This is a brief post about wrists. Your wrists are good to you, be good to your wrists. If your wrists are hurting, it’s your fault. Not theirs. Stop being a dick to them. As per normal, I’m just going to link to people who are smarter than me. Actually it’s wrist and shoulders… moving on.
This post isn’t really for regular folks, it’s for people who ask more of their bodies. If you’re a regular folk whom happens to have pain from too much time on the computer or other repetitive, sit-on-your-butt work, try this post from the good folks at BoingBoing. And remember to “hold your wrists in a neutral position” while using a keyboard or mouse. That means elevated (flat). Not wresting on the desk or a gel pad. Actively holding up your wrists like a pianist will take care of most simple pain. It will also make you stand like a dinosaur for a while, but you’ll get through it.
For athletes — hand balancers, equilibre, acrobats, aerialists or anyone who asks a more from their wrists:
Start with this forum post. Did you click on it? Those bold-blue words are a link. What? Are you new to the internets? It’s like a series of tubes, invented by Al Gore or some bullshit.
If you’re lazy or in a hurry, the short version is:
Get into a pushup support position on your fists with your hands turned sideways. As you lower into the pushup, allow the wrists to bend outward and your bodyweight to descend upon the back of your wrists and hands. As you ascend out of the pushup, straighten the wrists simultaneously along with the elbows returning back up onto your fist.
– Coach Sommers
And watch this:
But really, that forum is great. Go spend some time there.
That was from Coach Sommers, who has raised a lot of Olympians and has long preached gymnastic training for strength.
As you can imagine, pushing his kids through such rigors he’s also very concerned with keeping them healthy. Thus, the wrist exercises.
I came to his website through this post by Ido Portal (who I was lucky enough to train with last fall). And this excellent post on daily preparation for training.
If you’re lazy, then there is no help for you. Go read that post.
I do all the wrist stuff he lists there, as well as all the shoulder stuff there and on his other post here.
I don’t do the capoeira stuff. Just the shoulder stuff.
The two important shoulder series are here:
And here:
And another great one from Coach Sommers is an exercise called Wall Extensions.
Just as a frame of reference. Ido had us warm up any handbalancing with:
1) 10 dorsal pushups
2) 10 finger-tip pushups, elbows in. The fingers should “gather” the ground actively, not passively resting on your fingertips.
3) 10 wrist pushups
4) 10 “first knuckle” pushups. That’s just a pushup where your elbows are locked (they never bend during the exercise) the thumb stays off the ground and you push the palm off the ground until vertical while leaving the fingers flat. Push into the knuckle behind the index finger. Don’t let your thumb touch the ground. Lower back down to your palm. Never let your thumb touch the ground. It’s only a movement in your hand, not your arms. The elbows stay locked, the inside of the elbow angled toward the wall in front of you (like you’re doing a handstand).
Why should you listen to Ido? Because Ido is an unbelievable badass!
OK. That’s the short version. Now go do wrist pushups!
-UglyElf
Spring has sproinged and I’ve notice a lot of my friends are making newly-woken-from-hibernation grumbling noises about wanting to eat better.
Awesome!
Of course I encourage this. I’m posting a primer on how to eat well, linking to some good articles on MDA. Mark’s Daily Apple can be a little overwhelming, so I’m suggesting you start with four specific articles, acquaint yourself with the site in general, and read more when you have time.
Congratulations on eating better! You’re doing a great job!
Caveat: this site (and my own diet) are on the extreme side. I think if you push yourself too far in too fast, you’ll abandon it. Maybe I’m wrong. But my gut says that for you, you should learn all you can and implement what you’re comfortable with. Think of it like a dietary grammar, you should know the rules before you break them.
This (go briefly glance but then come right back) — http://www.marksdailyapple.com/ — is the site I get much of my information from. But please do click through the links within the articles to their sources. I sometimes disagree with MDA, but I also often agree. It’s a little dizzying, so to get started, go to the getting started page (again, just a quick peak please, then come back): Getting Started.
Maybe read all the titles before you click on any of the links? Did you notice there’s an entire section with eleven articles on Eating Well on the Cheap? So don’t think you can’t afford it. You can!
OK, that’s still overwhelming. For you, start with the discussion about protein, then learn about sugars, make friends with fats, and last (for now) get to know grains.
2. Sugar — Definitive Guide to SugarsNote: This is really important. Remember when I said you should click through to the links in these articles? You SHOULD. One of the best sources of information on how the body actually WORKS with food is in this article. It’s the link to Dr. Lustig’s Video, The Bitter Truth About Sugar. It’s long, but you really really should watch it. I watched it a little bit at a time. That was the only way I could fit it into my schedule. So even if you can only watch the first five minutes now, go ahead and start. I’m not linking to it, you should have no trouble finding it in that sugar article if you’re actually reading it!
3. Fats — Fats and Getting over you fear of fats (and getting rid of your mood swings). Do click the link to read the rest of the story.
Optional (I promised you’d only have to read four). I thought the article on cholesterol was really interesting.
True story (and I can show you the letters from my doctor), a year ago my doctor threatened to put me on statins. This year, with nearly the same scores, he says I’m super healthy and doing great. He now believes the same things that article says, but a year ago he didn’t at all. Doctors are funny people.
Notice you’re missing something SUPER important in that list I gave you. Vegetables. For now, eat as many vegetables as you can of as many colors as possible. What you’re building towards is five colors of vegetable per meal, every meal (even breakfast). But for now, just eat a lot of vegetables and have a lot of variety. Then look up better information when you have time. (hint: make the time.)
When considering fruit, it makes a great dessert and a great snack. Enjoy. But keep it to snacks and desserts. Don’t let it kill your appetite for protein or veggies.
Wait! You say. What about my ?! Everything in moderation? Right!?
We need to define moderation. Moderation is an exception to the rules that keep you within your goals. Are you within your goals? If so, there is some room for “moderation”. If you’re not, there is no such thing as moderation. Don’t cheat yourself.
That said:
I think the most important thing you can do with food choices right now is to celebrate your successes and not dwell on any lapses. Positive reinforcement will guide you down the right path. The mind is a powerful thingum. If you try this way of eating, you’ll see positive changes and like them. Don’t think about your weight, just watch your shape. Give it two months and be amazed! Last note: this is not a diet to be followed for a short while before reverting to your previous crap way of eating (yup, I said it — crap), better eating is a way of life.
I’m sorry to tell you this, but you aren’t working hard enough. And by you, I mean me.
This is a post to motivate myself to work harder, at everything, thinly disguised as a didactic an entertaining post about, what else, circus. I could have picked any subject, but this one suits me.
OK. I’ve failed to write this post three times. I’m not sure why. It either comes off angry-ranty, or whingy-bitchy. No good.
Eff it. Let’s start out with a little entertainment.
I don’t watch much TV — that’s only a little bit of a lie — mostly just when I’m cooking or eating. Sometimes when I’m stretching, but usually I listen to audio books then.
PBS put out a six part program what filled me with love. (BTW. This is the carrot side of the post. The stick to follow.) The documentary creators at PBS tried to do a reality show on the Big Apple Circus. It feels like a low-budget documentary with poor production values, but that just makes me love it more.
Like anything I watch, you can find the whole thing online. You can find all six episodes Online at PBS.
While I enjoyed it, and I think you will too, it feels to me like they missed the point. They obsessed on one sad clown. We get it. Clowns are sad. They gave too much time to another clown who’s a jerk. We never get a sense of what the incredible performers went through to become incredible. They tried to make it personal, but lost the personality. The tight-rope walker has one boyfriend in the beginning and we’re given the impression she’s always been with him. At the end she’s moving back to Europe with her boyfriend, a different performer, who she’s also always been with — no sign of bf #1.
It’s a circus in every sense of the word.
They almost do one thing right. [SPOILER ALERT] There’s a group of performers that are exceptional in that they don’t come from circus families. They weren’t raised circus, they chose circus.
And they fail.
Most of the time, to be that good you have to do it from the time you can walk. Even before you can run.
Failure segues to motivation.
Unless you’re an idiot, failure is motivating. Just ask any scientist. Don’t get it? We need to have a long talk. For now, I’ll give you the two second version.
First second: If you expect something to work and it does, you haven’t learned anything. If you expect something to work and it doesn’t, now you’ve learned something.
Learning things is cool.
Second second: If a pretty girl corrects your misused word, it doesn’t mean you’re an idiot. It means you just learned something.
Learning things is cool.
Are you picking up on a pattern?
Conclusion: Learning things makes you a better person. Therefore, handling failure well makes you a better person. Fail fast and correct well. Now you’re cool.
Anyhoo, back on target. PBS Circus.
What do we learn from this show?
Sort-of-average, extra-crazy people can do amazing things. You also learn that the clowns are ass holes. Don’t be a clown. And managers everywhere suck. Don’t be a manager.
Oh, hey! I’m average with a dash of extra-crazy… maybe I can do something amazing!
I just checked.
I cannot.
Also, ouch.
I’m pretty sure you’ve ignored everything I’ve said. You haven’t even watched your 240-some-odd minutes of PBS Circus, have you? You failed. But that’s OK! Failure is cool!
But before we go on, we need the proper ambiance.
I’m'ma set the mood up in dis betch.
This is the theme song to that show you totally didn’t watch. Listen to this, it’ll make sense later and it’s only 1:16s long.
It’s a 1’16″ long! you still haven’t listened to it? Jeebus, you people are redeemable irremediable.
Now we’ve come to the stick portion of our talk.
People often fail because they’re afraid to really push themselves. They make excuses. They claim they’ll get injured if they try X. Or they’ll get sick if they give up eating Y. In both cases they’re usually talking to someone who’s doing X or has given up Y and improved their health.
Yet these people, the non-giver-uppers, think they’re different. They’re special and can’t give-up/do those things. Or they think the opposite that the doer/giver-upper-of-crap-food is special. It’s bullshit. You’re not special. Neither am I.
Every infantrymen learns this lesson well. When I went through basic training, we were a motley mix of ages and backgrounds. The youngest was 17. The oldest was 33. Everybody pushed. Everybody adapted. You can too.
When in doubt, try it out.
I put a personal anecdote here, but it was boring and preachy. I’ve pulled it.
Sailing along. You don’t need to go through the army to learn that you’re not special. You can do that right here! You don’t need a couple months of a Drill Sgt. screaming at you to learn how to push yourself further than you’ve ever gone.
You need to fail.
I’m serious. If you don’t try, you’ll never get there. You have to try, and fail, and think about it reasonably; change your strategy and try again. Changing your strategy is the important part. Don’t just keep on the wrong path to the right goal. As the conjoined efforts of that Annoying Sunday paper classic, Family Circus and the esteemed favorite of psycho’s everywhere, Friedrich Nietzsche can show you here.
What I’m telling you is: don’t be an asshole. Don’t be the asshole who’s “eating healthy” for ten years and getting fatter every one of them. You’re not eating healthy. It’s not your age. Age has nothing to do with it. It’s not your family or your genes. You’re being an asshole again. Do you really want to be the asshole who brought guns to Narnia? Oh wait. That’s a different rant. Anyway. Try something new. You failed. Celebrate your failure and move on.
Now that I’ve made you so sad that even your puppy is crying, I have to show you this thing.
First I have to say that most of us are pretty good at learning from the mistakes of others. Few are good at learning from other’s successes. If you see someone do it, you can do it too.
Don’t believe me? Listen to the experts.
That’s not the thing. That’s Radio Lab. Which is awesome and you should listen to every single one of them several times. Take away point, just keep doing it for 10,000 hours and you’ll be an expert. No Problem! Right?
Right! The thing!
The thing is another documentary. It’s from PBS again, but totally different producers. They have this series called “Global Voices.” Each episode is a documentary on something. That’s about as unifying as it gets. One of them was on a Chinese circus school. I’m SO glad American schools aren’t like this. Sit down or cook dinner and watch this:
If you haven’t watched it yet, this next part won’t make sense. Read it if you want, but read it again after you watch the video.
No one can push you. Not really. You can let people encourage you or force you forward or anything else, but really, you push yourself. Those kids push themselves.
What do we learn from this?
If you’re not injured, frightened, upside down, sweating bullets, and crying snot while feeling worthless and incompetent, you can push harder. You’ve got more in you.
Push.
See the way they stretched out that kids leg? He cried. He begged. He didn’t break. He got more flexible without injury. When you’re training your splits, don’t let pain be your limiter. Push through the pain.
You just have to decide who you are and who you want to be. The difference is the effort required. I know this personally from my time in the infantry. If you don’t want to learn it yourself, just watch that poor bastard hand-balancer push.
You can push.
So here we are, It’s like we never really left the start.
Time heals the wound but then there’s still a scar
to remind us of the way it’s meant to be.
…
Here’s to tomorrow or whatever get’s you by.
I’m excited. So there’s this awesome guy what travels the world and solves peoples problems. Like Caine from Kung-Fu.
Which is a total lie, but I really wanted to put Kung-Fu in here somewhere.
Now that’s out of my system, I actually am very excited. There’s this awesome guy that travels the world teaching classes and seminars on a bunch of different things. Capoeira, Equilibra (hand balancing), Strength, Flexibility etc. Apparently he came through Portland in August, and I never heard about it.
He’s coming back at the end of October for a two day seminar. [Shout out to Cross Fit Portland for hosting. Thanks guys. And for my readers, no I don't really have an opinion on Cross Fit. Maybe positive? I don't know, I don't have time to investigate.] For details or to sign up, click HERE.
“Full two days of in-depth training on gymnastic strength, mobility, and acrobatic skills.” — so says the blurb.
The blurb goes on: “Learn how to sequence and develop your own training programs to achieve physical development above and beyond the norm.”
So um. That’s cool. Right?
I’m not selling you on this. Check out this awesome video and you might understand:
Awesome, right? Totally awesome!
So he can do stuff, but a lot of people who can do stuff can’t teach. This guy can. He’s even got excellent instruction on the “Body Line Wall Drill.” A fundamental exercise for learning the handstand. In my personal experience, this is the most important single exercise to do if you want to start learning, or continue to gain control of, handstands.
Be sure to read the post below the video too.
While you’re there check out the “Blog Archive” on the right. You might want to look through the July & August posts from 2009. There’s a boatload of good info and instruction.
He’s also very active on the Gymnastic Bodies forum (a place I lurk a lot when I’m actually doing my conditioning). For example the handstand section of the forum.
Many of you know I follow that advice. And many of you think I’m crazy. I maintain that more than anything else I’ve done, that single change in my life has improved my health, my strength, and removed joint / back pain and stiffness. Try it for two months. You’ll never go back. And hey, it’s just two months; you can do that whilst sitting on your hands. Think of how quickly the last two months went by. Or the last six. Or the last three years. Crikey! I’m getting old.
So yeah, I’m excited about the seminar. (<-- click that!)
One last note. I get asked in meat-space a lot of health questions. I've become more reticent to answer because people argue faster than a tick draws blood. You asked me how I do something; now you're telling me that how you do it, which isn't working for you, is the right way and I'm wrong? Seriously? I didn't ask how you do it because we can both see it doesn't work. You asked me. Don't do it, I don't care, but don't argue.
Similarly, when I started this blog I thought maybe I could give consolidated health advice too. Or at least training advice. But I don't think I will.
The truth is, the information out there is SO good, from people like Ido Portal, I'm worried I might do more harm than good by diluting the pool of knowledge. Just look at those links up there. Between Gymnastic Bodies and Ido's blog, the only other thing you need for optimal health is diet: try Mark’s Daily Apple. Scroll down. Scroll way down. Start with the eleven, count ‘em ELEVEN, links on Primal on the Cheap. Yes. You can eat healthy and probably for less $$ than the shit your shoving down your pie whole right now. Mmmm Pieeeee. (Super secret hint: If you want healthy and delicious desserts, check out raw food recipes. There’s plenty of them on the web. Many of them, like the nut crusts, are even better when baked. Just take whatever sweetener they suggest and cut it WAAYY down. Yes, even Agave Sweetener and Honey are sugars. Use less. You’ll be happier.)
Now you know everything you need to have a better body into your mid thirties (where I am now) than you had in your late teen / early twenties. No bullshit. Right down to healthy teeth and shinier coat (woof!).
Right. ‘Nough of that. I’m excited and you should be too. Go do something healthy, and by healthy I mean fun. Try a bridge. Or a handstand against a wall. Or a cartwheel. I highly recommend the cartwheel. Yell ‘SQUEEE!!’ while you’re doing it. You’ll thank me.
-Ugly Elf
[edited October 19th: Thanks to Doctor Dravier for pointing out I needed a link to the seminar.]
Today was the last day of summer. Though it started with a nine-hour, stressful work day, it ended with two hours of tumbling at Rose City Gymnastics that was the most fun I’ve had since early in July.
Five new faces were there, all of them visiting from the Bay area. They were a mix of folks from the Vulcan (which might be this?) and the San Francisco circus school (which might be this?).
We’re talking MAD SKILLZ: juggling, tumbling, poi, hoops, silks, trapeze, etc. But more important they were the sweetest nicest folks. Every time I said “that looks so cool” the response was: “Come try!”.
Maybe the coolest thing for me? The reason they were there: one of the girls, Emily, found the open gym from my circus page! Woo hoo!
Oh, and I have to update it, because I need to put Harmony’s hoop classes on there. Harmony, by the way, is our “teacher” on Tuesday nights. I use quotes, because we’re not supposed to have a teacher, it’s an open gym, but she teaches us anyway and does a fantastic job! I’m also super impressed because of her mad rope climbing talent (no feet!).
Personally I kicked into and held the longest handstand I’ve yet achieved, continued bridgework and got back my kick-over, worked the pike-kip-up on the uneven bars, had a first lesson on the mushroom, and continued my sloppy execution of the front handspring. I failed miserably to get an aerial. There hard. It was fun!
I don’t think I’ve posted a video of the sorts of things I do here, but I meant to. Maybe I did, if so, tell me and I’ll remove it:
A lot of people have been asking me for medical advice lately.
A lot.
Strangers.
They just walk up to me and ask, for example, how to strengthen their shoulder or their knee what they injured.
Me.
…
This is probably not wise.
Rather than offer to fix their computer or edit their writing, either of which would make a lot more sense (programmer by education, Fiction Editor of The Grove Literary Review by vocation) I’m going to try to link to a crap-load of conditioning knowledge across the web. A small crap-load, but still, in scientific terms, a crap-load. Hopefully you can find your own answers there, just as I did.
First you have to understand something. There are three components to healthy and effective strength:
Static Strength, Dynamic Strength, and Flexibility. Yes, Flexibility. Without training all three, you will injure. Sooner or later. Obviously all these can be broken down into more categories (flexibility: passive, active, ballistic, etc), but let’s not. You can get that from these wonderful sites. Do the time. Don’t be lazy. And you too will be able to work on the iron cross without injuring your shoulder or elbow.
An example of the active/passive/flexibility plan for fitness is from Coach Christopher Sommer. He views the three most important strength activities as rings, handstand work, and stretching. The first two involve both static and dynamic strength, and stretching is flexibility. Wait a minute? Why am I justifying myself to you? Just go after the info and make up your own damn mind.
Yet another note: all this stuff is great for women too. Your body will adapt differently than mine. You won’t get big, flaming muscles. You will get a tight, feminine six pack—assuming you have a no-sugar, low-or-no-grain diet to match. I think that more men than women create and flock to these sites for the same reason that there are more women than men creating and flocking to yoga studios: for solidarity. Yoga is great, if that’s what you want to do. I’m not as much for the spirituality, and I am more for the ninja-tricks. But body weight conditioning is fun in any form. Yoga is fun. But if you’re doing it right it’s a kind-of-too-hard that I don’t enjoy as much. Does that make sense? You have to be a real bad ass to push through some of those yoga work outs. I just monkey around until I get strong. (oot oot)
Do note: these aren’t pages on recovery. My game is to not get injured. It’s a good racket—you should try.
If you’re serious about body weight conditioning, start with the book: Building the Gymnastic Body
I can’t stress enough that this is a fundamental source of knowledge on body weight conditioning. Read it cover to cover. Do not skip the last chapter; it’s on program design.
Also from the Gymnastic Bodies Website:
Coach Sommer’s essays.
And the forums are great.
And last, from another part of the web, Coach Sommer’s article on building the iron cross
Ido Portal is the bomb. YouTube channel, start at the bottom.
Blog. Start here and go forward in time.
Ido is my latest favoritest source of intel. I’m going to link directly to this warm up thingum, with a nice section on shoulder stabilization, since that’s what I get the most questions about. The wrist work is awesome. Those wrist pushups hurt at first, but you quickly get stronger.
I don’t have as much to say about Beast Skills, but it has fun stuffs: Beast skills. I’m currently working on the flag and the one arm elbow lever. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Lost Art of Handbalancing. Honestly, I haven’t found too much help here. I haven’t been willing to buy any of their for-sale products. I do have to give a shout out to this guy. He started much younger than me, early twenties instead of thirties, but he’s learning what he wants to learn. I badly want to reform his diet, but that might hurt his feelings and he could probably kick my ass anyway. I’m not a fighter.
They do link through to hand-balancing stands. I hope to buy a pair later in the summer. They’re spendy, at $129+shipping, but much less than other options. PS—if you find a better option, message me! Also, if you’re a believer in this site, please put it in the comments. I won’t approve any comments that bash these sites, though I will approve critical reviews, but what I’d really like is success stories. So if you like and use the Lost Art of Handbalancing website, give a shout out in the comments!
stretching
Most of the forums I’ve linked to have good information on stretching. Also, search both youtube and google for split progressions. The two things I would emphasize are that stretching is an integral component to strength. No ifs, ands, or buts, Second, improvement takes time. To improve the splits I found I had to hold the position for at least two minutes, and I must do this several times a week. Then I hit a wall, so now I’m doing it for three minutes at a time, and making progress again. I have my middle splits, and I’m close to my left and right splits (or front splits and … the other front splits?). Tutorial details that warn you that training the splits requires extended periods of increasing pain are not exaggerating. Also, cramping is your friend. Have a laugh with your friend, and, if necessary, a good cry. If you find great tutorials please put them in the comments and I’ll link them here. For now, try this.
If I didn’t put dragon-door in here somewhere, I’d get flamed: http://www.dragondoor.com/articler/mode2/Workouts
Parallettes: There are options. I prefer wood. I have two sets, my favorite being the 18″ Gibson.
I would buy the 36″ if you have the room / can afford them. That way you can practice L-Sit circles on them.
A good Yoga Matt: talk to a good yoga instructor.
Interlocking mats. I don’t have these, but I’ll get some at some point.
Rings. I’m lucky enough to have access to rings at the bouldering gym. I’m unlucky in that I have no space at home to hang a pair. If you buy your own rings, get metal. I hate the plastic rings, and you should too.
That should be more than enough to get you started. I’ll try to post an impressive looking video or something to hold your micro attention (assuming you’re like me, of course) as soon as I can.
A friend sent me this link, and it broke my heart. That poor bastard. That poor, poor bastard. He wore padding and support and followed all the Conventional Wisdom (CW) he could find and he kept doing all the way to the surgeon’s office.
My friend thought I could relate. And yeah, I can! I can’t tell you the number of times I was told I needed surgery. I’m actually glad I didn’t have insurance at the time so I couldn’t afford it. I had horrible pain in my feet, knees, hips, and lower back.
I’m so glad I stumbled on articles for foot exercise (Like these, and those for dancers). Even before learning about the barefoot movement it put me on the path I’m on now.
When I started, despite that the whole exercise program was put together by a conglomeration of foot doctors and spine doctors, my physical therapist (who is also my aunt) told me I was crazy, I was going to destroy my feet, and I’d need surgery just to walk again within a year. My brother the surgeon agreed. My doctor at UO did not. She didn’t think it would help, but she was sure it wouldn’t do any harm either.
The science of feet has progressed a long way since then. Marks Daily Apple did a great write up on this back in Oct 2009.
It’s been a long slow road by now I sort of have an arch, but long ago ALL the pain went away: feet, knees, hips, lower back; they’re all fine. After years of exercises the two things that helped me the most were walking barefoot whenever it was warm enough to do so, and wearing Vibram Five Fingers all year long.
Keep in mind, if you have damaged feet there is a tendency to continue walking in a damaged way. This is a guaranteed path to injury. It’s up to you to retrain your feet. You have to engage your arches with conscious effort. Whether you have healthy arches or flat feet, there is an easy observation that will help you on the path to walking properly: how do you walk up and down a steep slope. It’s not surprising to find that you walk on the ball of your foot when walking up a steep slope. What’s a little surprising is that you walk on the ball of your foot when going down the steep slope as well. So why do you walk on your heel when you’re walking on a flat surface? The answer: shoes! (Thanks again Mark.)
Here’s one last observation to help you get on your path to using your foot the way it was meant to be used. When you’re trying to develop the front foot strike, rather than focusing on getting the ball of your foot to land first on the descending foot, focus on strong use of the toes on the ascending foot–the back foot which is pushing off. When your toes are strong and engaged, you’ll hardly use your heel at all. I’ve also found this is just about impossible in conventional shoes.
Again, I love my Vibrams. Especially the KSO Trecks which I wear with toe socks! Socks prevent blistering on long, weight-bearing hikes. You don’t want blisters between your toes.
Ugly Elf warning: you will never get a date wearing Vibram Five Fingers. I’m sorry. It’s true. I am a single, single man. Everyone says they look like gorilla feet.
The failure of Conventional Wisdom (CW) on this one is interesting to me in two ways.
First, the doctors who first “rebelled” against orthotics did so for good reason. They were foot doctors and spine doctors who were in Doctors Without Borders and similar programs. Volunteering in third world countries in areas that were so poor the average person couldn’t afford shoes. What the docs discovered was that no one had foot or back problems, the opposite of what they expected. And then they started to ask why. I can’t find the article where I first read about this. I’m leaving comments on: if you find it, please give it to me and I’ll update this. ‘Nough said.
Second, bicycle racing. Pro cyclists don’t use seats with cushions and padding. They have those extremely hard little seats. When you start using them they bruise, they hurt, then you get used to them and the seat is fine. They don’t use more padding (or shocks) because the padding causes fatigue. The body is never able to adapt, the muscle are constantly exhausted by having to compensate for the up and down, the tendons and ligaments wear and injure, but do not adapt or strengthen. The same thing happens to your feet and legs with padded shoes. Everyone who works on their feet thinks they need padding and cushioned support to stand all day. They complain endlessly about the pain. If you go bear foot, or something similar like those little flats girls wear, or vibrams, you get a lot of muscle soreness at first, but your body adapts to what is now exercise rather than portable-sponge-floor and you’re fine. The pain goes away. Why is there a disconnect between the science applied to athletes, and the lack of science that holds up the orthotic and shoe industry? Especially now with the research from Havard which is so complete and thorough, so unequivocal , and clear and understandable.
So why do so many people have so much trouble seeing the truth when it’s presented to them so clearly? Why do people still want magic shoes that will fix the broken feet they were born with, rather than just admitting that their feet are fine and the shoes are broken? It’s the kind of bad reasoning that infects every facet of human life. Scientists may now have some clues as to why. Apparently, when some people listen to trusted authority sources the parts of the brain responsible for skeptical reasoning just shut off. All too often when a trusted source tells you something like grain is good, wear supportive shoes, cholesterol is bad, people are unable to consider the merit of the argument, or even examine whether or not there is good science (or any science for that matter) and instead simply except the statement as fact. I’ll come back to those topics later, or you can just head on over to Mark’s where he’s done a better job than I ever could. It’s his day job after all.
I’m not saying you should deny everything told to you by anyone in a white coat; I am saying you should consider the merits of what you’re being told. Keep the skeptic on. Be vigilant. (But don’t get paranoid.)
OK, the old-man-on-porch rant is done. The Ugly Elf returns you to your regularly scheduled programming.
Monday night. Maybe that’s all that needs to be said.
I’ve returned from tumbling class, my fourth tumbling class, and I’m bitter, and a little sad, and a little disappointed. All emotions that are totally out of place. I should be totally happy. Honestly, part of it is that I have an unwritten story do tomorrow for class, and the stress colors everything ugly. But I am the Ugly Elf, so what did you expect?
After the first class I was as optimistic as a kitten with gallon of milk and a belly full of worms—things hurt, but I was going to finish the whole damn thing. By the next week my body was not put back together; I had pain, but I also had less ability. I wanted to go forward, and instead I’d gone back. I was OK with it. I knew there was some serious body adaptation that was needed. Now that the fourth class is over, and I’ll have to pay again next week, I’m disappointed that I’m still not up to where I was after the first class. I can’t do a back tuck. My front handspring is worse, not better. My handstands are non-existent, and my wrists and my pride hurt.
But this is what I signed up for. This is what I do. I’m not good at things, but I get better. Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more; or we’ll fill the wall up with our English dead.
Why else do I do it? Because of the people. I know I’m being healthy (or whatever), and it’s fun stuff, but above and beyond the monkey goodness are the people. They’re wonderful, friendly, helpful, and inviting. What more could I ask for on a Monday night? It’s pretty much that or skulk at home with the cats (thick as foxes). Fuck that.
So thank you, wonderful people of the Rose City Gymnastics, thank you. I’ll see you next Monday.
