Exercise Philosophy
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The Every Minute Principle
The body constantly adapts to it's environment and stimulus. Conventional workouts are simply a high intensity stimulus, but low intensity, long term stimuli are also highly impactful. You must think of the way in which you live your life as a whole in regard to why your body is the way that is it. You must study this well.
Fundamental Movements
- Push
- Pull
- Hinge
- Squat
- Rotate
Primary movements for measuring
- Backbend
- Bridge
- Dead Hang
- Forward Bend
Body Parts ordered by movement importance
Primary Movers: Hips and Shoulders Primary Structure: Spine
Hip Structure:
- Gluteus
- Hip Flexors
- Psoas and Pelvic Muscles
- Quadriceps
- Hamstrings
- IT band
Shoulder Structure:
- Pectoral
- Trapezius
- Rotator Cuff
- Deltoid
Major Joints: Elbows & Wrists, Knees & Ankles
Exercise Wisdom
- Eccentric movements (resistance while extending) supports recovery and rehabilitation
- Concentric movements (resistance while contracting) supports strength development
Full range of motion and compression and release stimulates blood flow and synovial fluid
Never go to muscle failure - Pavel A lot of "Strength" gains can occur simply by training the Central Nervous System to use more of the muscle. I believe this is how athletes like Natalie Rekert are able to achieve high level handstands without bulk. Use "Grease the Groove" (Pavel)
Somatic Awareness
Just as you can improve your ability to articulate your fingers (compare a guitarist to a non-guitarist), you can also improve your inner body awareness.
I am beginning to feel the source of tension in my body. When I do a one-legged deadlift, I can feel the muscles and tendons move and slide inside the fascia in the back of my leg. I am beginning to believe that we have much more capacity than I previously thought to detect and understand the inner workings of our body and I think this awareness is critical to self-evaluation of issues and determining how to best resolve them.
I am becoming aware that my individual ribs move relative to each other when I side or back bend and when I breathe.
In the past, I've had weird, half-baked ideas about how to address pain: stretching, massage, etc. But they often didn't relieve the pain or sometimes made it worse. When our body is in pain there is a reason. I no longer believe that the solution is to "smash" the tension out of the muscles and now I know that flexibility in and of itself isn't a good thing. Our bodies are a whole system. Sleep, breathing, digestion, light, movement, muscles, skeleton, nerves, tendons, fascia, external toxins, nutrient needs, variety, etc. If we cannot see the system how can we hope to fix what's wrong.