week 12

HANGING AROUND

Our shoulders are meant to hang (and swing) from things. Unfortunately this is not a skill encouraged by our culture (look around your work place/home/public space, are there any anchor points for you to hang from?) or taught in yoga class for that matter, which means it is not something that has had the time it needs to develop properly in most people. Ideally you should have developed the ability to hang as you were growing in height and mass so to start as an adult takes more than just doing it – especially if you haven’t done it in years. 

If you feel your shoulders/arms/neck need some TLC before attempting the following I recommend getting hold of Katy Bowman’s aligned and well ‘From the shoulders up’ DVD and doing it daily.

If you are ready to monkey around then the next few weeks will be a series of progressions for hanging basics and then a few drills for building serious scapular stability. These are the preceding qualities for swinging, brachiating and basic body-weight pull-ups so if you get the urge to take your hanging journey further I’ll through in a few drills for those too.

But we will begin at the beginning and I’m making this one meaty to make up for missing last week! Doing it all with a ridiculous grin on your face is optional...

1. Find a bar or branch that you feel confident will take your weight. Ideally put one up in your living space so you can monkey around on a daily basis.

2. You hands are probably going to dislike you in the beginning. Ideally your skin would have been gently loaded by using this skill throughout a lifetime, but all is not lost if this wasn’t the case. To build up beautifully callused hang ready hands will take time and I recommend trying the following three steps out on different surfaces i.e. bark/rock/metal/rubber to build strong skin.

3. If it’s been a really really long time since you tried this then please keep your feet on the ground to start so that you can load your body in a respectful way by introducing a load that is much less than your weight. Try each arm by itself and then both together. Try palms up and palms down. Also, the bar doesn’t need to be over-head, it could be waist height, like a railing, if you don’t yet have the mobility for an over head reach.

4. Add some more weight to your ‘one arm feet on the ground hang’ by carrying something heavy.

5. Then try it with your feet of the ground!

Finally, if you have kids, encourage them to hang regularly. You will be doing their bodies a great service.

the skin show

Is it cold where you are? yes? good! get outside to challenge those arrector pili muscles (or goose bumps to you and me) and don't just take my word for it, click the link below to listen to this expert...

Episode 29- The Skin Show

 "You squat, you hang, you climb, and you threw your couch to the curb—all for the sake of more natural movement. But are your arrector pili getting their movement nutrients? Wait, what ARE your arrector pili? Katy scratches the surface of that oft-neglected but serious player in your whole body health—your skin! Of course, this vast subject needs more than one episode, but this is a good start on a fascinating topic."

Calluses

“Did I say I was gathering
myself back in? Did I lie
and say these ragged, bitten
stub-fingers make me strong?
Did I pretend muscle
is marble, claim
blood-raw sin is as
glossy as a photograph?”

— From “Calluses," a poem in Instructions For Preparing Your Skin by Ariana Nadia Nash, reviewed here by Diego Báez.

hard skin

“The optimal way for getting super-regenerating skin would be to allow our foot to interact with natural surfaces outside of the shoe over a lifetime, prompting a slow adaptation in foot skin thickness over that lifetime, giving us a much better ability to cope with the sensations caused by walking barefoot.”

– Katy Bowman, Every Woman’s Guide to Foot Pain Relief.

Want to know more about building a good skin foundation for upper body strength and barefoot living the READ THIS from Katy Bowman.

Saturday Cartoon

Measuring the movement of the skin from Govert Flint on Vimeo.

the solace of soaking

I love baths. Unfortunately I don't have one, so I like to make time to search out heat, steam and icy cold plunge pools every once in a while. Luckily, there is plenty to chose from in London. 

They say time heals all wounds, but time is a luxury and sometimes afflictions need a faster balm. The subtle indulgence of soaking, plunging, steaming and melting purges tired bones and minds of ailing aches, enlivens the senses, opens the pores and soothes beyond the surface of the skin. 

I highly recommend searching out the weightlessness of water and giving yourself time, every now and then, to just be. 

(Image by Nadav Kander)

Recipe: stuffed salt and vinegar potato skins

This is sooooooooooo tasty (and simple!) check out the recipe over at Kinfolk.com.

Nadav Kandar

Nadav Kandar

skin and bones

John Coplans

“it was me there but it wasn’t me”

John Coplans

hand skin

Heavy lifting (without gloves), hand balancing on carpet (no yoga mat!!) and bouldering.

Skin

"Playing with surfaces is probably where my brain is as well as my own body. Looking at the difference between a set of monkey bars, which would never occur in nature, and then looking at trees. Not just their angles, but also the textures of the bark. All the things you would touch would not have been smooth, they would bite into your skin and require that your skin strengthen.

Our skin is a big limitation to our health. The muscles of the entire body has to pass through either the hand or the feet if you’re doing something with body weight, and yet the skin has never been exposed to anything natural. Even if you are barefoot the nutrient you consume the most is a flat man-made surface.

I’m observing how everything is flat and smooth in my whole life. Nothing has asked the skin to the party. Nothing has asked the skin to participate in your body’s way of moving. Walking on different surfaces just for the sake of the skin. Playing with grip, diameter, and how that changes muscle recruitment."

--Katy Bowman via Liberated Bodies

You are a woman. Skin and bones, veins and nerves, hair and sweat. You are not made of metaphors. Not apologies, not excuses.

-- Sarah Kay, excerpt from “The Type”
 (Source: larmoyante)

"Awareness: Every pore of the skin has to become an eye."

-- B.K.S. Iyengar

“Did I say I was gathering
myself back in? Did I lie
and say these ragged, bitten
stub-fingers make me strong?
Did I pretend muscle
is marble, claim
blood-raw sin is as
glossy as a photograph?”

— From “Calluses," a poem in Instructions For Preparing Your Skin by Ariana Nadia Nash, reviewed here by Diego Báez.

Love

The Welcome Collection

I went to see the Superhuman exhibition at The Welcome Collection today. It's really fascinating and well worth a visit if you are in London, in fact that Museum is worth a visit any time, the programme of exhibitions is always interesting.
My favourite so far has been Skin.