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The discussion, part 2
publication date: Oct 8, 2010
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author/source: Arthur De Vany
Art: I am going to stay away from the relative merits of my approach and MovNat. That is an unending debate and, as yet, there are no scientific studies of MovNat or on EF (as I call Evolutionary Fitness). There is ample evidence in the literature regarding the benefits of high intensity, intermittent training. And, they are spectacular. My own preference is to do my power law variations in the gym for efficiency and safety and then to use the physiologic capacity that it produces to play. So, my play component picks up virtually all the benefits of being back in nature and playing as a child would play or a predator would hunt. The gym saves me a lot of time and produces far more muscle mass than any other system. Why is this important? Sarcopenia is a real hazard as people age; their muscle mass diminishes as their fat mass increases. My style of exercise has allowed me to retain all the muscle mass I have ever had; I weigh what I did about 60 years ago, and am a bit leaner now at 73 years of age. Francis Heylighen's comment: However, complexity is much more than power law distributions. Varying the intensity of an exercise may make it more physically challenging but it makes it hardly more complex or more cognitively challenging. One way to see this in terms of degrees of freedom. Simply put, every muscle in our body represents one degree of freedom, as this muscle can be contracted to a smaller or larger degree. A particular exercise X will typically demand the contraction of a limited number of muscles, say A, B, C, and D. Art again: The degrees of freedom at the neural and muscle cell level are no different; it is as hard to follow a prescribed path, which requires modulating degrees of freedom in the movement, as it is to swing wildly (using tennis or baseball as an example). Every muscle cell is a specific individual and acts precisely in line with the demands it must fulfill, or not.
The brain is decentralized and distributed throughout the body in the spinal column, in golgi apparatii, and in countless other sensors that must act too quickly for the signal to reach the brain. An example is the dorsal horn, that cluster of neurons near the base of the spinal cord. Most people have a problem of letting go the brain's protective circuits, particularly those with spinal pain or past injury. As a consequence, they maintain a very complex pattern of over-riding control, which in essence decomplexifies movements and spinal positions. The solution is to "let go" by practicing falling in a safe manner. Standing on a Bosu ball or other balance challenging device, the brain's tight control can be decentralized to the dorsal horn by relaxing and gently falling and then regaining balance without conscious control, permitting the specialized circuits of the dorsal horn to regain control. This is the simplest and most effective way to deal with back pain. Nature's design is NOT to delegate all tasks to the brain, but to decentralize it in countless ways to other organs or sensors. Scott Kelso's great work, which I believe Francis has mentioned (Scott is a friend), shows how degrees of freedom are constrained by dynamics in virtually all movement. This is true if you are lifting a rock or a barbell. Gait instability is a loss of complexity that occurs with loss of strength, brain damage, and aging in general. Weight lifting has been shown to restore complexity of gait and heart dynamics. Fractal physiology has many of the answers, or at least many good questions, that shed light on these issues. I agree that reps have little meaning, whether you are lifting rocks or barbells. Yet, each rep is really a new movement because the phosphates, glycogen, intramuscular triglycerides, lactate, and muscle fibers are different with each rep. Different numbers and types of fibers are recruited with each repetition. But, here is my real goal: I want high physiologic capacity---the ability to produce high multiples of my basal metabolic rate, known as METs. Capacity or headroom opens a large range of degrees of complexity of action and response to challenge. It makes you a bit fearless, something we all could use. Aging persons experience a large increase in mood and feelings of self-efficacy and a willingness to accept challenges. That leads to vastly more complex behavior. Erwin is spectacular, but light. There are many deep drop jumps in his videos (this may not be part of his training for clients). This eventually will pound the head of the femur deeply into the hip socket and, I fear, over time will compress the area there. I do drop jumps off of equipment in the gym (at least until the owner or his lawyer ask me to stop). But, rarely. I add a little danger to my work outs by leaping to catch a high bar (I haven't missed yet, but it would not be pretty if I did). Running, sprinting, and walking through a forest is wonderful. That would require me to drive 30 miles or so, which I am happy to do now and then. But, remember, knee injuries are caused by cutting movements or landing in a hole or surface that puts the leg in a severe eccentric movement or causes direct impact to the joint. I don't know how someone would fare for 60 years on MovNat. I have been in the gym at least that long and have no lasting injuries to show for it, though when I was young and stupid I did sustain a shoulder injury when I lifted competitively in Olympic lifting. I hope this helps. To summarize, I aim for physiologic capacity and that adds complexity to my life in countless ways out of the gym. Arthur De Vany Professor Emeritus Economics and Mathematical Behavioral Sciences UCI asdevany@uci.edu 435-817-3228 |