One thing entirely missing here—training your nervous system. Coordination, balance, muscle tone—this is what separates a young and healthy body from an old one.
Here’s one magical thought that transforms your workouts—“strength is a skill”. It’s largely about muscle recruitment and synchronous firing. You don’t need to be big to be strong.
One thing to try, for anyone that does leg presses. Try doing them one legged. I think you’ll see that you can do more than half of what you do two legged—more tension on each individual leg, plus more recruitment of stabilizers from the unbalanced pressure. The argument I recall for being able to do well more than half with one leg was a nervous system limitation—the nervous system just won’t fire as much in each leg when both legs are used. There’s some mutual inhibition.
You see the same kind of issue with doing splits—the flexibility of each leg individually surpasses their flexibility when used simultaneously. There is mutual inhibition to stretch from both your legs too.
Also, one rep max’s train your body to feel more weight, and know that it is safe. When you go back to multiple reps, the weight will feel lighter. In training for recruitment, you want very good form and not lifting to failure.
Whether lifting or stretching, there is all sorts of fun with visualizing movement that affects the lift. Visualize pulling the bar toward you on the downstroke of a bench. Or, focus on squeezing the bar hard as you lift. I’ve read it increases recruitment in the other muscles of the lift, and recall that it seems to work for me. When stretching, don’t just mechanically stretch the muscle, but gently press back with the muscle being stretched. Hold the push back, then imagine your leg moving further into the stretch, but try not to voluntarily move it.
There’s varieties of contract- relax-stretch for stretching, and plyometric windups for strength training.
Feldenkrais, Hanna, Pilates, Alexander. All sorts of fun with the nervous system. You could also look into dance movement theorists like Mabel Todd and Lulu Sweigart. It’s best, IMO, to go to the source literature for these things, as the supposedly “trained” practitioners can chant the incantations, but don’t quite have the magic, as they often don’t understand the concepts.
It’s best, IMO, to go to the source literature for these things, as the supposedly “trained” practitioners can chant the incantations, but don’t quite have the magic, as they often don’t understand the concepts.
Which of the source literature could you specially recommend?
His broadest books theoretically are “The Potent Self” and “Body and Mature Behaviour”. Those go beyond physical theories to volition and personality. Those are the books not in storage. Most of the others are, though maybe not Hanna.
I think Feldenkrais’s main book for exercises was Awareness Through Movement.
Thomas Hanna had “Somatics: Reawakening The Mind’s Control Of Movement, Flexibility, And Health” which was a good mix of basic theory and exercises.
Never got around to his more recent book “The Body of Life: Creating New Pathways for Sensory Awareness and Fluid Movement”.
Mabel Todd and Lulu Sweigart are more dance oriented. Of the two, I’d recommend Mabel Todd in “The Thinking Body”. She was the originator of Ideokinesis, which was developed by others, with different relative effectiveness.
On Alexander, I have a book somewhere where a couple of guys did a lot of video analysis of gait and movement. Good book, but I can’t remember what it was, and can’t locate it through search.
Joseph Pilates and “Return to Life Through Contrology” was not as theoretically interesting, IMO, but if you want to know what the fuss is about for Pilates, go to him.
His broadest books theoretically are “The Potent Self” and “Body and Mature Behaviour”. Those go beyond physical theories to volition and personality. Those are the books not in storage. Most of the others are, though maybe not Hanna.
I think Feldenkrais’s main book for exercises was Awareness Through Movement.
Do you think those books of Feldenkrais are useful to read without having Feldenkrais lessons? If so which book would you recommend most?
(I do have a strongly developed sense of my own body)
Several years on, I’ve strongly updated in the direction that this is neglected and underrated both for health and happiness. I now do yoga a bunch in addition to the above.
One thing entirely missing here—training your nervous system. Coordination, balance, muscle tone—this is what separates a young and healthy body from an old one.
Here’s one magical thought that transforms your workouts—“strength is a skill”. It’s largely about muscle recruitment and synchronous firing. You don’t need to be big to be strong.
One thing to try, for anyone that does leg presses. Try doing them one legged. I think you’ll see that you can do more than half of what you do two legged—more tension on each individual leg, plus more recruitment of stabilizers from the unbalanced pressure. The argument I recall for being able to do well more than half with one leg was a nervous system limitation—the nervous system just won’t fire as much in each leg when both legs are used. There’s some mutual inhibition.
You see the same kind of issue with doing splits—the flexibility of each leg individually surpasses their flexibility when used simultaneously. There is mutual inhibition to stretch from both your legs too.
Also, one rep max’s train your body to feel more weight, and know that it is safe. When you go back to multiple reps, the weight will feel lighter. In training for recruitment, you want very good form and not lifting to failure.
Whether lifting or stretching, there is all sorts of fun with visualizing movement that affects the lift. Visualize pulling the bar toward you on the downstroke of a bench. Or, focus on squeezing the bar hard as you lift. I’ve read it increases recruitment in the other muscles of the lift, and recall that it seems to work for me. When stretching, don’t just mechanically stretch the muscle, but gently press back with the muscle being stretched. Hold the push back, then imagine your leg moving further into the stretch, but try not to voluntarily move it.
There’s varieties of contract- relax-stretch for stretching, and plyometric windups for strength training.
Feldenkrais, Hanna, Pilates, Alexander. All sorts of fun with the nervous system. You could also look into dance movement theorists like Mabel Todd and Lulu Sweigart. It’s best, IMO, to go to the source literature for these things, as the supposedly “trained” practitioners can chant the incantations, but don’t quite have the magic, as they often don’t understand the concepts.
Which of the source literature could you specially recommend?
Feldenkrais is the best and most general, IMO.
His broadest books theoretically are “The Potent Self” and “Body and Mature Behaviour”. Those go beyond physical theories to volition and personality. Those are the books not in storage. Most of the others are, though maybe not Hanna.
I think Feldenkrais’s main book for exercises was Awareness Through Movement.
Thomas Hanna had “Somatics: Reawakening The Mind’s Control Of Movement, Flexibility, And Health” which was a good mix of basic theory and exercises.
Never got around to his more recent book “The Body of Life: Creating New Pathways for Sensory Awareness and Fluid Movement”.
Mabel Todd and Lulu Sweigart are more dance oriented. Of the two, I’d recommend Mabel Todd in “The Thinking Body”. She was the originator of Ideokinesis, which was developed by others, with different relative effectiveness.
On Alexander, I have a book somewhere where a couple of guys did a lot of video analysis of gait and movement. Good book, but I can’t remember what it was, and can’t locate it through search.
Joseph Pilates and “Return to Life Through Contrology” was not as theoretically interesting, IMO, but if you want to know what the fuss is about for Pilates, go to him.
I think Feldenkrais’s main book for exercises was Awareness Through Movement.
Do you think those books of Feldenkrais are useful to read without having Feldenkrais lessons? If so which book would you recommend most?
(I do have a strongly developed sense of my own body)
“The Potent Self” is probably the most valuable theoretically, and ATM gives you a start on exercises. Youtube seems to have a ton of them.
Yes, and I don’t think you need lessons. Part of his method is having you learn how to learn.
Can you make recommendation on that front? Both positive as in watch channel X as well as negative about staying away from certain channels.
Several years on, I’ve strongly updated in the direction that this is neglected and underrated both for health and happiness. I now do yoga a bunch in addition to the above.