One Degree of Change

Two weeks after a pulled hamstring and you'd think my body would have healed. While my hamstring no longer suffers uncomfortable tightness, the rest of my body still needs help. Two weeks of compensating has put stress on my other vulnerable muscle groups, those that have suffered other acute injuries. In short, unraveling my pulled hamstring has shifted my focus from the initial injury to other parts of my body that need strengthening. The body is a complex system of balancing forces, any change, even one degree of change, effects the whole; this shift focus is part of healthy and holistic living.

My greatest struggle lies in two areas: my right knee and my left ankle. My knee has range of motion of issues. My ankle has structural issues. Healing them, requires strengthening muscles that control their movements. Let's look at my knee first.

I have an extension issue. My right leg does not straighten to the same degree as my left; I'm a few degrees short of my ideal extension. I was not born this way. ACL surgery and improper recovery made me this way. When I do Pilates, I notice the extension in my leg improves and I find it easier to hold. I don't have to concentrate as much to get my leg straight. What am I trying to say? When I don't do Pilates I have to focus and strain to get the extension my leg is capable of. I wish finding a Pilates class required little effort, but truth be told, most Pilates classes are scheduled during the 9-5 work week. To be concise, unless you have an irregular or flexible working schedule, getting into a Pilates class is going to take some serious effort. And money.

What's so great about Pilates? It was built for recovery. Literally, it's core principles were designed to help soldiers recover from battle wounds. Why isn't it used by military forces and regularly instituted in hospitals? Because it was developed in a British Internment Camp during World War I. Joseph Pilates decided he would do something to help the wounded being brought into the camp, as he was the only one who had a background in physical training. He wasn't a British saint. He was a German relocated because of his ethnicity; he was a prisoner in the camp. Not exactly the grounds for becoming a well known rehabilitative specialist. After the war he moved to New York and eventually opened a studio where he taught his signature exercises. Primarily to the athletic population of his day. Dancers.

 This is why Pilates is often thought of as a class for dancers; it strengthens and lengthens muscles, while at the same time focusing on proper breathing. True Pilates isn't for the faint of heart; 10 minutes of good Pilates is tough and 60 minutes is enough to crush the desire of anyone not knowing what they are walking into. But if you know something about how the body should move, and the way you feel after a class, then you know that Pilates should be in your exercising repertoire. I alas I digress, let's turn our focus back on my ankle.

My foot has a structural problem. Was I born this way? Couldn't tell you. But I can tell you that I've been classified with a flat left foot since elementary school. If the muscles involved in knee extension are simple, then ankle movement is quite complex. There's a lot of movement going on down there, and we rarely think about it because we're constantly disconnecting ourselves from the sensations in our feet. Why? Because feet are vulnerable and full of sensation! The foot has many moving parts, and thus the capacity to feel quite numerous subtle shifts. It also forms the base of our kinetic chain. A change further up the chain will often make its way down to the ankle. For example, a right sided hamstring injury causes additional flexion in the right leg. This tension is transferred to the left hip because the left leg straightens to maintain posture and take weight off the affected leg. This additional tension in the hip causes a weight shift from the right foot to the left, and suddenly the left foot gets very tired because its doing the work of two feet! The ability to fully extend my right knee directly affects the weight on my left ankle. Is there any hope of restoration? Yes. As the body is a tensional network of forces, it directs us to the weakest areas by comparison to our other, hopefully, healthier side. As the body is not a fixed entity, it's constantly changing, we can promote healthy structural changes through exercise. Because the joints in my ankle are made up of gliding surfaces subject to the forces of the tendons and ligaments around them, I can change the structure of my foot by strengthening surrounding tissue.

What's the best way to strengthen tissue? Mobility. A moving body is a healthy body. This doesn't always mean we need to use weight, as much of popular Pilates is done with body weight and a change in planes.

What does any of this have to do with spirituality? Healthy spirituality requires movement. A spirituality that requires no action is unhealthy; its just a way of feeling good about yourself. True spirituality is holistic. It looks at an injury in light of a tensional network that makes up the body; it doesn't view one injury disconnected from the rest. True spirituality does not require additional materials; it's based on the principles of functionality found in the human form. It may use additional materials to help us understand our own form, but will not be built around a foreign concept found outside natural living.

Is Christianity really built around these principles? Check out it's additional material; The Bible (aka the book). This book is the only supplemental material basic, and yet complex, enough to articulate the natural condition of humanity. While understanding it is complex and often confusing, (like trying to figure out how to heal the sum of compensational forces) it has moments of clarity. Principles that do not require a special degree or certification to understand. But just like good exercise, it's important not to attempt reading it on our own. Why? Because we have a tendency to boil it down to less than it is or add our own thoughts and ideas to its wisdom. Which is where the church has its biggest problem; we spend too much time trying to explain its exercises than doing them ourselves. We like to add to the list of thing we need to do, making an oppressive list out of simple truth. If we were to practice the little things: like loving our neighbors, or loving ourselves, the world would be a different place.

Our world is a tensional network. It hurts, but it also heals. We have the opportunity to be a part of the healing as we learn how to be healed. It's easier than we think, yet doing it is harder than we like.