Shortly into my fitness endeavor and beginning as a trainer, I thought I had it all figured out. I thought I could take anyone and turn them into the picture of fitness I believed myself to be. Anyone who didn’t get results was simply not working hard enough.
Now I believe that it was only the natural resilience built into the human body as a tensegrity structure, that allowed me to get stronger and last as long as I did before getting hurt.
Also consider the natural instinct of human beings to avoid pain, if our training is hurting us.. We will be fighting against our Biology instead of working with it, making it near impossible to “work hard”.
By looking towards the things that made us human in the first place; walking, running, throwing. We can train in a way that respects the human blueprint and results in a well connected body. This has implications far beyond how we look..
There are so many things happening all at once in a living, breathing organism. The more we can understand what’s happening and get out of our own way, the more good we can do with less effort.
A truly effective training system should work for everyone, not only the genetically gifted
I would love to introduce you all to a concept called Tensegrity. This is an intricate balance of tension and compression in a system which disperses force throughout the entire structure equally. (see photo)
It is thanks to Tensegrity in the body that we have survived as humans, the dispersion of tension allows us to move using less energy and be resilient to damage. Every organ, nerve, blood vessel and bone in our body is suspended in Fascia. The balance of Tension created by our muscles and fascia has implications for every other system in the body.
What I’m saying is, our Posture is revealing the internal state of tension in our body. This goes for standing as well as in movement.
When there is dysfunction the patterns of tension will change, resulting in an altered Tensegrity. We may be too dense in some areas and too flaccid in others. All of us have remodeled our structure over the course of our lives to fit our needs..
By taking control of the way we move, we take control of this remodeling process. Traditional training methods fall short of the mark here, to get the greatest benefit we cannot isolate muscles. We can never out train bad habits, we have to train them out.
We will train according to the gait cycle, that is, the pattern of movement relating to walking and running. By mastering the gait cycle we will create a better structure which will improve all our biological systems as a result.
By training intentionally we can correct the bad habits in our movement and restore Tensegrity. This will improve every aspect of our lives; digestion, respiration, cognition, movement etc.
My ultimate aim is for you all to experience Tensegrity as an actual feeling in the body. In the best case scenario it’s possible that feeling Tensegrity in the body can give us a better understanding of how to manage different areas of our lives.
Consider the Push and Pull different spheres of our lives exert on one another. Work pushes family, family pulls diet..
What I’m saying is they influence one another and in Tensegrity, the balance between different pieces can create an effortless flow, maximum efficiency. When one area carries too much or too little tension, it disturbs this flow..
If you’re pushing or pulling too hard in one area, check the balance of this sphere to the others. By aligning our structures and lifestyle we can become a whole lot healthier.
Take care of your families ninjas.. eat real food, sleep well and move intentionally.
-Juanito