Fitness For What?

You know you should strengthen. And stretch. Duh. But remember two things:

The type of stretch and strength needed is different for each person.
There’s a third dimension of fitness that’s more important than the first two.

Competing at the recent World Championship, I learned the hard way that you need a very particular kind of strength and agility to be a Sumo wrestler. After that humiliation, I tried my hand (and, uh, hips) at pole dancing. Turns out there’s another kind of power, flexibility and nimbleness I don’t possess. Bummer. Maybe I’ll try pickleball.

Seriously, I’m sure you can imagine the different stretches and strengths needed for those activities. But the thing they do have in common is coordination. Nimbleness at all levels of the nervous system. Not falling over, responding to unforeseen challenges, and performing with grace and efficiency. That’s equally important whether you’re a Sumo wrestler, pole dancer, elder, or even yourself, Dear Reader. Get the picture?

I worked with a professional cyclist with back pain (not unusual with the demands of that sport). He had the biggest, tightest quads I had seen up to that point, but he didn’t want help with them; releasing/balancing them to match his other muscles would have decreased his chances in a race. Instead, I watched a video of him cycling and it turned out he needed an adjustment to his left pedal, after which he had to adjust his movement to match the new position. That turned out to be harder than he thought, but a little movement coaching did the trick, and his pain resolved.

A tall non-binary person who was bullied throughout their teen years came in holding their upper back like they were wincing and seemed to be hiding their chest. Posture advice was not enough. We needed to talk about those experiences while teaching them to risk moving with strength, being willing to get ‘off balance’ and also “put their foot down” for grounding.

An elder came to see me. She had knee, back and hand pain. But that didn’t matter to her. The reason she was in my office was because she was afraid of falling and didn’t want to leave her house. Strengthening and mobilizing, waking up her reflexes and coordination, were key.

There is no cookie-cutter idea of what strength and health are, whether we look at the spiritual, psychological, cultural, or physical level. Every person’s life demands different things from them. As my genius mentor Irene Dowd used to say, “Fitness? Fitness for what?”.

But good form and coordination are key. No matter who you are. No matter what you do. This maxim is also true in every aspect of life: in our interactions, in our thoughts, and in our responses to what happens to us, we need to think not about formula but about form and principle. The challenge of long-term pain relief or functional improvement lies in practice: identifying and renegotiating habits.

Athletes go to practice with a coach. You may need the same thing. F.M. Alexander founded the Alexander Method, an ongoing practice of reforming habit, said it best: “Be patient, stick to principle, and it will all unfold like a giant cauliflower.”

I can help ease your pain, but my work aims even higher than that. Times are hard, and you need all the help you can get. Take an online posture class with me, or come see me in my office if you want to have ease, change habits, and achieve more.