Postmodernism Plus Anatomy = Postanatomy

Lately I have been talking a fair bit about the relationship between anatomy and culture.  First of all, I must give credit where credit is due.  There is no doubt that lectures from Dr. Andreo Spina and Ido Portal have heavily informed my thoughts on this topic.

According to Dr. Spina, anatomy is a human construct.  What he means by this is that anatomists isolate, categorize and name all of the different body parts that exist, but in actuality, these are simply words given so that we (as humans) can share a common language and communicate with each other. In other words, when I refer to your elbow you immediately recognize that word and know that I am referring to the the area on the body between the bicep and tricep and forearm.

But when it comes to nature, the elbow is meaningless.

Here is another example with which some of you are familiar.  People like to talk about their "core" and people often ask if the movement we are doing is going to make their "core" stronger.  They ask me why we never do sit-ups or crunches or planks (side or otherwise).  Well, actually I added planks in there. Most people just ask about sit ups and crunches.

Now compare sit-ups or side planks with the rolling warm up that Odelia introduced us to.  First sit ups and planks - the idea with both is to strengthen your "core" or abdominal region.  The idea is that by performing what human beings have named "sit ups", the abs will be isolated and made stronger.  But here's the problem. Your body doesn't care about abs or "core" and in fact, when you perform a movement, it doesn't even begin with the bodypart anyway, it begins with the nervous system.  And in fact, when you do a sit up what your nervous system is doing is innervating muscle fibres.  Your neural  tissue, your muscle tissue and your connective tissue are all working together to perform the movement you have demanded of them (the crunch). They are all working to carry out a specific function.  And guess what? Adaptation occurs to all three types of tissue.  Hence, Dr. Spina named his lectures "The Fascial Continuum".  Basically, the point to take away from this is that there is a lot more going on behind the scenes when it comes to movement than we are aware of and movement certainly doesn't begin with an isolated body part.

Spina explains that every nerve, muscle, organ, etc is covered with connective tissue and connective tissue all has its own physical properties. Your connective tissue can be dense, it can be loose, it can be a bunch of fuzz (see the Fuzz Speech). So when you move, there is actual movement with the neural tissue as well.  Anatomists are studying this gliding of neural tissues and have recorded a movement of several centimeters.  There is even research into arthersclorosis as a hardening of the nervous system!!!! When you do not move, your neural tissue hardens.  And, the more that is demanded of the nervous system the more neural connections are made (dendrites).  So when we make demands on our body we are applying force, not just to the bone, "but to a vast and intricate tissue continuum" (Spina). When you progressively adapt to a stimuli/load it isn't simply that your muscles are getting stronger. Your bones, tendon, ligaments, connective Tissue/Fascia and neural pathways all adapt.

Now which movement do you think taxes the nervous system more, the sit up or plank or the rolls? Do you think that doing 100 sit ups for time or 3 sets of 30 sec planks better prepares you for rolls?  Nope. It doesn't. It really doesn't. All it does is make you able to do 100 sit ups really, really quickly.  And then what happens when your body is asked to perform something a little more complicated?

The first time I tried to do a roll into a squat I fell on my ass.  What the $%&*? I am pretty sure if I was in a sit up contest I would be at the top. But I couldn't do a simple roll to squat? The roll to squat is an entire movement pattern that is much more challenging for the nervous system than a simple sit up and my nervous system wasn't prepared for it.  The movement was too complex for me.

The point is not simply to divide between nature and culture, as the lines become blurry very quickly. The point is that the body should have many, many movement opportunities available to it. Take a look at our fine and genteel Victorian in the image below - this is a perfect example of a mechanistic understanding of the body.  Does this contraption prepare her for a roll into squat? Or even a simple roll?

The fascial continuum that Dr. Spina discusses  goes far beyond the current catchphrase "functional strength." As Ido Portal explains, it is about movement!!!