I just read a great quote from Steven Pinker that I wanted to share. In case you haven’t heard of Pinker, he’s a very smart guy who writes excellent books on How the Mind Works and other stuff.
Here he is describing his efforts to understand the complex system of the brain:
Everyone seems to agree that strength is a good thing.
Sports trainers claim that increasing your strength will allow you to run faster, jump higher, hit harder. Physical therapists will tell you that increasing strength in a certain muscle will cure back pain, knee pain, and hip pain.
Regardless of whether or not these claims have any merit, one thing I find interesting is that hardly anyone ever defines what they mean by strength. And that’s probably because it can be a very elusive concept to pin down...
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I have always been amazed at how far basketball skill has come in the past fifty years. Today's players are so much better than players from previous eras that it doesn't even look like the same sport.
To put this development in perspective, let's compare some footage over time. Bob Cousy was one of the top players from the 1950s. He was considered one of the game's flashiest players, earning him the nickname "Houdini of the Hardwood." Check out some of his "fancy dan" moves ...
There has been a lot of discussion on the internets recently about the idea that excessive sitting is bad for your health. For example, a widely circulated article from the New York Times asked whether sitting is a “lethal activity.” The concern is based on several studies that have shown that the number of hours spent sitting per day is a risk factor for a wide variety of ...
This is beyond belief. Some day I would like to take twenty years off and learn how to do this:
When you train a particular body area, what exactly adapts to make an improvement? One interesting source of insight into these questions comes from studies where they train just one limb and then see whether the performance of the untrained limb changes in some way.
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When you are doing joint mobility drills or otherwise exploring movement at a particular joint, do you spend more time at the end ranges of motion where movement is stiff and limited, or in the neutral zone where movement is easy? Of course movement in each zone is a potentially beneficial way to map the joint for the brain. But often the ...
I’ve written before on this blog about how manual therapists can develop some very questionable ideas about exactly how they are helping their clients. Like thinking they can manipulate energy fields, chakras, chi or cerebral spinal fluid patterns. Interestingly, my own observation is that many therapists who believe the craziest things actually get some pretty good results! How could this happen? How ...
I write a lot on this blog about the value of moving 
What are your physical limits? What is your body capable of? How fast, how far, how strong, how long? In all likelihood you will never know, because your brain will probably never let your body reach its real limit. And that’s a good thing, because that will help prevent you from breaking bones, straining muscles, dislocating joints and maybe even killing yourself...
I hung some gymnastic rings over a rafter in my garage. I wish they were in the living room because I really like them. Whenever I walk by I like to swing a little back and forth, left and right, in circles, with one or two arms. I think part of the reason I like swinging on the rings so much is that my ancestors probably engaged in lots of similar activity when they lived in trees.
The other morning I was taking a walk with my one year old daughter strapped to my chest. She was facing me and I had my hands around her low back.
When she is not fast asleep she likes to look around to check out what’s going on in the hood. One of the things I have noticed about babies is that a huge percentage of their movements in the first year . . .
I have previously posted about some studies addressing the relationship between flexibility and running economy. The studies find that less flexibility correlates with greater running economy. The reason is probably that that elastic recoil of muscle and tendon is an important contributor to running power. Just as a golf ball will bounce higher and longer than a squash ball, a stiff runner will
Have you ever noticed that toddlers are champion squatters? They sit into the deep squat with total ease, hang out there for a while, play with some toys, look around aimlessly, eat some dirt, poop their pants, get up again, walk three steps, and then drop down smooth as silk into the deep squat again. And then over and over again, like twenty times in ten minutes, with no sense of effort or fatigue at all....
I am not a big fan of running. I’ve always played ball sports like tennis, squash and soccer. So I will run, but only when I’m chasing after a ball. Otherwise, what’s the point? I honestly cannot understand how people slog away mile after mile on their feet or on a bike or in a pool doing the same thing over and over again. And they seem to like it! Whenever I hear that someone is a great runner, I always think - wow that would be useful on the soccer field....
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If you can dream it you can do it! Well, according to a recent study, maybe not so much, at least when your dream is to rehabilitate an arm weakened by stroke.
I have written several times on this blog about how imagery and visualization can be used to build coordination and physical skills. For example . . .
I've decided to add a new feature to the blog - a (hopefully) weekly showcase of a video of a some excellent movement, along with some brief commentary about why I found it inspiring, or interesting, or exemplary of some of the principles I talk about on this blog. To start off, here is a beautiful video of man spear fishing while holding his breath for several minutes deep under the ocean.