Humans engage in rituals for various reasons. Often we use them as a means to see us through a situation where we feel out of control or to process grief when we are coping with the death of a spouse. This behavior is hard wired into us because it is effective. Studies show that rituals give us confidence and help us relax and that is why we are driven to perform them.
Rituals play a key role in sport and training. You may not have reached the point where you rub a dead chicken on your barbell before you try for a PR in your dead lift but if you use chalk, utter a particular phrase or twist your feet into the platform a few times before you pull you are engaging in ritualistic behavior. Professional athletes and baseball players in particular are notorious for their rituals (especially pitchers and batters). As a major league pitcher if you are relaxed in your set-up with the bases loaded and a full count your therapist would consult the DSM-V before she would consider you to be relaxed. Touching yourself and physically ridding yourself of negative juju by brushing away matter are time honored techniques for dissipating anxiety.
It is important to identify your rituals, assess their effectiveness, discard what doesn't work, try something new and don't be afraid of looking silly. Perhaps, knock on wood, you will learn a new way of dealing with an old fear.
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Circular motion and the shoulders
I have been thinking about circular motion recently because every movement seems to involve rotation. The shoulders require rotation to stay healthy. The only way to stabilize the shoulders and avoid injury is to rotate them back so that they are anchored and supported by the back and chest muscles.
Stick you right arm straight out in front of you and make a hitch hiker thumb with your right hand. If you supinate or spiral your right arm away from your body (rotate your thumb clockwise) and pull you shoulder blade back while touching your right shoulder with your left hand you can feel the shoulder roll back. Once you feel this you can then turn your lower right arm in or out while keeping the shoulder rotated back. Your shoulder is now supported.
When lifting weight overhead you want the shoulders to be supported but you don't want them locked, so you want to think of supinating your shoulders while spiraling you arm pits forward. Remember your shoulder joint is the apex of several different bones connected by numerous connective tissues. This joint is weak and vulnerable when you think of it consisting of only the humerus and the shoulder socket and because your deltoids are small muscles your shoulder is weak when rolled forward. That is why it is important to support your shoulders by engaging your pecs, lats, serratus (the "wings") and rhomboids (and your core through your hips and into your legs.) Your body is a chain and like a chain the links (bones) are rigid but the tissue must be supple and the whole must be capable of supporting weight through the assistance of its neighbors through proper alignment.
So sit up straight, keep your chest up, your shoulders back (but not too far) and breath.
Stick you right arm straight out in front of you and make a hitch hiker thumb with your right hand. If you supinate or spiral your right arm away from your body (rotate your thumb clockwise) and pull you shoulder blade back while touching your right shoulder with your left hand you can feel the shoulder roll back. Once you feel this you can then turn your lower right arm in or out while keeping the shoulder rotated back. Your shoulder is now supported.
When lifting weight overhead you want the shoulders to be supported but you don't want them locked, so you want to think of supinating your shoulders while spiraling you arm pits forward. Remember your shoulder joint is the apex of several different bones connected by numerous connective tissues. This joint is weak and vulnerable when you think of it consisting of only the humerus and the shoulder socket and because your deltoids are small muscles your shoulder is weak when rolled forward. That is why it is important to support your shoulders by engaging your pecs, lats, serratus (the "wings") and rhomboids (and your core through your hips and into your legs.) Your body is a chain and like a chain the links (bones) are rigid but the tissue must be supple and the whole must be capable of supporting weight through the assistance of its neighbors through proper alignment.
So sit up straight, keep your chest up, your shoulders back (but not too far) and breath.
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Getting older
I am turning fifty next week, although I have claimed to be fifty for the past year which irritates my wife. I entered my fiftieth year last June, so technically 51 begins next week. I remember past mile posts: 16, I could drive; 18, I could drink (in Vermont and Wyoming); 21, I was officially an adult; 30, wow! I really was an adult; 40, I was old-young and now 50: I am young-old. Twenty five years ago I was 25 and twenty five years from now I will be 75. The permutations are endless and boring.
Many of my friends are in their fifties which is encouraging because most of them are healthy, seem content and look great. but I have been admonished: "Oh, you just wait! Everything starts to go in your fifties." I find this hard to believe because despite my outward appearance much of me "went" in my forties, so I would like to think that either I have earned karmic dispensation or I don't have much more remaining to "go."
Of course this is foolishness because there is plenty more that can go wrong as we age and that can be our emphasis or we can focus on the benefits that experience affords us. What becomes more apparent with each passing year is the cliche that life is short, so the daily question is what do you want to do with the time remaining? How you pass your days directly effects the quality of the hours you have been allotted. For those who lament the boredom of continuing an exercise routine or the dread of starting one, let's look at the alternatives. Studies indicate that exercise improves physical fitness and cognitive function as we age and if we don't continue to engage in vigorous activity we are more likely to die sooner. What is least appealing to me is dying a slow death in a hospital with tubes in my body. I don't want to live to a hundred years after residing in a facility for twenty years taking 15 medications daily and not being able to feed myself.
At this point I know my weaknesses and I have a good idea how to improve my odds of avoiding a heart attack and cancer. Of course there are no guarantees but staying informed by reading current research, eating well, exercising and being aware of my actions will help me lead a richer life even if I get run over by a truck tomorrow (again.)
Many of my friends are in their fifties which is encouraging because most of them are healthy, seem content and look great. but I have been admonished: "Oh, you just wait! Everything starts to go in your fifties." I find this hard to believe because despite my outward appearance much of me "went" in my forties, so I would like to think that either I have earned karmic dispensation or I don't have much more remaining to "go."
Of course this is foolishness because there is plenty more that can go wrong as we age and that can be our emphasis or we can focus on the benefits that experience affords us. What becomes more apparent with each passing year is the cliche that life is short, so the daily question is what do you want to do with the time remaining? How you pass your days directly effects the quality of the hours you have been allotted. For those who lament the boredom of continuing an exercise routine or the dread of starting one, let's look at the alternatives. Studies indicate that exercise improves physical fitness and cognitive function as we age and if we don't continue to engage in vigorous activity we are more likely to die sooner. What is least appealing to me is dying a slow death in a hospital with tubes in my body. I don't want to live to a hundred years after residing in a facility for twenty years taking 15 medications daily and not being able to feed myself.
At this point I know my weaknesses and I have a good idea how to improve my odds of avoiding a heart attack and cancer. Of course there are no guarantees but staying informed by reading current research, eating well, exercising and being aware of my actions will help me lead a richer life even if I get run over by a truck tomorrow (again.)
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Mens sana in corpore sano
The gym can be a grind. Showing up and plugging-into a routine without thinking about what you are doing or checking-in to see how you are feeling can lead to serious injuries. There are many reasons for feeling burned-out ranging from family and work to being bored with your exercise routine.
At times I find myself entering familiar situations with a sense of fear and loathing because something is preventing me from living in the present. In a situation like this I used to attempt to change the way I felt. This was a mistake. I have learned that it is more effective to identify as precisely as I can what it is I am feeling, so I can acknowledge it and move forward.
You can't will your feelings to be different from what they are, but the body has a unique capacity to accept its circumstances once a level of truth has been realized. This acceptance allows you to become unstuck so you can continue to take in your present circumstances.
If you you are reluctant to engage in your routine stop and figure out why. Perhaps you are getting sick, developing an over use injury due to stagnation or maybe somebody said something to you hours ago that was upsetting.
Be specific. Identify your feelings and sit with them without trying to change them and then you can act. If you feel sick go home and rest. If you are burned out change or modify your routine. If you are angry or sad experience that feeling and trust that your mind will reset so that you can continue with the task at hand.
At times I find myself entering familiar situations with a sense of fear and loathing because something is preventing me from living in the present. In a situation like this I used to attempt to change the way I felt. This was a mistake. I have learned that it is more effective to identify as precisely as I can what it is I am feeling, so I can acknowledge it and move forward.
You can't will your feelings to be different from what they are, but the body has a unique capacity to accept its circumstances once a level of truth has been realized. This acceptance allows you to become unstuck so you can continue to take in your present circumstances.
If you you are reluctant to engage in your routine stop and figure out why. Perhaps you are getting sick, developing an over use injury due to stagnation or maybe somebody said something to you hours ago that was upsetting.
Be specific. Identify your feelings and sit with them without trying to change them and then you can act. If you feel sick go home and rest. If you are burned out change or modify your routine. If you are angry or sad experience that feeling and trust that your mind will reset so that you can continue with the task at hand.
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