When you train a particular body area with weights, stretching, mobilizing, or some other form of therapy, what exactly adapts to make an improvement? Is it something in the local area, like bigger muscles? Or longer muscles? Or smoother, more vibrant, luxuriously healthy fascia? Or is the adaptation centrally located, that is, in the central nervous system or brain?
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Both Sides Now
September 25, 2011 
10 Comments
Guest Post at Perfect Health Diet Blog
July 26, 2011 0 Comments
I just did a guest post called How to do Joint Mobility Drills over at the Perfect Health Diet blog, which is written by the brilliant Drs. Jaminet – Paul and his wife Shou-Ching. The Jaminets are frighteningly intelligent. Shou-Ching is a molecular biologist and cancer researcher at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard […]
Continue readingInterview with Will Stewart
June 12, 2011 5 Comments
I did an interview! With Will Stewart.
Will is the owner of 3-D Optimum Performance and he just decided to start interviewing everyone in sight who thinks the nervous system is the primary target for manual therapy or athletic training.
Continue readingIs the “Mind Body Connection” New Agey or Scientific?
February 21, 2011 18 Comments
Do you believe in a “mind body connection”? I hear this phrase thrown around a lot. To some people the whole idea sounds like voodoo, while others think it is a concept from the frontiers of neuroscience. Others think it is an earth shattering profundity of spiritual dimension that will revolutionize medicine, science and life […]
Continue readingThe Thermal Grill Illusion
September 28, 2010 4 Comments
Body Map Error On this blog I frequently discuss the idea that pain can sometimes be caused by the brain’s faulty perception of the body as opposed to actual tissue damage to the body. Put another way, errors in the way the brain maps the body can cause threat which causes pain, even when there […]
Continue readingStrategies to Reduce Chronic Pain, Part One
August 3, 2010 9 Comments
Image via Wikipedia In the previous post I discussed the fact that chronic pain is sometimes not so much a problem with actual ongoing physical damage to the body, but instead due to issues with the way the central nervous system processes pain. In other words, the pain alarm system is just going off too […]
Continue readingSeven Things You Should Know About Pain Science
June 24, 2010 36 Comments
In the previous post I discussed some common back pain myths, such as the ideas that bulging discs, “bad” posture, or lack of core strength are major causes of back pain. As I noted, the evidence just doesn’t support those claims, and this is somewhat surprising and counterintuitive. However, learning some basics of pain science […]
Continue readingShould You Stretch a Sore Muscle?
May 19, 2010 16 Comments
The Mesoderm or the Ectoderm? What is the first thing you do when a muscle is tight and sore? Stretch it right? The point of this post is to say: don’t do that. There is a good chance you will just make the problem worse, not better. Before getting into why, I first want to […]
Continue readingWhy Slow Movement Builds Coordination
January 17, 2010 33 Comments
I’ve written quite a bit on this blog about the benefits of moving slowly for improving coordination. Of course, my two favorite movement practices, the Feldenkrais Method and Z-Health rely to a great extent on slow mindful movement as a primary means to develop coordination. Many people will look at very slow and gentle movements […]
Continue readingEfficiency is the Essence of Coordination
December 30, 2009 16 Comments
No wasted effort In the previous post I talked about coordination, which I defined as the harmonious interaction of multiple joints to produce a useful movement. To briefly summarize, I stated that coordination implies that: the joints work together as a team; that the team involves as many joints as possible; and that there is […]
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