Rocking and Rolling Is Serious Business
/In theory, I love this recent NYT article about “adopting a playful attitude toward working out”. It’s a lovely story about an awkward kid who grew up to be a trainer who helps his clients “get silly” in their workouts (piggyback rides, tag, skipping). The premise is so important. Working out doesn’t have to be awful. It can be fun. And the benefits of returning to more “primal” (or what I’d call “functional”) movement patterns are indisputable. So what’s the catch?
Well, much like the trainer in the story, I don’t dance at weddings (well, ok, at the age of 43 I finally danced at ONE wedding; it’s a start. And it did result in an epic NYT photobomb). Like many “serious” people, I wasn’t an athletic, playful kid. I was overweight. I was anxious. I was closeted in the South. I was not silly. I did not frolic. I certainly did not play sports. Those things could get me mocked, bullied or worse. So I don’t have that template to look back on to inspire me today. I take movement seriously. Yoga (which I love) can be hard for me. And dancing (in public) can petrify me. Bottomline, some of us struggle being free and joyful and silly in our movement. But we should work at it.
As I read the article I was taken back to an Original Strength workshop I took about 10 years ago. Original Strength is a fitness methodology that uses science and precise breathing and specific movements to help “reset” our bodies to the way we were designed to move. Having protocols to breathe properly through my diaphragm, activate my vestibular system and engage in contra-laterla, cross-lateral and midline crossing movements (rolling, rocking and crawling) helped me learn to “play” when I didn’t have a roadmap for it. And knowing the geeky science stuff behind why it works (like tactile stimulation, hormone regulation, proprioception, neural pathways) helped me lean into them.
So if you’re like me and you want to “reset” your body (i.e. regain some of the mobility, stability and strength we were born with lost to years at a desk) but you’re not a natural skipper all is not lost. Exercises like deadbugs, bird dogs and bear crawls can help. And there are loads of rolling and rocking drills you can do. And if you feel like it, you can even try and smile. :)
