Nothing like a week in the woods with your church community and family to remind one that we are designed to be in and for relationships. Doing life together for a week…deepened old and started new connections. Our family capped our week away with 24-hours in San Francisco, including a bucket list trip to see Alcatraz. I was struck with the punishment of solitary confinement that stood in sharp contrast to our community building week away. Isolation was meant to break the men, weaken them. It worked.

We aren’t meant for isolation.

The body is no different, it is organized around muscular relationships and intertwined systems that all work better together. Yet one muscle theories and explanations, isolated activations and strengthening are still touted as solutions to layered and complex physical issues. “The #TA is the key to diastasis repair”. “The #pelvicfloor is the solution for #incontinence”. “The Glute Med is the answer for a pelvis that drops at mid-stance in gait (that was for my nerdy-rehab followers)”. I often challenge folks at my courses to think of a function or movement that relies on only one muscle. Think on it. Blinking-nope. Digestion-nope. Breathing-nope. Bending your elbow-nope. Wiggling your nose-nope. Diastasis-nope. Incontinence-nope. Pelvic stability-nope. I am still searching***. 

Muscles aren’t meant for isolation.

Don’t get me wrong…finding a muscle you need to reconnect with is important. Just like time alone can be refreshing. But hanging your hat there as the beginning and end of what will create a lasting solution is what I am addressing. Building rehab and fitness strategies that blend and balance that re-connected part with the whole is the key. Ask all the pieces of the puzzle to work together in movement, function and fitness and you will strengthen the relationships and intermingling of systems. This is actually how the brain works (it knows the whole vs a part) and demonstrates Hebb’s Neurophysiologic axiom-“If they fire together, they wire together”-particularly with the application into meaningful tasks. This is different than strengthening, or building capacity…though that will come with repetition and loading. What I am talking about is building “wired together” movement and brain strategies doing life, function and fitness together. A reflexive community of muscular relationships and systems that are there for you when you need them no matter the challenge.

The brain doesn’t find meaning in isolation.

It’s time to move on from one muscle theories and programs, and build reflexive muscular communities and systems for our clients in meaningful ways instead.

#LessonsfromAlcatraz  

(***Leave a one muscle function below if you can think of one….end my search! )

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