Many years ago I was providing a demo of Equine Rolfing, to a number of people, one of which was a reporter for the Boulder Newspaper. During the demo the horse released some manure and me being the smart aleck I am said "Oh, he's having an emotional release". This made it into the article the reporter wrote, which didn't bode well for my reputation. But I can imagine that in some bizarre way their are people who would read this article and think that when this happens during one of their horses sessions that the horse is releasing held emotions.
I am continually asking myself how I know that what I think is helpful is actually helping.
With structural work we are not looking for simple reflexive indicators from the client that our input is having the desired effect. We look for structural changes to indicate that we are on the correct path.
But these structural changes can not be whimsical--as I would suggest measures such as yawning, licking lips...are--they have to be orderly and have a predictable effect on how the body is used. In other words, if we are releasing a shoulder so the thorax can rise--this is something we want for people, horses and dogs--than we should see the effect of this on the arms and legs in humans, the front and rear legs in quadrupeds.
Our system of working has to follow a scientific criteria of : Observable, Measurable and Repeatable.
Observable -- of course we have to be able to observe the change. If we can't somehow "see" it, than we can't really know that it occurred. This "seeing" could be very precise, I flip a light switch and a light comes on. To more inferred, I leave out cheese and mice come and eat it leaving mouse droppings behind. One problem with observation is that it's prone to some corruption from our desire to "see" things that are not connected to the causal agent as connected, i.e. yawning as an indicator of tension release in the musculoskeletal system from our intervention.
Measurable -- we should be able to measure our observable change. I personally think that releasing the axial skeleton from the upper appendicular skeleton--what I call releasing the shoulders--is paramount to freeing the legs to move (front and rear). Unfortunately, "releasing" while observable and measurable. It is not precisely correlated to the change. I would love to be able to say " if you see a x inch change in the shoulder of a horse towards vertical this will increase their stride length by y inches.
Repeatable -- our observations and measures should be repeatable over a large population. If we say we have a particular intervention that has a resultant change associated with it, then this change should be repeatable over a large population. This is why I stay away from what people call "moves" or "techniques" as any thing other than potential tools to a more global structural change.
If you observe a change or response from your clients to some intervention make sure that you can measure and repeat it before you attribute it to something. Otherwise you risk the possibility of looking very foolish.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Re_thinking old Ideas
Recently I've been engaged in a new exercise routine: CrossFit. This routine doesn't map well with the normal health club with their use of machines--in CrossFit machines are evil--or to any other "routine" for fitness.
Since CrossFit doesn't map well with what most Rolfers would consider appropriate exercise I've been re-thinking some of these Rolfing myths as I gain more benefit from the CrossFit. For instance most Rolfers don't think that weight lifting, using free weights, is good for us. Yet when we use free weights to exercise we have to learn to balance the weight or get injured. The learning to balance weight is as important, in my mind, as the lifting of the weight. Learning to balance free weights--groceries, bags of grain, dog food, hay...--requires that we use more of our joint surface which "wakes" up the musculature.
Squatting is a big component of CrossFit, yet this is almost completely missing from our western culture of overly tight hip flexors. We bend from the hips to pick something up and strain our back in doing so. Recently my son--the one who got me involved with CrossFit 2 years after he started--and I were repairing fence on our place. We had to replace a wooden post that the horses--part beaver--had eaten down to almost nothing. I tried to pull the post out of the ground and it broke, I couldn't get it to budge. When I told my son to go get the tractor and a chain to pull it out with he asked if he could try. He squatted over the post and used his legs--that same move that is used in deadlifting--and pulled the post out. Proper mechanics!
As I use the mechanics of the squat to get myself out of chairs, lift hay, do anything with weight I started to notice that my knees don't hurt. This got me thinking about how many myths we have about body mechanics and especially conformation and how these thoughts may not be working since we continue to see injuries or should I say breakdowns in bodies that utilize these mechanics.
Through CrossFit I have come into contact with Pose running. (you can Google it) One of the concepts in Pose running is that the point of contact of the runners foot with the ground shouldn't be the heel but the ball of the foot. How many people where very expensive running shoes and still break down? Try 83% of all runners!
Think about the implications for the horse. We normally shoe, trim our horses so the land heel first. Toe first is a fault--I always suspect heel pain in horses that land this way--flat footed is barely acceptable but may actually represent the equine equivalent of the "ball" of the foot. (Let's not go all anthropromorphic with this!)
What do you think?
Since CrossFit doesn't map well with what most Rolfers would consider appropriate exercise I've been re-thinking some of these Rolfing myths as I gain more benefit from the CrossFit. For instance most Rolfers don't think that weight lifting, using free weights, is good for us. Yet when we use free weights to exercise we have to learn to balance the weight or get injured. The learning to balance weight is as important, in my mind, as the lifting of the weight. Learning to balance free weights--groceries, bags of grain, dog food, hay...--requires that we use more of our joint surface which "wakes" up the musculature.
Squatting is a big component of CrossFit, yet this is almost completely missing from our western culture of overly tight hip flexors. We bend from the hips to pick something up and strain our back in doing so. Recently my son--the one who got me involved with CrossFit 2 years after he started--and I were repairing fence on our place. We had to replace a wooden post that the horses--part beaver--had eaten down to almost nothing. I tried to pull the post out of the ground and it broke, I couldn't get it to budge. When I told my son to go get the tractor and a chain to pull it out with he asked if he could try. He squatted over the post and used his legs--that same move that is used in deadlifting--and pulled the post out. Proper mechanics!
As I use the mechanics of the squat to get myself out of chairs, lift hay, do anything with weight I started to notice that my knees don't hurt. This got me thinking about how many myths we have about body mechanics and especially conformation and how these thoughts may not be working since we continue to see injuries or should I say breakdowns in bodies that utilize these mechanics.
Through CrossFit I have come into contact with Pose running. (you can Google it) One of the concepts in Pose running is that the point of contact of the runners foot with the ground shouldn't be the heel but the ball of the foot. How many people where very expensive running shoes and still break down? Try 83% of all runners!
Think about the implications for the horse. We normally shoe, trim our horses so the land heel first. Toe first is a fault--I always suspect heel pain in horses that land this way--flat footed is barely acceptable but may actually represent the equine equivalent of the "ball" of the foot. (Let's not go all anthropromorphic with this!)
What do you think?
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Equine Affaire Pomona CA Feb. 4-7 2010
I'm putting the word out that I've been asked to present at the 2010 Equine Affaire in Pomona California. I'll be doing two demos and two talks, two on Saturday and two on Sunday. I'll let you go to the Equine Affaire site http://www.equineaffaire.com and look at the schedule to see when and what, since I don't remember off the top of my head.
If you have any ideas--within the context of what's scheduled--about what I should present please let me know by commenting here.
If you have any ideas--within the context of what's scheduled--about what I should present please let me know by commenting here.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Old Ideas Die Hard
I haven't written in awhile, mainly because I had a very busy September and October, followed by a month of pneumonia in November and a slow recovery up to now. I'm feeling great right now, with more energy than I've had in a long time. I made this huge mistake of thinking that I either had the flu--wasn't H1N1 what we were all worried about--or a really bad cold. I was wrong but I had my really good logic for being wrong and I kept repeating my logic for my only having a "cold" until it was mistaken for fact.
This happens a lot in our world, the repetition of an idea until it is mistakenly taken as a fact. It's how advertising works. The message is repeated until we stop thinking about it as a message and start to accept it as a fact. "How do you spell relief? ROLAIDS!". A number of years ago there was a test of some 4th. grade students where they were asked this question and answered this way!!!
There are a number of myths or messages that I have believed in around how bodies, human, canine and equine, should be structured, move and be used that have been exploded recently.
My son introduced--convinced me--to try a "new" way of exercising called CrossFit, which does not really comply well with my myths about how the human body should be used. One exercise in particular is the "squat" which ones learns to do using only body weight, later progressing to using free weights. I rebelled against the squat because my myth told me that it was bad for my achy knees. (This is a particularly important point. I rebelled about this new concept while my myth concept produced achy knees! Am I dumb or what?) After squatting the CrossFit way for a couple of weeks--it's part of my pre-workout warm up--I noticed that my knees didn't ache anymore, no pain going up stairs, especially if I changed my walk a little to a very un-rolf like movement.
I won't bore you with the details of a squat--you could look at almost any indigenous non chair owning culture and see it in everyday life, or look at olympic weight lifters--I'm leaving that for an article you can find at www.animalsi.com.
One thing I will say is that the squat mechanics are very much like a horse that toes out in the rear. You know that one that isn't cow hocked but had a rear leg sagital plane that's laterally rotated, which is considered a comformational fault. I wonder if these horses, like Olympic weight lifters, have adapted to this confirmation to be able to lift/move more weight without damaging their stifles?
What do you think?
This happens a lot in our world, the repetition of an idea until it is mistakenly taken as a fact. It's how advertising works. The message is repeated until we stop thinking about it as a message and start to accept it as a fact. "How do you spell relief? ROLAIDS!". A number of years ago there was a test of some 4th. grade students where they were asked this question and answered this way!!!
There are a number of myths or messages that I have believed in around how bodies, human, canine and equine, should be structured, move and be used that have been exploded recently.
My son introduced--convinced me--to try a "new" way of exercising called CrossFit, which does not really comply well with my myths about how the human body should be used. One exercise in particular is the "squat" which ones learns to do using only body weight, later progressing to using free weights. I rebelled against the squat because my myth told me that it was bad for my achy knees. (This is a particularly important point. I rebelled about this new concept while my myth concept produced achy knees! Am I dumb or what?) After squatting the CrossFit way for a couple of weeks--it's part of my pre-workout warm up--I noticed that my knees didn't ache anymore, no pain going up stairs, especially if I changed my walk a little to a very un-rolf like movement.
I won't bore you with the details of a squat--you could look at almost any indigenous non chair owning culture and see it in everyday life, or look at olympic weight lifters--I'm leaving that for an article you can find at www.animalsi.com.
One thing I will say is that the squat mechanics are very much like a horse that toes out in the rear. You know that one that isn't cow hocked but had a rear leg sagital plane that's laterally rotated, which is considered a comformational fault. I wonder if these horses, like Olympic weight lifters, have adapted to this confirmation to be able to lift/move more weight without damaging their stifles?
What do you think?
Monday, November 2, 2009
Form to Function
There's an old Osteopathic saying that Form dictates Function and Function will alter Form. What this means at its simplest is that a bird can fly because it has the form to do so, and that it's flying--the function--will contribute to this form.
We see this quite often when working with bodies, especially those that are injured in some way. Take for instance a horse that has a problem with its fetlock that makes it painful to use that joint. The nervous system will change the function of the leg to reduce the pain it experiences from the fetlock. The change in function will result in a change in the form. Initially the functional change will require some muscular effort, as this goes on the myofascia will change to support the new pattern without muscle effort. At some point in time the original pain may resolve but the new "holding pattern"--shortened myofascia--will mimic the painful gait with the appearance that the horse still has pain. Until the myofascial restriction is released the horse will move like it has fetlock pain. This could cause a lot of unneeded vet bills as myofascial phantom is chased down.
On the other hand there is the possibility that one of us therapists is called in to work with this horse. If we decide that the holding pattern is the culprit--that is our training--and release it only to find that the painful fetlock is still painful and the horse gets worse.
It's a Catch 22, damned if you do damned if you don't. What I do in these situations is explain this Form to Function principle to the animal's owner and let them take the gamble. Sometimes it works out fine that the horse--in this example--is much better after the release, sometimes they're worse, and sometimes they're worse and then get better.
When I say the animal is worse it's relative to how they were moving before you released the restriction, the body will rebuild that holding pattern over time. In fact if you are experiencing time when you are always removing the same holding pattern you'll need to look somewhere else for the cause.
We see this quite often when working with bodies, especially those that are injured in some way. Take for instance a horse that has a problem with its fetlock that makes it painful to use that joint. The nervous system will change the function of the leg to reduce the pain it experiences from the fetlock. The change in function will result in a change in the form. Initially the functional change will require some muscular effort, as this goes on the myofascia will change to support the new pattern without muscle effort. At some point in time the original pain may resolve but the new "holding pattern"--shortened myofascia--will mimic the painful gait with the appearance that the horse still has pain. Until the myofascial restriction is released the horse will move like it has fetlock pain. This could cause a lot of unneeded vet bills as myofascial phantom is chased down.
On the other hand there is the possibility that one of us therapists is called in to work with this horse. If we decide that the holding pattern is the culprit--that is our training--and release it only to find that the painful fetlock is still painful and the horse gets worse.
It's a Catch 22, damned if you do damned if you don't. What I do in these situations is explain this Form to Function principle to the animal's owner and let them take the gamble. Sometimes it works out fine that the horse--in this example--is much better after the release, sometimes they're worse, and sometimes they're worse and then get better.
When I say the animal is worse it's relative to how they were moving before you released the restriction, the body will rebuild that holding pattern over time. In fact if you are experiencing time when you are always removing the same holding pattern you'll need to look somewhere else for the cause.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Becoming and Artist
Lately I've had a desire to learn how to draw. This comes about when I'm trying to do an animation or an illustration for a course or article. The problem I'm having is that I don't think I know how to draw and therefore have to acquire a new skill set or sets that will accumulate to my knowing how to draw.
My Rolfing studio in Longmont has white boards all over where I can draw, make notes to myself, illustrate a point to a client. I even painted 70 sf (that's 7 feet by 10 feet) of one wall with whiteboard paint so I can draw on it. I framed this area of the wall with Japanese style Shoji panels
so it looks like you're looking through to the wall. I can draw little things on the wall like a landscape and when I don't like it I just erase it. An ever changing picture.
I also project things onto this during classes--like a horse--and point out, by drawing on the image, places where I see something of interest.
The problem I've had though is that I still think that I need to acquire something to be able to be an artist. What I forget is that there's the art that seems to add to something, like drawing or painting, and that which removes or uncovers the art, like sculpting in marble.
It's this later type of art that we practice in our body therapy work. We look at our client and "see" that there are things--adhesions, holding patterns...--that if removed the art form of the body will change.
There's a poet who writes his poetry by blacking out the words in a newspaper that he doesn't need for the poem. This is what we do, in our work. Don't you think?
My Rolfing studio in Longmont has white boards all over where I can draw, make notes to myself, illustrate a point to a client. I even painted 70 sf (that's 7 feet by 10 feet) of one wall with whiteboard paint so I can draw on it. I framed this area of the wall with Japanese style Shoji panels
so it looks like you're looking through to the wall. I can draw little things on the wall like a landscape and when I don't like it I just erase it. An ever changing picture.
I also project things onto this during classes--like a horse--and point out, by drawing on the image, places where I see something of interest.
The problem I've had though is that I still think that I need to acquire something to be able to be an artist. What I forget is that there's the art that seems to add to something, like drawing or painting, and that which removes or uncovers the art, like sculpting in marble.
It's this later type of art that we practice in our body therapy work. We look at our client and "see" that there are things--adhesions, holding patterns...--that if removed the art form of the body will change.
There's a poet who writes his poetry by blacking out the words in a newspaper that he doesn't need for the poem. This is what we do, in our work. Don't you think?
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Lifting Weights
I've been involved in an exercise program called Crossfit for a few months now. It started with my son, who's been doing it for a couple of years, convincing me to get involved. He's been my "coach" since he's taken weight lifting classes in school and was a TA for the instructor. But now that he's gone off to college I had to find someone else to be the coach.
To start off with CrossFit you go through a series of classes which introduce you to the exercises that are used. It's all free weights, no machines allowed, and pullups, pushups, squats... Each with their requirements for precision in how they are executed. It is dependent on the coach to assure that one learns how to perform these with precision, so you don't get hurt.
What I have found is that the language or jargon if you will, is very specific and associated with an ability to perform atheletically at a high level. For instance the Squat has a very precise set of requirements to be a CrossFit Squat: chest up, lumbar curve, tibia perpendicular to the ankle... If you aren't doing it this way, it's not a squat. Squat has a precise definition.
Our work with body's also has a vocabulary that is precise. The proper use of our precise vocabulary is one way that we can tell if one of our colleagues is well trained or educated. Becoming familiar with our vocabulary takes effort, that's what learning or education is; the expenditure of effort to acquire some new skill or knowledge. Once we've acquired the knowledge or skill its application requires much less effort.
To start off with CrossFit you go through a series of classes which introduce you to the exercises that are used. It's all free weights, no machines allowed, and pullups, pushups, squats... Each with their requirements for precision in how they are executed. It is dependent on the coach to assure that one learns how to perform these with precision, so you don't get hurt.
What I have found is that the language or jargon if you will, is very specific and associated with an ability to perform atheletically at a high level. For instance the Squat has a very precise set of requirements to be a CrossFit Squat: chest up, lumbar curve, tibia perpendicular to the ankle... If you aren't doing it this way, it's not a squat. Squat has a precise definition.
Our work with body's also has a vocabulary that is precise. The proper use of our precise vocabulary is one way that we can tell if one of our colleagues is well trained or educated. Becoming familiar with our vocabulary takes effort, that's what learning or education is; the expenditure of effort to acquire some new skill or knowledge. Once we've acquired the knowledge or skill its application requires much less effort.
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