spiral motion

“When a person loses his way in the forest or in snowstorms or fogs he goes around in circles as long as he keeps on moving, until in some way or other he finds his way again. The same is true of foxes, rabbits, antelopes,’ and doubtless other animals, when hard pressed in the chase. Going down lower in the scale of organisms, where there are only poorly developed guiding senses, as in some of the crustacea, or none at all as in the protozoa arid the flatworms, one finds these creatures going in circles all the time that they are in movement, hut with a ‘drift,’ making the path a loose helical spiral. In all these animals and, in fact, in all motile organisms whatsoever, there is a deep-seated spiralling mechanism which leads an animal to go in a series of circles of spiral form when there are no guiding senses, as in the lower organisms. or when the guiding senses do not function through fear or for other reasons, in the higher. A tendency to spiral locomotion is inherent in all moving organisms. An examination of biological literature shows, as is well known, that the lower animals : flagellates, ciliates, rotifers, and the marine larvae of echinoderms, molluscs, worms, and crustacea swim in spiral paths, as well as some of the zoospores of algae and a few spermatozoa. So many organisms, in fact, swim in spiral paths that the negative aspect of the question is the more practical form for purposes of investigation : Are there any motile organisms which do not move in spiral paths when guiding senses are absent or not functioning?”

from here: “Spiral motion in man”

friday cartoon

Hans Coper

'Practicing a craft with ambiguous reference to function one has to occasionally face absurdity. More than anything, like a demented piano tuner, one is trying to approximate a phantom pitch. One is apt to take refuge in principles which crumble'

-- Hans Coper

Egyptian jars with motifs of plants and water
Late Naqada II Date: ca. 3450–3300 BC

Dem Bones: Skeletal Structure and Movement Function

"We should be very wary about anyone dictating to us what proper form is in regard to a particular activity without considering our individual variations in structure."

- Todd Hargrove

Optimal alignment or posture for a certain function is partly a result of having as many joints in neutral as possible at any one time. And the shape of the bones will determine how many of your joints you can keep in neutral at the same time in a particular functional task so considering your own skeletal shape is very important.
Click HERE to read Todd's great piece about why skeletal shape matters when it comes to movement and function.

Stephen Jepson

"We no longer have to move to survive. We can go to our refrigerator to get food. Most of our lives are sedentary. We sit to drive, work, watch TV and movies, and play with our gadgets. By not moving, we become mentally and physically sluggish. Our creativity diminishes, and our bodies begin to die a little at a time through lack of use. Modern medicine works overtime to keep us healthy and negate the effects of inertia on the body and mind.

Puppies and kittens and children run around wildly chasing each other, tumbling, rolling, developing quick and agile movements. Children play jacks, hopscotch, jump rope, swing, slide, play running games and ballgames on their playgrounds, continually refining the speed and accuracy of hand and foot movements, stamina, and breathing - very important at any age in continuing the plasticity, growth and health of our brains as well.

Never Leave the Playground teaches the method of lifetime fitness through toys and play and games that can be played alone or with others of any age throughout our lives. By simply returning to the playground every day, your memory will improve, you will become more creative, and you will look forward to each new day with the excitement and vigor not experienced since you left the playground of your youth. It's time to go back to the playground and never leave it again."

-- Stephen Jepson // Never Leave The Playground

totally functional....

(found via goldlionaz)

“The study of anatomy does bring us into a much deeper understanding of ourselves if we’ll let it."

 “The thing is that anatomy is generally understood as this naming of things based on the cutting up of them. It generates a very abstract set of information and categories. I literally mean abstract meaning the levels of tissue have been drawn away from other levels of tissue. Abstraho literally means to draw away from, so we draw one thing away from another, and then we develop a mental conception of it. Every time you approach a body with an idea, and then execute that idea with a knife, you’re making up anatomy, because there is no such thing as a liver on a tray. There is no such thing as a skin unto itself, except through a process of dissection, and abstraction. Those aren’t realities. The reality is this whole flesh and blood pulsing experience that we’re all wandering around with.

Then we get our abstraction built, and then we say, “Oh, okay. There’s this muscle, rectus femoris, there this muscle adductor magnus, there’s this thing in our chest, the heart, and that’s a pump. The other one abducts and the other one adducts. We have all of these very abstract, conceptions. Then we approach with our techniques people, and we see them move, and we have that set of abstractions in our brain, and we say, “Well.” It’s like a math problem, and we add it up, and say, “Well, this should be doing that because of what they’re doing there. Then we apply our abstraction to the form, and try and make it emulate what our abstractions tell us it should be instead of taking in a given whole set of compensations and helping it to function better.

The actual functional person is always a gestalt of all the systems, and all of the hopes and dreams, and all of the life processes, and all of the trillions of cells streaming. In other words, that’s what’s happening in front of you, not, “Oh, we’re having difficulty abducting our x, y, z. Which would be cured by strengthening the a, b, c.” I don’t think we work that way.

I don’t think I’ve fallen too far from the Rolfian [Rolfing] tree in my aspirations along with you to transform culture. She was looking to cultivate a more mature human being, and I feel that I’m wanting to do the same, at least for my part. I feel that part of that maturity lies in an acceptance and learning from the body.”

-- Gil Hedley VIA Liberated Bodies

Socks

THIS is one of the many reasons we should invest time in our movement skills. I want to beable to put my socks on, with ease, in my 90's.

Peter Jansen

Peter Jansen (1956-2011) pioneered digital sculpting of sequential human movement in space and time. He worked with 3D CG software to create overlapping frames of movement and then had the result made into physical form via the thee dimensional printing systems of rapid prototyping technology.

Function

"As a term functional movement has started to drift in the same direction as the term core stability which started out well and then became far distant from its original meaning. People have come to understand this as a specific kind of training with specific kinds of equipment. And if you use this equipment then it’s somehow functional.

People think that standing swinging something about is functional as compared to sitting on a machine. But this is a long way from what I would consider to be functional movement.

Functional movement is the movement that you need to perform the tasks and activities that you enjoy and want to do in your daily life.

What is it you need to do in your job and for recreation? So it’s a much bigger umbrella. Instead of FM being a thing, AN exercise, it’s actually an overall concept. So what is functional for one person is not for another."

 -- Joanne Elphinston via this wonderful podcast by Ariana Yoga

love lines

Romance...

I’m in love with people’s hands and the way they clench their fists and the way their fingertips lightly press down onto piano keys or thighs. Calloused fingers or dainty fingers. Hands writing poems or memos or parking tickets. Hands writing futures. To me, every crease on the palm is a love line.

-- Mesogeios

Function...

 "The shoulder complex, together with other joint and muscle mechanisms of the upper limb, primarily is concerned with the ability to place and control the position of the hand in the visual work space in front of the body. The shoulder mechanism provides the upper limb with a range of motion exceeding that of any other joint mechanism. The placement of the hand is determined by four components of the shoulder complex: the glenohumeral, acromioclavicular, and sternoclavicular joints and the scapulothoracic gliding mechanism. The clavicular joints permit the scapula to move against the chest wall during movements of the arm, allowing the glenoid fossa to follow the head of the humerus, and thus contribute significantly to total arm movement. The functional interrelationships between the glenohumeral, scapulothoracic, and clavicular joint mechanisms are critical in providing a full, functional ROM. Any pathological condition of any one of these mechanisms will disturb upper limb function. The ligamentous and periarticular structures of the shoulder complex combine in maintaining the joint relationships, withstanding the forces applied to the joint surfaces, and stabilizing the dependent limb." 

--Malcolm Peat

(images found here and here)

Start where you are.

When you approach a challenge in a pose ask yourself 'Where do i feel safe/comfortable?'
START THERE.
Over time you build on that comfort and do what needs to be done to bring back optimal function in that movement.