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Category: Reviews (Page 3 of 4)

The habit loop

Book Review: The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

June 11, 2014 / / 1 Comment

Rationale for reading: Hope to improve my ability to keep clients accountable. Recommendation from Zach Moore.

Book summary: Habits are initiated with a cue and reinforced with a reward. If you understand how habits are made, then you can adjust your behavior. Find the cue and reward for your habit, then change the routine.

Review summary: I initially listened to this book, and it was so good I picked up a hard copy as well. There are a lot of pieces of the book that I left out of this review. There are some great stories, especially the chapter about Target and the chapter about the gambler vs. the widower. Very user-friendly book with a plethora of citations in the back. Highly recommended.

Suggested audience: Anyone who interacts with people, especially if you coach them to change their habits.

 

Stuck in My Ways

In the past, every time I got hungry while I was at home, I would make some food and go lay down to watch TV while eating. This severely ate up my productivity (pun intended because I like them).

I could be on a mission to get things done. Wake up at 6AM, go downstairs and power through a book for hours. Maybe noon hits: “I need to refuel.”

Go eat: “Man that show is good. I better watch another.” And another. And another…

It’s hard to get out of a habit.

But once I recognized what was putting me into this loop, I was able to change. Now I can eat and go back to working. Charles Duhigg explains the process well in “The Power of Habit“, and I’m going to outline some key points for you.

 

How Habits Work

The habit loop

I talked about this a little in a post the other day over on the IFAST website, but habits work in a cycle of mostly predictable steps. A cue tells you to do something, then you are rewarded. The more you do this, the more ingrained it becomes.

How does it get stored? Well one of the older parts of our brain, the basal ganglia, takes care of that. Storing habits is easy to take for granted because they become innate – you just do them – but consider what would happen if you had to think every single time you did every single thing.

When you’re first learning to drive, you step in, adjust the seat, adjust the steering column, look to see where the lights are, look to see where the windshield wipers are, remember to press the brake before coming out of park, move your transmission because you accidentally shifted into neutral instead of reverse, completely stop at stop signs to make sure nobody is coming (hopefully you still do that), and stay in the right lane.

Now when you’re driving you jump in, start going as you’re closing the door, “slow down – look – we’re good” when you turn, lean your seat way back, loosen your grip on the steering wheel, listen to music, put on your makeup, eat a sandwich, and yell at the kids… all at the same time.

If every decision and observation we made was conscious, we would be less productive and easily overwhelmed. Our basal ganglia helps with that.

Thanks little guy!

People with a damaged basal ganglia get locked up when they try to do simple tasks like choosing a path for their morning walk or ordering lunch at a restaurant. They can’t read body language because they aren’t quite sure what they should focus on.

A caveat, however, is that the basal ganglia can’t distinguish between helpful and harmful habits. If you repeat it, it shall stick. But if you learn to observe the cues that trigger your behaviors and the rewards you receive – the driving force – you can begin to change habits.

Cue —> Routine —> Reward. Simple enough.

But that’s not the whole story.

 

How to Create New Habits

A cue and a reward are not enough to make a habit stick. Your brain also needs to crave that reward.

In exercise, the best example are people who start running. Usually they start on a whim because exercise is supposed to be good for you, but they continue because they crave that “runner’s high”. They like the way they feel and the person they become when their body releases endorphins (happy hormones). After a while, they start to anticipate this feeling and their brain gets excited. It gets easier and easier for them to reinforce this habit.

But what happens when they get stuck at work and can’t go for their run? They get irritable. (Though they would get less irritable than someone who’s routine is going for a smoke.)

If you want to create a habit, create a craving.

 

Why Transformation Occurs

The golden rule of habit change: You can’t extinguish a bad habit, you can only change it.

No amount of will can take away that pattern in your brain, but you can build over it. Use the same cue and reward to take advantage of the pattern you’ve built, but change the routine.

Lets set up an example.

  • Cue: Seeing a jelly donut.
  • Routine: Eating a jelly donut.
  • Reward: Sugar high.

Soon enough, seeing a jelly donut creates a craving for a sugar high.

What if when you got a craving for sweets, you first ate an apple? You may still have the sweets after, at least initially, but you’ve begun building a new habit. Physiologically, the sugar in the fruit mitigates your body’s desire for blood glucose – i.e. your blood sugar still elevates, but to a level that is less detrimental to your health and body composition goals. The next step would be to have a handful of veggies when you get a craving for sweets. Then maybe fruit if you need it. You still increase blood sugar and you still feel good after, but you don’t need as much as you did before. You’ve then used a habit to please your pancreas and fight off type II diabetes mellitus.

So replace the routine. Okay. That’s easy.

But that’s not it.

You have to take into consideration why you’re craving your reward in the first place. Consider people who unleash their inner alcoholic when a relative dies. You can replace drinking with a new routine, but when they’re next relative dies, relapse is inevitable. They NEED alcohol to medicate them because otherwise they can’t deal with the stress. Or, more specifically, they FEEL they need to be medicated.

But when an alcoholic goes to Alcoholics Anonymous, they see other people. They hear their stories. They think, “I’m just like this guy… and it worked for him. Maybe it can work for me.”

You need to instill the belief that change is possible. If you’re my client, I’m not going to let you assume you have to stay unhealthy. I’m going to find the bright spots and show you that change is possible.

 

Actionable Steps

Take out a piece of paper.

Choose a habit you want to change. Why do you want to change it? When does it happen? What is the cue that sparks this behavior? What reward do you crave? Write those down.

Draw out your own habit loop. A cue triggers a habit which leads to a reward which reinforces the loop.

Now what is going to be your replacement habit? Make sure it still gives you the reward you crave.

Draw your new habit loop. Make it bigger than the last one.

Do you believe you can change this habit? Why or why not? If alcoholics and gamblers can change, why can’t you?

What do you do around the time that you succumb to your bad habit? Is it at the end of the day when you’ve used up all of your willpower (see p. 137 in the book or this whole other book)? How can you avoid that moment of weakness?

You’ve got a great place to start from. Go make change.

This book is a staple in anyone’s library. Tell me your plan for habit change in the comments below.

P.S. Who do you know that wants to change a habit? Do me a favor and send this to them.

Book Review: Switch by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

June 6, 2014 / / 1 Comment

Rationale for reading: Hope to improve my ability to keep clients accountable. Recommendation from Zach Moore.

Book summary: In order to make change happen, you must direct the rider, motivate the elephant, and shape the path. In not-shorthand language, that means you need to appeal to logic, emotion, and the environment.

Review summary: Great read with great information that has formed my framework for behavior change.

Suggested audience: Anyone who interacts with people, especially if you coach them to change their habits.

 

Intro

If you’ve been reading these past few reviews (one and two), you know by now that Operation Interpersonal Intelligence is in full effect over here at LanceGoyke.com. I read Made to Stick by the Heath brothers years ago and it was one of the best books I’ve read. Their writing is simple, direct, and fun.  Switch gives Made to Stick a run for its money.

You don’t need to be a PhD to be successful with changing the behavior of others. This book has given me the framework into which I can fit all of my experiences. It’s a system with three steps:

  1. Direct the Rider: give clear direction. The rider knows where we’re going.
  2. Motivate the Elephant: what looks like laziness is often exhaustion. The rider can only force you along for a short period of time. Ultimately, the elephant will do what it is emotionally inclined to do.
  3. Shape the Path: introduce the right environment for change. If backsliding is simply not an option, it won’t happen.

 

Direct the Rider

There a three pieces to providing the rider with direction. First, find the bright spots.

What would you do differently if you woke up tomorrow and magically your goal was accomplished?

Stop focusing on all the things you do wrong and start focusing on the bright spots. Focus on the solution, not the problem.

Second, script the critical moves. It’s to get crippled by some grand list of things you have to do before you die, which could be on Friday with the way your stress levels are:

  • Buy more vegetables
  • Buy healthy meat
  • Cook more vegetables
  • Find money to buy healthy meat
  • Eat more vegetables
  • Don’t go out to eat
  • Don’t have sweets
  • Don’t stay up all night
  • Don’t skip workouts

We can rephrase a few of those to be more productive – more solution focused – like we just talked about. But first we have to ask, “What is the biggest issue here?” If you try to change everything at once, you become paralyzed and make no decision.

If you, however, have never had a vegetable in your life, we start there. Week one goal: buy vegetables on Sunday and eat them on Tuesday and Friday night.

Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday are completely arbitrary, but they shed light on the fact that you must be specific. You must have a plan. Ambiguity is the enemy of change.

Third, point to the destination. Draw out a postcard of where you’ll be in three months (or six, twelve, etc.). You need a black and white goal. This quote from the book says it all:

“When you’re at the beginning, don’t obsess about the middle, because the middle is going to look different once you get there. Just look for a strong beginning and a strong ending and get moving.”

Every step does not need to be detailed, but you do need vision. Things will change and you will learn to ebb and flow. Worry about now.

 

Motivate the Elephant

To motivate the elephant, you need emotion, so find the feeling. This isn’t a problem for you because you’re reading this blog, but how do you find a feeling when someone is oblivious to the fact that they need to change? We all have positive illusions that make us think we’re more thoughtful the the average person or a better driver than the average person. How do we dispel these illusions without raining down negativity?

Create a crisis. Those famous trainers like the ones on The Biggest Loser know this. They know how to make people cry. It’s not about putting someone down, it’s about helping them.

There’s no more time for maybes. There’s now or never. And I will help you.

Positive feelings

It is so important, however, to avoid negative emotions (my feelings evidenced by my notes in the picture above). Crying because you’re ashamed of yourself is less beneficial than crying because you can see the way you want to become. I’m not going to say that shame is ineffective (I’m sure there’s research somewhere), but I would avoid it as much as possible. This is an area of further that I could afford researching further if anyone has any references to share.

Stick with positive emotions because they open you up, relax you, and give you confidence. I want you to be curious, not stubborn. Happy, not angry. Feel included, not excluded.

Next, you must shrink the change. Remember the Power of Less?

Even if you simply ask someone to drive to the gym is an acceptable goal for a certain population. Yes, that’s all they have to do. It seems remedial, but that’s a step in the right direction. They probably won’t just turn around, either, because the hard part of making the decision to go is already over.

Understand what the next action is. It’s not working out three times a week. It’s going to the gym. No, it’s having gas in the car. No, it’s getting into the car. No, it’s putting on clothes you can publicly sweat in.

Lastly, grow your people. Adopt a growth mindset. Expect failure. Welcome it. Everyone has failed. In fact, I would bet that the more successful you are, the more often you’ve failed. The key is to learn from it.

I've failed so much that once I saw success it was nothing to me but BLINDING.

 

Shape the Path

Shaping the path is all about making it easier to get to your goals and harder to backslide. Tweak the environment to aid in this. For example, if I need to get things done, I have a very specific set of things I do:

  • I go to my desk that doesn’t have electronics around it
  • I leave my phone face down or upstairs
  • I remove books from eyesight that don’t pertain to my current project
  • I put on music without comprehensible vocals (Explosions in the Sky or Sigur Ros)
  • I listen to this music with noise canceling headphones
  • I face a wall instead of a place where I can see people
  • Usually I consume caffeine
  • Any book I’m reading is propped up so it isn’t laying flat on the desk
  • I have a pen to follow words I read and write with
  • I have a highlighter or two
  • I have bookmark tabs so that I can come back to an important point I want to remember
  • I have a certain pen I use to write on these tabs
  • My feet are flat on the floor
  • I will alternate between sitting and standing
  • I start my day with resets to reposition my bones (my boss Bill Hartman has been using a mouthguard lately to do this)

Put these together and you have what I have found to be the best study environment. It’s easier to get to my goals and harder to backslide.

Now consider weight loss. If I want to stop eating ice cream, I can tweak the environment by removing all ice cream from my house. No more bored eating of desserts while I’m at home. If I go out to eat, I can remove temptation by going to a place that doesn’t have ice cream. Simple as that.

Next, you need to build habits. This is only a chapter in Switch, but Charles Duhigg wrote a whole book about it.

Find a trigger for your behavior. Mine for studying is waking up. I do it first thing in the morning. If you’re trying to eat better, maybe your trigger for cooking is going to the gym – as soon as you get home, you’re turning the stove on.

Lastly, it’s time to rally the herd. Surround yourself with like-minded people. If you’re trying to be happier, you better stop hanging out with your “friends” who put you down and complain about everything (or at least see them less). If you’re trying to be healthier, your husband better not be eating donuts every morning for breakfast in front of you. You are the product of your environment. There’s a great story about medical interns working long hours in the book and how they changed behavior in the hospital.

 

Conclusion

This is my new framework for change:

  1. Direct the Rider
    1. Follow the bright spots
    2. Script the critical moves
    3. Point to the destination
  2. Motivate the Elephant
    1. Follow the feeling
    2. Shrink the change
    3. Grow your people
  3. Shape the Path
    1. Tweak the environment
    2. Build habits
    3. Rally the herd

Change doesn’t happen overnight. Be sure to remind yourself throughout your journey of how far you’ve come. Think about the wins you’ve had, both big and small.

Change looks daunting in the beginning, but little wins make that change a little smaller every time. Inertia makes it hard to get rolling, but it also makes it easier to continue. Pick a goal, start small, and watch your success snowball.

Overall, this book is great. I highly recommend you pick up a copy and read all the stories. There’s even a great summary page at the end that I will be referencing in the future.

Anyone read it already? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Yeah playa

Book Review: Influence by Robert Cialdini

May 29, 2014 / / 1 Comment

Rationale for reading: I have not read much on persuasion or sales. I thought this would help keep my training clientele accountable. Recommendation from Zach Moore.

Book summary: To influence others and to avoid being influenced when undesired, understand the psychological principles of reciprocation, commitment, consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity.

Review summary: I went suit shopping and saw this book unfold before my very eyes.

Suggested audience: Anyone who interacts with people, especially if you coach them to change their habits.

———-

A few days after reading this book I went shopping for a suit. Without luck at the cheap places, my friend and I went to Men’s Wearhouse to browse and were immediately accosted by an attractive sales woman. As she began talking, I saw this book unfold.

 

Reciprocation

The idea of this chapter is that if you do someone a favor, they feel obligated to reciprocate it, regardless of whether or not they even like you. Saleswoman Katie went after this right off the bat.

The conversation sounded something like…
Katie: “Hey, we have great suits. Let me show you this one.”
Lance: “Oh wow, this one is great. How much is it?”
Katie: “$800.”
Lance: “Haha, we better look at the cheaper stuff.”
Katie: “Okay, let me show you this $500 suit.”

I then proceeded to call her out on this tactic, which she performs subconsciously. It’s like it’s in her DNA.

 

Commitment and Consistency

Commitment and consistency are obtained when you have a prospect stick around for a longer duration of time. If I’ve committed more time to Katie, I will consistently come back to her for all of my suiting needs. The fact that we were there for hours is one part of it.

Another way to get commitment and consistency is by getting me to agree with anything.

She could ask if I like the $800 suit that I have on (obviously I do). She could ask if I’m enjoying my suit shopping experience. She could even ask if I am enjoying the nice weather! Getting me to commit in any way will help her chances of closing the sale.

Smile for the camera!

 

 

 

Social Proof

Social proof is fascinating to see in action. Like the time my school sent out reports that an unidentified man with a gun was on campus. One person says, “Meh, someone made it up,” and soon nobody thinks it’s a big deal. People just keep walking about. The effect snowballs.

In sales, a busy store gives social proof – especially when customers are asking her for advice. This store wasn’t particularly busy at this hour, so Katie was unable to obtain social proof in this way.

But there’s another way.

Katie, as a wardrobe consultant, values the clothes she wears. The principle of social proof suggests that we want to be like others. So in this case, when Katie talks about how she would “never wear something like that” or how I would “be the life of the party in this”, I am forced to think there must be something to her view and I start to think, “Well, if someone who dresses well thinks this would work, then I should buy this!”

 

Liking

Liking is probably the easiest and most straightforward of the principles from “Influence.”

If I like Katie, I’m more likely to buy from her. So she dresses up, makes me laugh, likes my friend, and matches my level of speech (i.e. she doesn’t swear until I start to swear). Even if what she’s asking of me is uninteresting, I might do it because she’s my friend.

Most of this factor is dependent on the individual and your ability to read them. Some people respond to playful joking, and others want you to be a professional.

 

Authority

The authority principle is what is in play when your boss asks you to do something. Or the reason you pick the guy with the doctorate over the guy with the master’s degree. With authority comes reassurance.

Katie demonstrated her authority by giving advice in a stern tone. “Don’t you ever wear this with any other set of pants. Ever. We record your address and I will hunt you down.” Her strong opinion reinforces to me that she knows what she’s talking about. Plus I feel the need to be obedient because I don’t want to let her down.

Everyone in the fitness industry is trying to have authority; there’s a sense of trust that accompanies the tagline “from a NY Times best selling author”. This says nothing about how good of a trainer he or she might actually be, but proving you’re qualified is necessary to reach customers.

 

Scarcity

Scarcity is a principle that must work well because I see it everywhere.

“Act NOW before this deal expires.”

With Katie, the sheer fact that there were only three suits in the building that fit my body displays the scarcity of the product. Finding more suits that fit me doesn’t lend well to this principle (then there’s just too many to choose from).

Katie mentioned that earlier in the day, she had a guy very close to my size come and wipe out the inventory. Later I find a suit I really like and I get worried that it will be gone if I don’t purchase immediately. However unlikely, it still could happen, and that thought weighs on a consumer’s mind.

This principle will be harder to incorporate with clientele in terms of getting them closer to their goals. Selling them on a group who’s signup period will end on a set date and who’s class size is limited will be a good way to make sure a potential client becomes an actual client. Without a signup, I cannot help someone, and buyer competition funnels in those who are more dedicated, giving us the best group possible.

 

Application

So how am I going to use these to help others accomplish their goals? Let’s break it down.

  • Reciprocation: The best avenue I see to engage reciprocity is by putting out free material. Even if it’s my best stuff. You’re going to try on a suit before you buy it, right?
  • Commitment and Consistency: If you commit to my newsletter, I know that my message is more likely to reach you. I would like as many people on this list because it allows us to form a more personal connection. The site becomes more of an environment than a billboard.
  • Social proof: I want you to know that your friends are here and they like being here. This is the reason that I want the site to be a community; communities stick together and help each other.
  • Liking: I try to be an interesting person – mostly just because then I am more happy. Not everyone will like you, but I’ll be the best me I can be!
  • Authority: Getting results and writing other places will be my next step here. Per the suggestion by an IFAST client, we may be getting shirts that say, “Lance is my boss.” If you want to get on the pre-order list, send me an email (lance@lancegoyke.com).
  • Scarcity: There’s only so much I can get done in my waking hours. If you want to ensure your spot, act now. Putting it off to tomorrow means you’ll never do it.

Understand that none of these factors were enough to make me purchase because I was not brought up as a high roller, but I could literally feel the energy in the room changing. I would have never even amused the idea of a $500 suit if left to my own devices. I would say this means Katie wants a better lead than someone like me, but it could speak to the efficacy of the principles presented in the book.

Pick up a copy of “Influence” here.

The Power of Less

Book Review: The Power of Less by Leo Babauta

May 20, 2014 / / 1 Comment

Rationale for reading: I try to make people do too many things when coaching. Recommendation from Zach Moore.

Book summary: Do less. Decide what is truly important and focus on that.

Review summary: I think the cover is kind of dumb (less, I get it, but come on), but the contents are good. Reads quickly, kind of like a blog post.

Suggested audience: Good if you feel constantly overwhelmed. Really helps cut out the unessential parts of your life. Also useful if you need to understand human behavior.

 

Less

Last summer I decided I wanted to write more effectively. One thing that I read has really resonated with me since then is that editing is what represents writing. Getting the initial story down is easy. What is harder is cutting your 4000 words down to 2000.

And then what’s really hard is cutting those 2000 down to 1000. More often than not, that’s all you need to convey your message.

I was reminded of this as I read The Power of Less by Leo Babauta. Consider a haiku: seventeen syllables. That’s it. Imagine how intimidating that is if you have something important to say.

The lesson of the book, however, is that you can do a lot with a little. In fact, you can do more than usual.

 

The Power of It

Setting limitations allows you to focus on your most important tasks.

What do you have to do this month? Think about it for a second.

  • Drop my classes.
  • Set up an eye appointment.
  • Set up a dentist appointment.
  • Cover shifts at work for Jae.
  • Read six books on psychology.
  • Listen to two other books on psychology.
  • Remember everything I read.
  • Get into a new exercise routine.
  • Bring the new interns up to speed on IFAST methodology.
  • Return movies to the library.
  • Find a part-time job.
  • Write three blog posts this week.
  • Clean my coffee cup.
  • Make eggs.
  • Keep girlfriend from killing me.
  • BLAH BLAH BLAH

If you look at everything you have to do simultaneously, what happens? You become paralyzed and nothing gets done.

Instead, break it down. What are my three most important tasks? These are my big projects. Which one will I work on today? What am I going to do today to work towards finishing it?

So now even if I only get a small piece done, I’ve made progress. And small progressions accumulate over time to form large progress. Plus I have goals that will get me somewhere and I stop wasting my time on busywork.

 

Examples in Fitness

Think about it in terms of your diet. How many people do you see with New Year’s weight loss resolutions who don’t even drive to the gym once during the month of February? All they can see is this distant, grand goal. Then they hit play on their internal script:

“Oh, that will never be me.”

Then, instantaneously, it’s over.

When instead they could set the goal of making it into the gym once in the first week. Twice in the second week. Then cook once in the third week. Twice in the fourth week…

There are a lot of weeks in a year.

This is hard, though. It’s hard to know what goals to set when there’s misinformation everywhere. That’s why I recommend getting a trainer, preferably one who considers your uniqueness. If you skip a workout, you not only let yourself down, but you’re letting down someone else as well. This type of accountability is worth its weight in gold.

If you find yourself feeling constantly overwhelmed, pick up this book. It’s a quick read, I went through it in an hour or two on Sunday because I was already familiar with the topic.

IFAST group photo

Postural Respiration Recap

March 17, 2014 / / 7 Comments

This was my third time through the Postural Restoration Institute’s (PRI) Postural Respiration course (1 home study + 2 live courses). I’ve been super busy since this course, and frankly a little overwhelmed at how incredible it was. This marked the first PRI course hosted by our gym (IFAST), but you know I have to talk about the whole weekend and not just the course.

Friday

With Ty, our night trainer, on location in Florida, I was filling in Friday night coaching sessions when past interns and their friends started arriving. The one and only Grant Gardis, weightlifting coach extraordinaire, was present to get worked on for an ailing knee and coaching like an assembly line.

Friday night IFAST family dinner

The wrapping up of IFAST coaching led into a generous family dinner orchestrated by Bill Hartman and the woman behind the scenes, Kirsten Shaw. It was so great to catch up before a two-day intensive mind penetration. Even driving to and from the airport is fun when you have Connor Ryan and Eric Oetter.

If you didn’t notice above, I would like to point out Kyle O’Flaherty’s photo bomb.

Can this kid ever be serious?

Saturday

After an early breakfast on Saturday with Eric, it was time for Ron Hruska, who was joined by his “third wife” Jennifer Gloystein. He began by asserting his dominance – no slides necessary – just riffing on what the big picture is, how this course is only a piece of the puzzle, and general PRI-isms. This serves well to get everyone on the same page. For me, this is a helpful brain warm up.

This course is about getting things to pump.

Pumping allows for exchange. The most basic example is respiration.

If you can’t oscillate, you’re dead.

Consider frequency, which is something you may remember from courses like physics. We all have “hertz” in our body. Respiration, mastication, circadian rhythm… it’s everywhere, and respiration is the slowest oscillation in the body.

Then, I start to wonder, “Why do we like music?” So I got the book Ron recommended (yes, it’s sitting on my desk already, thanks to Amazon Prime).

I’ve talked about a zone of apposition (ZOA) before, but it’s equally accurate to call it a zone of aspiration. You need the aspiration to breathe better so that you can use your appendages. You need a diaphragm that works for respiration instead of posture to have the aspiration to do things.

Asymmetry is Natural

There aren’t two sides that are even close to symmetrical.

This becomes more and more apparent as you read and explore. I was all up in the thorax of a cadaver a few months ago and the asymmetry is obvious. If you get the opportunity to do this, I encourage you to go explore.

They can’t walk into your clinic with symmetry because they wouldn’t walk into your clinic.

If you think in symmetry, you underestimate the system as a whole. Walking is impossible if you can’t get asymmetrical. Remember you have two lumbar spines – a left one and a right one. A left diaphragm works posturally to center you over a right side. Both the left and the right diaphragms are good at getting air into the left lung when you’re on your right leg. And you’re living with a brain that says, “Survive on the right side.”

You cannot be left dominant. I’ll show you the literature.

I need to read more. He also added that people who are left-handed will be ambidextrous.

Under every symmetrical movement is an asymmetrical challenge.

Understand that even when you’re squatting or deadlifting, you need to consider the underlying asymmetry. The brain wants the right leg because it’s more stable over there.

You Orthopedic-Minded Therapists!

Early on, Ron did the coolest thing to demonstrate how these concepts are not orthopedic, but neurologic. He stood on everyone’s left the whole time, but told us to freeze as he walked to the right side of the room.

With a rigid body, my eyes followed him to the right.

1 o’clock: doing okay
1:30: bad things are happening
2 o’clock: very dizzy
2:30: full-blown anxiety

He hung out at my 2:30 for a few seconds and asked us if we wanted him to move back.

God yes.

2 o’clock: so much pressure in my head
1:30: WILL THIS EVER END?
1 o’clock: sigh of relief
12 o’clock: melted into my seat

Ron always stands on the audience’s left when he speaks because he wants them to be able to learn. A brain cannot learn if it’s preoccupied (multi-tasking is a myth).

 Does the cortex you own understand inhalation?

A pectus, where the sternum area looks concave, is the first sign the cortex doesn’t understand inhalation. “You’ll get real smart if you start looking at pectuses.”

Pectus excavatum

“I can touch your breastbone and tell whether your neck is flat.” When you use a balloon, you aren’t working the mechanicoventilatory system, you’re working the cortex.

Today we’re going to  take a hand (or four) to guide neurology [not respiration].

The manual techniques are guiding the patient’s mind, not simply guiding sternums down. As he said after a sternal repositioning technique, “Those three bones all knew what was happening.” The sacrum, sternum, and sphenoid are linked by neurology.

Before you can take care of hyperinflation, you need to get air out.

You can’t fill a lung that’s already filled. Learn to exhale. Whitney Houston joke.

Why is Neutrality Important?

There are many ways to define neutrality, but for the respiration-minded, it means the diaphragm can contract without the expense of extension. This is specifically important in the spine, but the whole system extends.

I would pay you for your right lung because at least I can use it.

If you can’t use your right lung, you aren’t neutral. Until you figure out how to use it, you’re lifting weight even when you aren’t weightlifting.

We talk about these more abstract concepts a lot (Heidi Wise had a good piece on the PRI Vision blog). You can’t “feel” the floor. Your body feels heavy. You feel slow.

Picture someone who can’t find a reference. They grind their teeth at night. They like when their shoulder clicks. They can’t get off their right leg. These people use their extensors to pull their feet away from the floor and their heads down onto their thorax. These people can’t feel the floor. They feel heavy. They can’t laugh. They can’t enjoy music. Ron had a case study of a roofer who was having these problems.

There are a lot of roofers out there sitting behind keyboards. They’re called repetition.

Why would I help this person get their strength back if they can’t use it?

If you’re going to change a pattern with a pattern, you will fail.

It is the position that shuts off the the system; a position that isn’t threatening. You can’t restore neutrality without position, and that must come first.

A Cootie Bug Thorax

She is not a patellofemoral, shoulder, etc. patient. You treat that and you’ve failed.

Cootie Bug

Ron loves the cootie bug toy because in order to play with a cootie bug, you need a thorax first.

Pedestrian walking requires a cootie bug thorax.

Gait that isn’t alternating (i.e. you’re using a right leg and a left kickstand instead of two legs) leads to an overactive neck.

Create left cootie bugs.

You need left abs to oppose a left diaphragm and overcome the right diaphragm.

Treatment

You need three things when treating a thorax:

  1. Maximize inhalation on the right.
  2. Maximize exhalation on the left.
  3. Alternate.

This is the biggest takeaway from the course. This is applicable immediately.

What’s the difference between a hand on a thorax and a wall? NADA.

The Postural Respiration course has a lot of manual techniques where the therapist helps the patient find neutrality. These aren’t always necessary to use. Always go to non-manual techniques first when treating someone because they are stronger teachers. This is just like how you remember more when you perform an activity as opposed to listening to a lecture.

In a non-manual technique, we can use something like a wall to give the patient a reference. With manual techniques, my hands become the reference. Now I’m asking myself, “How will I give you a reference?“

One thing that I’ve been using with a lot more success lately is the cue “knees forward” instead of telling them to tilt their pelvis. This helps reduce abdominal tone for the repositioning techniques. I’ve also tried using more verbal cues so that they can make their own representations of the activity they are doing. It doesn’t work all the time, but it sticks better.

These runners. These SICKOS. Right and left doesn’t exist in their vocabulary, only extension.

This is hilarious, but it’s not limited to runners. I just taught at a USA Weightlifting course full of Crossfitters. They feel great when they work out, but they can’t come down. They can’t shut off. They can’t relax. So they just train more often. Again, why would I help you get your strength back if you can’t use it? In regards to alternating activity (#3 above), ask if you can rotate that vertebra to the right without coming off the left leg. Ask if you can rotate a central tendon to the right from the left side. Ask if your sacrum, sternum, and sphenoid are alternating – because that’s gait.

When I hear “dys-” and “shoulder”, I think lat.

The lat is a road bomb to your body. The Achille’s tendon may be the largest tendon in the body, but the lat tendon is the strongest. “You can never annihilate a lat enough.“

I’m gonna get every single millimeter of my God-given mediastinum.

Left serratus anterior pulls the ribs back to open up that left posterior mediastinum. How am I going to give you a reference for your posterior mediastinum? Maybe I make sure you have the correct chair at work and ask you to feel your back in it every once and a while.

Saturday Night Dinner

I had the amazing opportunity to go to dinner with Ron, Jenn, Bill, Robert Lardner, and Richard Ulm. The knowledge at the table was overwhelming, and it wasn’t from me. If we mapped the concentration of knowledge like you would to should charge distribution of a molecular compound, the table would look very similar to the electrostatic potential map of lithium iodide.

Lithium iodide electrostatic map

Our server didn’t know what to do when Rich, Robert, and Ron all ordered the right rack of ribs.

The right rack of ribs. [From left]: Robert, Ron, Richard

And it’s not a PRI party if someone doesn’t start talking about right trunk rotation (ribs moving up on the right and down on the left).

Right trunk rotation. [From left: Robert, Ron, Richard]

Suffice to say this may have been the best dinner ever.

Sunday = Biobehavior

After an interesting discussion at dinner, Ron opened up Sunday a little closer to his home. He wrote a bunch of inputs into the system on the board: visual, vestibular, proprioceptive, etc. They were big words that I don’t remember.

The stuff in the manual is evidence-based.

I do manual work to open up something behaviorally [not manually].

He told us to write down the above heading on our note paper. Ron is all about the vestibular system. This ties back to the cervical-cranio-mandibular course I took a few weeks back.

I’m not teaching you how to open up a chest wall, I’m teaching you how to teach them to open up a chest wall.

As I alluded to above, you’re guiding neurology, not adding sarcomeres in series. And “the sternum is the best thing we have for regulating.”

I like working with a patient with CVA because now when I do this stuff, suddenly it’s okay. “They have neglect!”

Those who don’t understand will criticize.

I’m never worried about physical trauma, I’m worried about psychological trauma.

More biobehavior. Repect psychology. See if your patient can articulate their thoughts into words. Talk to them. What worries them?

The number one things that scares me these days is Lasik surgery.

After Lasik, you’ll be taking in a lot more information than you normally do. How do you shut down such a huge input?

If I don’t pretest, I can’t understand pathology. If I get you neutral and don’t treat the pathology, I won’t be able to keep you there.

I’ve been picking up more assessments at IFAST lately, so I shadowed Bill one day to hone in my skills. This point was made to me then. Being neutral is only the tip of the iceberg. Make it stick.

Before I get that dental impression made, I’m going to free up the first rib.

Subclavius and scalenes on the right side can get really active to try to open up the closed right upper ribs. This is called Superior T4 Syndrome in PRI. I need to regulate everything I can before I get some sort of dental intervention that will hold me there because I don’t want it to hold me in the wrong position.

Similarly, if you have a left pec major that won’t shut off, you need to give it a reason to shut off. Stretching is not that reason. You need to restore position of an S bone called a sternum to regulate neurology, otherwise the brain will keep telling it to turn on so it can open up the right chest wall.

If I have someone who can’t feel what I’m trying to do, I probably need more hands.

These systems are locked up and will take some work to unlock. The manual techniques you use for these people will need more than just one set of hands. Find a mom or a co-worker.

Our room was full of jacked lifting bros, also known as extended bros. There were only a handful of women. Ron mentioned that this type of “clientele” is not normal, but it’s pretty common for the people I get to see in the gym. If non-manual techniques don’t work, these people are going to need more than two hands on them.

All in all, Ron was great again. The course wouldn’t have gone nearly as well if he hadn’t brought Jenn along with him, so hats off to her as well.

Post-Course Dinner

Not one to pass up a dinner, Bill invited everyone over to his place, catered by the lovely Mayor Lisa. The place was packed. So packed that I had to skip my hockey game to attend.

This was the largest family dinner I’ve ever been to. And the loudest.

Closing

Robert Lardner had a great point to make during the second day.

This stuff has been done for [hundreds of] years, but we’re just coming back to it because we’re just starting to affirm it.

Robert is a very smart man who is paying attention to what goes on around him. I don’t know the history of yoga, but apparently that’s been going on for quite some time.

Hope to see you at the next course!

IFAST group photo

Miscellaneous Quotes

Don’t get wet, drown with this stuff.

Learn more. And don’t stop.

…a major neuromuscular disease called a spouse.

Lost my mind when he said this.

We treat our cars better than our patients.

Get a tune up and pay attention to the system.

You need to attend this course.

If you liked this post, please share it with someone who would like it, subscribe so you don’t miss the next one, and leave a comment below telling me what course you’re going to next.

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