Muscles and Meridians: The Manipulation of Shape by Phillip Beach
lays out a model for human movement called the Contractile Field. It is one of a number of books that
attempt to counter the tendency to view each muscle in isolation by presenting
a systems approach.
Drawing from embryology,
evolution, and traditional Chinese medicine, Beach discusses the ways our muscles,
organs, sense organs, and fascia all work together to move our bodies. He suggests an assessment system that
takes into account what he calls archetypal postures, including the basic deep
squat that is so prevalent in the non-Western world and so sadly missing in the
West. Additionally, he notes that
we have deprived ourselves of a lot of sensory information by constantly
wearing shoes.
Sometimes the most important
exercises are the simplest. Let’s
practice getting down on the floor and back up. Let’s kick off our shoes and feel the ground beneath our
feet.