Tag Archives: Chronic pain

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Time Travel

Sample Image from Leopard Book

Sample Image from Leopard Book

Recently I watched the 2004 movie “Primer, ” a science-fiction thriller about some engineers who figure out how to achieve time travel.  The movie, according to one analysis, has nine different timelines going in it at one time.  Recently also I acquired Dr. Kelly Starrett’s book “Becoming a Supple Leopard” which is an amazing reference and resource on treating chronic pain, stiffness and bodily dysfunction in general. I have always thought of weightlifting and other fitness pursuits as being like a fountain of youth. Having been working with the exercises in this book for about a week I think this book is more like a time machine.

Starrett is the brains behind the website mobilitywod. I understand that his initial push to bring his wisdom to the masses was to post a video each day on a different topic for 365 days. His website is divided into information by subscription for professional trainers and practitioners and free stuff for the lay public.

I have been using the exercises shown and described in the book to work on particular body parts that are either themselves giving me problems or resulting in my moving in weird ways to compensate for them. An example of this is my ankles. They are tight enough that my squatting motion is restricted–and has been for years–making me most comfortable turning my feet out slightly or elevating my heels on a board. If I don’t do this my body will just tip over backwards. Starrett includes a number of tests like this to help one assess one’s own priority areas of physical dysfunction. Working on my tight ankles is going to take some time. Some other areas such as the low back, it’s helpful to have guidance on how much effort is needed to effect change in these areas. Let me say that “smash” is a word Starrett uses frequently in this text and I think he’s onto something. Some of the work I’ve been doing has resulted in parts that are immediately feeling better and more mobile. I am less stiff when I get up from sitting. Hence the time machine analogy.

I’ve been going at this for the past week for about 30 minutes a day. I’ve curtailed some of my other activities to fit it in but I honestly believe that by allowing body parts to function properly I may have built more strength and power in the last week without additional lifting than I would have bringing my years of built-up tightness to my weightlifting workouts.

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