And some of the same techniques, ways of using muscle control, that have helped with knee pain I've also found helpful for improving flexibility. And it also gives me a means of configuring my body effectively when lifting weights or doing strengthening movements so that I can work with less effort. And this doesn't mean working sloppily.
It also gives me a way of moving and controlling my body effectively while doing Tai ji, a practice where the focus is more on relaxation and also differentiating between substantial (where the part of the body in question is "integrated" and bearing weight) versus inusubstantial (where the body is relaxed but where there is still skin contact and thus awareness of the potential for bearing weight).
Why is muscle control a first principles approach?
… Continue reading Muscle Control: A first principles approach to learning to feel and control your body]]>In one of my first science classes our teacher summed up science as the process of building and improving models. The better the model the better the predictions.
An important point was that no model was perfect. (If it was perfect, it was no longer model. It was the thing that was being modelled!) As a result, science is a process of constantly building better models.
What has this to do with first principles?
… Continue reading First principles: The art of modelling for function rather than form]]>