IOL Strength and Conditioning

Justin Price, a corrective exercise specialist and former IDEA personal trainer of the year, was a main attraction for me at this year’s conference. He’s one of a few guys who had an enormous impact on where my training interest has traveled this past year. (Until Suzie Lundgren, ace Feldenkrais practitioner, came along, the folks who’ve been generating this year’s corrective exercise obsession have all been men).

I had two IDEA conference sessions with Justin this year, so let’s cover those together: Keys to Successful Corrective Exercise Design and No More Back Pain; Getting a Grip on the Lumbo-Pelvic Hip Girdle. He also taught myofascial release, but I’m pretty good with a foam roller and a long list of tough implements, so I passed on that in order to take another class I had my eye on.

Let’s get at the easiest tips first, in no particular order:

1) You know that tennis ball you’ve been using underfoot? Justin wants you to quit fooling around and retire that in favor of a golf ball. Ouch is right!

Oh, and 1-A: Work on foot and toe strength.

2) Ease your way from running shoes and cross-trainers into flatter shoes over time. The heel lift in our traditional trainers is causing a lesser version of the problem high heels cause in women who dress up for work. That raised heel changes the dynamics of the skeletal system from the heels all the way up, causing potential trouble every joint along the way. The “ease your way” part is a warning to make the change slowly so the spine can adapt to the new position. Jumping right into a flat shoe full time will just give you a different pain instead of, or maybe in addition to, the one you have now.

3) If you sleep on your side, put a pillow between your knees to help loosen the hip socket. Otherwise we spend the nighttime hours in constant internal hip rotation, not the best way to train the body toward good habits.

4) Don’t cross your legs when sitting. It’s the easiest way to sit when our hips have an excessive anterior tilt, which most people have, but it makes the problem worse.

5) Move around more if you have a job that keeps you seated. When we sit, we train our glutes to be inactive. Inactive glutes lead to a lot of problems, one of them being anterior pelvic tilt.

Most of us have excessive anterior tilt of the pelvis; Justin’s estimation in a room full of fitness professionals who were in far far better shape than the average American was 85%. Not many of the attendees admitted to being in pain that day, to which Justin noted they (I wasn’t one of the claims to pain-free) still have a dysfunction that hasn’t yet reached the pain threshold. Fix it now, before it’s a chronic problem or causes accelerated aging.

Tip: If your feet are over-pronating, it means you’re in excessive anterior tilt. I have it right here in my notes that Justin used the word “always.” Over-supinating indicates excessive posterior tilt. I, to be difficult, had one of each prior to this year’s focus on corrective exercise.

Many people – again, myself included – have been diagnosed with scoliosis, a slight or severe bend in the spine, and even more people have it and don’t know it. But as it turns out, unless it’s of the severe variety, there’s a real good chance it’s a *functional* scoliosis the body created as a compensation for lack of hip mobility.

If that’s the case, you can fix it by regaining your hip mobility and re-aligning your pelvic girdle. I’m living proof – it took a few months, but it worked: The scoliosis that I was diagnosed with about 40 years ago no longer exists. No kidding: It’s gone.

That leg length discrepancy you think you have? Only about one in six people have a physically longer leg; the rest of us have an elevated hip issue that can be fixed in short order. This, too, I can personally verify.

As you can tell, me sitting in a Justin Price lecture is part education, part reinforcement, part reminder. Getting two sessions in one week is all parts beneficial.

Personal trainers interested in learning more about hands-on structural assessments and corrective exercise recommendations will find more in his Fundamentals DVD set.

Fitness conferences like the IDEA event in Las Vegas last month, originally created for group exercise instructors, have come a long way from the 80s’ aerobics classes toward providing material for the information-hungry personal trainer. Today’s presenters are extremely knowledgeable, and the trainer who won’t learn from them are few and far between.

Put your toe in the water: Those readers here in California within easy driving distance can cheaply expand their knowledge of the corrective exercise and movement pattern fields next month at Mindy Mylrea’s FitFest 08, September 26-27 in nearby Los Gatos.

In fact, the casual fitness enthusiast would have a great time participating in the classes and sitting in on a few lectures, as well — think of it as a major-league fitness bootcamp class.

I’ve put together a sample session line-up for a personal trainer who hasn’t been to a conference like this and might not know where to start. Look here:

Friday, 12:00-6:00pm
Session 1: Best Workout with Mindy Mylrea
Session 2: BOSU Ballast Ball with Rob Glick
Session 3: Nutrient Timing with Len Kravitz (or Group Xtreme with Corey Sobas; this one’s a toss-up depending on the attendee’s interest)

Saturday 7:00am-5:30pm
Session 1: Pick something you’ve never tried for a morning wake-up workout
Session 2: Keynote with Skip Jennings
Session 3: Movement Science and Corrective Patterns with Yoga with Robert Sherman
Session 4: Medicine Ball Training with Robert Sherman
Session 5: Lactate Threshold Training with Len Kravitz
Session 6: Assessments: Imbalances and Corrective Movements with Robert Sherman

Now, of course, if I was just going for the fun of it, I’d choose sessions using implements I’d never used or hadn’t been taught how to use, like a BOSU or a variety pack in one of the sports training classes, where they’ll use tools such as kettlebells, med balls, bands, tubing and such.

Speaking of cool tools, Mindy’s conference last year was where I first met Marc Lebert, the guy who designed those nifty Equalizer dipping bars I later ordered. In fact, if you wanted a set and hadn’t yet pulled the trigger, you can get a $10 discount when ordering from the Lebert Equalizer site by using the coupon code 0807LD.

Friday single-day price is $119; Saturday one-day cost is $139; both days is $189. As a personal trainer who needed to choose a single day, Saturday’s the big-payoff day.

If you need to update your CPR, they’ll do that, too, on Friday evening, $29.95 for a two-year certification. Trainers needed continuing education credits will be offered CECs for both ACE and AFAA.

Take an extra fifty – there’s a trade-show expo where all the toys you play with that day will be sold on discount. The expo is open to the public for those who need a stability ball but don’t have all day to spend goofing around at the conference.

Grab the 11-page registration and session description pdf here from Mindy’s conference page.

The Cutting Edge of Function, with Fraser Quelch

The Las Vegas IDEA personal trainer conference opened early for me with a day-long pre-conference class taught by Fraser Quelch, the guy who’s behind the gathering and organizing of a vast array of exercises done with the TRX Suspension Trainer.

Starting with a foot on the floor, this session traced the actions of the muscular-skeletal system during basic actions like walking and training, muscular reaction to gravity, the ground and momentum, corrective exercises easing into functional movements, the planes of motion common exercises work through and, taking that into consideration, how to program more effective workouts.

His main gig is this: Get your body working in as many angles and directions as you can dream up, and make sure the movements cover all the major joints… in all directions – all joints, all planes of motion.

Let’s look at an example from Fraser’s article on Multi-Planar Training (click to read in full). About mid-way through the article he documents the movement planes of a traditional bodypart training program. It’s a common-looking program, plenty of good exercises that includes squats, lunges, leg extension, leg curls and calf raises on the leg day, for example.

After his mapping of the primary joints and planes of motion using the sample workout, he writes,

“Hip is primarily involved in only 2 of 22 exercises
Shoulder is primarily involved in 9 of 22 exercises
Spine is primarily involved in only 5 of 23 exercises
Elbow is primarily involved in 9 of 23 exercises, more than the hip and the spine combined

15 (68%) occur in the sagittal plane
2 (9%) occur in the frontal plane, both at the shoulder joint.
5 (23%) occur in the transverse plane, the majority of these were also at the shoulder and none at the hip.”

What do you know?! It’s an average weekly training routine, and it’s upside down. I’m telling you, he spent the day leading us slowly and patiently to one blatant conclusion: Our normal gym-based programs need to be re-evaluated. Bigtime.

Here’s the link again to the multi-planar training article where Fraser explains, including a revised sample workout that he’s split into one third in each plane of motion, plus charts that will make his training philosophy clear… and compelling.

To make this multi-planar thing easier to figure out, consider a splurge for a TRX Suspension trainer because that really makes blending planes of motion simple (if you’re a personal trainer, this is a shoe-in, no kidding). Fraser didn’t do a sales pitch in the session, that wasn’t what this was about. But after watching that treasure in action as he demonstrated a few of his points, I bought one and have used it daily since. I love that thing.

Say, you still have any of that stimulus check left? This suspension style of training will seriously stimulate you, no doubt about it. Aside from making the multi-planar action easy and fun, it’s demanding on the core in pretty much everything that can be done on this thing, which is pretty much unlimited as far as I can tell. Suspension training also works the joints differently than our traditional training, because they have to stabilize continually, and again, in all planes of motion.

We had a longer discussion of the TRX here in the forum, where Fred Fornicola and Jim Bryan offered their more-experienced considerations, along with some suspension training workout plans, and where Byron Chandler has suggestions on how to trick out your existing ring set-up to more closely match the TRX design. The talented frugal types will be able to pull this off easily enough.

Tuesday, July 8
Tagging along with 5,000 personal trainers and group exercise instructors is a good way to run a normal person ragged. It’s been a dozen years since my last visit to IDEA, and in the years between, I’d forgotten how fast everyone moves at these things. From the bowels of the Las Vegas Convention Center to the far side of the Hilton, including a jog through the restroom and a swing by the session-handout print station, 12 minutes flat. The organizers allow about 15 minutes between sessions, and that’s because these folks don’t need any longer.

A couple of those 12 flying minutes include a race-walk outdoors between the two massive structures a few times each day; I’d also forgotten the heat of 112 degrees. That’ll bake some sense into ya.

An all-day session, The Cutting Edge of Function, on Tuesday with Fraser Quelch, the guy who’s behind the programming of the TRX Suspension training, was a perfect introduction to the week’s selection of functional assessment and corrective exercise programming classes. He’s an outstanding instructor who described movement from the ground up; the entire day kept me attentive, with his discussion of multi-planar training being the highlight.

Wednesday, July 9

Gyrokinesis Group (workout), Emma Kingston
Start the day with a workout, isn’t that how it’s supposed to go? My real plan for the week was to soak up a dufflebag of corrective exercise tidbits to share with interested readers. In workout selection, for the heck of it I chose modes of training I’d never tried. In the case of Wednesday morning, I’d never even heard of it and had absolutely no idea what to expect. Gyrokinesis turns out to be a form of joint mobility. I’m really a fan of joint mobility and the class was good enough. Nothing special, but an okay way to wake up the day.

Keys to Successful Corrective Exercise Design, Justin Price
Justin’s real terrific at this stuff, and I signed up for two of his presentations this time around. He’s the guy who spoke at a workshop in February over in Santa Clara, who, after I asked him a question about Nike Frees (he’s no fan), told me my feet/hip/thoracic/shoulder/neck dysfunctions could take me up to three years to get sorted out. Instead of hating him for life, I went back for more. You should, too, if you get a chance to hear him speak.

Alphabics Ultimate Relaxation exercise (workout)
During the long lunch break (they leave big empty time slots for big-bucks expo shopping), I filled my time with promo sessions. This day, I have to admit, I snuck out early. It’s the only session that triggered that slippery action this year – all the sessions I chose were bang-on perfect for what I needed. I suppose I could have taken a nap in the back, but the music was too much and I bailed.

Assessment and Reaction-Shoulder Function, Chuck Wolf
Now let me tell you a little about Chuck Wolf: What a prince! Smart and generous, too. I’d never heard him speak before and very quickly knew his three sessions on my schedule were winners. As I go through my notes from the week, his suggestions for shoulder training will be at the top of the list for sharing with you.

Stott Pilates Jumpboard Interval Training (workout), John Garey
Jumpboard training was a kick; this was another of the try-something-new workouts, and it was a blast. I could see myself stumbling through a Pilates reformer workout, definitely. For those who haven’t even as much as a clue as me, the reformer is that machine with the padded board and all those springs. Between rebounding intervals, I got a taste of deep core training with the feet going one direction and the arms under stress from another. Very nice, I like.

Thursday, July 10Barefoot Core Workout (workout), Annette Lang
Arrive a few minutes late and jump right in, oh yeah, that’s how to really set your guts on fire. And as long as you’re in place, stay there for 75 minutes and do nothing but core. My sides ached for the next three days.

Assessment and Reaction-Foot Function, Chuck Wolf
We’re back with Chuck for session two of the three-parter, wherein he dissects the function of the feet, leads us up the legs and toward the hips. Most of us pay no attention to our feet, and Chuck would like to change that. He’s pretty convincing; I’ll be attending to the foot musculature, and will try to talk you into that, too.

Comprehensive Trunk and Spine Conditioning, Kevin Dunn
Now here I’m coming up a little short. The intention of this blog post was more one of personality, to give you a general feel for the event and its sessions. In a lecture entitled “Comprehensive Trunk and Spine Conditioning” you’d think there’d be a bunch to say, but here you’d be mistaken. Still, I remember a couple of ah-ha moments, so stay tuned for those after the scribbles get sorted out of my notepad. I did take a lot of notes.

Gliding and Bender ball (workout), Mindy Mylrea
Lunch workout number two, where I scurried across the mileage to watch my old pal, Mindy, share her energetic magic. She’s a kick and a half, and I adore watching her work the crowd. Then I slid out the door to get to a second lunch session, Paul Chek, who was speaking at the other side of the convention center in a conflicting timeslot. Bumping into Mindy a couple hours later, I was busted: Eagle Eye saw me leave before the workout. Amazing, 200 people in a hotel ballroom, and Mindy knew I was gone. You have to laugh.

If you’re in central California and would like a grin, too, Mindy’s FitFest 08 is the last week of September in San Jose, where she and a bunch of her peers will be presenting much of the same material as seen at IDEA.

Functional Exercise, Paul Chek
I cannot tell a lie: I went to this session to get a feeling of Paul’s personality at least as much as to hear his material. He’s everything I was expecting, and that’s a lot in one package. Here, too, I took good notes that you can expect to help me sort through later. Paul has made a huge contribution to the course our industry has taken, let there be no mistake about that part.

Assessment and Reaction-Back Function, Chuck Wolf
Part three and we’re done: Chuck works up the torso from the hips to the chest by way of the back. Now here’s a funny one – he apologizes for repeating the material on planes of motion that he’d covered in an earlier session. Forget that, it took me all three tries to begin to make sense of it, and I’ll be studying it a whole lot more before it gets ingrained. This was my last session with him, and in my head, we’re buds by now.

Stott Pilates Group Sculpt (workout), Moira Merrithew
Wrapping up the day on Thursday with a Pilates workout, again with the idea of trying something new, I slipped into this workshop given by the creator of Stott Pilates. It was a sculpt class using a couple of two-pound toning balls, and as a never-before-pilates participant, I expected to be floundering. Instead, I had no problems, and while I’m well aware there are some extremely fit Pilates enthusiasts who could put me in the ground, I have to say, my regular weight training and kettlebell work put me in a better position for Pilates than Pilates would have done for weight training. The woman next to me, a competitive bodybuilder, shared that opinion. Again, we’re talking about a sculpt class, not a core training class, which I haven’t yet tried and am certain to be fried when I do. What I’m saying is people looking for muscle building would be better suited using some weights.

Still, the toning-ball rotator cuff segment was absolutely outstanding, and in fact, I did it again at home this morning. That part’s a keeper.

Friday, July 11

No More Back Pain — Lumbo-Pelvic Hip Girdle, Justin Price
A Justin Price lecture first thing in the morning, what a way to start the day. Friday started an hour later (I guess they thought the alcohol would start flowing a little faster by Thursday night), so no pre-lecture workout, which was fine because my torso was still singing from the 75-minute core intensive from the previous morning. This workshop covered hip rotation, tilt and elevation (after his signature foot assessments that no lecture goes without), and every person in that class wished to have another couple of hours to glean a bit more JP brain matter.

Assessing Our Assessments, Greg Roskopf
Greg Roskopf is the guy behind the MAT program, Muscle Activation Technique, which we’ll be talking more about as time goes by. For a year I’d been wondering what the heck he was doing, because it’s pretty hard to tell from the write-up on his website. Essentially he’s working with range of motion assessments, same as a lot of folks, but that’s where the similarity ends: He’s flipped the “stretch what’s tight” rule and it becomes “strengthen what’s tight.” There’s more to it, as you can imagine, and we’ll get to that later.

High Performance Swiss Ball, Paul Chek
Today we get to see what made Paul famous: Swiss Ball. And he’s good on that thing, make no mistake. I can assure you, chances are real good your stability ball form is, er, lacking.

What the Hips Lack…Hurts the Back, Anthony Carey
Coming to this corrective exercise umbrella for me came because of years of low-grade back pain. It never got terrible, more like it was… always. Anthony’s book, Pain Free Program, was a key to relief. (Well, actually, it was me faithfully doing the exercises he suggested, so he can’t have all the credit.) I was really looking forward to his wrap-up of the week of study, and he didn’t disappoint. There was a lot of material presented that I’ll be using here in the blog in the coming months. He’s a winner, for sure.

As I sort through my notes and session handouts and run through an expected excessive amount of trial and error, we’ll look at some of the presenters’ theories to apply them to our earlier discussions of corrective exercise. We’ve got a lot to learn, but things are coming together nicely. And heck, we never want to stop learning. Brain function tops all.

There are 206 bones in the human body, and between 640-850 muscles, depending on the source and how that source classifies the muscles. An agreed-upon number does not exist.

The vertebral column (the spine) is made of up 24 vertebrae beginning at the Atlas at the base of the skull, C-1. There are 7 cervical vertebrae, C-1 moving down to C-7, aka the neck, that are naturally lordotic, meaning the bend is toward the front. Next there are 12 thoracic vertebrae connected to the 12 ribs, T-1 down to T-12, and these are naturally kyphotic, with a slight bend toward the rear. Finally there are 5 lumbar vertebrae, L-1 down to L-5, which are again somewhat lordotic with a bend toward the front. At the base of the spine is the sacrum, then the coccyx, both considered part of the pelvis.

Easy markers to find your place in the spine: C-1 is the base of the skull; C-7 is the base of the neck; T-2 is at the top of the scapula; T-7 is the bottom of the scapula; L-4 is the top of the iliac crest (top of the pelvis).

There are 12 pair of ribs (occasionally there are 11 or 13 pair), originating at the corresponding thoracic vertebrae, and, like the thoracic spine, need mobility also: The ribs are suppose to move easily… not a great deal of movement, but easy movement.

Ribs 1-7 attach directly to the sternum; ribs 8-10 attach to the sternum via cartilage; ribs 11 and 12 are floating ribs and do not attach to the sternum at all. This is the reason you need to be careful when foam rolling the lumbar spine. In fact, self-massage of the lumbar spine is best done carefully with a small ball instead of the foam roller.

Intercostals are the muscles between the ribs that hold the ribs together. The diaphragm is a muscle that expands the ribs to make space for the lungs to fill, rather than a “region” below the ribcage.

The coveted “Christmas Tree” shape seen at the base of an extremely lean back isn’t a muscle at all. That’s the tendon the lats attach to called the Thoracolumbar Aponeurosis.

The popping and crunching sound of tendons and ligaments moving around the joints is called crepitus or crepitation. Crepitation is a descriptive word for the sound made, not type of joint injury.

Pelvic tilt or rotation refers to a shifting from neutral, the optimal. Neutral is evenly balanced side to side, top to top and front to back. Posterior tilt moves too far to the back; anterior tilt moves too far to the front; lateral tilt means one side is elevated (hip hitch), which makes the leg on the elevated side functionally (not structurally) shorter. Pelvic rotation adds a turn to the side from the optimal neutral to exterior or interior. A person can have varying degrees of both problemic tilt and rotation, both side or one or the other or even one of each. These conditions are almost always fixable with corrective exercises.

Here’s a simple human movement terminology cheat sheet, and here’s an easy-to-understand explanation of human planes of motion. This section in our forum has been set aside for corrective exercise and rehab questions, and you’re welcome to join us there if you have questions or contributions to the topic.

Expanding on our earlier discussion of human planes of motion, today let’s take a look at a few other common movement terms that are a touch out of range of most of us traditional gym rats. We’ll keep it as brief and simple as possible so you’ll have a cheat sheet for reading some of the more advanced corrective exercise articles found on the ‘net, stuff that’ll might turn around that aggressive aging process.

Prone vs supine
Prone is lying face down; supine is face up.

Superior vs inferior
Superior means closer to the head; inferior means closer to the feet.

Medial vs lateral
Medial refers to nearer to the center; lateral refers to farther from the center.

Posterior vs anterior
Posterior is toward the back; anterior is toward the front.

Distal vs proximal
Distal means farther from the torso; proximal means closer to the trunk.

Extension vs flexion
Extension straightens a joint; flexion bends the joint.

Supination vs pronation
Supination and pronation are used to describe action at the feet or forearm. In the feet, supination refers to excessive outward action; pronation refers to the ankle turning in. With the forearm, supination refers to turning the palm up; pronation refers to turning the palm down.

Medial vs lateral rotation
Medial rotation turns toward the center of the body as in internal rotation; lateral rotation turns away from the body externally.

Inversion vs eversion
Inversion turns the foot in; eversion turns the foot out.

Elevation vs depression
Elevation means upward; depression means downward. These terms are most often used to describe faulty scapula position, too high or too low.

Protraction vs retraction
Protraction moves a joint forward; retraction moves it backward.

Adduction vs abduction
Adduction brings the limb in toward the body; abduction moves it away.

Dorsiflexion vs plantar flexion
Dorsiflexion at the ankle is to bring the toes toward the shin; plantar flexion points the toes away.

Joint mobility vs flexibility
Joint mobility encompasses the ability of the joint to move through it’s full range of motion; flexibility is about muscles, not joints, and is about lengthening to optimum.

Stability vs mobility
Stability is the muscle, tendon and ligament action needed to hold a joint in position; mobility requires the correct muscle action on one side of a joint and the necessary muscular flexibility on the other to produce full movement through a joint’s range of motion.

Activation vs dormant
Activation means an action to trigger a muscle that’s not firing well; dormant refers to an inactive muscle group, at varying levels from fully inactive to fully engaged.

Tendons vs ligaments vs fascia vs myofascia
Tendons connect muscles to bones; ligaments connect bone to bone; fascia is connective tissue that covers soft tissue from head to toe, superficial to deep; myofascia is fascia covering muscle

Lordotic vs kyphotic vs lordosis vs kyphosis
Lordotic is the curve of the spine bending to the front; kyphotic bends toward the rear; lordosis describes too much lumbar curve (toward the front); kyphosis describes too much bend at the thoracic spine (to the rear)

Bilateral vs unilateral
Bilateral refers to both sides of the body working together; unilateral is one side alone

Concentric vs eccentric
Concentric shortens the muscle; eccentric lengthens, ie in biceps curls the concentric action brings the wrist toward the shoulder; eccentric returns the weight to the side

Isometric vs isotonic
Isometric changes the muscle tension without changing the length; isotonic changes the muscle tension while changing the length

Origin vs insertion
Origin of a muscle is the stationary attachment site of muscle to bone; insertion is the mobile attachment end site

Primer mover vs synergist vs antagonist
Prime mover is the main muscle that carries out an action; synergist assists the prime mover; antagonist performs the opposite action

Planes of movement — Sagittal vs frontal vs transverse
Sagittal refers to forward or backward; frontal (aka coronal) refers to side to side; transverse refers to rotational — more on planes of motion here

There ya go. The simplest movement cheat sheet on the ‘net.

Monday was Day One of my return to regular weight training after six months of corrective exercise rehab. Most of my forum pals can’t fathom why I would consider taking that much time away from the gym, and truthfully if I’d have known in advance it would take that long, I wouldn’t have done it.

At least, not until something decked me, which once you see the list you’ll realize was about to happen. Talk about a train wreck!

Tired of daily back aches and knowing there wasn’t an actual injury causing the problem, I decided at the first of the year to take a month and try to figure it out. Six months have passed, and take a look at the list of nagging niggles that are now either completely gone or at least mostly gone and fading fast.

Chronic pains that I’d had for months, years or decades – note the past tense:

Joints hurt, especially in the morning
Lousy posture, real lousy
Head tilted to one side slightly
Couldn’t turn head to the right very well
Twinge in the neck when turning head left
One shoulder raised
Internally rotated shoulders (palms facing rear)
Right shoulder ache
Impingement pain under left scapula
Elbow ache
Wrist ache
Thumb ache
Upper back ache
Lower back ache
Scoliosis (functional not actual)
One leg shorter than the other (functional not actual)
Shifted from leg to leg when standing, due to hip pain
Habitually stood on one leg with hip jutted out
Achilles tendonitis
Heel pain (resulting in a closet full of perfect left shoes and worn-down right shoes with costly insoles and heel lifts)
Dropped metatarsal, both feet
Duck walk (toes pointed out)

How did those get fixed? Surprisingly easy:

Worked mobility of all joints
Stretched some spots
Strengthened others
Worked out the triggerpoints littered throughout

I’m still waiting for a few things to settle in; that part takes a while. There’ll be a day of blissful pain-free motion — like I’m really moving well — then a day of lots of popping and shifting of the joints, or even a day of reminder of the old chronic aches. Following that will be another day or two of childlike movement that reminds me why I veered off the mainstream and onto this corrective exercise course.

I’m fully convinced most everyone who trains who has regular muscle and skeletal pain and those who get injured often in training, can make themselves feel better by a dedicated joint mobility program and by fixing relatively easy structural imbalances caused by one side being too tight and the other too weak.

It’s a pain in the rear because there aren’t too many people around — the personal trainers and the medical pros — who can do a hands-on analysis and simply tell us what to do. As this field grows enough that we can pop by the clinic and get a personalized exercise and stretching assignment, everyone will be doing it… for sure, because it works, and sometimes fast.

Obviously we can’t fix everything, but I’m 100% sure we can make things better. I’m also absolutely certain this past half-year’s effort has halted any arthritis that may have been developing due to poorly moving joints. In fact, let me give you a hint here: That thoracic spine of yours that doesn’t move very much is a nest for your growing arthritis. Get after it while you can!

My project for July: Are pain-free noisy knees fixable? We used to say if there was no pain, it was no problem; just ignore it. Now I’m not so sure. Maybe it means the knees aren’t tracking as well as they could be. I’ll let you know what I find out, and if somehow these crunchy knees go quiet, I’ll holler out with your fix-it instructions.

Which supplements should I buy? That’s one of the most common questions simmering in the IOL discussion forum. The confusion caused by over-the-top advertising combined with a petrol-powered shrinking wallet size will mess with a new trainee’s head, so let’s boil it down to something simple.

Start with this: Rarely is taking a supplement short term valuable. Occasionally we’ll have an issue such as a bladder problem that can be addressed with a short course of D-Mannose for example, but generally speaking, if you can’t afford to continue a supplement over the long-term, a single bottle of a $50 product “just to test it” is not worth your money, and even less worth the concern.

We want to select supplements that will help us over the lifetime, not the newest fancy-label ingredient popular this month with the gym floor gossip crowd.

But first, before anyone starts with the specifics, set a budget. That’s right… a budget. That credit card you’re using for your internet buys is not a magic money maker; you need to decide in advance exactly how much you can afford to spend on supplements each and every month. How much is it? $75? Less? More?

We’ll use the seventy-five number and see where that takes us. Not too far, I think you can guess, so get serious from the outset: Those testosterone boosters are flat out on this budget. If you get all eager-beaver and press the Buy button without thinking it through, you’re either going to forego your multi-vitamin and protein powder, or you’re going to eat into your evaporating retirement fund.

Before you can begin to choose the supplements that are right for you, you’ll next have to take stock of your circumstances. Look here:

Regular food consumption: Do you eat a variety of whole foods daily, or do you flake off on the vegetables or run yourself through the local drive-through at lunch?

Protein intake: Do you get protein several times a day, or just at dinner?

Fish as food: Do you eat fish regularly, particularly oily fish such as salmon?

Fiber intake: Is there plenty of fibrous vegetables, fruits or bran in your menu?

Training goals: Are you striving hard but not making the gains you hope for?

Access to the sun: Do you get outside daily, and does the sun hit your skin?

Vitamin C intake: Do you eat red bell peppers or citrus fruits?

Dairy intake: Do you get enough calcium?

Age: Are your joints beginning to ache; are you beginning to have trouble with digestion; do you sleep well?

Genetics: Does osteoporosis run in your family? Heart disease?

Given your personal answers to the above considerations, you can begin to hone down your list of priority supplements. Starting with our budget of $75, you’ll discover we don’t get very far down the list. Heck, we barely get a protein powder with our multi-vitamins!

Hint: Dave’s big idea… move the protein powder out of the supplement category and over to the food budget. That works pretty good, but it might be cheating some. On the other hand, a protein shake is probably replacing a meal, so I guess it’s fair; let’s do it.

1.    Quality vitamin/mineral
2.    Fish oil
3.    Protein powder
4.    Metamucil
5.    Creatine
6.    Vitamin D
7.    Vitamin C
8.    Vitamin E
9.    Vitamin B-complex
10.   Calcium, magnesium and zinc
11.   Glucosamine/Chondroitin/MSM

A sharp shopper who moves the protein powder and Metamucil over to her food budget, and if she tosses the creatine off the list (which I can do because I’ve switched our shopper over to the female gender, and women for the most part don’t like the water weight gain of creatine), can probably get that list done on budget. Nice work!

Past the basics most everyone should use, we begin to get to the specifics an individual might need, stuff like L-Glutamine for gut health and muscle repair, ZMA and melatonin for sleep issues, iodine to boost a sluggish metabolism, enzymes for an aging digestive system, or 5-HTP for a serotonin lift.

Those with an eye toward the most current nutrient science are already taking a second look at Vitamin K, a vitamin the rest haven’t yet heard about in the nightly news.

A hard-striving athlete will probably try to widen the wallet for some branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) or a handful of liver tablets, and would find no quarrel here. He also might spring for a bottle of NO2 for a test run; most of the reports around the forum have been less than stellar, as was Dave’s experience (a dud is what he called it), but there are definitely some who keep rolling with it, so it’s worth a try if it fits in the budget.
The same athlete getting a little long in the tooth and stuffing a bigger bank account will be extremely pleased with Ageless Growth, no stretching the truth there. But again, none of those are on the month here-month there plan; if you don’t have the budget for them, don’t try a bottle to check ‘em out. No gains from BCAAs or Ageless Growth will hold after the initial supply runs out.

Digging a little deeper brings us to the serious issues of hormonal imbalance and heart health. Supplementation can absolutely help in some cases, but first we need to dedicate some time and finances to a doctor’s visit and a list of blood tests.

Buying all the latest forum rage of testosterone boosters and heart strengthening supplements is both expensive and stupid. If you need these, you need a baseline test and a real specific supplement plan, not a fancy ad-itorial or a synopsis of the newest research that may or may not suggest hope for some off-beat herbal preparation.

And you need to move those ingredients — worthy stuff like CoQ10, policosanol, an estrogen blocker like DIM or 6-OXO (quick tip: try daily broccoli first) — out of your supplement budget and over to your medical one. There’s no room left in your supplement category, particularly for some of these expensive items.

A long conversation spanning the past four years takes place here in the forum. Feel free to join in the discussion with your current thinking.

Last week, the half-way point in my ten-week introduction to Feldenkrais movement classes, I decided to spring for an individual therapy session. It was both an enjoyable experience as well as a breakthrough, so let me tell you about it.

In the group lessons, about a dozen women and one brave guy spend about an hour and a half on the floor, sometimes face up, sometimes face down. The instructor in this case is a woman who knows as much as any doctor about how the muscles work together and what input each bodypart needs from the others to do its job.

Using as little verbal guidance as possible, and even less visual — but as much as necessary — she runs the class through a list of tiny movements designed to remind the brain how to use more muscles. She doesn’t exactly tell us how to do it; the purpose is to use the micro-exercises to trigger a brain response, not for her to explain the action.

For instance, at the beginning of the session, the raising of an arm may start at the shoulder; at the end of the class the whole of the back beginning at the opposite hip will get in on the action. Little by little, more muscles at work to move the arm, the point being less fatigue and less pain when the body movements are optimal.

Now this may sound silly, and to a visitor watching but not participating, it must look as goofy as all getout. But I’ll tell you, I leave these classes moving very smoothly, very nicely for about a day, then sore all over the following day. We’re using muscles in these small, targeted exercises that usually don’t get much use, and it’s enough of a pain that I’ve had to schedule my regular training around the class instead of the other way around.

After a few classes, I began to get clues about which areas are giving me the most trouble, the thoracic spine and the hips… still. Since the instructor had seen what I can and can’t do, it seemed like a good time to schedule an individual session.

I expected her to walk me through a list of personalized exercises, but that wasn’t how this treatment turned out. Instead, it was hands-on, her moving my joints through their full ranges of motion with me on the table, passive.

Let me tell you first off, it was very pleasant, and the range of motion was a good deal better than I can perform on my own. This was joint mobility at the highest level; Moshe Feldenkrais again ahead of his time.

How about the results? That’s the real issue, and more than just that post-session afternoon, during which I *floated* around town doing errands.

Once home, I try my most important test — on the floor, face up, to gauge how the hips rest: flat. What’s that again? FLAT, that is to say, hips resting evenly on the floor.

Now I’m stunned, not quite believing what I’m feeling. I’m about six months into a corrective exercise, rehabilitation phase designed to fix a number of issues, the most difficult of which was an anterior tilt in one hip and a posterior tilt in the other; one hip shifted forward, the other back, which flat on the floor means one rests heavily as the other barely touches. That day — last Thursday — they rested evenly for the first time in twenty or thirty years.

Today, six days later, they’re still even. I’m nervous to write this, but I will anyway: This problem seems fixed. You notice I’m still too chicken to write that it IS fixed. But I think it is.

Here’s what I think happened. I spent the past months strengthening the back of one side and the front of the other, and lengthening the front of one side and the back of the other. All the prep work was done; the imbalance had been fixed. It just took the Feldenkrais practitioner to move the joints through their full ranges of motion — farther and smoother than I’m able to do using muscle action — for the brain to recognize the mobility.

It sounds as far-fetched as … I dunno… astrology, maybe. But I’m here to tell you, those hips are even, and I wasn’t able to do it alone.

It’s been frustrating to do all the right work, really attentively, with little or no results. Ugly work, one side getting one program and the other side a different one, with nothing to show for it these months later. Then, all of the sudden… poof… I’m done.

I’m wildly guessing here, but I wonder if it’s not a case of how long the problem was there, the duration of the imbalance. If it had only been a recent development, those oddly tilting hips, the corrective exercises may have worked alone, and I’d have been telling you of that success long ago.

Perhaps if you’ve had a problem for a long time and have worked the appropriate corrective exercise program diligently with no results, maybe, just maybe, you’ll experience a miraculous correction with an individual Feldenkrais session.

I’m afraid that this is going to be a rambling post, so if you’re not in the mood to indulge me…you might wish to look at other areas of the site. Due to a recently acquired shoulder issue, I’ve been forced to change my training and re-evaluate some of my thoughts regarding training, results, health, longevity and goals. Whew! Still with me?

Most of us train because we enjoy it. We look forward to our session with the Iron…if we don’t, something is amiss. Like any enjoyable activity, we engage in it frequently. Like any enjoyable activity, there is also a potential for abuse. If we engage in this activity so intensely and so frequently that it consumes an inordinate amount of our time and interferes with our daily lives…that is abuse. It goes without saying, that if it harms us, it is abusive.

For example, the first area where I found myself engaged in abuse was the quest for results. Like anyone else that is honest, I preferred that results from my training be quickly obtained, rather than slowly. To be totally honest, I wanted “overnight” results. In order to achieve this, I was willing to engage in some training “ideas” and protocols that upon later examination, harmed me rather than helped me. Let’s examine two of them - training in mechanically inefficient positions and training to failure of positive movement.

Vince Gironda is probably one of the best known proponents of modifying movement positioning and performance to target specific areas and obtain quick results - i.e. making a movement harder and training in a mechanically inefficient position. This causes the muscles targeted to work harder and grow quicker. Which sounds OK upon shallow examination…but in my case, it proved harmful. Any time you bypass the body’s natural patterns of movement, there is the potential for harm…and that is the “dirty little secret” of training Vince Gironda style.

Let’s examine some of his recommendations for pectoral development and specific movements - the V bar pec dip and the Neck Press. In the dip, you’re supposed to use vee shaped dipping bars with the ends spaced some 32 to 36 inches apart. You dip by holding your body concave and dip to the limit of your shoulder flexibility and then slightly “bounce” at the bottom. The wide grip and body positioning is supposed to minimize the contribution of the shoulders and transfer the stress to the lower pectorals. In an ideal world, this works…but in my world, it increased the stress on the shoulder attachments and elbows, eventually hastening injury. The same situation existed with the neck (bench) press.

The neck press is performed by taking a wide, thumbless grip on the barbell. The elbows are intentionally held wide and in line with the bar. The bar is lowered high on the chest, nearly to the base of the throat and then pressed back up. This really stretches the pectorals and directs the emphasis to the upper portion mainly…again minimizing the contribution of the triceps and deltoids from the positioning. If you have robust shoulders, this is exactly how it does work. If not, you are actually causing the shoulder to rotate in an unnatural manner and are again, stressing the attachments just as much as the muscles.

Herein is the problem. Your body is efficient, it seeks to accomplish a task with the least amount of effort. Usually, this is because many, many muscles are working together in planes of movements that have the most beneficial leverage. When you modify that, you cause multiplication of stresses in specific areas. One more example: Vince was big on the use of the sissy squat, to avoid the activation of the gluteus and to direct the stress to the lower portion of the quadriceps, just above the knee. This was done by rising up on the toes, leaning back and “hinging” the movement from the knees, with a straight body. This really minimized the gluteal contribution and really focused on the lower quads. The problem with that is that it changes what kind of lever your legs are and directs most of the stress to the knees. In a normal, naturally performed squat, you lean forward just slightly and this activates the lower back, the glutes and just about everything else. Rising is effortless, compared with a sissy squat and the knees aren’t stressed as much. Why? Because your body is working in the manner that is was designed to work.

When I was young and wanted instant muscles and results, natural movement didn’t matter to me. Now that I’m much older, the accumulation of dings and dents and numerous insults from less than natural training practices, has caused me to question the intelligence of how I trained as a young man. Were I to do it all over again, I’d work more along the lines of natural patterns of movement and let the chips fall where they would…and would probably have a lot less injuries and still be able to do various movements.

Have you had enough heresy? Stick around, there’s more.

Training to failure is another training protocol that appears to be very logical and well thought out upon surface examination. You want to work a muscle somewhere in the area of 60 to 80 percent of available output, to maximally stimulate the adaptive responses that cause muscle to grow rapidly. The problem with this thought is, how do you determine when you’ve reached this percentage of effort? The easiest way is to go well beyond that…and then you can be sure that in passing, you’ve reached it. Dig? If you train until you fail to complete the positive portion of a repetition, you can guarantee that you’ve reached 60 to 80 percent output. Simple.

However, training in this manner requires exacting attention to proper form. Since you’re trying to achieve literal exhaustion of the targeted muscle mass, you’re also going to exhaust stabilizing muscles as well. When these stabilizers exhaust, your ability to hold proper form is compromised and you’re likely to experience injury. If you’re like most folks, you’re also willing to sacrifice proper form in order to get a few more reps or use a few more pounds…again at the expense of potential injury.

This style of training is also hard on your body’s recovery system. As your strength increases and your ability to train intensely increases, your demand for recovery time and nutrients also increases. If you don’t provide both in adequate amounts…you harm your system, actually creating inflammation and other “emergency” responses. As a general, continuing practice, this is not good. Your training is actually creating a continuing series of “mini-emergencies,” and your body responds appropriately to the alarm. This is something that they are discovering with marathon runners - that they are burning out their systems and accumulating lots of repetitive stress injuries because what they are regularly engaging in is an “emergency” situation. You simply weren’t designed to run 26 miles with regular frequency.

To make a long story short…I try not to train to failure. (Although it’s tough, having trained that way for so long and having my head tell me it was “right.”) I try to leave a few reps in the tank, so that I leave a training session feeling well worked but refreshed, rather than exhausted and trembling. (Yes, I trained that hard…foolishly.) If I’m doing a final set of 8 reps…repetitions 7 and 8 are very hard but completed. I feel that if I really dig deep, I’m good for 9 and 10 but I stop at 8. Again, this is the way your body works. Your body and mind want to do just what is sufficient to accomplish a task. You’ll only contract the amount of muscle fibers that are necessary to complete a movement. Granted, results won’t come as fast training like this…but neither will injury or inflammatory responses.

If you’re still with me…I’ll wrap up my ramblings with this point. Your body is a machine. All machines are subject to wear, especially in response to the demands made on them. There is no such thing as a perpetual motion machine. Drive with your foot to the floor all the time and your motor will wear faster. Your body was “fearsomely and wonderfully” made to be self-repairing and long term useful…but it will still wear. Wouldn’t it make sense to moderate your training, move naturally and limit high level stresses, so that you could enjoy your body longer? Granted, when push comes to shove, I’d rather wear out than rust out…but I don’t want to unduly hasten the process, either.

I don’t pretend to know how to balance the desire for results with the desire for healthful longevity. I just wanted to toss the concept out to you so that you might consider it in the light of my experience. Good training to you.

as reported by Wayne Gallasch

September, 1970, I had the pleasure to be present at this very famous contest. Why was it so special? It was very special for two reasons.

The first was historical - it was Arnold’s last contest appearance in the British NABBA Universe. This was the contest which started in England in 1948 and where the first three winners were John Grimek, Steve Reeves and Reg Park. All legends of the sport of bodybuilding.

The second reason was personal. It was the first ever Universe contest I had attended on what was my first ever visit to England. I had heard that this would be Arnold’s last appearance in this event as he attempted to win his 4th NABBA Universe title. It seemed to be a perfect time to make the pilgrimage to London.

The Prejudging was held on Friday, 18th September in the Ballroom of the old Royal Hotel in London. It has since been demolished and rebuilt.

I arrived at the Prejudging and found that the audience mostly had to stand behind the judges as only a few chairs were provided. As I am not tall I found a chair to stand on, along with many others. A photo of the audience taken from behind Dave, Reg Park and Arnold appears on this site.

After the Amateur classes’ prejudging it finally got to the Professional Tall Class. To my pleasant amazement the class also included Dave Draper from USA, and 3 times former winner Reg Park. Reg was absolutely idolised by the British audience and even today is probably the all-time most popular British bodybuilder along with Dorian Yates.

As the class came out in front of the Judges, lead by a very confident Arnold, it was obvious that one man was missing. The contest organizer Oscar Heidenstam called for Dave Draper to please come out onto the judging stage area. Still no Dave. Then came a second call for Dave to please appear “immediately”. Finally a third and very testy final call for Dave to come out immediately or the judging would commence without him. Oscar said that Dave would be disqualified from the contest, and I was feeling worried for Dave. At the very last moment he came running out onto the stage to the great relief of everyone. The story I heard later was that Dave was left in the pump-up area a long way from the stage, and didn’t hear the subsequent calls that it was time to come out for the Prejudging. I believe there was only one call that Dave heard so I look forward to hearing Dave’s side of the story.

Dave was in superb shape and it seemed to be a battle primarily between Arnold and Dave for first and second. Dave Draper was the big, blonde, all-American guy; Arnold was the unbeatable champion and Reg Park was a great bodybuilder who first won the Mr. Universe in 1951. Reg was in his 40’s and past his peak and I noted from the Prejudging that most attention seemed to be focussed on Arnold versus Reg. Dave was hanging right in there too, but the audience cheered loudest for Reg.

Dave’s arms were absolutely outstanding with full round bicep peaks and nice balance in his triceps. Arnold’s arms in comparison were always great in their size and bicep shape but the complimentary triceps hang did not match the total shape of Dave’s arms. Chest was a close thing between Dave’s huge pecs with their deep, wide flair and Arnold’s thickness and shape. Dave clearly had the best back and lats in the whole competition and his lat spread had the rather conservative British fans whistling and screaming for more. A clear win for Dave in this compulsory pose. Abs and legs were both fine and in good proportion to the rest of the physique and certainly not a problem. Posing was a series of Dave’s trademark poses which were loved by the fans and his whole routine seemed to be over too quickly. Dave certainly left the fans begging for more.

The Prejudging came to an end with Arnold clearly the certain winner and in my opinion Dave in second place from Reg in 3rd place. The next day was the actual show, held at 1.40 p.m. at the famous Victoria Palace Theatre, London. To my amazement at the end of a wonderful show, Reg Park was announced 2nd and Dave placed 3rd. Boyer Coe won the short Professional Class with Arnold taking out the overall Professional title. Frank Zane won the overall Amateur Mr. Universe title.

I felt that if Dave had gone back to the Universe again the next year then victory in this class would certainly have been his. With his golden tan and shy good looks Dave was a hit with everyone.

There is an interesting side story to this event. I discovered at the Prejudging that cameras, both photo and movie, were not allowed. I was also warned that no filming was allowed at the show to be held at the Victoria Palace theatre the next day.

I duly arrived at the theatre with my super 8 film camera hidden in a brown paper bag with my sandwich! With ushers continually patrolling the aisles of the theatre looking for illegal cameras and unofficial photographers, I filmed what I could with my movie camera hidden inside the paper bag. Naturally the film is a bit jerky being shot from half way back in the theatre and with me hiding it when ever I saw an usher out of the corner of my eye. But a rare and classic piece of history was saved for posterity. As one of our local politicians said, “bad rules and regulations are meant to be broken”! This footage now on video constitutes the first contest video I ever produced and I am pleased to say it is now something of a classic (V-108). It also captures an image of Dave which although brief, is now a part of bodybuilding history.

Kind regards,
Wayne Gallasch, GMV Bodybuilding

What are the planes of motion and why do we care? Let’s sort this out, just between us gymrats. While it’s true that we don’t really *need* to know this stuff, it’s also true we’re going to bump into the terms more and more when reading modern training articles. It’s time we caught up with this generation of training lingo. We’ll take the simple route, I promise.

The main problem for most of us is that we weren’t introduced to the terms in our early training (today that reads: Who needs it?). Additionally, the actions along the planes don’t seem to match the describing terms; for example, the frontal plane motions are left to right, and our brains just kind of disconnect in a sort of “I can’t learn that” frustration when we see frontal associated with side to side.

At its simplest:

To picture the three planes, imagine slicing through the body, like so:

• First through the center, dividing the body from the left to the right to make up the sagittal plane
• Next through the body from the left side to the right, separating the front and back halves to create the frontal plane (front side and back side)
• Finally cutting straight through the hips to divide the top of the body from the bottom, the transverse plane

That’s not so hard. It starts to get a little more complicated when we begin to sort out which motions move along the planes. You want to think of the motion as moving along the surface of the plane, rather than visualizing the sectioned off body.

Planes of motion look like this:

Sagittal plane motion would include forward and backward motions, like sit-ups, back extensions or biceps curls. The sagittal plane cuts through the center of the body, so the motion is front to back or back to front, including straight forward running. Squats involve flexion (forward motion) and extension (backwards on the way up), so would fit into the sagittal plane.

Frontal plane motion would include leaning from left to right as in sidebends and lateral raises, or perhaps you might picture jumping jacks for a good image of movement along the frontal plane.

Transverse plane motion is the hardest to picture because the plane is horizontal as it divides the top from the bottom, so it’s hard to get our heads around it being a rotating action. The main thing to remember is rotation. An example of a transverse plane exercise would be floor to overhead diagonals with a medicine ball, and a transverse activity might be swinging a golf club.

Why would an average trainee need to know this? Two reasons, really. It comes up fairly often as we read the work of our favorite writers, because these folks know this stuff and it comes out naturally for them. It’s frustrating to have to skim sections because we don’t know the lingo, and in internet reading, skimming a section often means losing interest and clicking away before we get to the vital parts.

Secondly, what’s most important about the planes is to know they exist and to make sure our training programs include exercises along each. Our most common gym exercises are on the sagittal plane, moving forward or back such as in flat pressing, pushups, crunches or even squats and lunges.

When you create your training programs, be sure to add some frontal plane and transverse plane exercises to bring up your built-in injury prevention. That’s what’s going to help ensure good balance in your muscular body. Training only on one plane will pretty much do the opposite.

The way I figure it, the movement pattern and corrective exercise experts began their study of human motor patterns through the work of Moshe Feldenkrais. He’s the guy who started this trend back in the ’40s, although he didn’t live to see it hit the athletic world, or for it to trickle down to those of us on the fitness side. Of course the new generation of teachers expanded on his efforts to include strengthening weak areas and stretching tight ones, but the underlying idea of how the brain makes the body move began with Feldenkrais a long time ago.

Today’s rehab leaders probably don’t talk about the Feldenkrais influence much because most of their readers would think it sounds like some kind of voodoo magic; yesterday was my second class, where the six of us rolled around on the floor as the instructor pondered out how we first taught ourselves to crawl.

Pretty out there, but no less true, and the movement pattern guys who re-teach us to squat will often remind us of how a baby learns to squat, and how the body originally built stability on top of great mobility. Somewhere along the line, we lost it, lost the mobility and eventually forgot the movement pattern.

Here’s an example of both. Over the course of about 35 years, increasingly bad posture that began in my teens had my thoracic spine not moving, about as close as you can get to immobile while still moving around town. Daily effort on a tennis ball peanut, plus plenty of careful and consistent exercises brought my T-spine mobility from really poor to pretty darn good, so much progress that I was confident on that score. Yet the back pain remains solidly in place, and I’m still tinkering around with new ideas such as movement awareness.

During my first Feldenkrais class two weeks ago, as we were doing a sort of spinal wave movement, the instructor crouched in front of me and held my neck in her hands, immobilizing it. Suddenly I could no longer do the spinal wave… everything stopped. She told me later her effort was to trigger me to begin using the spine, that my upper back was moving as a block, rather than in smaller vertebral segments.

What had happened was over the course of my corrective exercise work, I’d gained exercise mobility, but not much natural movement. Mobility does not necessarily mean motion!

From the Feldenkrais point of view, and I’m certain most of the corrective guys agree with this, once mobility was compromised, the brain skipped over that area and found another way to bend and move the back. The other way is very likely one of the causes — probably the main cause — of the chronic back pain that triggered this whole rehab progression for me in the first place.

Not only do you have to regain mobility, flexibility and stability, you may have to relearn how to use it. This was quite a revelation to me as it occurred, made small today when put into words. The few readers who have made progress in the corrective arena, yet are still in pain may find it useful to ponder this the next time you’re lying quietly on a foam roller.

Introduction to Feldenkrais Movement Awareness Class: