Thanks to my friend Joe who helped me articulate this.

Here's something I get a lot from newcomers coming to the studio to learn some yoga or strength skills, "I'm hesitant because I'm not sure I'll be any good and...I'll fall behind/I'll hold you up/I'll embarrass myself."

I began my counter-argument by saying basically, who cares?  If you're there learning how to move, we're getting extraordinary benefits as brain and body begin communicating more.

Daniel Wolpert:  The Real Reason For Brains

Then...the conversation switched; we were talking about "beastly" individuals that are "so strong."

I had recently pulled up a set of standards that one particular high school coach, Dan John, published.
[I think I know one woman [in her 30s] who could nab the high school young women's standard for strength.  What this means is, the person is, minimum, this strong and then they're doing their sport.]

I countered with, "I think she [and I] are baseline strong."  In a joking manner I added, "Now we can start training for sport."
We all paused and took it in. 
What's it mean to baseline strong, regardless of what standard one uses?  [I'm using the RKC/SFG standard as first base, Dan John's standards as second base, sport skill requirements bootstrapped onto that as a triple, homerun is winning nationals?]


The question goes around athletic circles:  What's strong enough?  The OTs and PTs may ask:  What's functional?  [Strong enough to carry your groceries, lift your kid out of the crib, or push a lawnmower].  The question I'm asking is what's baseline strong?  


What's a starting point of strength, after which, really interesting things start to happen, doors open, and enormous possibilities reveal themselves?  


I don't know.  I'm not proposing a standard.  I'm usually in a position wherein I'm convincing people that they must move better and enjoy more strength in their life.  


In that conversation, my up sell went like this:  Now that I'm this strong, and I'm enjoying this much more clarity of mind, focused awareness, metabolic adaptation....  Now that I feel this capable, this good, this vibrant, I can't afford to be less strong.  Knowing how many more possibilities are open to me now--hopping on the bike for a 60-miler, learning O-lifts, taking a MovNat course, taking up a martial arts style--I would never choose to go backward.  

My challenge to you:  pick a strength standard.  Go after it [in your "off-season"].  Because you can.  Because no one folds with a good hand.  Because someone else may be laid up in the hospital and can't.  Because it's your human duty to stand up and make more possible.  

A Don't-Miss Workshop Weekend

You know you want it.  You can have it!
The ability to move well is your right.

The Tissue is the Issue

We need to talk.  It's about your tissue...your fascia.

Fascia is the great "network hardware."  Its cobweb-like nature encapsulates muscles and weaves around ligaments and bone.
It's a highly adaptable "sweater" made of collagen, elastin, and fiber, can be reshaped and stretched with textures ranging from "fluid, to gluey, to plastic, and finally to crystalline solid" (Anatomy Trains, 19).  It's practically everywhere in your body, and it's affecting your movement and your posture continuously.  More deeply, it's affecting cellular function.

What I realized coming into the strength training milieu again, after having become a student of yoga, is that I was solving pain problems and restoring function to my joints, my movements, and enjoying greater strength and energy stores in my yoga practice.  Depending on the source of information, I was finding, also, that many of the positions in both movement domains were complimentary.  I had strategies from a compressive, tensional practice and a subtle, tension-releasing practice that radically altered my tissue composition and increasing my appreciation of each modality. 

We're in an era wherein communicating across fields of interest is not just accepted but necessary:  we don't have to wait for a knee surgery to tell us "we're doing it wrong."  We can take responsibility for our movement and learn from those who have gone before us.  Yoga practitioners 2000 years ago were organizing their movements for better breathing patterns and mind state experiences and now we find that power lifters and gymnasts are using many of those same strategies to lift heavier and jump higher.

For two days, I'll distill about 15 years of athletic preparation, yoga, and bodywork exposure into a comprehensive fascia care model and movement diagnostic tool set.  We'll explore this through participation with balls, bands, rollers, and weights.  We will perform yoga sequences and postural adaptations to learn what differences we can make with the tissue preparation. 

• Yoga practitioners will be able to understand that a pose can be optimized for better breathing mechanics and energy movement.
• Yoga teachers will be able to take their personalized adjustments and reinterpret them for hands-on-student work.
• Athletes will be able to find where restrictions lie and make safe, efficient changes in their tissues without leaving them vulnerable to injury like [over-]stretching can.
• Bodyworkers will learn how their clinical work can transfer to and reinforce a client's postural adaptations.
• We will learn how to be our greatest "weakness managers" by prioritizing the spine to fix power leaks and energy sucks.
• We will learn how to expedite healing or recovery post- injury or competition.
• We will understand why you must adopt lifestyle and postural habits to help you excel in your movement paradigm.

Most of all we're going to have tons of fun and no pain faces!

Every participant will receive a hardcover copy of Kelly Starrett's "Becoming a Supple Leopard" to continue your self study

When:  Saturday & Sunday June 15-16; 10am-4pm
Where:  Tsubo:  1821 W. Hubbard; Chicago

Please reserve your spot with a payment of cash, check, or here.
Scholarships are available--please inquire.

I'm counting now; there's a growing number of athletic individuals that show up at a yoga class because they're unable to train their sport--not supplementing their sport training--cannot train their sport currently.

It concerns me that the information about stretching + athletic training is still a confused action-subject. 

Most yoga classes include some form of stretching--passive stretching is a biggie--and therefore disrupt our proprioceptive mechanisms.  In other words:  the way our body knows where it is in space and in relationship to itself and environment is "off."
This is great news if one is trying to adapt to new movement patterns and posture.  This feeling of "being a little off" is great proprioceptive data that allows us to make little corrections throughout the day.  PTs know this well.  If I wrap you in kinesio tape after making a change in your perception of your movement, the tape will act as a reminder for the next few days to pay attention and self correct your posture/movement.  It's enough of that "off" feeling to provide you immediate feedback.

Anyone who owns a meat thermometer knows that it has to be calibrated.  We subject it to a particular kind of treatment [putting it in boiling water] to calibrate it [turning the screw to set the needle at 212].

When I go to a yoga class, I subject my body/tissue/ligaments to a particular treatment [heat, stretching] and then [passively] calibrate--spend the rest of the day letting my brain figure out how to navigate again under new circumstances and perform basic human tasks.
Maybe I learn that walking stairs feels new, or my neck feels longer...I notice because my proprioception is different than usual, I make changes on the fly because I have the feedback and so the calibrating happens.

If we subject ourselves to the high demands of athletic training or competition [impact, explosive movements, quick turns, stopping quickly]  after a yoga session, we run the risk of injuring ourselves.  We've not yet had the chance to normalize these new ways of moving.

I worked with a grade 3 sprain the other day.  Training for a triathalon, this athlete took a yoga class and then went running.  A rolled ankle later, she was looking at 6 months of PT and cancelling out of her competition.  Fast forward 6 months:  she now begins again, slowly, training to run.  Six months of lost training, and no athletic goals except healing.  Bummer.
How about torn ACLs?  Too many to count.  Now we're talking surgery, rehab, and training by relearning movement patterns. 
I recommend my athletes use their yoga practice as a recovery day or after their workouts as a mover of lactic acid and fluids and as a brain state change. 

Love your yoga but PLEASE don't do it before your [hardstyle] training.

Athletes, yoga teachers, bodyworkers:  want to learn more?  YES! 
SAVE THE DATE:  June 15-16  Sat/Sun.:  10am-4pm

Shoot me a comment [below] if you're not yet on the email list.  Info sent out today!


More information

...the fewer choices I have.  Put another way, the fundamentals are fundamental. 

There's a time for variety--it's after the mastery of the fundamentals.  The fundamentals prime you for longevity rather than the short term performance. 

Yes, we should learn always, and remain students of our bodies and seek out learning more complexity in our movement.  However, adding variety to avoid boredom and learning a new skill [and so mylinating new paths in the brain] are entirely different behaviors.

"Before I learned the art, a punch was just a punch, and a kick, just a kick.
After I learned the art, a punch was no longer a punch, a kick, no longer a kick.
Now that I understand the art, a punch is just a punch and a kick is just a kick."

-- Bruce Lee

What have you simplified, distilled in your practice?  What parts of your practice are as basic as it gets?

You must have a pattern in order to change it.

You're swimming
no
flailing in the surface disruptions of content

Meanwhile
below the surface 
is a Great Silence

diving down maybe saved my life in the reefs
pummeled, almost drowned
dive deep
it's quiet there
knowing how to hold my breath, wait, and relax
the most important recall whilst waiting for the tug of the leash
No board.  No gravity.  No up.  No down.

Salt water finally floats you to the top
as long as you listen for it

The ideal student is the conscious one--one who knows the basic components of their practice and can sense when "something's missing."  Let's educate our trainees to take a cross-training approach to their spiritual practice so they can know what needs adjustment when something feels dry or uninteresting.

What if, when setting intent, we asked this simple question,  "What is to emerge here?"

Based on responses, questions, and styles of work I've been observing, I wonder if practitioners are setting intents that hone in on the "ill-fitting" piece, the uncomfortable aspects of self, the in-pain parts.  
Eradicate. 
     Eliminate.

I guess I see a lot of folks in weight-loss protocols taking a similar approach; one can hear it in their word choice.  "Lose weight," "Cut fat,"  and "Get rid of this [grabs belly]."

Taking the Fertile Soil Approach
 
We're all good at pointing at what bothers us.  However, being critical [or cynical] is no substitute for Wisdom.
I feel a great deal more empowered by having a good question than having an criticism-driven goal [opinion-driven].
                      What can emerge here?
                                 What will emerge here?


Now I'm taking on a stance of creating a fertile environment and being a participant in a growth process.