Friday Book Report: Emergence

John H. Holland’s book Emergence:  From Chaos to Order is not particularly light reading.  People who are mathier-than-I (sure, that’s a word, right?) might have an easier time following some of his arguments.  There is a chapter on metaphor, for those of us who feel happier among the poets.  That’s the disclaimer.

The central idea of the book is that a few simple rules, as in a game, can produce surprising complexity that is difficult or impossible to predict from an examination of the rules.  This “emergence” implies some interesting things for areas as diverse as genetics and cognition.  It also impacts the art of model building, which, in turn, allows us to understand complex phenomena.

It is always worth reading books that stretch the brain.  I think that I put it on my blog reading list because the book was referred to in one of the books that traced our evolution; we do emerge, complex, from a fairly limited number of building blocks, after all.

I would recommend it, and maybe a math tutor.  At least for me.

A plateful and some cones

I used to work in a context where there were community dinners and every semester the new community members would get a chance to make a plate to use, partly because it was fun and partly because reusable plates are better for the universe.  When I made my plate, I put words on it that I needed to remember. They come from Angeles Arrien and they are:

Show up.

Pay attention.

Tell the truth.

Remain unattached to the outcome.

The words are pretty universally applicable, but in a fitness context, what they mean is that we do the work and let the results handle themselves.  When we come work out, we have to be there, we have to focus on form, we have to see/say what is really there, and then we need to let the work take effect.

What’s on your plate?

Five things and a picture of a flower

Stressful times call for coping techniques.  Here are five that are better for us than an entire bottle of Scotch or buying out the ice cream section at the grocery store or massive doses of retail therapy.

1.     Connect.  This one works best in person because then there can be hugging involved, but phone, text, email, whatever can also help.  When we feel alone, we suffer more.  Bonus points if we do something that helps someone else out while we are connecting, whether that means going along on a dog walk or bringing dinner or just listening.

2.     Move.  Stress hormones leave the body faster if we chase them out with movement.  This doesn’t have to be complicated or formal.  Just get off the couch.  It will feel better.

3.    Cook.  Taking the time to make nourishing food restores our senses.  We also establish a tiny bit of control over the universe.  We rebuild our chemistry through healthy eating.  Also, home cooking can be a subversive act in these food-industrial-complex times.

4.     Sing.  Off key is fine.  Really this is just an excuse to get us all to breathe.  Singing requires us to take bigger breaths, which is all good news for the body.  One caveat:  karaoke may not be the best choice if it involves lots of alcohol.  Just sayin’.

5.     Spirit.  I know.  That’s not a verb.  But let’s pretend it is the verb for pray/meditate/tune in.  All of those mindful spiritual practices train us to deal with whatever comes along.

Mix and match and see what comes out!

Rocks in a tree?

Last week, one of the exercises I did and my clients did also was a back lunge with a foot on a bench.  It doesn’t look hard.  There are no weights beyond our body weight.  It was surprisingly difficult for many of us, so I learned that we need to work on our proprioception, balance, and core control.

Proprioception is a lovely, fancy word that makes me look smarter when I use it.  It is our sense of where our bodies are in space.  It’s what we use to avoid bumping into furniture.  And, of course, what we use to step back on a bench without looking behind ourselves.  We use it all the time.   The better our proprioception, the more gracefully we can move through the world and the more likely we are to be able to hit a tennis ball, hike a rough trail, and avoid ugly shin bruises.

Balance, not surprisingly, arises in part from our proprioception.  Maybe we don’t want to walk tightropes, but I know we all want to avoid nursing homes.  As we get older, we need to work on our balance to avoid falling. 

Core control contributes mightily to our ability to balance, but that is only one of its important functions.  It helps us avoid back pain.  It keeps us looking trimmer and thinner.  It provides the strong center from which we can base our other strength activities.

We’ll be continuing to work on all these things in the coming weeks!

Monday Workout: Fun with TRX

It’s TRX workout week!  TRX is always fun and challenging because of the inherent instability.  It’s all about the core!  Do three or four rounds, depending on your energy level.

TRX
squat row (mid)	20
mountain climber (mid calf)	20
clock press (long)	20
overhead squat (long)	20
crossing balance lunge (mid)	20
plank (mid calf)	30 sec
crunch	10
hamstring curl	10
low row (mid)	20
burpee (mid calf)	10

Friday Book Report: Lowly Origin

Jonathan Kingdon’s book Lowly Origin traces the evolution of humans.  He contends that what used to be perceived as a linear process is actually more of a family bush with many branches, some leading to extinction rather than to our present existence.  It is an interesting story, framed within an ecological and social context around the question of what brought us to stand up.

Two concepts that are teased out in the text seem particularly relevant to our current fitness situation (note:  I am using the word in the usual context for this blog, not in the evolutionary sense).  One is that our major heritage, as animals, is as opportunists and niche-swipers.  We are not specialized, particularly, in our bodies, but in our minds, where we recognize and exploit resources first discovered by other animals.  This makes us almost endlessly adaptable, which is great; we can learn to cope with many different challenges.  It also means that we have to be mindful of the consequences of our choices and their impact on other creatures, both human and otherwise.  Fitness is about living into our potential.

The second concept arises from the first.  Our experience of the world, given our relatively unspecialized forms, is mediated through technology.  For early humans, this meant that we used tools to make food accessible to us (stones, sticks, knives, fire).  This habit of being has percolated well beyond the survival level.  Perhaps it is not surprising that we have become smart phone addicts given that we evolved in concert with technology.  Again, this evolutionary habit provides us tremendous opportunity for growth and encloses within it a dangerous potential for abuse via disconnect from the rest of the world.

In our current climate, I can wholeheartedly say that it is a pleasure to read about real research and thoughtful theorizing.  If nothing else, this book is good for our scientific fitness as we work to survive the very concept of alternative facts.

More writing it down...

There is a theme to the week.  This notebook is my current journal.  Writing has useful fitness applications, believe it or not, and so wins points with me for efficient use of time.

There have been studies that indicate that journaling reduces stress.  Gratitude journals in particular seem to have beneficial effects.  It may be that journaling is meditative, or that the reflective process of writing increases the brain version of proprioception, or that creativity taps into different circuits than we use regularly.

Whatever the reason or mechanism, journaling provides one more tool for our wellness kit.