A Twisted Trail

The first post in this series asked if a pigeon toe was friend or foe.  It is certainly a strategy, an adaptation that has a purpose.  For me, my half with the pigeon toe also carried my biggest problems, particularly Read more ›

The Pigeon Toe: Friend or Foe?

Oh, the mighty pigeon toe.  Such a strange little insurgent, and yet, it exists peacefully all around us.  Where does it come from and how does it form?  Does it afflict one leg or both?  Is it the tibia or Read more ›

A Different Way to Use, Train, & Treat the Knee (Part 3)

Part 1 of this series explained how knee should not be used as a load-bearing joint. Part 2 showed how pressuring the knee can help build safety, alignment, and desired force at the desired time.  This third and final segment Read more ›

A Different Way to Use, Train, & Treat the Knee (Part 2)

In part 1, I suggested that using the knee as gas instead of brakes could help free up the knee for motion and elicit the hips and ankle-foot as stabilizers.  For folks with chronic pain, however, their nervous system likely Read more ›

A Different Way to Use, Train, & Treat the Knee (Part 1)

There are three hinges on the feature photo door.  It’s a strong front door, solid and meant to take some battering.  The cheaper, lighter, all-have-problems-closing-and-opening doors inside the house have only two hinges.  Weight-load divided by two, or weight-load divided Read more ›

To Twist or Not To Twist

Torsion.  We all have it: a particular line of twist running through our carriage, gripping us in a certain way and keeping us upright.  Each fold and joint tells its story, whether you realize it or not.  It’s how we Read more ›

Coming Together

Flexion and extension.  Compression and Suspension.  There are pairs that govern movement, both globally and locally.  The system and its parts act to pull apart and come together.  Posture, moving fast, and any sort of training or exercise is versed Read more ›

Suspension & Compression

This piece serves as the follow up to How To Push Down.   When we are talking about compression, we are also talking about tension.  It is the interaction of these two push-pulls that creates suspension.  Otherwise everything would collapse.  Read more ›

Calming an Irritation (Fixing a Foot-Hip)

This post serves as a follow up to: A Path Towards Harm.  Otherwise titled: The things I did wrong when I didn’t pay attention or have compassionate patience.   The tag to this blog used to read, “fix yourself.”  But Read more ›

A Path Towards Harm

Some context.  I have been learning to be sensitive to signals of and mitigate pain for about a decade now.  My training revolves around feeling things out, noticing any off-ness, spending some time and attention there, and finishing the session Read more ›

Knee Findings: Hinges and Rotation

  Joint ‘popping’ is a curious thing.  It alarms without hurting.  Especially when you realize it wasn’t there before.  You notice something is different when you do that particular thing in that particular way.  The different becomes ‘less than’ when Read more ›

Learning Acrobatics and Developing Elasticity

Movement overlaps. Brain work = joint work = speed, power, strength, and coordination work.  We have structures and we have capacities.  Our practice establishes the abilities of both.  There is a general consensus that if your parts work better you’ll Read more ›