Tag Archives: physical

If Work Isn’t Exercise, How Do We Make Exercise Work?

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When talking fitness with my dad he asks, “What about physical labor for exercise?” He relishes the demands of construction, farming, and operating a plant nursery. In the information age a job that supports physical vitality is a rare “privilege.” Although the human body is designed for rigorous work, we have engineered our way out of it. As a fitness trainer I’m paid to devise artificial labor for the desk-bound. One colleague joked that his clients should carry him around Continue reading →

Sensory Motor Amnesia: What Have We Forgotten?

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Soap operas invoke “amnesia” as a clichéd plot twist that leaves the character vulnerable to old adversaries. Hours of sitting in front of screens generates a less dramatic but possibly more insidious forgetting: sensory motor amnesia. Thomas Hanna coined this term for the neuromuscular atrophy that results from a lack of movement. Increasing stiffness limits our ability to consciously contract and relax our muscles. Hanna questioned the inevitably of aging and suggested that SMA causes our decline. When teaching, I Continue reading →

Spiritual vs. Physical Yoga

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I have been asked, “Why don’t you teach the more ‘spiritual’ kind of yoga?” It’s true that I don’t talk about God and one of my students recently commented that I wasn’t an “Om’er”. That question puzzles me because it assumes a fundamental separation between body and spirit. It implies that we could attend to our physical health or transcend to a higher pursuit. With clear and erudite teaching, I enjoy classes with more mystical language, Sanskrit chanting, and spiritual Continue reading →