Living in a three dimensional world part II

At the end of the last post I mentioned that in addition to increased strength and injury prevention working our bodies and limbs through all potential angles was also good for the brain.


Here's why;  Our brains are interactive.  You probably already know this.  We take in information, analyze it, use it as seems appropriate.   You know that reading and learning throughout life helps keep the neurons firing and developing.  The old adage "use it or lose it" applies here.


While it is obvious in academic learning and in life it is less obvious in movement. 


In the case of movement the data is not external like reading a book or figuring out how to nail  together a door frame.  Learning movement is mostly internal.  In this case the data is sent to the brain by sensors we have throughout the body called proprioceptors.  These proprioceptors constantly feed information to our brain about how our body and limbs are aligned, how quickly they are moving and how much tension is being put on the muscles, tendons and joints. 


The more and varied the data the more the brain has to process and analyze and the more capeable it becomes. 


Instead of "push ups hurt my shoulder" the dialogue becomes "The left shoulder was higher than the right and the push up was harder on the left side"  The ability to identify subtle changes in the body BY FEEL helps performance but it also challenges the brain.




This subject was worth a two part talk because as neuroscience continues to develop we are learning about the very powerful interaction between movement and mental health.  We are moving away from a mechanistic view of ourselves and our bodies to an organic one where everything touches and affects everything else.  As we evolve our view of our bodies so we evolve our view of the world.


Stay tuned true believers. There is always more to learn.


All the best
Steve

Living in a three dimensional world

I had some of my best feedback ever upon ending a class.  The client, already pretty fit came up to me and said what was shocking to her was that when she did my class it didn't seem all that hard, but she noticed when she took other instructor's bootcamp classes after taking a few weeks of mine, THEIR classes were a lot easier.



She wanted to know what was the secret of her getting stronger, more endurance, more control and stamina without me killing her to do it.



Not a GREAT secret but a good one.



Circular training.



In most training we move and think like our limbs (arms and legs) are piston like, they go out and they go back, they go up and they go down, in and out. 



In reality our muscles are not attached in straight lines parallel to the bones.  Mostly the muscles sweep in a gentle arc spiraling around the bone (to varying degrees).  That means when they contract the motion is somewhat circular, other muscles counter that to keep the motion in a straight(ish) line.



By working in a spiral, twining fashion we use the body as it was designed, and by following this smart natural design we get stronger with less perceived effort and as a bonus we avoid injury and, believe it or not (believe it) we get just a wee bit smarter.



Have I blown your 2D world, let me know.


Stay tuned true believers.

A Thinking Man's Guide to "The Warm Up"

What is a warm up?

Many people understand a warm up to be stretching to loosen the muscles.  In reality warming up really is just that, this misunderstanding has led to injuries with average exercisers and high level athletes.

A muscle can be seen as a rubber band, which can stretch several times beyond its resting  length and then pull back to its original size.  If that rubber band were put in a freezer (inactivity) then taken out, when you tried to stretch it, it would most likely snap.

The purpose of an effective warm up is to warm up that rubber band that that it has the elasticity to move.

Another way to think about this is starting your car.  If it has been a few days since you have driven or you live in a colder climate you will let it set and idle for a bit.  The oil, usually described as a car’s life blood, is thick and viscous when the engine is cold.  As the car warms ups the oil gets thinner, more fluid, and moves through the system more easily.

Not letting the engine idle can mean it clogging out just when you are about to accelerate into traffic. Bad thing.  Warming up your muscles, tendons and joints before regular exercise is the idling time your body needs to get it’s fluids…well fluid, so that it does not clog out when you begin your routine.

An additional value of a smart generalized warm up routine is that it does not have to be done JUST before a workout.  Ideally it could be done several times a day for the same purpose, keep that rubber band lose and functional, keep the fluids circulating.

We train to be better at life. The more you marry the two, using one to assist the learning of the other, the stronger you will be for it body and mind.

If you need help with program design you can contact me at

Fitnessnexus@yahoo.com

All the best,

Steve

A Few Words About Accoutrements

 

As I have talked about in previous entries knowing where you want to go with your training is pivotal. If you want to lose weight Powerlifting would not be helpful, lots of jogging would but then you have to ask WHY you want to lose weight. Is it to help your health or to look better, or both.  The answers to these questions may also change your choices.  If you have high blood pressure or other health issues the long slow steady of a walk or walk jog might be better, if you don’t have those issues and are really more concerned about how you look, shorter threshold training will help muscle tone, utilize more fat stores in the long run and leave more training time for other Bodyshaping pursuits.

That awareness of why, which is also your prime motivation, factors in to what type of accoutrements you will have.

If you are going to be focusing on heavy full body lifting then soft soled shoes like wresting shoes are best. They give you maximum awareness of the ground.  If you are running then investing in the appropriate running shoe will save you down time from injury.

The inspiration for writing this blog entry came from a section of one of my old textbooks that talked about the fluid ball, inter-abdominal pressure, and lifting belts.

The fluid ball is the abdominal area, soft tissues organ etc.  Not a heck of a lot of bony structural support, yet when doing full body lifts like the squat, deadlift, clean and jerk, snatch, or even simply overhead moves like the overhead lunge, a great deal of force is transferred though this area from ground to over head.

With this force comes the chance of injury to the lower back, the only hard structure in the area.  By bracing the deep abdominal muscles and the diaphragm the fluid, which cannot be compressed, becomes part of the bracing mechanism to support the back.  It’s an essential technique and one many people use to varying degrees without any formal training.

You will often see people at gym making use of weight belts; their purpose is to constrict even further the abdominal / subinguinal area so that there is even greater bracing and thus greater protection for the spine.

This is an important piece of equipment for those exercisers who are dedicated to training for maximum amounts of strength (and usually very short duration).  They are appropriate for their goals.

Useful as they are in context are they something YOU need for YOUR training goals?

For most general fitness they are not relevant. Further, over dependence on them can lead to weakening of the supporting muscle structure.  If you have seen someone doing bench press, bicep curls, upright rows etc wearing a lifting belt they are not only helping their lifting power, they are potentially damaging their bodies.

To tie this up, the explanation of the lifting belt is just an example of how we need to think through what our goals are carefully and construct our training and our equipment,  accordingly.  You also now have a brief glimpse of the working of the core in training.

If you have questions or need clarification I can be reached via email at:

                                                          Fitnessnexus@yahoo