One of your practice goals should be to be able to make sense of other people’s movement patterns. Learning how to watch someone move, and see what’s going on, is going to give you really valuable information that you can then apply to your own practice. In the following video clip, I demonstrate two different gait patterns, with different arm swings. If you can start to see how the arm swing differs between the two, you’ll start to gain some valuable insight into how to assess and correct your own movement imbalances.
When you see a series of exercises, you can either look at what’s common to all of them, or how they are different. In this video, I go through several variations of turning exercises, where I’m using the connection between the legs and the spine to drive body movement. Most people will look at the arms in each exercise and say, “those are not the same movements” and that’s true, but they would be missing the most important part: how the legs turn the body.
Eyercize is a free, web-based reading pacer that turns any text into a speed reading exercise. But, you can do more than just read faster using Eyercize. You can actually improve how you move, if you follow these simple training guidelines. Part of the reason I’m so excited about Eyercize is how easy it is to use. Check out this video demo where I show you how to turn any web page into a eye training exercise:
Frozen shoulder is one of those terms that people accept with resignation and it seems like a plausible explanation…until you start to poke around in your own nervous system. If you’ve ever been told you have a frozen shoulder, I urge you to look a little bit beyond the (overly) simple mechanical explanation. Obviously, I’m not diagnosing your shoulder from a YouTube video, but I just want you to ask a few more questions and try these two experiments:
In just ten minutes of head-to-toe movement, you can get rid of stiff joints in the morning. What’s the secret? There isn’t one really…you just have to move every single joint. Z Health exercises for joint mobility give you an easy template to use to get this done, though. Check out this example of head-to-toe joint mobility:
The metronome-like quality of the music got me. Sorry! You know why I like metronomes.
Even if you have cultivated a daily practice that takes you into deep relaxation, it’s helpful to have a set of stress reduction techniques “that work in 5 minutes or less.” You can pull these out during the day when you have a few minutes of downtime. If you are busy and really stressed out, these relaxation techniques can prevent your stress level from going through the roof. Try them and let me know what you think.
And they’re all in pain! When it comes to the aches and pains of moving around, you might be in pain from your day job, your vigorous exercise routine, or even a mindfulness practice that doesn’t involve any movement. Ever wonder why? The reason is exactly the same in each case: in your pre-conscious mind, you are basically trying to outsource your own movement patterns, from a body part that should be doing the job, to one that’s willing to, even though it isn’t designed for that job!
I find this topic so interesting. When you start playing with the way eyes influence movement, you begin to unlock connections in the body that you had no other way of accessing. I’ve seen some pretty strange stuff, from pain pretty much vanishing, big muscles magically unlocking, or people being able to run, jump, or lift in dramatically different ways….all from a couple of eye exercises. I know it sounds weird, and I was right there with you until I experienced it in my own practice and taught it to other.
