Photo Credit: Greg Walters
Learn to play like a child, that's a start
Next time you are around small children, take the opportunity to observe how they move. Especially when they're climbing, squating, or crawling. Children exhibit the most natural movement you'll ever see. When you put a 5-year-old in front of a climbing rope, they don't measure its height, compare their grip or technique with other kids, or go online to find climbing videos. They just climb the damn thing.
When a child needs to squat down, they don't check their form, making sure their shins are vertical. They just do it. A 1-year-old that can barely walk yet will still have a perfect squat form.
I recently read an article title "Why Men Are Obsessed With Sex" which argues that men's disassociation from sensuality, feelings and vulnerability are why we are obsessed with sex. The article makes some good points, though I thought it was a bit black and white it its claims and conclusion. That said, it got me thinking.
Many of us do not seem to really inhabit our bodies. What does that mean? We lack awareness of basic aspects of being a human, in a body. Breathing. Movement. Proprioception, which is the sense of the relative position of neighboring parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement. In other words, knowing where your body parts are and what's your pushing on where.
So how does this work? It goes something like this:
- We're born, and within a year or so, we're walking. We're also moving naturally, and unless adults restrict us from our natural expression of movement, we just move. No analysis, just movement.
- By age 5 or 6, we get plopped in desks at school, and we sit a lot. From then on, we do a lot of sitting, and the free play we experienced as small children diminishes. By middle school, most of the swings and climbing aparatus are gone, and free play and movement gets replaced by physical education classes (if shortsighted school administrators haven't cut them) and for some, team sports.
- As adults, many of us spent the bulk of our day sitting, immobile. Hours and hours of ass time.
The natural result of this is disassociation from our bodies—these sacks of water, organs and a brain we live in, for better or worse.
When is the last time you crawled around the floor like a child?
Stop and think about it. Was it last year, last decade, when you were 9 years old? A major fitness trend of late is functional fitness. This is the idea that we all should be able to function well in our bodies for regular, everyday tasks. Carrying a baby. Lifting groceries or furniture. Running. Climbing. In essence, recapturing the natural movement ability we had as kids. If it's been 30 years since you last thought about this, you can pay a functional fitness expert a lot of money to retrain you to move like a child.
Your body is made for movement
Can you run? Climb a tree? Jump over an obstacle? Pick up something and move it or throw it? There are all things you should be able to do in your body. If you're very old, infirm, or disabled, you'll be limited in these activities. Otherwise, you should be able to perform them all. Your body is made to.
So how do we get back to this natural state? Let's look at 5 Ways to Get In Touch With Your Body
Notice I didn't say "5 Ways to Get a Better Body." Though some of these practices will in fact give you a stronger, more attractive body, that's not the focus here. It's about getting in touch with your body.
I can't say enough good things about yoga. There are dozens of varieties, from deeply traditional practices complete with chanting, visualizations and ritual, to the fitness equivalent of Taco Bell which attempts to remove any hint of history, spirituality or grace from the practice. Most classes are somewhere in between. To the casual observer, yoga may appear to simply be a form of stretching, but it's much more than that. Yoga teaches strength (specifically—stable strength, the ability to hold a mechanically disadvantageous position without falling), breath control, and body awareness. If you think it's easy, get in to this pose and hang out there for 60 seconds.
Also, for some, strong emotions reside in the body, and yoga can release them in a way a casual game of pickup basketball cannot.
Men often want to know Will yoga make me buff, that's hard to say. While it won't build muscles the way weightlifting will, it can really tighten you up. I'd say it hardens you from the inside. In my experience, they muscular-looking guys I meet who do yoga also lift weights in some form.
#2 Martial Arts
There are a few martial arts in particular that are especially good for body awareness. Grappling arts like Aikido, Jiu-Jitsu and Judo are help you find your center of gravity, teach you to move from your hips, and develop sensitivity to subtle movements in your opponent. They also teach you when it's better to take a fall than resist a force too powerful to handle.
So-called "soft" martial arts like Tai Chi may emphasize very slow movement, and especially precise positioning of every body part. There are many variations of Tai Chi and related arts. With these especially, it's important to find a skilled and effective teacher because these arts are based on subtlety.
#3 Vipassana/Body scan meditation
Body scan means exactly that—you will mentally scan each part of your body from bottom to top. To use a 1960s term, this may seem like "navel gazing," but it's just another form of contemplation. Like any form of mindfulness meditation, it can be challenging or even infuriating. You'll set the timer for 10 minutes, and find yourself checking it after three. When you sit in stillness and quiet, time may seem to slow down. What will you discover? People often hold tension in their butt, shoulders, neck. When you take the time to focus on each body part, you can find where you're holding tension and then consciously relax.
#4 Feldenkrais and other movement systems
Feldekrais is, simply put, a form of movement awareness. It helps you recognize habitual and repetitive movement patterns that may be causing pain or limiting your range of motion. It's easy to develop these if you do repetitive labor, spend a lot of time seated, studying, or just aren't aware of your own motion.
#5 Massage and soft tissue maintenance
This one is easy. Just get one. A good massage therapist knows many of the over 600 muscles in your body, and can point to specific spots where you hold tension. Again, if you're sitting on your butt all day at work, that butt is dead, and you may not even know it. The best way to find a good massage therapist is to ask for a referral, or talk to someone at a salon or chiropractor's office.
Finally, there's soft tissue maintenance. This is a new approach I'm investigating myself using Yoga Tuneup balls. The philosophy here is to do 10-15 minutes of work on your soft tissue every day. It's daily self maintenance, like brushing your teeth or showering. With Yoga Tuneup balls and similar apparatus, you roll various muscles over the balls to loosen tight spots, similar to massage. I have some joint issues from years of improper lifting technique, sitting on my ass for work, and mashing BMX bike pedals like a madman. So I'm trying the Yoga Tuneup balls and may report back later.
Proprioception definition courtesy of Wikipedia. Photo credit: Judoka - Eva Rinaldi