Mobility Challenge (week one)

Mobility Challenge on FacebookAbout a week ago I issued a mobility challenge to myself and whomever wanted to join in. The idea was to review every project video (all 365) on the MobilityWOD website. Yesterday, I completed the first week and can already see a huge improvement in my range of motion, and thrusting power in my squats.

The focus of these exercises is on mobilizing movements rather than muscles, with a bias on the tissues that may be limiting those movements. Not only have I noticed improvements in the gym, but I sit straighter at my desk, eliminated some left hip strain when on my bicycle, and am paying more attention to posture overall. Fantastic.

Continue reading →

Growing your own food is like printing your own money. —Ron Finley

Mobility Challenge

MobilityWOD ChallengeYears ago, in August of 2010, Kelly Starrett of San Francisco Crossfit started a little project he called MobilityWOD (a play on the CrossFit term WOD, meaning Workout of the Day). The idea was to post a full years worth (365) of video demonstrating simple mobility workouts and techniques so folks, from athletes to beginner fitness buffs, could address their “nasty tissues and grody joint mobility.”

MobilityWOD is the ultimate guide to resolving pain, preventing injury, and optimizing athletic performance. Humans have been evolving for 2.5 million years and the human body is extraordinarily engineered. While people are born with this incredible machine, they aren’t born with the right software to run that machine. The MobilityWOD is designed to help you hack your body’s mechanics and provide the tools to perform basic maintenance on yourself. —Kelly Starrett, DPT

Continue reading →

Physiometry

Physiometry

Phy² – The Fundamentals of Health and Fitness.

In December of 2008 my yearning to aggregate my knowledge of, and passion for, health and fitness under a single banner (a brand, if you must), culminated with the fusing of two words into what I call physiometry.

The genesis of the word physiometry is fairly obvious: physiology (the study of function in living systems) + geometry (mathematics concerned with questions of shape, size, relative position of figures, and the properties of space); two areas of great importance and intrigue in my life being both a web developer and personal trainer.

Continue reading →

More is not always better. In fact, more is almost never better. —Seth Godin

The Most Astounding Fact

Neil DeGrasse Tyson, folks. One of the greats of our generation and a true inspiration. Educators like him make the world a better, brighter place.

“When I look up at the night sky, and I know that, yes, we are part of this Universe, we are in this Universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the Universe is in us.” —Neil DeGrasse Tyson

This came from a TIME Magazine interview back in 2008.

Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience. —Mark Twain

I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming. —Goethe