Optimal thought and optimal fitness through reason, logic, science, passion, and wisdom.
Pierian Springs
Pierian Springs

Pierian Springs

Interesting how some people learn a little bit about a subject, but do not integrate their ideas into the rest of their knowledge. Integration takes time, so we must be in that position for a little while. It’s natural. The mistake is when people stay there or refuse to see alternatives. Evasion or willful cognitive inertia is unhealthy and dangerous.

Recently, after I wrote an exercise post on Facebook, someone kept trying to say that I was, basically, totally stupid and uninformed, that I was unscientific. He said HIT was the only scientifically proven way to work out. Everything else was bogus. That would mean that Katy Bowman is unscientific and confused. Imagine that. Fact is, “Katy Bowman is unscientific” is a contradiction in terms. Same holds for Erwan LeCorre.

The gentleman on Facebook showed intelligence, curiosity, and care, but was stuck in his position. He can reason, but his reasoning abilities are sadly too limited. But, hey, I have been like that before. We all need to grow; I can still improve, that’s for sure. And he was pretty militant in his position. Certain and confident is good. Militant is overboard. But, again, I have been there. Most all of us make that mistake some time or other. Some, all their lives.

Then, recently, when I posted about a bruised/broken rib I sustained in a freak accident, he made a comment that no client of his has ever hurt themselves. The implication was that, again, he was right and I was wrong about exercise methodology.

Notice he cannot even identify the simple fact that therefore no one should skateboard. Or the simple fact that therefore no one should drive a car. Or play football. Or train for or participate in the Olympics. Or train in or apply martial arts. Forget climbing trees, climbing rope, doing obstacle courses, training for military operations, doing gymnastics.

Goodness forbid, anyone get hurt. Everyone should stay inside in a controlled environment, because we could otherwise stub a toe or scuff a fingernail. The outside is a very scary, dangerous place. Stay away! Stay in your exercise “safe space.”

But moving around in the world is our natural state. Being sequestered and sheltered is not – – that is the state of death. Or coma.

We need to move with mobility and strength through the world. We need to challenge ourselves and take risks, constantly and smartly pushing the bar. Staying in a sheltered environment ensures failure and injury in the real world.

HIT could be used as an accessory to functional movement training, but it is not the be-all and end-all. MovNat is fundamental. CrossFit, done right, is good, too. Ido Portal has it right. Maybe we’ll get something better in the future, but it ain’t here yet.

Mind and body are for movement – that is the fundamental. But to see this, you have to “drink deep:” you have to learn from practice, learn from other people, deliberate, read, consider the relationship of biology, evolution, physics, chemistry, anatomy, physiology, neurology, and exercise traditions on exercise theory. You have to grasp that human strength and mobility have a functional role in human existence and survival, and get that role right.

As with so much else, it all goes back to our ability to integrate and be logical — logical in the proper sense of being consistent with the evidence of the senses. We must cast our nets both wide and narrow to get the whole truth.

But if we are to have more induction and more integration, it’s got to start in the schools. I do it. My students, to varying degrees, get it.

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