This is a common question that pops its head up now and again from gym regulars and fitness side-liners alike:

Do personal trainers actually work out? And what keeps them motivated to move?

I can tell you that many personal trainers DO NOT actually work out. This may come as a shock to some, but it’s speaks to a larger socio-cultural issue in regards to our views about movement.

Let’s take a look at an analogous perspective first. I had a professional chef once tell me that, after a long day of cooking gourmet food for the restaurant he worked at, he often comes home and throws on some macaroni and cheese and a polishes it off with a budweiser. You may think that a chef would make himself a nice duck l’orange or chicken cordon bleu with a wild mushroom risotto as a reward for a hard day of work, however, the truth is that most chefs are probably sick of making gourmet food all day long. Personal trainers aren’t exempt from this same phenomenon in relation to exercise.

Now, before you break out the rulers and start smacking wrists, let’s consider that personal trainers are people, too, and often fall off the bandwagon of healthy living just like the everyone else. Some trainers give up regular exercise altogether, but some find another way to keep themselves motivated to move. It is the latter group of trainers that can share a valuable philosophy for those seeking to make movement less of a drudgery and more of an enjoyable experience over the lifespan.

The antidote to the disease of sedentarianism seems to be solved by not working “out”, which is nomenclature that needs to be workshopped. To me, working OUT means going outside of oneself to elicit a change without subscribing to the internal wisdom, abilities, and possibilities of one’s internal selves. From my observations of those that are the healthiest and most fit are those that work IN, and they do so by working within their own abilities, doing the best they can that day. Another observation is that they tend to do less regimented workouts and focus more on play. Yes, just like a kid, the most fit people play. Play doesn’t just mean swinging on a swing set or playing hopscotch, although those are fair game, too.

PLAY-(n)-engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose (dictionary.com)

Personal trainers and fitness professionals that commit to moving long term usually start to exhibit higher and higher levels of play. Even if they claim to follow a strict program of exercises on a spreadsheet with weight percentages and heart rate zones meticulously mapped out, they still tinker and play within the program itself. I see this as a subtle sign of that person’s inner desire for play and creativity. True states of play, meaning those that are free from all expectations, is rare in adults because it is a scary state for adults to be in at first. Play has no direct purpose, mission or objective. And we all know that adults need a reason behind everything. Once someone can let go of purpose and working OUT all the time, they can enter their movement practice with an open mind, free of the stress of expectations. This allows for the key of possibility to open the door of FUN in movement.

In my own recent musings with movement, i treat each movement session (notice how i didn’t say “workout”?) as a way to explore the realm of possibility at that particular point in time. I’m always testing myself in new and unique ways with the realization that my health and fitness goals will take care of themselves when i am enjoying what i am doing first, free from stressful expectations and approaching this practice with exuberance for the belief that my body might be able to do things and teach me things that i never thought possible. Programming and limiting myself to strict sets and reps all the time blunts this realm of possibility.

Now before i get written off as some kind of hippie counter-culturalist proposing that everyone throw away their heart rate monitors and workout logs, let me just say that i am not against these things. If one has a particular competition (i.e.-road race, weightlifting, triathlon, etc.), then there is merit to monitoring progress and progressing in a steady fashion to avoid injury and overtraining. However, blindly following programs all the time does not teach anyone how to listen in to their bodies, it instead outsources those duties to a piece of paper. Even though this may be a safe route because it locks someone in to statistically safe parameters, it doesn’t allow the individual to explore in the realm of possibility. For example, what if athletes, for 3 months out of the year (during the offseason), chose what they wanted to do as long as it was some form of movement. They could be encouraged to try a bunch of new sports, activities, etc. This, along with mental relaxation from the rigors of competition, could make moving exciting again as they rediscovered new ways in which their bodies could move. It could also make their bodies smarter and more resilient by challenging it in new dimensions.

So, to try and sum up my entire rant, i believe a missing link in health is playing in the realm of possibility. Stick to your programs if it provides peace of mind, however, i encourage everyone to step outside for a while and cater to the curiosity of what their body’s may or may not be capable of. This could mean including an element into ones workout that is random, or perhaps even spending weeks or months away from structure. This is especially important for those in high stress jobs who spreadsheet and forecast their working life, only to attempt to do the same with their movement practice. Could play be the skeleton key that unlocks the stress of life?

I dare you to play…TAG YOU’RE IT!

Uncategorized exercise, fitness, Fun, health, Play, Stress reduction, Weight Loss, Workout

I had a very positive experience with a man named Dr. Ron Harwin the other day. He has been a chiropractor for over 30 years, practices Bagua (a form of internal martial arts, similar to that of Tai Chi), and has a gift for looking at, and identifying with, the human body at a very intrinsic level.

He has invented a device he calls “The Harwin Balancer” that one stands on to re-awaken their internal selves by exploring their body in relation to gravity. After going through the treatment myself, i came off of it with a very refreshing sense of alignment and “lightness” throughout my structure. I can’t say i full understand what it does or how it accomplishes it, but it really is something worth experiencing.

Dr. Harwin’s Balancer

Aside from his work with the balancer, he said something that really resonated with me as i continue my quest to understand how our deep intrinsic awareness and awakening our inner structure to align itself again relates to my passion for strength and performance.

“Strength is not about the size of a muscle or how many contractile fibers it has, it’s about teamwork and organization of the entire system” -Ron Harwin

I see it everyday in commercial gyms that i train in where we focus so much on the external musculature (abs, butt, arms, etc), with little awareness for our intrinsic musculature and our deep stabilizing system. Some luminaries in the field of somatic therapy have also suggested that over-emphasis on the external muscles actually weakens our intrinsic musculature.

Then, i realized after diving into my own understanding of my internal structure, that strength happens effortlessly when our entire body works together in a harmonious effort. I saw this play out beautifully after working at the Egoscue Method clinic in San Diego, taking 6 months off of weight training completely, only to come back to a competition and shatter my personal records. I believe it was because of my newly-found awareness of how my body works together as a unit, and how i was able to re-align my posture and re-awaken the inner structure that had gone dormant from years of mindless external training.

The body is over-engineered, however the connection from the mind to the body is never cultivated in most movement practices.

Some steps i’ve found useful for getting in touch with your intrinsic self:

1) put away your headphones and train in a quiet place. music distracts us from listening in.
2) pay attention to weight distribution in your feet, hands, and any other joint as you move through a range of motion. Are there blocks in any one? Awareness is the first step. Most trainees don’t realize that they are not squatting equally on both legs, as an example.
3) Find a mirror, a partner, or a video camera to film yourself as you move. This could be running, walking, lifting, etc. Visualizing yourself or getting feedback from another can help improve movement quality.
4) Stand still, close your eyes, and see if you are holding tension in any one area of your body (we hold patterns of tension from past injuries, guarding responses, vanity purposes, etc.). Try and relax those areas as you shift to center your body in gravity where the least amount of work keeps you upright.
5) Train barefoot. We interact and coordinate our movements in our world through our feet. If you jam your feet in squishy or rigid shoes, you blunt all the nerve endings in your feet that send signals about where your body is in space. Also, our feet tend to become weakened and amnesiac, causing postural distortions and balance issues the longer we keep wearing them.

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There is an old saying that states: “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink”. To juxtapose this modern proverb onto a commercial gym setting, we see lots and lots of personal trainers leading their clients to the waters of weight loss, improved fitness, and other improved health parameters. But like many, these domesticated horses aint drinking the fitness kool-aid. And so goes the story that the client gets frustrated, the trainer equally, if not more so, frustrated that progress isn’t made. The trainer points the finger at the client for not eating vegetables and the client points the finger back at the trainer for not doing his/her job properly. We often seek comfort in passing the buck through finger pointing, but it never gets us anywhere except sore eyeballs.

So let’s go back to the horse analogy for a second…

If you lead a horse to water and it does not drink, could that mean that part of the problem is leading the horse in the first place?

Horses do not drink for many different reasons including minor illnesses, cold weather, and stress. This is a choice that the animal makes, and this choice is neither good nor bad. Instead of forcing or punishing the animal to drink, it’s best to take away the noxious stimulant and let the animal come to it of its own volition. Instead of forcing our way into making the horse drink, we allow the internal wisdom and choice of the animal to lead itself to the water when it is ready. The buddhists call this “getting out of your own way”.

Domestic horses are led to water all the time and do not drink, but wild horses run free and drink when they feel they need to. What if, perhaps, we met clients where they are at, lead by example in our own lives, and let them drink the water of improved health and fitness when they are ready? Create a positive environment, an atmosphere that quenches thirst, and set the wild horse within someone free, honoring their internal wisdom and teaching them to find their own water when they are ready.

Stop leading the horses and start watching them gravitate towards the water’s edge.

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Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work. ”

-Vince Lombardi

Before the anti-marxists come down on me for presenting some socialistic ideals, i’d like to say that this recession has surfaced a problem that this country has been fighting for a long time. Deeply embedded in its roots and most apparent in Generation Y, “invidualism” has taken it’s toll on our collective experience in the world we live in. We all fight day in and day out, surrounded by 3 walled cubicles (actual or virtually implied), looking to get ahead in the world. This individualistic mentality, to hold the torch at the top of the mountain, has eroded our potential for progress. We look to outsource everything in order to hone in on the prize, whatever that may be. Our society has placed so much value on recognition, that it has prevented social mobility from moving upward.

As a species, we have survived, not on our own individual efforts, but on our ability to creatively think and execute plans as a group. In the times when our country has fought off hoards of british soldiers during the british revolution, we combined militia forces and waged guerilla warfare on the british. It certainly wouldn’t have been won by Paul Revere trying to showboat and pick off each of the opposing soliders one by one…especially with a slow loading musket rifle. The same is true with Kobe Bryant. Although Bryant is a stellar player, he is only as successful as the team that supports him.

The same holds true in the business world. Greed never accomplishes wealth, albeit in the short term, at best. I think the recession is a good thing. It should, ideally, be a way to slough off poor business practices, force others to improve their services, and put priorities into perspective for business and consumer alike. We have adapted over thousands of years to work creatively together to solve problems, what says we can’t do it again? Many people look to Obama to clean-up the political and economical mess, however it requires a group to get it done.

In the fitness world, we largely have a system based on trainers micro-managing active lifestyles. What if fitness professionals, instead of promising to blow-torch the fat off of the clients bones in 3 hours/week, we encourage accountability and group collaboration? Putting accountability onto the client is a solid way to get them to think about lifestyle change, instead of just blindly accepting a bunch of scientific facts that a fitness professional tells them. We often lose sight of our goals or don’t adhere to our behavior changes because we largely don’t understand completely the value of such behavior(s). I encourage everyone to listen to the internal dialogue you carry with you the next time you eat a doughnut or a large order of french fries. Have you ever really tuned in? The results could be enlightening…and not just the sugar rush.

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1) Harmonious action:

seek first to take away what you don’t need before adding more
It is not uncommon to always be looking to add more of what we think we need instead of taking away what we don’t need. Adding more into a system that isn’t balanced to begin with throws us off balance, in disharmony with ourselves and our surroundings. In the case of exercise, some think that more is better, however, there are consequences for over-exercising such as: stagnation in progress, overtraining syndrome, overuse injuries, mental exhaustion, adrenal fatigue, etc. There needs to be a balance of work and rest in order to elicit a healthy change in the body. Yielding to challenges and trying not to control what we can not is a virtuous lesson indeed.  In the case of eating, many seeking weight loss goals look to add supplements instead of first taking away the poor food choices that are taking them further away from their goals. It seems to simple at first, however, supplements will never make up for good quality food. Seek first to add quality whole foods to balance the diet, then add what you feel is needed.

2) Dynamic Balance

choose movement that balances your lifestyle, not just what some expert thinks is best for you

Even though research can be important in helping us improve our health and fitness by providing statistically safe protocols, there are still many variables that cannot be controlled for. This is where instinct ultimately comes in handy. The body has a clever way of telling us what it needs if we learn to listen in. Even if a certain workout or nutrition program has been proven in a lab or by a certain group to be effective, it may not be ideal for you. The highest levels of health and fitness come from tuning into those instincts and finding where the balance lies within oneself. Some people can handle more cardiovascular exercise than others, whereas others can handle heavier bouts of resistance training. If it resonates with you and you feel good, you’re probably on the right track. We need to be cognizant of our lifestyles and choose a movement practice that complements our goals and supports our ambitions in the present.

Stress comes from disrupting the dynamic balance within oneself. Stress, for the purpose of this article, is measured by the distance between what one believes they should be doing and what one is actually doing at a given point in time. If you feel like you need to sweat today, then go for a run. If you feel tight, overworked and exhausted, maybe a light warm-up, some foam rolling, and mobility with some meditation thrown in might be a good call. Ultimately, no amount of super athlete workouts, precision set/rep schemes, or carb counting can account for the accuracy of instinct when one learns to tune in.

3) Oneness

You are not separate from the rest of the world, you are connected to the rest of the world.

How does your health and fitness choices relate to family health, friendships, social health, community, and/or global health? Does the exercise you participate in involve others or help to enrich the lives of others besides your own? Even though our society is more individualistic than ever before, it is important to stay healthy and do so in a way that helps raise the health of all those around us. Instead of going for a walk or going to the gym alone, why not call a friend to join you once in a while? Stay active by volunteering your time at a non-profit, such as a homeless shelter during a weekend or two throughout the year.

4) Cyclical Growth

Even though we have recreated an artificial environment for ourselves, amidst fluorescent lighting and manufactured air being pumped into to our houses and offices, we still are affected by the change in seasons.

Change up your routine, eat seasonally, always have a random variable in place. Specificity has a price and overtraining and overuse syndromes are directly related to repetitive stress by doing the same thing over and over again without variation. The human animal is the most diverse animal on the planet, having the ability to run, jump, skip, swim, climb, crawl, etc. Even though we are not the best at any one physical task, our movement should reflect the celebration of the myriad of movement possibilities. This will not only break the monotony in movement practice/training, but it will also help make a smarter motor system, resistant to injury, overtraining, and boredom. Even if one wishes to train for a specific event, such as a marathon or strongman competition, it is still important to vary the stimulus among training sessions and have a dedicated off-season of varied movement (e.g.-between workouts, change the movements slightly such as replacing a barbell bench press with dumbbell incline presses). I use the off-season time to try new things, recover, clear up any injuries from hard training, and have fun without filling the mind with competition.

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The hand, our intention

The needle, our breath

The thread, our movement path

That sew the body’s movement potential together

If one does not have an intention, a goal or direction, in mind, then one’s vision is clouded, leaving stagnation and frustration in seeking true movement potential. The needle, one’s breath, is the guide that keeps us together, even when there are difficult spots to move through. If we lose the cadence of our breath, we lose our focus, unraveling ourselves into higher levels of fatigue. This loss of focus also pulls and tugs at our intention and makes us question where we are going. When we go back to our breath and keep our focus steady, we can push on. If the right thread is not chosen, the correct movement for our intentions, then we will fall apart along the path that we have chosen, for it is not suited for the task.

Find your honest intentions, practice breath awareness and focus, and choose the right movement path to get you where you need to go.

Those who can remain calm on the outside, making their movement effortless, even in the wake of intense bouts of movement, will be the one’s who must achieve higher levels of fitness and movement potential. Is it any wonder that the best athletes in any sport make their movement appear effortless, their gaze deadset and unwavering, their speech firm and monotonic?

Uncategorized breath, dance, exercise, fitness, health, martial arts, Movement, performance, pilates, sports, yoga

5am.

I awake, rouse myself from my slumber, and wait for my good friend Josh to arrive at my house to embark on a journey 70 miles to the south of San Francisco. The destination: a small place called “Jack’s Gym”.

We stopped for coffee along the way at 7am. After sitting in our car for a few minutes postulating about the man we were about to meet, a tiny red Toyota MR2 speeds next to us. A bright eyed-man, just shy of 6 feet tall wedges himself out of the tiny sports car. We exchanged formalities and he invited us up to his gym (called ‘Core Strength’), to show us around. Exuberant with knowledge and excitement, Deric Stockton was quick to share his knowledge about training and his unique philosophy on training. You would think, being a 40-year old powerlifter squatting almost 800 pounds, he would be quick to talk about periodization schemes, how to increase speed on the bar, and assistance exercises to load the body with more weight.

However, what we found was quite the contrary. Deric has developed his own paradigm of training that focuses on developing awareness of the deeper layers of the body. So many of us nowadays are unaware of our bodies, leading to instability, poor posture/movement patterns, and pain. Deric’s philosophy centers around getting the muscles to not only contract, but also to relax so that their action potential is much greater when the time comes to move, which allows for improved performance AND decreases in injury prevalence. Deric spends just as much time on recovery, if not more, as he does training. Much like a Tai Chi master, Deric has figured out that the key to health and strength lies in balancing the Yin and Yang.

As we followed Deric through the evergreen hills of Ben Lomond, we arrived at a small garage space called “Jack’s gym”. The door opened up, and the scent of rubber, and oxidized iron sent back memories of personal records achieved in garages similar to this in years past. This is where strength is practiced, built and celebrated. The tools used are simple, no shiny chrome dumbbells or towel service here. Not unlike a NASCAR mechanic’s shop, the tools slightly rusted and worn, covered in dust, pictures of heroes and past personal records, we readied ourselves for a tune up. After doing some joint mobilization drills that Deric showed us, we were ready to go to work. Today was Bench Day. Always intimidated by the Bench Press since it was one of my weakest lifts, i was hesitant to go heavy. I’ve never Bench Pressed over 235 in my life. After some technique work and some great coaching cues, i managed 10 reps with 225! Then, following that, i pushed out 255 for a triple! I couldn’t believe it, i was stoked. After that we followed our workout up with some assistance exercises, including Dumbbell floor presses for reps. I ended up pulling out 14 reps with 85 pound dumbbells! Stoked. This was a testament to how strong the body can be when the body’s joints are in the right position and working together.

Gleeming with accomplishment, we left the gym to head back to Deric’s house for some grub. After eating, we sat in his living room chatting about Tennis (one of Deric’s favorite sports). Nobody believes a big guy like him could move around on a tennis court, but he plays regularly and is apparently pretty solid at it, too. We watched a tennis match on TV as Deric pointed out the superiority of one player over another and how in elite athletics, athleticism can only be extended by those who harbor ever-increasing strength and power. Ultimately, those that are the strongest and most powerful will be the most successful athletes after the skill has already reached elite levels.

We said our good-byes, although we could have stayed and hung out all day and talked shop. Deric, out of all the strength guys i’ve met, seemed to harbor a peace of mind about him that i haven’t seen anywhere else. He has cultivated through his years of wisdom an inner strength as well as an outer strength that resonated with both Josh and I. He gives us hope that our society hasn’t lost it’s physical culture, reminding us that we can still be strong AND healthy. I hope we can all preserve all of those garage gyms out there, building communities of strong people who challenge themselves no matter what their ability level, age or limitations. The realm of possibility was pushed that day even, as Deric’s training partner lifted over 400 pounds in the deadlift…and he has two bilateral hip replacements! Amazing indeed.

The Iron game has been threatened and challenged by nay-sayers who, through fear, have sought to eliminate heavy lifting, saying that it is “dangerous”, “contraindicated” or “Unnecessary”, however, for those whose life it has enriched, it is something that will live on, even if it is in garages all over the country. When done properly, heavy lifting can be a very positive stimulus on the body, and Deric is living proof of that.

More info about Deric can be found on Liz Koch’s site www.coreawareness.com (there is an audio interview there with Deric and Liz, as well as a link to Deric’s seminar, which will be hosted at his gym called “Core Strength” in scotts valley, ca on July 25th)

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1) Treadmills are not fun! That’s why commercial fitness facilities have to strap TVs and iPod hook-ups to them to create a diversion to the monotonous work that your body is performing day after day

2) Treadmills are performed in a relatively small range of motion, not allowing an exploration and practice of high-quality movement. Also, treadmills have a predictable speed and surface which doesn’t challenge the proprioceptive system to respond quickly to changes in surface level/shape/etc. I believe this has a direct correlation to sprained ankles and other foot dysfunctions due to poor dexterity and reactivity (along with the type of footwear chosen, of course. Why not do cardiovascular exercise that encourages moving your joints through all ranges of motion? Some of the best group exercise classes do this and it kills two birds with one stone by getting cardiovascular fitness covered along with improved joint mobility, motor control and awareness, and strength.

3)If you live in California, there is no reason why you can’t exercise outside 90% of the time. The benefits of being outside far outweigh the risks. There may be some hurdles to overcome in big cities, but the excuses stop there. Sunlight exposure is a good thing for Vitamin D production which we know helps with mood and bone health; fluorescent lights from being inside, however, are not conducive to the aforementioned.

4) Treadmills negate the work of the body’s posterior chain musculature (glutes, hamstrings, back extensors, etc.) by actively pulling the legs behind the body from the powered belt, instead of having the body’s musculature do the work. This reinforces flexed postures which contribute to posture-related health detriments like back pain, knee pain, shin splints, and migraine headaches, to name a few. There are treadmills that are not powered, which would be a better alternative since they force the body to use it’s posterior chain.

5) Treadmills are expensive to purchase and expensive to maintain. Thousands of dollars are spent purchasing new and repairing old ones. This cost could be subsidized by what some smart gym owners have done by attaching the treadmills to a power generator and using the human kinetic energy to cut down on energy consumption. However, the maintenance fees still stand. What if we used that money to fund more group exercise classes, cut down on personal training fees for clients, and perhaps gym membership fess as well? The possibilities for diverting this unnecessary revenue succubus are endless.

If you currently run on treadmills, i encourage you to try running for a week outside to see and feel the differences. It’s all around a better choice, and yes, you CAN bring your iPod with you.

CR

p.s.-what’s even worse is that we’re now exposing our pets to the woes of treadmill usage…

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For those of you that know me, i have been immersed in a graduate degree program at San Francisco State University for the past year. Now, i suppose i’ll preface by saying that this is by no means an attack on any one individual, however i seek it to be an observation of what i believe to be a failed system of education.

The Traditional model of Education…

1) Sign up for classes each semester
2) Sit in a class for 1-3 days a week
3) Maybe do homework assignments, some projects related to the course material
4) Standardized testing periodically to check for retention of material

This model does not show the student how to apply the knowledge, it encourages book memorization as well as the ability to regurgitate facts, and maybe apply some concepts, in a standardized testing environment. This leaves those exiting the program with little understanding of how to apply this knowledge in an open setting. Graduate programs likely just produce more researchers, not necessarily more and/or better practitioners.

The Constructivist model of Education….

1) Receive ALL materials for the coursework of the degree
2) No class lectures, only open forum times for the students and faculty to meet, discuss the material, and ask questions of the academics in regards to how to traverse the course material. This encourages accountability on the part of the student to have read the material and formulate specific questions to help them teach themselves, as opposed to lecturing, which is not as effective
3) Internship or field experience required before entering the degree program as well as during the degree program. One must have the ability to apply as well as learn material simultaneously. Knowledge is useless without its proper application.
4) No time limit on the degree. People can take as much or as little time as they’d like. This takes the pressure of trying to jam material into one’s brain, allowing those that are slower to learn more time to absorb, think about the material, rethink, and apply. Our society’s emphasis on expediency comes at expense of others with practitioners working on half-truths, poorly understood principles, and little application.
5) Everyone will be allowed access to the material who wants it without having to get into the university, however the degree will require one to the work correctly. Also, the student can turn in the work as many times as he/she would like. Monetarily speaking, the student would have to pay each time they turned it in so that the professor grading the work is compensated for his time. This, in theory, takes the pressure off of having to just get it right the first time.

It’s not a mystery why so many people drop out of graduate degree programs, especially in the field of exercise science. The students are not encouraged to understand and apply simultaneously. At the same time, the system does not support self-accountability with personal support. If you are not doing the research that the professors are doing, chances are, you’re shit out of luck.

from Tynjala’s paper titled Towards expert knowledge? A comparison
between a constructivist and a traditional
learning environment in the university….

“According to Geisler (1994), during general education students operate in both
problem spaces, content and rhetoric, with naive representations. In the early years of
undergraduate education some students begin to work with more abstract representations
in the problem space of domain content. At the same time, however, their
rhetorical problem space remains basically naive. Late in their undergraduate education
or in graduate school, this naive representation of the rhetorical problem space
undergoes in some students a major reorganization and abstraction process, where
the rhetorical dimension of expertise emerges as distinct from domain content. This
growth of an expert representation of the rhetorical problem space is the “nal stage in
the acquisition of expertise. It is only when both the domain content and the
rhetorical process of a “eld are represented in abstract terms that they can enter into
the dynamic and mutually transformative interaction that produces expertise. **Knowing
that++ and `knowing how++ are linked with each other. Only a few people develop
362 P. Tynja( la( / Int. J. Educ. Res. 31 (1999) 357}442
integrated expert knowledge of this kind, although, as Bereiter and Scardamalia
(1993) have pointed out, schooling could be organized in a way that would promote
expertise in everyone.” (Tynjala, p. 362-363)

What is even worse is that those that do not make it into a graduate program in exercise science, for example, choose to go around it by seeking outside education through certifications, certificates of purported expertise in a specific area, and trade schools. These schools and certification seminars are stripped down versions of education, removing the fiber of critical thought, research, and problem-solving, leaving only the sugar-filled pamphlets of quick-fixes and algorithms for getting results for clients. These people are receiving knowledge second-hand, at best, from industry “experts”, naive to the fact that much of the research being disseminated could largely fall prey to the biases, opinions and interpretations of the person delivering the information. Wouldn’t it be great if, as a free service offered by universities, people could attend classes about how to critically analyze literature and then apply it?

As the dilution of information spirals down from researchers, to field experts, to novice practitioners, the mess of confusion, contradiction, and frustration leaves a broken system that has failed to do what it purports to do. What are we doing to ensure quality learning for ourselves, our friends, our colleagues, and our clients?

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(image: http://robertsontrainingsystems.com/img/userPics/image005.jpg)

The topic of core training is a rubix cube for me. I pick it up, play around with it for a bit, and then put it back in the drawer for a while. We all have our own ideas and beliefs about how we address the core problem. Core stabilizing, pilates, front and side planks done till your eyeballs bleed, and constantly contracting the abdominal musculature to maintain neutral spine at all times during training.

Some questions…

Does a neutral spine guarantee safety and even core control?

If the core is indeed “weak”, how much strengthening is needed for that person, and how does it relate to their function?

What could be potential causes of a weak core?

My musings about the problems with traditional core training and where we should be heading more towards:

Just tensing the muscles to maintain neutral spine is not enough. Abdominals are phasic muscles, which are meant to contract and relax. If chronically tensed, this will affect digestion, bloodflow, muscle recovery, respiration, posture, and de-stabilizing of the deep stabilizing muscles of the body (deep fibers of the psoas, multifidus, paraspinals, rotatores,etc). As an end result, this may do the opposite effect of what we seek to do. Teaching “Core awareness” and “Core control” as opposed to “Core strength” and “Core Stability” would be a better approach.

Core training should be from the ground up, making sure all the joints are working well together, functionally, along with the aforementioned awareness and mindful practice. What about the feet? Are the feet sending the right sensory input up to the core to allow it to respond to movement changes? I guarantee that most people’s feet aren’t as functional as they think, and the overly-padded shoes don’t help.

It would be disadvantageous to go with the reductionist approach of just telling someone to maintain neutral spine when a fitness coach’s purpose, i believe, is to encourage an exploration of the myriad of movement possibilities held within the human animal. Releasing fear by not being afraid to move outside of neutral is a true celebration and liberation of the human experience. The more movements a person can do under control, the better off the body will be. This, of course, doesn’t mean that someone should do heavy back squats with 500 pounds, however the body is designed to go into spinal flexion, for example (e.g.-grabbing something off of the ground).

Traditional Core stability training is a reaction meant to control the physical body and the torso to “protect”. However, this is a fear response which further spirals the body downwards towards functional movement inhibition. Function, the way the body’s joints work together as a unit, and in the body’s designed postural alignment, is more important than any one muscle group.

I believe a movement practice should be to make smarter, more functional bodies which transcend the “core” by itself.

“When one picks out anything in nature, he finds it is attached to the rest of the world” -John Muir

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