Panjabi divided the motor control system for the spine into three distinct subsystems - passive, active and neural. I like applying this idea to the whole body, partly because I find it an interesting way to distinguish different strategies for movement and posture, based on preferential use of one subsystem over the others. The passive… Continue Reading
Move better. Feel better.
How Does Foam Rolling Work?
Foam rolling is very popular. Athletic trainers use it as a part of the warm-up. Physical therapists use it as part of their treatment strategy, often to improve extensibility of “short” tissues. There is very limited evidence about what benefit, if any, foam rolling confers. But there are at least a few studies showing that… Continue Reading
Which Workout is Best?
Many of my clients want to know what is the best exercise program for them. So they will often ask me what I think about the relative merits of some particular system of exercise: pilates, or yoga, or kettlebells, or Feldenkrais, or barefoot running, or CrossFit, or free weights, etc. I certainly have opinions about… Continue Reading
People Watching: Family Posture
It has been a while since I posted, and that is partly because I have been on spring break vacation with my wife and kids. We went to Disneyland (Yuck.) Whenever I am someplace where there’s a lot of people, I tend to get into people watching mode. And as someone who is very interested… Continue Reading
Watch Your Back: Mirrors Reduce Back Pain
I just read an interesting paper from Lorimer Moseley‘s group about how looking at your back in the mirror can reduce back pain. The paper describes a simple study where people with back pain were asked to make numerous repetitive provocative movements of the low back under two conditions: one group was able to see their… Continue Reading
Interview with Tony Ingram from Bboy Science
I am very pleased to be have just completed a very fun and interesting interview with Tony Ingram, author of the Bboy Science blog. Tony is a physical therapist and writes one one of my favorite blogs about movement health. And he is a kick ass dancer: Not bad for a white science nerd from… Continue Reading
Assessment of Pelvic Tilt
How do you know where your pelvis is at? Does it rotate or tilt forward/back, left/right, up/down? A new study suggests that if your only method of finding out involves palpation of bony landmarks on the pelvis, you will likely have no clue. In this study (full text available) the authors had the excellent idea… Continue Reading
Extreme Performance or Optimal Health? Pick One!
Many of my clients will ask my opinion about whether a particular sport or activity promotes movement health. Yoga, running, swimming, weight training, ballet, soccer, gymnastics, crossfit. (People are especially interested in whether these activities will be healthy for their kids.) It’s an interesting question because almost any physical activity you can think of has… Continue Reading
Meditation and Pain
One of the goals of the Feldenkrais Method is to develop greater awareness of your movement patterns. Why? According to Moshe Feldenkrais “if you know what you are doing you can do what you want.” Sounds reasonable enough. I was reminded of this quote after reading about a line of research which attempts to show… Continue Reading
Video of My Talk on Threat and Performance
A couple of weeks ago I did a talk Parkour Visions, a local gym here in Seattle. (You may recall my recent post of an interview with the co-founder of the gym Rafe Kelly. ) The talk was about the effects of perceived threat on physical performance. The basic message was that if the central… Continue Reading