Here is a stable thread on what I have learned from 20 years of dedicated movement practice and understanding what's really going on when we move regardless of the technique, style or category we label it with.

To start my very new experience with weight lifting
For maybe 10 years I bought into the Modern Yoga Asana lie that in order to be healthy all you need to do was do Asana (postures), that it's a complete practice. This bubble burst when I realized that Yoga Asana as we practice it today has only existed for 20 years. Not Lindy.
A lot of evidence has been coming out about how important it is for aging, depression and neuroplasticity to lift weights.

So I finally decided to take the plunge and start lifting.

Here is the very beginning of this process with a trainer ($15 per session) here in Mexico.
As part of my weird "yoga will solve all my problems" trip I had an operation on my jaw from a qualified yet idiotic dentist who moved my teeth in the wrong direction. This started a 5 year descent into chronic pain that I had to pull myself out of using evidence based exercise
About 3 years ago the only exercise I could do was therapeutic yoga, essentially the very basic body weight movements taught by yogi and physical therapist Harvey Deutsch. I was the only one less than 50 years old in the room. It has been a struggle getting back to health.
The thing that has helped the most has actually been dancing. I now know why because of the work of @julesyoga. The first 12 weeks of weight lifting you aren't building muscle but increasing neuromuscular control. Dancing is the best for neuromuscular control from my experience.
Now that I've got my base in neuromuscular control I can safely get into building muscle mass using external load. After today's session I can barely move my arms and lifting my coffee to my mouth my hand starts shaking like crazy. It's been a long struggle over the last 5 years.
Another thing I learned from Pain Scientists who I now forget the name of is that the best remedy for Chronic Pain is gentle exercise. I learned the hard way that it has to be gentle and progressive. The most important lesson I have learned from Chronic Pain is slow and steady.
I should explain more the connection between the dentist and yoga as it wasn't clear. I was wearing Invisalign where I had to put in retainers and wear them 22 hours a day. It became a form of Tapas (daily ascetic practice) for me, particularly once the pain got worse.
After my workout two days ago I'm very sore, probably top ten in my life for how sore I am right now. This makes me want to investigate the neurological components of soreness and what it means.

What does being sore tell us? What is the function of it? @jerryteixeira @DrSepah?
https://twitter.com/StewartalsopIII/status/1230950892767240192?s=19

Interesting how I've never been able to find any evidence for whether what I'm touching when I massage someone is a fascial adhesion or muscular contractions. I don't think we know what trigger points actually are even though the phenomena is distributed.
I honestly don't understand why people don't take more of an interest in what science tells us about how the body works. We only have this one body and we have it for so many years! Science has uncovered so many useful and fascinating data points about how to use it well
For example the feet has a lot of a particular type of mechanoreceptors (sensory cell that measures pressure) called a pacinian cell. These cells detect vibration of the surfaces we step on throughout the day. The sensory network which connect these cells also connect the hips.
When we wear shoes all day, the shoes block this perception of vibration and then we tend to lose accurate perception of the deep six muscles of the hip. If we spend more time barefoot we can get this sensitivity in the feet back and also the hips! So fascinating!
I've never really had an interest in singing but am healing the last bit of physical trauma to my jaw and apparently singing is good for that. I've been geeking out on Youtube. I was convinced by my new understanding of pacinian receptors (a type of cell that detects vibration).
I'm learning from living outside and responding to the whims of nature rather than the whims of man is enough of a workout and I don't need to go to the gym. This fits with what I know about fascial health, the key to which is non-habitual fascial stimulation (varied activities).
This isn't only true for cross country skiing

https://twitter.com/StewartalsopIII/status/1250857433104125952?s=19

You can never underestimate the significance of being bipedal and the unique architecture that gives to our spine and spinal muscles. Weight transfer is key to getting proper alignment. I learned it đź•ş'ing
Now learning guitar and it feels as if my prefrontal cortex is on fire in a challenging way. The evolution of the PFC happened at a similar time to our ability to manipulate tools. Guitar requires dexterity with all the fingers. Obviously the PFC is being challenged more
The exercise I'm doing is requiring crazy abduction in the muscles of the fingers. I just learned that there are two sets of muscle groups in the hand:

extrinsic and intrinsic

The interossei muscles seem to be the key intrinsic ones. Not sure about extrinsic.
I've long been on the trail of a theory of movement and why modern humans are so maladaptive to physical environments. It just came to me in words. In nature there are two things you never see:

Shoes and Chairs
It's not to say that these tools aren't very handy. If I were trudging through the artic I would want me some shoes.

But when was the last time you walked outside barefoot on a sunny day? How often do you see others doing that?
Shoes:

They block a certain type of receptor called a pacinian corpuscle. These receptors sense vibration in the surfaces you touch. If your feet only touch the inside of your shoes you are essentially starved from sensation. Better to walk barefoot 5 minutes a day to train.
The feet are not separate from the rest of the body, they are intimately tied to all other parts of the body. The deep six muscles of the hip are tied to these Pacinian receptors. When you don't train your feet, you lose sensitivity in the hips and there are effects up the spine.
Chairs:

If you look in nature you never see a standardized seating surface. There are great rocks and tree branches for sitting on but they are never at a standardized sitting angle like your favorite chair. When seated in a chair the angle of your hip never changes.
Not only that but your pelvic floor gets the same sensation and pressure every day. This is confounded by the fact that your legs are almost always in the same position. Now think about how much variation in your legs can happen from sitting on the floor.
Another great benefit from temporarily ditching the chair is that one of the most important metrics for general health is how much ease you can have while standing up from the floor. When you sit in chairs 100% of the time, you never do this! Think about that for a second.
When it comes to movement, variation is the key to a healthy long term body. Non-habitual stimulation of the fascia through the safe exploration of possible movements really is the key. Once I adopted this attitude my life changed like crazy.
Since all the follows are too afraid to dance I've had to branch out from my obsession for the past 3 years (partner dancing). I'm not doing capoeira with Amir Solsky. Funny enough Capoeira is socially distanced appropriately when practiced outside. It's also really fun and hard
After doing some research just now I'm going to do a separate thread on Capoeira. The history is just so intertwined with what I studied in Brazil that I think I'll be quite prolific on this one: https://twitter.com/StewartalsopIII/status/1291413060079370240?s=20
What do most people get wrong about the physiology and neuroscience of warming up before more intense movement?
Here is a video on the functional anatomy of the hand and how it relates to the whole body:
Here is more on how the jaw is functionally related to the rest of the body:
Most people use stretching as an injury prevention method for intense exercise. I think this is misguided. It should be treated as a sensory training method with the goal of unlocking principles of how the body moves in space and time. Pleasure and pain are important feedback.
Did you know that you are quite literally always stretching?

When you sit down in a chair, that is a stretch that you have habituated to. When you stand up its the same.

Everything is a habit, particularly in movement. The key to long term health is non-habitual fascial stretch
Of course that isn't the only key, strength training is another HUGE one that will help with depression and neuroplasticity.

Another commonly overlooked one is spiritual and psychological transformation which does have an effect on movement, a huge one.
Another overlooked thing about stretching is that once you've turned a particular stretch into a habit you need to find a different stretch. Many people treat the stretches they get from PT's as rituals to be performed for the rest of their lives. Always continue to evolve.
I'm starting to realize that I've never done a dedicated #stablethread on dancing even though its been my primary movement modality over the past 4 years. This is actually telling because most "serious" movement people disregard dancing as some of antiquated movement modality.
Here is that #stablethread on dancing: https://twitter.com/StewartalsopIII/status/1309536636829536256?s=20
Lots of people talk about the core but don't know what it is:

its made up of the pelvic floor, the multifidi, transervus abdominus, and internal obliques.

I learned from @julesyoga that to have core stability all you need is a 2% contraction. That's it. Stop holding your belly
Do people from traditional cultures who do not experience back pain also keep their knees locked while bending over to pick something off the ground?

What does keeping the knees locked while bending over offer, physiologically speaking?
Your body exists in a constant state of tension and that is an excellent thing. The idea is not to get rid of tension because then you couldnt move, walk or breathe, but it is to find the ideal amount of tension. When in movement the amount needed is way less than you think.
Is it a coincidence that chiropractic and stretching both leads to that popping sound? What is the physiological causative agent for that popping sound in an adjustment?
I asked chiropractor Ryan Marchman the above and says it has to do with the fluid in a synovial joint being compressed and nitrogen is released creating the popping sound. Here is a MRI of what happens: https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=0hmWiDTA-xE
What would happen if you judged your exercises on how much fun you had rather than how much pain you could endure or how much work you did?

How would that be change the quality and quantity of your movement?
For many years now I have pondered the question:

What type of movement/exercise is giving someone a massage?

I think I finally have an answer. I'm going to start a seperate #stablethread on it
Here is that stablethread: https://twitter.com/StewartalsopIII/status/1312915829692874753?s=20
Most people unconsciously think that our internal organs exist in some separate vacuum separated from our muscles and other tissues and they are unable to be influenced by our movement patterns. There are layers of tissue that separate them, but not from mechanotransduction
When you move your torse and arms to the left and your hips and legs too the right your internal organs are undergoing mechanotransduction (biological processes are being affected by mechanical stimulation). In yoga classes you will hear specific effects from movements, but....
I don't think we really know how specific movements affect specific internal organs, but I think its clear to everyone who inquires into it that our body is one continuous whole even if we can imagine that we can zero in on a part. The idea that separation is primary is foolish.
For example the transversus abdominus is the deepest layer of the abdominal muscles and connects through fascia to the peritoneum. The peritoneum is the outer layer of the internal organs and protects them from some things but obviously is continuous with the muscles and organs.
Somehow @jerryteixeira came up with the perfect video for exactly what I'm working on right now in my own fitness journey. These squats are perfect examples of something that will engage the core in functional ways and probably leads to the benefits above

https://twitter.com/jerryteixeira/status/1314272130356322304?s=20
When learning new jargon, the word helps us to formalize and crystalize a new way to be sensitive to whats going on in movement. Here are three new terms I'm starting to crystalize:

1. intramuscular synchronization
2. intramuscular coordination
3. motor unit recruitment
What most people don't realize is the heavy influence the brain has on movement. These terms above aren't happening only in the target muscle itself, but more often in the picture or model that the brain has of the body. This is why meditation can be helpful for movement.
Why is it that learning the name of a muscle and studying how it connects to other muscles in its immediate vicinity leads to more graceful movement and more neuromuscular control?

Here is a #stablethread that goes into anatomy but I don't know the answer https://twitter.com/StewartalsopIII/status/1316410348971479046?s=19
I think it has something to do with imagination. The image we have of the body is not actually the body. The image is processed in the brain (which is directly attached to nerves in the skin, but the heavy lifting is done in the brain). Its not the actual body you feel.
So when we study anatomy it seems as if our imagination becomes more aligned with reality. If you know anatomy and you go to a class lead by a yoga teacher who does not, I think this will become clear. Many of the cues in a yoga class are pure imagination, disembodied.
The strangest thing about modern postural yoga is that it puts an emphasis on flexibility above all else (partly because of the invention of the camera and it's attendant focus on visual aesthetics). So the people who are drawn to yoga are already predisposed to flexibility.
So you have a lot of people in the yoga room who have issues with hypermobility (either from birth or through training). Hypermobility is when the collagen in the joints doesn't do its job in limiting movement and the mechanoreceptors aren't telling the brain accurate info.
This is actually encouraged further by the yoga teachers who don't understand that what they are doing is aiming for an image of what Yoga is, an image which didn't exist before 200 years ago. I got swept up by the ideology as well and have also found a way out.
The way out is strength training (either with external weights or bodyweight). If the collagen and the proprioception capability is lacking, one can strengthen the muscle tissue in the joints to where the muscle can properly stabilize.
You can tell if you may have hypermobility issues if you have this tightness and constriction in the joint (please don't take this as a diagnosis, just sharing what I have learned from my own). Most people react to this sensation as if more stretching is required.
But in my experience and what I learned from @julesyoga is that the tissue needs to be strengthened. Stretching to the end range of motion without finding strength in that end range of motion is a recipe to continue the problem.
This feels like it would get rid of my last bit of scoliosis. I think dancing has already done a lot of this as the motions in this video are done a lot but always with the ground reaction forces going into the legs. I want to experience this without GRF: https://twitter.com/MachinePix/status/1319683049366409218?s=20
This infinity motion of the hips is what allows our eyes to stay level with the horizon and let the up and down motion of the hips not affect the eyes. When we relearn it after sitting and modernity rip it away, its one of the most joyous sensory pleasures https://twitter.com/StewartalsopIII/status/1320418822353018882?s=20
What is the significance of the feeling of soreness when it comes to neuromuscular development?
I found the answer to the above question in my experience but not sure if I can answer in words yet. Soreness seems to be a sensory feedback system to re-engineer what the neuromuscular junction is sending to the brain image of the body. https://twitter.com/StewartalsopIII/status/1321130367412293635?s=20
A new side thread on movement within the context of skateboarding: https://twitter.com/StewartalsopIII/status/1321210395739213830?s=20
I think that weight lifting has been overly influenced by a simple Newtonian paradigm of levers and pulleys. This comes from an overemphasis on the muscles themselves which appear as levers, but when combined with fascia do something totally different.
When people lift weights they are training the same muscle in the same pathway. This is fine if you are going to only be testing yourself by doing this same movement over and over again. But if you want your body to be a general-purpose machine, train it to be one like below:
My goals for movement include 3-4 hours of lightweight cardio and 15-30 minutes of high-intensity cardio and 20 minutes of strength training every day. I think this will lead to making my body into the most generalized tool possible, more on why here https://twitter.com/StewartalsopIII/status/1323617421958197251?s=20
As can be seen further up this thread in the posted tweet, I am a heretical former Yogi. Besides faith in Asana as the one true movement, there is also this strand of puritanical modern yoga that makes it "super-spiritual" (said with a sarcastic grin) https://twitter.com/StewartalsopIII/status/1230171412322607104?s=20
I avoided Pilates because it wasn't "super-spiritual" enough (cringe at former self) and now through accident, I'm rediscovering it. I have found a master of massage here who also is trained heavily in therapeutic pilates with all these cool machines: https://twitter.com/StewartalsopIII/status/1320089467659669505
And thus begins a separate stable thread on my learnings on Pilates. I've taken about four classes on it in my life. Now I've found Tom, who also happens to be a psychonaut of the ayahuasca variety (more on that later) and will be training every day https://twitter.com/StewartalsopIII/status/1324018725595549697?s=20
Ruffini's endings are not only important for massage, but movement in general, particularly slow sustained stretching. If you are able right now, do a side bending stretch and go real slow. Focus on that sensation. https://twitter.com/StewartalsopIII/status/1324680838882217984?s=20
This is huge for why regular movement is so important for a healthy human body. Our cells literally communicate better when we move through a principle called mechanotransduction. Every cell is connected to every other cell via the extracellular matrix! https://twitter.com/StewartalsopIII/status/1330863033581772804
The yoga pose that I was gifted by the plant medicine Ayahuasca is called Supta Virasana. Combining psychedelics and movement (particularly yoga) is not well known, but excellent. I had never been able to do this pose before ayahuasca.

https://twitter.com/StewartalsopIII/status/1336002686601342978?s=20
The biggest question I have for movement in general:
We all know that there is evidence that strength training is implicated in neurogenesis. To me and to many other people the solution to that is lifting weights. But what about bodyweight exercises? Aren't those actually better?
Its the crazy thing about modernity that you can hire someone to tell you to do things that part of you doesn't want to do, but another part of you knows would be good for you to do.

I hope that when the robots come they will make this more accessible. https://twitter.com/StewartalsopIII/status/1346154421043007496?s=20
Today was so hard. Healing seems to happen in layers and I have not found an end to them yet. The layers I'm facing now are very deep, almost fundamental to who I think I am and yet I'm reworking them through the neuroplasticity that movement gives us (at least my interpretation)
When we hire an expert in something we want to learn, they know exactly what we need to do to overcome the next layer.

There is always resistance to growth, at least in my experience. Always a part of us that wants to continue the game of self deception.
But when we have someone there telling us to do this movement its way easier to give up that resistance.

I'm a huge fan of learning how to push through and integrate the resistance without anyone else there to push us, but often times it makes sense to consult external sources.
You can follow @StewartalsopIII.
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