From the father of Biotensegrity...

[Scott Sonnon]

This is THE man in the field. He is the father of the concept of Biotensegrity - the science behind applying Buckminster Fuller's concept of tensegrity to human biology. Having Dr. Levin as our supporter is huge, beyond what I could describe in pale text. :o

"I received your [Integrating Structure (http://www.rmax.tv/softwork.html)] DVD. You did a very good job of applying biotensegrity in a very practical way. My focus has been as a basic scientist as I did not want to limit biotensegrity to the narrow field of what I know as a clinician. I have always hoped that someone like you would take the ball and run with it, and you did. Thanks!"
- Dr. Steven Levin, MD
www.biotensegrity.com

[wadem]

WHOA!! That's awesome!! :D

[Coach Tran]

AWesome. This man is a serious scholar. Impressive and good feedback for your body of work, coach.

[KD Jones]

Congratulations, again.

I was just out at his site... absolutely fascinating.

(Is there some kind of rule here about always taxing all participant's abilities to imitate a sponge? It just goes on and on...)

[Chuck Kechter]

Is there some kind of rule here about always taxing all participant's abilities to imitate a sponge?

Not a rule... :wink: I can't speak for other's, but for myself it is a privilege... 8) :D I love stretching ALL my capacities and potentials... Not just the physical ones.

Kudos Coach!

[Connie Brown]

Next, Intu-Flow for Dr. Levin. Wonder what his movement program is, LOL

[Scott Sonnon]

What's really interesting is that Dr. Levin's father (who would be 105 if he were still alive) was the city-wide club swinging champion of his school in Toronto, and used to lead classes in club swinging exercise!

[Ryan Murdock]

Very cool! 8) 8) 8)

[Coach Tran]

What's really interesting is that Dr. Levin's father (who would be 105 if he were still alive) was the city-wide club swinging champion of his school in Toronto, and used to lead classes in club swinging exercise!

Wow! The small things that brings us close unexpectedly is like an invisible string which binds us on our karmic paths.

[Joseph David]

Outstanding Scott, nice testomony to your philosophy/application of movement.

[Jarlo Ilano]

Coach,

I had been exposed to the tensegrity concepts quite some time ago in my therapy studies, and when I first heard you talk about it, I was thinking "Does he really understand it?"

Then the more you expounded upon it, I was like "He does!" :lol:

And your application of it to martial arts work is very unique. People spout things like "nothing new under the sun", but hindsight doesn't mean anything.

Good stuff Scott. Rock on!

[Scott Sonnon]

Here's a quick history on this scientific genius. It's really serendipitous that a man of this monumental impact upon modern scientific understand of human biology also has a very strong familial connection to club swinging! I feel greatly honored by having such enormous shoulders in our midst. Dr. Levin has permitted me to review his biotensegrity course for CST Magazine in the upcoming issue :!:


I started with biotensegrity in the mid seventies. I had taken a course in Orthopedic Biomechanics and could not quite understand how evolution had made such a mess of it. The calculated internal forces generated by man or beast seemed very inefficient and energy-exhausting. The forces generated in biologic tissues, using the theories I learned in college Physics 101 and Orthopedic Biomechanics, seemed totally inconsistent with what I knew about live tissues, as an orthopedic surgeon. Since flies can walk up walls and squirrels climb up tree trunks but elephants can't do either, I decided to look at the really big boys, the dinosaurs and giant mammals of long ago, and try and figure out how they could even walk. How could the muscles and articular cartilage withstand the huge forces that would be generated in standard Newtonian mechanics?

I live outside of Washington, DC and went down to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History on the National Mall and studied and measured some of those big guys, (thanks to Nicholas Houtton, Chief Paleontologist). Assuming there hasn't been a dramatic weakening of tissues over evolutionary eons, there is no way that the soft tissues of a diplodocus, with a ten-meter long neck and 16 freely moving neck bones could withstand the forces generated, if the neck functioned the same as a lever. Using simple calculations for calculating the forces of a cylinder wall, Pterodactyls would have ripped their wings apart!

Across the mall from the Museum of Natural History is the Hirshhorn Museum of Modern Art. In the outside rotunda stands Kenneth Snelson's Needle. It is 20 meters high and sticks up over the wall. There was an eureka! moment and the rest has been following the various twists and turns of the path. Milestone markers along the way have been Snelson's work, Buckminster Fuller's Synergetics, Structure in Nature is a Strategy for Design by Peter Pierce, On Growth and Form by D'Arcy Thompson, The Fractal Geometry of Nature by Benoit Mandelbrot, Structures; or Why Things Won't Fall Down by J.E. Gordon and Chaos, Making a New Science by James Gleick. There were many others. From my conversations with Buckminster Fuller, I learned that Ida Rolfe did some early theorizing about tensegrity and the body in the '60s and although I did not get an opportunity to talk to her, I did talk to some of her students, who were helpful.



Selected articles and abstracts:

LEVIN, S. M. 1981. The icosahedron as a biologic support system. 34th Annual Conference on Engineering in Medicine and Biology, Houston, 23: 404.
______. 1982. Continuous tension, discontinuous compression, a model for biomechanical support of the body. Bulletin of Structural Integration, Rolf Institute, Bolder: 31-33.
______. 1986. The icosahedron as the three-dimensional finite element in biomechanical support. Proceedings of the Society of General Systems Research Symposium on Mental Images, Values and Reality. International Conference on Mental Images, Values, & Reality, 30th annual Meeting SGSR, Philadelphia, U of P, I: G14-26.
______. 1987. Theories about spinal loading. Spine 12: 422-423.
______. 1989. The icosa-dynamical model for biomechanics - the space truss. 33rd meeting of The International Society for the Systems Sciences, Edinburgh, IV: 301-308.
______. 1990a. The space truss as a model for cervical spine mechanics - a systems science concept. In J. K. Patterson and L. Burns [eds.], Back Pain - An International Review, 231-238. Klewer Academic Publishers, Lancaster.
______. 1990b. The primordial structure. 34th annual meeting of The International Society for the Systems Sciences, Portland, II: 716-720.
______. 1990c. The Myofascial-Skeletal Truss: a Systems Science Analysis. In J. Barnes [ed.], Myofascial Release - the search for excellence, 11-15. MFR Seminars, Paoli.
______. 1992. The tensegrity system in the pelvis and the hindquarter syndrome. First Interdisciplinary World Congress on Low Pack Pain and its Relation to the Sacroiliac Joints, San Diego.
______. 1994. A new model for pelvic mechanics. Biomedical Engineering - Recent Developments: 13th Southern Biomedical Engineering Conference, Washington, D.C.: 10085-11088.
______. 1995a. The Importance of soft tissues for structural support of the body. Hanley & Belfus.
______. 1995b. The sacrum in three-dimensional space. 2nd Interdisciplinary World Congress on Low Pack Pain and its Relation to the Sacroiliac Joints, San Diego, II: 625-633.
______. 1997a. Putting the shoulder to the wheel: a new biomechanical model for the shoulder girdle. Biomed Sci Instrum 33: 412-417.
______. 1997b. A different approach to the mechanics of the human pelvis: tensegrity. In A. Vleeming, V. Mooney, T. Dorman, C. Snijders, and R. Stoeckart [eds.], Movement Stability & Low Back Pain, 157-167. Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh.
______. 1998a. The tensegrity system and pelvic pain syndrome. 3rd Interdisciplinary World Congress on Low Back and Pelvic Pain, Vienna: 87-94.
______. 1998b. A system science model for biomechanical construction. In A. Marcus [ed.], Musculoskeletal Disorders, 127-131. North Atlantic Books, Berkeley.
______. 1999. Putting the shoulder to the tensegrity wheel: a new biomechanical model for the shoulder girdle. Second Congress of the International Shoulder Group, Calgary: 19.
______. 2000a. Put the shoulder to the wheel: a new biomechanical model for the shoulder girdle. Mechanotransduction 2000, Paris: 131-136.
______. 2000b. Mechanics of upside down. National Science Foundation Workgroup on Force Transduction, Arlington.
______. 2002. The tensegrity-truss as a model for spine mechanics. 12th International Conference on Mechanics in Medicine and Biology, Lemnos, Greece: 317-320.
LEVIN, S. M., AND. KNOTHE-TATE, M. 2001. A new model for biologic constructs the tensegrity icosahedron. XVIII Congress of the International Society of Biomechanics, Zurich.
KNOTHE-TATE. M., AND LEVIN, S. M., 2001. Tensegrity: are osteocytes "pre-tensed" to function n? XVIII Congress of the International Society of Biomechanics, Zurich.

[Robert V]

It's easy to see where my next concentration lies. Thanks, coach!

[Coach Tran]

People spout things like "nothing new under the sun", but hindsight doesn't mean anything (S#%t).

Jarlo, this is going to be a quote I will use often in my coaching and teaching. THanks!

[Jrichardson]

Sweeeet! :mrgreen:

[Alexk]

That's awesome Coach...I notice you also talk about Myers Anatomy Trains theories and he's a big fan of Bucky as well! Heck, he's probably a friend of yours!

[SteveB]

I just flat love the Tribe, and am incredibly excited to see “knuckledraggers” asking the kinds of core questions that have engaged philosophers since before the Greeks proclaimed the unity of body, mind and spirit. Folks, we’re about to apply Tensegrity to life itself.

If you are an athlete, you already have the skills to succeed in business and have a satisfying, passionate and supportive personal life. If you are a loving mother, father, son, or daughter, you already have the skills to have the body of your dreams, and a career that supports you with real joy and contribution. And if you’ve ever been successful at earning money, you already know how to nurture relationships, and improve your sensual physicality. In too many cases, you simply haven’t been able to draw the connections between these different arenas. On April 22, possibly for the first time in history (because some of these technologies have simply never been available to the general public), at The Path To Masterful Living workshop, Scott and I are going to open the door. Together with the Tribe, we’ll draw the connection between athleticism, martial art, personal success, health, relationship…every aspect of our lives. If you’ve ever succeeded in any of these arenas, you can succeed in all of them. And remember: we’re all champions, each and every one of us. Every single human being on this planet is already a winner—they just don’t know it. Think about it: you beat out ten BILLION other sperm for the job of being you!

Live Your Dream!

[Jake Shannon]

Very nice, Coach :D I love that his father was huge in Club Swinging!!!

[Doc]

We now have Dr. Levine scheduled to lecture at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in April as our "ground rounds" speaker. :D

[Scott Sonnon]

Keith,

That's fantastic! Please give us a report on the lecture! Dr. Levin will be presenting an incredible article in the next issue of CST Magazine regarding tensegrity for martial artists. This is a very exciting honor for RMAX.

[Scott Sonnon]

I just received this email from Dr. Levin on a particular topic (spinal stenosis (http://www.circularstrengthmag.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9172)). His genius absolutely floors me. Being able to interact with one of the world's top scientists and pioneers in human performance just leaves me speechless (a virtue my wife says is impossible. :lol: )


Scott,

First, I must complement you and the discussion group for the sophistication of the discussion. You ask questions that no one else is considering.

Back in the 1940s a Harvard professor, Dunphy, did some wound healing studies and showed that wounds heal better under stress. At about the second week of wound healing, there is fibroblast proliferation, and if the wound is stressed, the fibroblasts line up to maximally resist the stress, and the scar is stronger.

Since physicians are reductionists and cannot extrapolate, this work keeps getting repeated, just changing tissues. It always comes out the same. There is no doubt that mechanical stress plays an important part of healing. This work was repeated in bone and it was shown that the bone (also, tendon, nerve, etc.) heals better and faster under load. The densest and strongest bones are in weightlifters. This is not just local, but global. Biotensegrity strikes again!

In my mind, the best exercises are rhythmic, patterned exercises. It is the most efficient use of muscles as they tend to remain isometric and isotonic. That is why you can sustain these activities over long periods of time. Tissues respond to stress at different rates. Cells change their internal architecture to respond to stress many times/sec. The skin wound closes in a matter of days and is strong in a mater of a 2-4 weeks. You can strengthen muscle in a few weeks; bone just takes longer. There has been shown increased metabolic activity in healing fracture sites 5-7 years after fracture. It makes sense that you can use global exercise patterns to stimulate local healing/strengthening.

Now for spinal stenosis. No one can look at an x-ray, MRI etc. and tell which of those with spinal stenosis are in pain. As noted, conservative Rx is usually tried first. That is because the vast majority get better on their own. Their X-ray/MRI may be worse, no change, or, rarely, better, but that has little affect on the outcome.

Obviously, it is more than the perceived stenosis that is the problem. What is missing in these patients is lumbar translation. Often, restoration of lumbar translation will relieve the symptoms of spinal stenosis. Since swinging those Clubbells® of yours will indirectly increase the lumbar translation, it can be a very effective treatment. Strengthening the muscles and ligaments may also pull the bones apart (that is a whole other discussion), and that may also contribute to success.

One must remember, many diseases are multi-factorial and fixing one aspect may be enough, or no help at all.

Did that help?
Steve
This man is a font of knowledge. I feel honored that he would contribute to our conversation! Imagine that Albert Einstein gave us a testimonial stating that, "CST will turn back the years!" Receiving confirmation by a research giant like Dr. Levin is just that stunning. I, for one, am returning again to his Biotensegrity DVDs for more review.

[bejustintime]

I am not a doctor but the light bulb is on. I am not a fan of plaster casts.
I am going to quote from page 142 of THE BODHISATVA WARRIORS by Terence Dukes.
"Rendering aid helped Indian missionary monks become familiar with the distinctive principles and practices of Chinese warriorhood. The skills developed in treating injuries distinctive to the
Ksatreya were eagerly integrated into the healing repertoires of the Chinese military. the most notable of these being the art of surgery. It was probably among the Ksatreya that the adjustable bone splint was invented. This orthopedic device, made from wood and string, allows a fractured bone or joint to be set firmly in a variety of positions, which can be altered as the bone itself heals. The limb, when set in this device, can be kept fully mobile. In simple fractures of the leg or arm, the patient can walk or grasp normally immediately after it is put on. Although now seemingly forgotten in India, the Chinese have improved this design even further and produced very light bamboo forms which have wooden screw adjusters on the individual splint components themselves. By means of these compound fractures can be reset in place by tightening the various joint sections individually and as required.
In 1970, the Chinese Medical Association published a five year study on this which showed that joints treated with this device-rather than the conventional plaster of Paris immobilization-healed in up to a third of the time. Despite this study, Western hopitalized patients are still treated to the plaster of Paris method."
:idea: Justin James

[HereBeADragon]

bejustintime I would really like to read more on this are there any web sites you might suggest as good reading?

[Doc]

Complicated fractures usually don't get the plaster casts. Typically the orthos will use an "Ex-Fix"....which means external fixation device. This involves pins/screws that go into the bone and the attach to an external framework. This can be adjusted as needed, and allows for continued monitoring and dressing changes for whatever soft-tissue wounds may be present.