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The body is a marvel of non-intuitive connections

3letterslong

Level 6 Valued Member
A few months ago I started paying attention to low back pain on my right side. There was a time that I was a hodgepodge of weird aches and pains, a combination of my active life and woefully dysfunctional body. The last few years of doing Original Strength has cleaned up a lot of them and, now that I've realized this isn't necessarily the normal state of things, I started paying attention to the ones that I've got left. Especially since this pain had me questioning whether or not it was still safe to do sandbag lifting (or a result of sandbag lifting).

I googled the vague question "why do I have back pain on the lower right side?" and, unbelievably, back pain on the lower right side is a problem with your psoas. I googled solutions and then started specific stretching exercises to open up my problematic psoas. Nothing was really working, so I turned to see what OS had to say on the matter. I found this article...

The Secret of the Ankles | Original Strength

originalstrength.net originalstrength.net

...in which a leading psoas expert told Tim that problems with your psoas are actually an indication of problems elsewhere, usually with ankle mobility. I combined OS Lego rocks with some rehab exercises for youtube on my feet (one foot has always felt like bone was meeting bone at a certain point in dorsiflexion) to retrain the way my ankle joint works and, yeah, after a few short weeks my psoas seems to have unclenched itself. No more low back pain and the front of me is longer than it used to be. I didn't even realize the muscles on my front were slowly bunching up on me where the hips flexed.

I think I'm going to keep looking for things to prehab on my rest days because, now that I've cleaned up so much of them already, it doesn't look like an overwhelming task.

Just thought I'd share.

EDIT: also, something I picked up in my reading was that diaphragmatic breathing is important because a descending diaphragm is supposed to have a massaging effect on the tops of the psoas, something I thought was interesting. I also spent much more time doing deep breathing practice, which just has a ton of benefits to me in general. I've never given the psoas any thought before, but it sounds like it's a pretty important muscle for a ton of body functions.
 
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Really cool stuff. Thank you for sharing, reminded me to check on my ankles. I’ve been forgetting about them!

I’ve had a lot of problems of asymmetry where my left side, especially left side of the upper body and core, is overly tight and not firing right. I went to an osteopath who made the observation that the left side of my jaw is very very tight, and told me to stretch it. Amazingly, after a couple of months stretching one side of the jaw, the asymmetries are dissipating.
 
Training for Life said:
Really cool stuff. Thank you for sharing, reminded me to check on my ankles. I’ve been forgetting about them!

I’ve had a lot of problems of asymmetry where my left side, especially left side of the upper body and core, is overly tight and not firing right. I went to an osteopath who made the observation that the left side of my jaw is very very tight, and told me to stretch it. Amazingly, after a couple of months stretching one side of the jaw, the asymmetries are dissipating.
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lol now I'm feeling overwhelmed about cleaning up my remaining dysfunctions again. The culprits could be ANYTHING.
 
3letterslong said:
lol now I'm feeling overwhelmed about cleaning up my remaining dysfunctions again. The culprits could be ANYTHING.
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The more I learn the more I start thinking that in order to have a body capable of clean movement, you really need to regularly go through your entire body, moving joint by joint, scanning for things that are out of line, then double, triple, quadruple, ten-fold down on those. And this is just single joints. Then we have stabilization, multi-joint movements, breathing, stress and trauma, nervous system, organs, sight, smell, neighbors, pets, kids, spouse, work, traffic, life. It’s like what Dan John points out in one of his books: the time required to benefit gained ratio grows exponentially. You either live it or learn to make due with the three, four, five hours you put in it.
 
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Training for Life said:
The more I learn the more I start thinking that in order to have a body capable of clean movement, you really need to regularly go through your entire body, moving joint by joint, scanning for things that are out of line, then double, triple, quadruple, ten-fold down on those. And this is just single joints. Then we have stabilization, multi-joint movements, breathing, stress and trauma, nervous system, organs, sight, smell, neighbors, pets, kids, spouse, work, traffic, life. It’s like what Dan John points out in one of his books: the time required to benefit gained ratio grows exponentially. You either live it or learn to make due with the three, four, five hours you put in it.
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Awhile ago I read an article where a trainer was talking about "miraculous" changes he's seen and one of his stories was about a client whose weight training suddenly crashed and they couldn't get her numbers back up. Weaker, slower, less coordination, but not overtrained. He passed her off to a co-worker who wanted to see if he could help and he solved the problem: she had started listening to music in one ear, and only one ear, while she was riding her bicycle and that had been enough to throw her into imbalance.
She wasn't even an elite athlete, just some shmoe who took fitness seriously. When I hear stories like that, it seems like the number of things that could potentially be causing me problems are nearly infinite.
 
3letterslong said:
Awhile ago I read an article where a trainer was talking about "miraculous" changes he's seen and one of his stories was about a client whose weight training suddenly crashed and they couldn't get her numbers back up. Weaker, slower, less coordination, but not overtrained. He passed her off to a co-worker who wanted to see if he could help and he solved the problem: she had started listening to music in one ear, and only one ear, while she was riding her bicycle and that had been enough to throw her into imbalance.
She wasn't even an elite athlete, just some shmoe who took fitness seriously. When I hear stories like that, it seems like the number of things that could potentially be causing me problems are nearly infinite.
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There was a thread here I think where someone suggested covering an eye and plugging an ear to get more sensory input for the other side. I personally have a teeth issue with a couple of teeth missing from lower right side. I feel like this massively affects my ability to keep my right glute and oblique active. I am glad that i’m getting a replacement tooth or two soon.

With all that said, I think there’s also the philosophy where instead of looking for errors to fix, we would look for healing and improvements. I believe OS is an outlet which promotes this philosophy, something along the lines of your body being not broken and needing no fixing, but rather through training you look to restore your ”original strength” which is simply hidden below the layers of adaptation to being sedentary.
 
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Training for Life said:
Amazingly, after a couple of months stretching one side of the jaw, the asymmetries are dissipating.
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@Don Fairbanks (sorry to be bothering you so much today) had a remarkable video of a happy group in California doing some ummm... unusual stuff with fingers in their mouth...
3letterslong said:
she had started listening to music in one ear, and only one ear, while she was riding her bicycle and that had been enough to throw her into imbalance.
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That's amazing.
 
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3letterslong said:
she had started listening to music in one ear, and only one ear, while she was riding her bicycle and that had been enough to throw her into imbalance.
Click to expand...

This doesn't seem possible although I am certainly no expert on the subject. I'm largely deaf in one ear, seriously loud tinnitus that is almost deafening at times. It has no effect on any aspect of my training, even after using the good ear to listen via earbuds to music or podcasts. Maybe the fact its already shot is a factor...IDK.
 
3letterslong said:
EDIT: also, something I picked up in my reading was that diaphragmatic breathing is important because a descending diaphragm is supposed to have a massaging effect on the tops of the psoas, something I thought was interesting. I also spent much more time doing deep breathing practice, which just has a ton of benefits to me in general. I've never given the psoas any thought before, but it sounds like it's a pretty important muscle for a ton of body functions.
Click to expand...
Diaphragmatic breathing also can have a profound effect on the vagus nerve, which also directly influences the psoas. Multiple pathways via the same input.
 
@3letterslong I have mentioned the name Gary Ward around here, but I forget if we have had any conversations about him. As far as I am concerned, he is not only the foot guy, but his "five big rules of motion" were and still are the biggest game changer for how I approach movement and training.

It is pretty hard to find articles explaining his philosophies online, but his book, What the Foot? is a worthwhile investment for any movement enthusiast, and it helped me think about how and why the body does the things it does better than anything else. Original Strength is good, and you might see some parallels, but Ward's work is great.

This page gives a brief breakdown of his "five rules."

Gary Ward, Original Strength, and basic PRI principles made most of my issues improve better than any band routine or other commonly prescribed protocol. Targeted exercises still have their place in my own routines, but the principles of those three sources have consistently provided near-instant changes in my own body issues.

Training for Life said:
There was a thread here I think where someone suggested covering an eye and plugging an ear to get more sensory input for the other side. I personally have a teeth issue with a couple of teeth missing from lower right side. I feel like this massively affects my ability to keep my right glute and oblique active.
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**raises hand** that was suggested to me, and I have to admit I never tried all of it. I however have had the unique experience of having to make my non-dominant hand "more dominant." Having to use your non-dominant side for things you'd usually relegate to your dominant side can be quite disorienting.

North Coast Miller said:
This doesn't seem possible although I am certainly no expert on the subject. I'm largely deaf in one ear, seriously loud tinnitus that is almost deafening at times. It has no effect on any aspect of my training, even after using the good ear to listen via earbuds to music or podcasts. Maybe the fact its already shot is a factor...IDK.
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Without knowing details, I might wager that the client in question made a sudden change, while your situation perhaps ramped up over a longer period of time?

If you've never tried simply writing with your non-dominant hand, just sit down and see how disorienting it is at first. Or if you always hold the phone in your dominant hand, switch to the non-dominant side and see how different it feels. Or try swapping what hands you use when you use eating utensils.

Training for Life said:
With all that said, I think there’s also the philosophy where instead of looking for errors to fix, we would look for healing and improvements.
Click to expand...
The doctor whose approach helped me rehabilitate dystonia told use something helpful at a seminar I attended. He basically said he thought it was more worthwhile figuring out how to improve your current situation than it was trying to figure out how you ended up in that situation to begin with. Sure you would want to prevent future injuries or "dysfunction" or whatever the case may be, but while you are experiencing it, you do yourself a greater service to do the things that improve your situation.
 
bluejeff said:
If you've never tried simply writing with your non-dominant hand, just sit down and see how disorienting it is at first. Or if you always hold the phone in your dominant hand, switch to the non-dominant side and see how different it feels. Or try swapping what hands you use when you use eating utensils
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Is it beneficial to try to switch some?
 
bluejeff said:
If you've never tried simply writing with your non-dominant hand, just sit down and see how disorienting it is at first. Or if you always hold the phone in your dominant hand, switch to the non-dominant side and see how different it feels. Or try swapping what hands you use when you use eating utensils.
Click to expand...

I've had two invasive surgeries on my right wrist and one on my left, its tough to write with the off hand. I learned to do a lot of manipulation using my index and middle fingers like chopsticks.
 
3letterslong said:
Awhile ago I read an article where a trainer was talking about "miraculous" changes he's seen and one of his stories was about a client whose weight training suddenly crashed and they couldn't get her numbers back up. Weaker, slower, less coordination, but not overtrained. He passed her off to a co-worker who wanted to see if he could help and he solved the problem: she had started listening to music in one ear, and only one ear, while she was riding her bicycle and that had been enough to throw her into imbalance.
She wasn't even an elite athlete, just some shmoe who took fitness seriously. When I hear stories like that, it seems like the number of things that could potentially be causing me problems are nearly infinite.
Click to expand...
Take a look at some of the cranial nerve info. from Zhealth.

zhealtheducation.com

New Home Page

The revolutionary continued education platform for movement experts. Harness the power of applied neuroscience →
zhealtheducation.com zhealtheducation.com
 
Steve Freides said:
Link?

TIA.

-S-
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FYI, the palate swipe is the only maneuver where you have a finger ( thumb actually ) in your mouth.

I run this whole series plus a handful more in around 15 minutes. The short version ( 15 minute full body stress reset ) is to run the first three maneuvers only.
Do a few air squats cold , then run palate swipe, totally twisted, and anti-gravity, then retest your squat. Odds are your squat will improve.

humangarage.net

Home - World Tour - Human Garage

humangarage.net humangarage.net

 
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