bob_stra
02-05-2004, 10:44 PM
Ok.
So today I had to switch clinic rooms because my normal rooms was otherwise engaged. I ended up working in the "chiropractic room". Being the chiropractic room, there are all sorts of goodies in there - reflex hammers, stethoscopes etc. But the best toy by far is the grip dynamometer. If you've not seen one before, here's a picture -
http://www.peworld.org/images/grip_dynamometer.jpg
Basically it measures how much force you can exert in one handed crush gripping.
I had a 10 minute wait between massage patients, so I decided to fool around with it.
Trial 1
30 kg (66 lbs) pressure. Fair enough. For a small child ;-)
Trial 2
Using what little I recalled abt Performance breathing from the CST book, I contracted my abs, rolled my pelvis under, let the tension build. Then relaxed my abs to exhale & crushed the damn thing. End result = 47kg (103 lbs) pressure. Huge, measurable improvement! I made sure to use the same arm configuration (arm bent a elbow)
Trial 3
I waited 5 minutes, lay on the floor and did a small part of the Feldenkrais ATM called "The Pelvic Clock". Took abt 2 minutes. Grab the dyna and squeezed - 47kg pressure.
Trial 4
Just before I went home for the day, I tried it one last time. The score had reverted to 30kg.
I don't know what conclusions to draw from this. Certainly it makes for a poorly designed experiment in the scientific sense. Both tension and co-ordinated relaxation gave superior results to "just doing it". Tension was certainly easier and quicker for me to develop, but I couldn't shake it off for a few seconds afterwards.
So, there you have it. Yet another stupid but interesting stunt from yours truly.
So today I had to switch clinic rooms because my normal rooms was otherwise engaged. I ended up working in the "chiropractic room". Being the chiropractic room, there are all sorts of goodies in there - reflex hammers, stethoscopes etc. But the best toy by far is the grip dynamometer. If you've not seen one before, here's a picture -
http://www.peworld.org/images/grip_dynamometer.jpg
Basically it measures how much force you can exert in one handed crush gripping.
I had a 10 minute wait between massage patients, so I decided to fool around with it.
Trial 1
30 kg (66 lbs) pressure. Fair enough. For a small child ;-)
Trial 2
Using what little I recalled abt Performance breathing from the CST book, I contracted my abs, rolled my pelvis under, let the tension build. Then relaxed my abs to exhale & crushed the damn thing. End result = 47kg (103 lbs) pressure. Huge, measurable improvement! I made sure to use the same arm configuration (arm bent a elbow)
Trial 3
I waited 5 minutes, lay on the floor and did a small part of the Feldenkrais ATM called "The Pelvic Clock". Took abt 2 minutes. Grab the dyna and squeezed - 47kg pressure.
Trial 4
Just before I went home for the day, I tried it one last time. The score had reverted to 30kg.
I don't know what conclusions to draw from this. Certainly it makes for a poorly designed experiment in the scientific sense. Both tension and co-ordinated relaxation gave superior results to "just doing it". Tension was certainly easier and quicker for me to develop, but I couldn't shake it off for a few seconds afterwards.
So, there you have it. Yet another stupid but interesting stunt from yours truly.