “awake” picture above is from the Pilatus Seilpark in Switzerland (where they like nature, like to be in it, like to exert themselves, and drink a lot of beer), and the “asleep” picture is from Albuquerque NM…

A more realistic comparison might be to the original signs from Parcourse or Fit Trail courses that used to be scattered across the country.  Like this one:

Moving a lot!

Overhead ladder?!!  When’s the last time you got a chance to brachiate as an adult?  I’m in the fitness industry.  I look for opportunities to do this, and haven’t had a chance since the last time I was on a kid’s playground…about three or four months ago (adults aren’t allowed to be on kid’s playgrounds unsupervised by children in San Francisco…).

Again, the difference is palpable, even through the images.

Awake or asleep.

Living or dead.

You choose.

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I recently read Damien’s entry on his blog at AdventureinProgress called “The Case For Minimalist Footwear.”

Damien shares his own personal journey with becoming more barefoot oriented, and the benefits its given him.

I wrote a document after the last Exuberant Animal conference called Progressing Back to Barefoot.  After reading Damien’s article, I figured I’d just put the document on my blog for everyone to read.

Progressing Back to Barefoot

Let me know what you think!  I hope it’s helpful!

Thanks!

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Anatomy means “to cut apart” or “to separate by cutting.”  That’s how you figure out what’s inside the body, so it makes sense to name it that way!

Anatomy refers to the structure of the organism – compared with physiology, which refers to the function of that structure.  Anatomy talks about the same structures as physiology, but only in terms of the way those structures are built.  In another analogy, anatomy is to architecture, as physiology is to engineering.  The architect designs the building, the structure.  The engineer designs the function of the building.

You should have a good understanding of the basic anatomy of your body.  At a minimum, know where the following muscles are, and what their actions are:
The Muscles of the Calf – Gastrocnemius, Soleus, and Tibialis.
The Muscles of the Thigh – Quadriceps and Hamstrings.
The Muscles of the Hip – Iliacus and Psoas, TFL, Gluteals, Hip Rotators, and Quadratus Lumborum.
The Muscles of the Abdomen – Rectus Abdominus, Obliques, TVA, Multifidi, and Spinal Erectors.
The Muscles of the Back – Latissimus Dorsi, Spinal Erectors.
The Muscles of the Shoulder Girdle – Rhomboids, Trapezius, Deltoids, Pectorals.
The Muscles of the Rotator Cuff – Supraspinatus, Infraspinatus, Teres Minor, Subscapularis.
The Muscles of the Arm – Biceps, Triceps, Wrist Flexors and Extensors.
The Muscles of the Neck – Levator Scapulae, Cervical Extensors.

Perform a Google image search for “human anatomy,” print out the picture, and review it on a regular basis.  Name the muscles when you see them or use them.  This will not only help you to understand the things we’ll discuss in future posts better, but it will also make you more informed generally, and better able to communicate with people like trainers, doctors, and physical therapists should you ever need to consult with one.

Most of all, the names of body parts are just words.  They’re like the words “blue,” “skinny,” “jump,” or any other words.  Because they aren’t commonly used, they seem very strange, but don’t let that strangeness put you off!

How does this relate to health?  Well, the better you know your body, the better you’ll be able to identify the source of any issues you might experience with it.  Being able to use specific names is a first step in that process.  Remember learning how to read and write?  First you had to learn the alphabet.  The words above, and the other new words you’ll learn on this journey, are the alphabet for your language of your body.  This way, we’ll all share a common language, and be able to understand one another when we talk about our bodies.