Spiral Movement Patterns, Rolling and 'Following The Eyes'

In case you missed it, Craig (ARC training) and Simon (Ancestral Movement) just released a new three video series on various movement patterns incorporating spiraling/rotating and rolling with the concept of eye lead movement (following the eyes). 

These drills are totally cool and playful, and can be done just about anywhere.  Simon is demonstrating them (on a miscellaneous patch of Earth in Canberra) as they should be done (or, as you should work towards doing them) - with smoothness, awareness and control.

They make a great warm-up; 'morning mobility' or movement-play session.  Looking forward to more videos from my good friends Simon and Craig!

Videos below:


Spiral Movement Transitions part 1 - Rotating

Spiral Movement Transitions part 2 - Rolling

Spiral Movement Transitions part 3 - Following The Eyes

Ancestral Wrestling and Roughhousing

Check out my mate Simon Thakur's latest blog/article on the ancestral nature of wrestling - it's great!

http://ancestralmovement.com/wrestling/

Also not to be missed is Rafe Kelley's (of Parkour Visions and EvolveMovePlay) piece on 'Roughhousing' (http://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/rnd-why-we-need-a-little-roughhousing/) 

Yee'hah!

What is this thing called Ancestral Movement?

Well, looks like 2014 is going to be a big year for all things movement, physical cultivation and health!  I'm furiously putting in the writing hours on a draft of 'What is Physical Alchemy'.. which is about 3500 words at the moment.  My good mate Simon Thakur has just put out a similar thing for his own method - Ancestral Movement.  Check it out HERE - (http://ancestralmovement.com/natural-movement-ancestral-movement/)

Also, if you're not a member already, join the 'Natural Movement Canberra' group. It's awesome(!), and both Simon and Craig post a lot of really well thought out and interesting stuff there. 

I've given myself the tentative deadline of having something ready by this Friday - so watch this space!

An Overview of Locomotion

Here is a free ARTICLE and overview of locomotion among the different creatures of planet Earth.  Thanks to Simon Thakur or Ancestral Movement for the link.  Enjoy! 

The Amazing 90 Day Lucid Dream [Dream Recall] Challenge

So, Simon Thakur has challenged me to a '90 Day Lucid Dreaming and Dream Recall Challenge'.  Which I have accepted.  We've also invited anyone else who's interested to join in, via the facebook group with the same name as this blog title (https://www.facebook.com/groups/593373727372031/). I'd say no crazies, but more accurate is only people who are 'our kind of crazy' please. 

This should be a fun and interesting challenge! (Much more fun that the getting up at 5am one I set myself, and which I have failed the last 3 mornings in a row).

I played around with lucid dreaming before in high school (circa 1999), and have had maybe 25 - 30 lucid dreams in my life, of varying qualities (from more real than 'real life'; to waking up a few seconds after becoming aware I was dreaming).  Come on flying! 

This excerpt from facebook give an idea of what my dreams are like:

"Well, I'm back from my nights adventures gaining a white tiger as a pet; crash landing a flying car with Harrison Ford and Van Damme and seeing Tupac do a backflip out of a five story window, onto a swissball sized basketball (he got knocked out, but woke up and was all good.). Yep, my dreams are pretty awesome." 

One of the books pictured above Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming - Stephen La Berge is a pretty good introduction to lucid dreaming and the basics of how to go about attaining lucidity in the dreamworld.  There are also numerous boards and forums on the internet with much more information.

I will be interested to see how many lucid dreams (and how much control over the dream environment) I and the other challengee's get throughout the 90 days. 

Fascial Lat Stretching and 'Opening Up and Awakening the Sides'

The flavor of the month (last month now) seems to be stretching, un-locking and re-modelling the tissues of the lateral aspect of the body..

I have recently uploaded 5 videos onto Youtube, of various stretches I have been playing around with for the lats and their associated soft tissues and investing fascia, and of the Lateral Line (and the 'Deep Lateral Line' connection of the QL --> Diaphragm --> Mediastinum --> Scalenes; if you are sufficiently body aware and supple already); Back Functional Line and Spiral Lines (using the myofascial meridians terminology of Anatomy Trains - see 2nd edition of the book for the fascinating details).

I had started to play around with different vectors of stretching the lats (and 'sides' more generally) when I had access to ladders bars for training (I think a lot of people stuff around hanging off ladders bars when they are available..there's something natural and human about it).

I was talking with Simon Thakur, a while back, about 'Opening up, strengthening and becoming more aware of the 'sides' of the body - and lateral movement, especially lateral spinal waves and undulation' which led me to explore this fascial and neuromuscular stretching (soft tissue remodeling) aspect some more.


Here are the videos:
Basic 3 Lateral Line and Fasical Lat Stretches
Video 1 (Basic Hanging Fascial Lat Stretch)
Video 2 (Spiral Lat and Hip Stretch from Modified Pigeon Pose)
Video 3 (Hanging Fascial Lat Stretch with Spinal Wave and Spiral Movement Enhancers)

[+1] Here's a great basic side stretch video by Stretch Therapy/Monkey Gym Senior Instructor Olivia
Video 4 - Liv teaches the kneeling side bend
The 'basic' side stretch can still work wonders on more advanced practitioners, if they have the body awareness and micro-movement control of the spine - aiming at as pure a lateral flexion as possible. 

[+1] Also, Check out Simon's Lateral Spinal Wave VIDEO

2 Advanced Fascial Lat Stretching Variants (Get comfortable with the easier versions before attempting)  
Video 5 (Advanced 'Spiral' Fascial Lat and 'Opening up the Sides' montage)
Video 6 ('High Hang' Fascial Lat Stretching)


Besides opening up the often restricted coronal/frontal plane of movement, these techniques remodel the soft tissues over, around, between and inside of the ribcage - thus freeing the breath*.

Along with specific breathing pattern and diaphragm work (pranayama; qi gong; butyeko; etc) this can tangibly increase, not only the movement capacity of the body, but the sensations of being alive and offers numerous health benefits, too.

Hanging!

Hanging is *awesome*! Whether it's from some ladder bars; a tree; a door-frame; a bus stop, or bar - it feels great and has a simultaneous strengthening of the deep grip muscles (if you actually grip the bar actively) and stretching/re-modeling effect on the lats and other pulling muscles, and on the various chains of fascia and connective tissue in the arms.

You can also get into the 'poplar tree' of the various 4th layer(? - iliocostalis group; etc) back muscles via adding different spiral vectors and directed breathing techniques - which is great, as these muscles are notoriously difficult to isolate in stretch.

Once you get a feel for how the greater tissues of the latissimus dorsi can be wound-up, you can create numerous variants which can be done off just about anything upright that is stable (pole; doorway; tree; etc), to varying degrees of success.

 

Spirals!

Spiral vectors from the legs, trunk and arms work very well.  Multiple spiral vectors works even better. You can 'play them off against each other' and wring the adhesions out of your soft tissues.  Interestingly, the latissimus dorsi (and pectoralis major; among others) has a twist (spiral) in the morphology the muscle.. perhaps this is why they feel so good to twist like a wet towel? 

For me personally, the feeling and observation of how the lats, pecs and traps get involved in the straight arm gymnastics holds (especially when you are strict with keeping the sternum up; so, not holding for maximal strength, which uses the hollow shape, but training for max strength-control from a position of postural alignment), I have wondered if what was happening was that I was learning to use the lats, pecs and traps, in essence, as a 'secondary rotator cuff' - by training them to stabilize and control a straight arm in various positions.. not sure how accurate this is, but a tangible re-patterning of the muscles occurs when you learn to do straight arm work ala gymnastics, and various other holds, in combination with traditional concentric/eccentric work -  or at least this is how I experienced it feeling in my own shoulders and arms.

This alignment (upper thoracic extension/sternal lifting with scapulas allowed to move down the rib cage) is often not possible for a person to maintain on the rings or paralettes for very long, or at all (or even in daily life, for some).

This is often related to daily postural and movement habits.  Sitting in a chair, and having the usually things happen (tighter hip flexors; collapsed ribcage and diaphragm; hyperkyphosis; scapula coming forward and around the rib-cage; etc.) tightens the latissimus dorsi in a specific way; and predisposes you to use only a discrete sector of this massive and variable muscle when you do you strength training exercises.

This discrete sector is usually the over-facilitated sector anyway, and leads to thick ropey strands appearing in the lats as vectors of force have connective tissue laid down in their paths. I have observed this a number of times with people into strength and conditioning work; boxing and other sports involving repetitive pulling.  Certain fibers of the latissimus dorsi are heavily preferences due to scapula position; rib-cage angle and spinal curves (obviously, and especially, thoracic). I am sure it is not everybody, but it is an interesting pattern. 

Finally, on stretching longer chains of fascia and connective tissue more generally, I have found that these long chain stretches respond well to a number of different methods - other than just standard contract-relax (PNF), as emphasized in the beginning and intermediate stages of Stretch Therapy classes.

Some of the 'enhancers' I use are:

• Mirco-movement exploration (lots of different easy to more difficult vectors - simple sagital plane work; rotations; figure 8's, spirals and waves)

• Directed Breathing (especially for muscles/tissues attaching to the trunk and ribs/abdominal area). 

• Outside Support (Tractioning & Bracing via partner assist).  This often uses a belt (judo belt or fabric sash for comforts sake) or manual assistences.


* The name of a blog post I am writing about a core fundamental of the Physical Alchemy system. 

New Wave of Natural Movement training (in Canberra)

Check it out - HERE! Simon and Craig got published in a prestegious journal (Canberra CityNews), with a great pragmatic article about all things Natural Movement, play and un-patterning from socio-cultural conditioned movement patterns. 

Join the 'Natural Movement Canberra' facebook group and/or go along to the classes to join in the fun!  Your bodymind will thank you! 

The Wisdom of the Spiral

Check out this VIDEO of a Feldenkrais practitioner on 'Movement Nature Meant'.   This type of movement work makes great active recovery; goes well with Stretch Therapy, Yoga and/or strength training of various types.. basically you can explore at this low level intensity everyday, and should do a daily movement practice to (among other things) "challenge you nervous system to update your habits" and "you enrich your movement vocabulary with new options".

The last few minutes on using 'the wisdom of the spiral' from lying to sitting should be taught to everyone.  Spiral patterns pop up all over the place in movement arts of different types (and in Nature more generally).  I've been playing with some wave and spiral movement patterns during my stretching practice of late, to great and interesting effect (more later). 

The 80kg challenge and food habits

The 80kg-by-end-of-year-challenge™ (with milk and chia seed drinkin' Simon) has brought to my
attention my need to curb my wayward meal and eating habits - and just plain exercise discipline with eating.  Which is why, at 10:43pm on a Sunday night I am roasting pumpkin and cooking black bean pasta for tomorrow. My cooking is on the improve; I can even cook cinnamon and date buckwheat pancakes to a passable quality!

I've stocked up on my cans of coconut cream and milk, but alas, have no milk (of any type) - so no post workout shake for me this evening. I am eating heaps of vegetables at the moment, and there's a grocer/market at Ashfield that is dirt cheap.  I know it's been said (because I keep overhearing people talking about it on the bus and train), but we get bent over in terms of price for food in this country. 

Doing a 'bulk up' phase of training is actually quite fun!  I can't remember the last time I did one. I recently came across this nice general muscle building ARTICLE. I am using all three of the muscle growth methods mentioned in the article, currently: tension, metabolic stress and damage.

Here's me tipping the scales and a throwing-the-Earth-of-its-axis 72kg this evening.  On my sweet 'new' 5 dollar scales I picked up from Vinnies.  Hmmm; maybe I should weight in here (blog) every Sunday or fortnight Sunday..

Monkey Gym Workshop Canberra - Retrospective

Looking back at the Monkey Gym Workshop I attended and presented at last weekend, I am filled with excitement and hope.  Why?  Not (just) because the workshop was attended by a lot of interesting, open-minded and physically capable teachers and trainers of various systems (which is totally cool).  But, largely from the passion (and compassion) of the people present - and their seeking to use the training for helping various groups within society - and society in general. 

I was also pleasantly surprised that Canberra wasn't 'Brass-monkey' cold, for June. (my dad's favorite expression 'on cold', for people who haven't heard, is 'Cold enough to freeze the balls off a Brass Monkey').  It was actually more like Autumn, which is probably my favorite season in my home town. 

Another cool thing to come out of the weekend, which I have mentioned previously, is that the system of Stretch Therapy/Monkey Gym is, once again, going through a period of quickened evolution (as the system is always evolving, at some rate).

I sit here, right Now, on the floor of my living room, with a big golden piece of cardboard; and what I am doing on this brainstorm template is writing down the syllabus for a new class type - that incorporates Stretch Therapy/Stretching Mindfully based PNF stretching; Monkey Gym methods of Strengthening and neural re-patterning, and joint mobility and Natural Movement style methods.

Basically all the cool stuff I've been studying over the years, mixing in the latest stuff (Natural Movement and Joint Mobility - ala Craig and Simon's sections) - and creating a syllabus to test this hybrid style class with.

I currently train all of these methods myself, but what I want to find out is the most effective and efficient (and Safe - Kit's 3 parameters) way of getting these 3 broad streams to be embodied into a person who hasn't been exposed to such training.  This is going to be exciting!  I am going to be experimenting with different sequencing of these methods, to see if there are any trends that work better than others.

For instance, does a class that runs Joint mobility --> Strength --> Stretching --> Re-patterning work differently/better than one that goes Stretching --> Natural Movement --> Joint mobility?

Obviously it is way more complex than that (what with different exercise selection; individuals body-patterns; etc), but I have been playing around a bit using Janda's Upper and Lower Crossed Syndromes as a schemata for teaching a hybrid strength, re-patterning and stretching class - to good results (basically I loosen of the facilitated areas first; starting with the most powerful - the hip flexors. Then, targetting strength and re-awakening work of the inhibited structures.  Pretty simple, but effective!).

Anyone else out there who is running similar classes, please let me know what you find. It's all about getting as many people as possible, as quickly (but safely) as possible, able to move as humans should move.

Finally, thank you to all the people who I caught up with in Canberra! I had a great time during my 2.5 days down in the 'berra.  There are a lot of cool people still there.  Some other awesome things I saw whilst there was an ad for the movie 'Serenity' still partially up at Hawker shops!  [And an Abyss-fied ANU concrete ball - see top of post]

I also got a shot of that fabled t-shirt (below) I mentioned in my 'Resist Mediocrity' post (seen here from behind).  I've got Kit's soleem word that he will get me one, next time he's in Taos, New Mexico! [Nice lat spread for an old geezer! ;) ]

Finally, just before my bus back up to Sydney - I hit up the Asian Noodle House on Northbourne for a Laksa (of course!).  I'm going to make an Asian Noodle House Laksa part of any pilgrimage to the Nations Capital - they are fucking awesome.  I seriously suspect the secret herbs and spices have crack or opium in them..  I have never had a better laksa anywhere.  Mmmmm.