Somatic Mechanic

Phantom limbs can contort into impossible configurations : Neurophilosophy

Phantom limbs can contort into impossible configurations

Category: Neuroscience
Posted on: October 28, 2009 1:37 PM, by Mo

FOLLOWING the surgical removal of a body part, amputees often report sensations which seem to originate from the missing limb. This is thought to occur because the brain's model of the body (referred to as the body image) still contains a representation of the limb, and this leads to the experience that the missing limb is still attached to their body. Occasionally, amputees say that they cannot move their phantom limbs - they are perceived to be frozen in space, apparently because they cannot be seen.

Yet, research shows that the body image is malleable and easily manipulated. And according to new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, phantom limbs can be altered by internal brain mechanisms alone. The study shows that some amputees can make their phantom limbs defy the anatomical constraints of the physical body, using visual imagery to make them perform movements which could not possibly be performed by a real limb.

via scienceblogs.com

This would be the difficult way to get my leg up as high as I want it in ballet class.

Make physical activity fun!

Why don't people exercise?

There's been a lot of discussion in the exercise psychology world about why people don't get enough exercise.  Only 59% of Americans actually get even the minimum recommended amounts of physical activity (Center for Disease Control, 2007).  That includes things like running on the treadmill and Pilates, but also sweeping the driveway, parking your car further away from the entrance to the mall, or taking the stairs.  

Our nation's public health policy has been to recommend people walk for 30 minutes most days of the week, and it has not been a hit.  Most folks find it bo-ring... it's much more interesting to sit and watch that rerun.  "Lucy! I'm home!"  

I just read a paper that discussed recommending strength training to the general public instead of walking.  They had many great reasons why we should recommend strength training:  - to normalize blood pressure, reduce insulin resistance, reduce abdominal fat, increase metabolism, reduce loss of bone density and improve one's capacity for work.  This paper was primarily interested in focusing on older adults, but these benefits are the same for all age groups.  They did find that for older adults, 2 decades of age-related loss of strength and muscle mass could be regained in about 2 months of resistance training. Wow.

But most people aren't interested in exercising.  They find so many other things that are more compelling, like earning a living, or taking care of children, or that crazy Lucy Ricardo.  Winett, Williams and Davy suggest the very things that make strength training challenging (you've got to focus your attention, set goals, measure your progress, you get immediate feedback and a sense of personal control and mastery) are the same things that will make it a meaningful experience that people will want to recreate on their own.  They will want to repeat their workout, not just because they're afraid of getting weak or of developing heart disease, but because they enjoy the experience.  The authors write:

"These final points suggest a new direction for health behaviour interventions.  Rather than attempting to keep people adhering to behaviours they find aversive, an unlikely possibility, maintenance programmes can focus on tailoring programmes so that engaging in specific health behaviours such as resistance training is intrinsically reinforcing."

So for those of us in movement education and personal training like Pilates and Gyrotonic, we should thank our stars that these methods have a purpose in and of themselves.  Our clients benefit from learning a work-out that is self-reinforcing through its characteristics:  requires focus, is fun, provides feedback and a sense of mastery (that's after you learn Figure 8s on the Handle Unit - wink).  

Reference:  Winett, R.A., Williams, D.M., & Davy, B.M. (2009). Initiating and maintaining resistance training in older adults: a social cognitive theory-based approach.  British Journal of Sports Medicine, 43, 114-9.

If you would like to read the original paper, e-mail me and I can send you a PDF for your personal use.

The Many Ills of Peripheral Nerve Damage - NYTimes.com

If you have ever slept on an arm and awakened with a “dead” hand, or sat too long with your legs crossed and had your foot fall asleep, you have some inkling of what many people with peripheral neuropathy experience day in and day out, often with no relief in sight.

via www.nytimes.com

I come across folks with this disorder in my practice from time to time.  If you are a movement educator, you will benefit from reading this article for a description of peripheral neuropathy.

Marathons and Heart Attacks

A few years ago, when I was taking Physiology and Biomechanics of Aerobic Exercise, I had read about the curious finding of elevated troponin levels found in some marathoners after races.  Troponin is a molecule found in muscle, and is the blood marker that a heart attack has occurred.  Here’s an article from NYTimes.com that explains this more fully.

Reach for your toes to assess arterial stiffness

How far you can reach beyond your toes from a sitting position (normally used to define the flexibility of the body) may be an indicator of how stiff your arteries are.  Because arterial stiffness often precedes cardiovascular disease, the results suggest that this could become a quick measure of a person’s risk for heart attack or stroke.  Article here.  If you would like a copy of the original PDF, let me know and I can e-mail it to you for your personal use.

Body Language & Dogs

Malcolm Gladwell’s awesome essay on Cesar Millan, body language and dogs.  Just think, we could be as skillful as dogs at reading other's inner thoughts through body language if we only paid attention.  Maybe holding a tennis ball in our mouths would help too.

Video of muscle filament sliding

Originally posted on Wed July 5, 2006

For those of you in the Franklin Method Year 2 course, you may get a kick out of this animation which describes muscle filament sliding.  You will need RealPlayer to watch it.