return of the revenge of the son of elvis vs. frankenstein

[KD Jones]

- or -
it's all about the pelvis (and closely related structures) and piecing things back together.

Brian has been poking at me a little about getting back to the blog. And Coach Wilson's post today kinda put the nail in it.

For a while there, I couldn't see the point, since the vast majority of what I'm doing isn't CST. My focus is on healing the my back (and related issues), and my goals are pretty vague, since I don't know how long it will take to clear things up enough to get to other work. I'll have to float for now, and have the goal be just doing the work consistently.

But, being part of the community, I should probably get this in here anyway. Maybe it's an opportunity to start logging food as well. Could use a little more consciousness there.

So this is the start, on a day during which I missed most of my routine due to other commitments.


> Much time on back, on heating pad, with intermittent "side to side" stretching.
> Balance ball "wheelbarrows" while rolling legs on ball, out to feet on ball and back, 20 reps.
> Stretching throughout the day, catch as catch can, mostly forward leaning "side to side" motion, the intent being to "free" the vertrebrae of the lower back. Also a good deal of flat foot squatting with rocking, side to side, forward and back, and pushing the knees apart. For some reason it seems to help a bit.
1x each of following (should be 3)
> Pigeon pose, starting to work to full king pigeon pose (with rear foot raised). Rear foot is currently approx 18 - 24 inches from the head when warmed into it... I'll have to have someone measure it.
> Side glute stretch, 4 minutes each side.
> Knee pressed up to sides, coming close to floor while laying on back, working to keep back flat on floor, 20 reps.

It's late now, and I don't even remember what I ate today, except that there was a LOT of flax in the waffles I made, a pastrami and swiss sandwich, some beef jerky... and I have to admit that a Diet Pepsi crossed under my nose AND I DRANK IT. Eek. I feel like a candidate for the "lost weekend club."

I'd like to be able to say that somewhere, a new year starts tomorrow, but I kinda doubt it.

[Scott Sonnon]

Welcome back, brother. Every day is gloriously a new one.

[dferguson]

KD,

Even if you just logged your nutrition and recovery work, I would find it encouraging to read. Please continue!

Take care,

[Coach Bentz]

Welcome back, man!

[Joseph David]

Welcome back KD, good to see you blogging.
Every sunrise is a new awakening

[KD Jones]

Sat. 9/23/06

Heavy family day, combined with allowing myself to run out of Adderol (ADD medication) the previous day. As a result, very messy day all in all. Only real benefit was an excellent sleep the previous night (not due to lack of med, just accidentally allowed myself to fall asleep with my daughter rather than getting up to work). If not for the extra rest, it would have been worse.

Heat for .75 hour while on back with feet raised in the AM, while occupied with other stuff.
1x all of the following

• Knee to armpit glute stretch, held for 3 minutes each side.
• Knee close as possible to floor at sides while on back, extending legs out as close to full as possible. 20 reps.
• Hips side-to-side as far as possible with hips as far back as possible, while on all fours, then moving out to front, shifting weight more to arms, repeat. 20 reps.
• Standing side stretches (like extended triangle pose, but with legs closer together... goal is full extended triangle pose). 5 reps, approx 30 seconds each.

Thoughout the rest of the day, catch as catch can, made up for overall time lost in exercise, but with hip side-to-side exercise, with forward bend, palms flat on floor and legs straight. This is, for whatever reason, a very helpful exercise. It relieves most pain, any "warning" sensations I'm having (which are like mild, dull, electrical sensations in the upper glute near the iliac crest on the right side).
Also standing side bends and flat foot squats here and there where possible throughout the day.
So, quantity of time is made up, but sequence and variety are WAY off.
I'll have to look at this as being a probable regularity on weekends, and find some way to accomodate.

Food started out OK, then went to Idaho in a shopping cart...

• Lots of decaf green mixed with red tea throughout the day as usual, plus a little darjeeling in the AM.
• Steel cut oats 1 cup plus 1/4 cup flax meal and 2 tblsp high lignan flax oil as late breakfast.
• Taco Time Soft Taco, late lunch. For those not in the Northwest, Taco Time is nothing like Taco Bell. The stuff is actually fresh, and is about as close to "health food" as fast food can be, as long as one avoids the deep fried objects and soft drinks.
• Whole wheat spaghetti spaghetti with pre-made Prego marinara mixed with Grass fed organic hamburger and a little olive oil. I ate WAY too much of this. Can't afford to go unconscious even briefly, especially if ADD meds are absent.
• 1.5 cups of whole, real fresh mild from Whole Foods. This was the first real milk I'd had in years. (Got it so the girl's could taste what Laura Ingall's milk tasted like.) I had honestly forgotten what milk tasted like. This alone is likely to be my favored desert from now on.
• 1 peanut butter/chocolate "Skinny Cow" sandwich. It was there. Oops.

[KD Jones]

Big news. I may be cleared to do FlowFit®, and possibly some Clubbell® work next week. Woo ha. Saw my PT this Tuesday, and left copies of FlowFit® and the CTSC video for him to review. I showed him some of the stuff, but wasn't sure I could get it across well due to lack of practice and my current dopey shape.

Trying to come up with some kind of diagnostic so we can know when this thing is actually better. I originally suggested the 4CBD, but when I demonstrated it he just winced a little and said "let's stay away from that one for the time being... OK?"

Having not experienced it previously, I am now of the opinion tht seeing your PT wince is nearly as encouraging as seeing your insane Uncle Ted waving a stick at you in the backyard after a little too much something at Thanksgiving dinner.

At any rate, the past 4 days just slipped under the radar, eaten by further family nonsense, mandatory work on our house, the girl's educational requirements, and the like.

A few lessons came through though.

First, I'm going to have to get really precise on my food log. It's going to be the only way it will work for me in any way. The tendency to go unconscious with food is just too strong for me. Don't know whether it's biochemical or a behavior I got from my father who used to clean the table single handedly. I think he might have eaten the table a couple of times, but the image is a little fuzzy.

Second, I finally figure out that my forward bend is ALL wrong. I had too much bend in my back, and not enough flexibility in my hamstrings to be going as low as I was. As a result, I have an entirely new appreciation for the downward dog. Even though I should have respected it more simply for the fact that it's in FlowFit®, it's now obvious that it's the ONLY FlowFit® move I hadn't really given my mind to.

Also, in order to train myself into things of the forward bends in terms of the "belly" of the hamstrings (rather then at the knee or in the back), which I was not managing effectively, I'm using a stretch I picked up from a Kit Laughlin book. It's basically a triangle pose (see HERE), except - when bending to the right side - you start with the legs closer together, the right leg bent as much as is necessary to lay your torso to the side fully resting upon it, and wrap the arms around the thigh. Then, you gradually straighten the leg, which focuses all the need for flexibility on the hamstring, essentially taking the back and knee out of the equation.

For me, at least, it's impossible to feel the action of the stretch (though I don't even like writing that word, now) anywhere BUT the belly of the hamstring. It really seems to be helping me get my mind there.

Also had something of a revelation regarding the difference between "posture" and "true consciousness in balance." In short, I'm coming to understand how posture is a terribly weak and almost useless term in the face of true, functional, integrated structure. Which is to say breathing, alignment and structure. I'm trying to write up a better explanation of this for the general discussion section, becuase whether I can elucidate it or not, I think it warrants a go.

[KD Jones]

OK. Another little phase punctuated by silence and noise.

I came to realize, as the upshot of a conversation with Brian Bentz, exactly what the process of healing may entail. In another recent thread, I wrote about my understanding of Coach Sonnon's statement that one has to give up everything to persue healing, when it's necessary to do so. When I wrote that, I knew that this process could "go long," and that I'd almost certainly have to continue taking precautions for the rest of my life. Fine. But while talking to Brian, it suddenly became clear - in a way it had not before - that there had been a time limit in my head. Certainly I'd be all healed up by Lambda? That's a loooong time from now, right.

Oops. It's now becoming clear that it may be longer than that. And I think that idea had been swimming just beneath the surface, because there had been another little bout of darkness attending it.

So, as Brian and I discussed (he's pretty good at nudging a person back toward the rails), the point is what can be learned, should things draw out. Maybe there are things that will require that much time (however long it may be) to learn, or relearn. Maybe I really need that much time to unlearn my tendency toward meatheadedness. To really, really apply the principles of intuitive training (which are turning out to be deeper in effect than I'd thought). To ingrain a meaningful, fully internalized sense of structure/movement/breathing in everyday life.

Gee whiz. Maybe that's enough to work on. And maybe the lack of those things would have been greater hinderances than I'd allowed myself to think, anyway.

-------------------------

Spent some time over the last few days experimenting with the "mountain pose." If it hadn't been for my recent experiences of my complete inability to properly engage and "inhabit" my pelvis, I NEVER would have bothered with this. I mean, honestly, a pose comprised of just standing there? Turns out I have some things to learn about just standing there.

Likely as a compensation for whatever it is that's gone haywire in my back/legs/ankles, for as long as I can remember I've had a curious tendency to cross my legs while standing. Usually, the right foot ends up hooked around the back of the left.

I've discovered that when I come at least close to a proper mountain pose, with the hips in a truly neutral position, knees straight, the spinal column properly balanced over the pelvis, and the pelvis in an appropriate along the horizontal (transverse) plane, my tendency to "coil" my legs disappers. There is, temporarally for now, some actual sense of the structure of standing.

Really, it's my first experience of being OK with my status as a biped.

------------------------

Having a lot of trouble with the position I have to spend too much time in - on my back with feet up. For quite a while there I couldn't figure out why my intellectual/creative energies were at an all-time low. Just the other day it struck me... I don't know if it's ADD related or not, but a prone position just seems to put the brakes on my brain.

I realized this because I've had trouble with my musical practice schedule. Getting myself to practice has never been hard - I like bearing down that way - but I've been finding myself doing all kinds of wierd stuff to avoid it. Several days ago, I found myself in a guitar store trying out instruments, and I found myself playing like me again, until my back hurt enough to stop me. Later I realized that I was sitting in my usual playing position, which both ramped up my abilities AND temporarally mangled my back.

In the end, I believe it's the "shark syndrome"... if I can't move (which I do when sitting to play) I just can think. With some few exceptions of lying down in silence to focus, I tend always to think on my feet - to pace, wave my arms around and draw my ideas in space, that sort of thing.

So one of my current challenges is to find a way around this. Maybe I need to build an automated teeter-totter or merry-go-round to lie on. Maybe not. Having trouble with this one...

--------------------

Too tired to write any more right now, though I should add that this coming week needs to be the start of a whole new push related to diet. My lack of any form of intense activity has played havoc on my appetite. I'm WAY hungrier than I should be given energy expenditure... perhaps my body is trying to figure out the cause of the "lack of drive" from the whole on-the-back thing, and is misinterpreting it as some nutritional deficit. Which, I suppose, it may be in the end.

Anyway, work is needed. Considering Radiant Recovery, but not sure, just yet...

[Joseph David]

KD,
What a fabulously insiteful post

Some say, that all things happen for a reason. Too help us grow ultimatly. It seems like your looking deeply for the lesson the universe is providing you with.

As a climber, my spirtual teacher would always say to meditate on top of the mountain. The same could go for Mountain pose. Interesting how simplicity reveals something much more sophisticated. Keep up the great interspection

[KD Jones]

Joseph - I've gotten hold of the bromelain you mentioned, in the form of a product called "Wobenzym N," which also contains trypsin and chromotrypsin which are purported to be anti-inflammatory as well. Other ingredients are papain, pepsin and rutosid. After doing some additional research (obsessive), I started taking it today. I'm actually a little excited about the possibility that it will help. A side note on this stuff... on this first day, is seems (seems) as though the product has a positive effect on the excessive hunger I've been experiencing since being out of the loop. Kinda odd.


Saw my PT today. HE FEELS THAT I SHOULD BE ABLE TO START FlowFit® AND POSSIBLY SOME Clubbell® WORK WITHIN THE NEXT 2 WEEKS. Like, woo-hoo. He doesn't think anything he saw on the FlowFit® and Clubbell® DVDs should have any negative impact on my lower back, if practiced as demonstrated. (I hope that doesn't mean that if I don't perform like Coach Sonnon my head will explode.)


I'm actually feeling really positive - without breaking a sweat to be so - for the first time in too long.


Today I happened to read the back cover of the CTCS DVD package. The first paragraph is as follows:
"Inspiration requires demonstration. The capacity of one's tribe only expands by the actions of the one who embraces their welfare and makes it his/her personal responsibility. Most people do not understand having to conceal effort, pain, exhaustioin or fear for the morale of the tribe. But these [relationships and requirements have] been a FACT throughout history." (Italics mine.)


Whoa.