The Movement Mind: γνῶθι σεαυτόν

Philosophical schools have often talked about Alienation in a wide variety of contexts.  Marx, Freud, Sartre, Kierkegaard, and Jesus (the Messiah) have either explicitly or implicitly broached the subject.  In a simple explanation, it is the feeling of being removed, or a part of  "the world."

Notably, my experience of Alienation first comes from the study of Gnosticism* and Existentialism--long before I knew what listening to my body meant, I was fascinated by these subjects.  And long before I studied them, I knew what it was like being a little different from everyone else and the subsequent alienation.

In the Gnostic school of thought--and it is not limited to Christianity, though of all the carriers of Gnostic thought and concepts, Christianity is now the most popular--your salvation was imminent on your knowledge of yourself.  In my loose paraphrasing of the Gnostic cosmogonic myth, a craftsman (demiurge) was responsible for the creation of human kind, and this was not part of the Oneness of God.  Therefore, the jealous demiurge forbade Adam (mankind) to eat of the tree of knowledge.  Without knowledge, the mass of people would live in ignorance of their true selves, and of the knowledge of God.  Jesus came, as the true God, distinct from the demiurge, and offered salvation.

In the Gospel of Thomas (a non canonical account of the sayings of Jesus apparently having Gnostic origins) Jesus then says all these great things about how you can come to achieve salvation.

One of my particularly favorite quotes is as follows, "Jesus said, 'Whoever does not hate his father and his mother cannot become a disciple to me. And whoever does not hate his brothers and sisters and take up his cross in my way will not be worthy of me.'"

The Jesus that many believers worship probably wasn't being literal--he often spoke in parables--but the implication of a statement like that is pretty astounding. 

The art of thinking for yourself and questioning everything will put you at odds with some people.  These people can range from your own parents, teachers, spouses, coworkers and acquaintances.

Frankie has always said that what doesn't make you better will make you worse.  If the people you associate with are on the path of worse, while you are on the path of better, the above photograph is analogous to what will inevitably happen.  Hopefully, loss of life won't occur but in some cases, alienation and estrangement will occur.  You needn't worry.  This kind of shit just happens, and the only thing you can do besides dwell on it is ask "What is next?"

Guilt was something I mentioned in the first part of this instalment.  If you let it weigh you down, it can be a real motherfucker.



Maybe Cradle of Filth can offend some more people to the point of messaging me on Facebook

 If you don't like this inevitable occurrence, what are you to do?  That depends.  I have no problem not speaking to my own family or former friends because of the conflict of being dogmatic vs. working towards more adaptability.  However, most people can't quit things like that due to long standing beliefs, or just generally being dependent. 

That's ok.  All these principles might not be for you, at the current time.  However, the way we learn exercises at The Movement is to scale it back if you can't complete the whole thing--if a full squat cannot be done, try a quarter squat, in other words. 

If you can't ditch the people who are making you worse, fear not.  The first and best step (in my opinion) is to become a powerful enough person that they will want to get better the same way as you.  After all, if you are in some sort of relationship with them, you will have some influence over what they will listen to or think about. 

Surprisingly, you can give someone a mountain of evidence of progress and they will still ignore it--and this happens more than we all think or would like to admit.  If this happens to you and your friends and loved ones, start slow.  Start slowly removing them from your life.  Chances are they won't want to take part in the activities that make you better. If they are really assholes, they might even belittle or demean your choices. I know this to be true of women who decide to become athletes in male dominated sports, as I have (sadly) seen it happen. 

This doesn't mean you have to be a dick to them.  This just means you aren't going to be an active participant in their life anymore.  You don't have to delete them from Facebook, or stop going to holiday parties.  You can still be a passive participant, and by proxy your opponents might come to want to get better eventually, and then with any luck you won't feel as alienated.  

This isn't exhaustive on what to do about "haters," or otherwise people who are asleep (as the Gnostics would say).   But I feel it's a start.







*For more on Gnosticism manifested in something other than Christianity, check out the works of Philip K. Dick, The Matrix, Blade Runner, The Truman Show, and Vampire: The Masquerade (a taple top roleplaying game).

The Movement Mind

Frankie talked about what the physical form looks like of a person who practices Gym Movement.  I'd like to discuss what a movement mind is like.

First and foremost, the goal of Gym Movement training is not to "know" anything.  The real goal is to figure out your own shit so you can move forward at the best rate possible for you.  Once you start, your best will get better.  So, those who call me an arrogant know it all are only half correct.  I am an arrogant "question it all."

In my experience--and I would venture to guess many others who follow Gym Movement--one of the best mental aspects of it is the feeling of knowing that you can cure a lot of your movement based pain.  You will recall I was in a good deal of pain.  I don't think I mentioned that sometimes a shotgun face lift seemed like an alternative to being in constant pain.  The important aspect of this was that I didn't give up.  I was able to some things--lots of partial heavy movements--and get slowly better.  Fast forward to know, I can move my left leg freely, and all previous range of motion I had lost is returning. 

Getting there was not easy.  Getting there involved asking myself lots of questions.  It involved me finding out the stuff of which I am truly made, and overcoming the limitations incorrect movements placed on me.  It's kinda like mental toughness, only much more severe and beneficial than snatching a 53lb kettlebell for five minutes only to get corrected on that and two other movements for three days. 

The take home point is that you start to feel like not much can stop you.  This isn't being foolhardy.  At the same time, you learn what you should and shouldn't do in your life, and you consider carefully the question of purpose vs. cost. 



Is the opportunity cost worth it?

 In the end, you will make better decisions for yourself, and they will be the prime directive of the only one qualified to run you--that is, yourself.

As you progress down this road, you'll find yourself answering questions you might have before you were going to ask them.  As I have gone through some of our educational courses, answers (and in turn, more questions) are becoming more and more self evident and making me think quicker, and in broader strokes.  This makes sentential logic easier to compute and formulate.

I have also noticed that guilt becomes less and less a factor in my life.  Guilt is a form of cognitive dissonance.  For instance, as a five year old, I had the propensity to grab my junk in the same manner Eddie Murphy describes Italians and Black people doing so in some of his stand up comedy.  As a blank slate, touching my junk was irrelevant.  To a quasi-Catholic grandmother, I was probably going to go to hell.  An authority figure that I was taught to trust said something contrary to how I felt.  This is how people get fucked up.  In this instance, I was OK, since my father told me his own mother was full of shit regarding the issue, so I managed to be relatively guiltless. 

The overarching point of guilt is that it causes the individual to predicate their actions upon the opinion(s) of another.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out.  Many people hate their choices in school, work, families and so on. 

A manifestation of guilt.

Many people will fuck their lives up because of this guilt.  The Catholic church, Ted Haggard*, Jim Bakker* and many others are good examples of what it's like to break your body in a way other than the physical.
At a young age, I was already on the right path to not giving much of a shit what people said as far as I was concerned.  I had a veritable milieu of authority figures talking about my "potential," and how "smart" I was.  While not necessarily good for my ego, I figured I would be able to coast by in school and read books I wanted to read instead of do busy work in class, which was swell for an avid reader like me.  However, with the threat of authority always looming over, I lashed out negatively and wound up in trouble a lot of times when I was 11-13 years old.

These days, I know when to pick and choose things to worry about and not worry about, and the opinions of most others are worth even less than they once were.  Much like Frankie said in the first link regarding physical form, The Movement Mind will have many different end roads--I use "end roads" loosely, since it is not, in fact, an end but a continual, evolving, way of being.





* and ** I have certain degrees of respect for Jim and Ted.  Jim came out and said he finally read the bible when he was in prison, and realized the true message of it and admitted he was wrong, and moved on with Life.  Ted, while casting stones and banging male whores and doing meth, was pretty judgmental.  Even he came to admit where he erred and admitted who he was.  More poignant was that Ted didn't bother asking to be let back in his previous church, he started a new one and hopefully found a more forgiving group.

There's always room for activities

When did leading an active lifestyle become so fucking hard? Barring cases of being dead, paralyzed, maimed or cryogenically frozen in carbonite there are no real good reasons not to be active.  I don't mean going to the gymnasium, necessarily.  You can literally do any activity you want. Movement co founder Craig Keaton and his wife go out and play or jump and walls and stuff and seem to have a good time doing so.

In fact--and this is really great if you have children--you can go to a playground and play on the monkey bars, the sliding polls, the jungle gym, etc.  You can even sprint, if you are into that sort of thing.

If you have friends, instead of opting for lifting all the time, you can engage in sporting activities.  Recently, I have begun playing racquetball again which is far more exciting than powerlifting (which I still do) and involves way more movement that I don't get out of lifting, or Jiu-Jitsu--namely all the footwork and the eye-hand coordination along with a better grasp of mathematical angles. 

If you don't have friends, make some. 

If you have kids, consider them your friends until they start rebelling and resenting you.  If they see you regaining lost function and being active, they will most likely follow suit and lead active lifestyles growing up.  They might resent you less, too.  If you sit around with your hands on your balls watching Law and Order repeats, they'll likely grow up the same way.  You are their biggest influence for at least the first 13 years of their life, at which point they start hanging around with other idiots their age and doing dumb shit and getting trouble into school. 

Plus, if you engage in activities the majority of the time compared to gym movements, you might get a lot of good socialization out of it, as will your children. 

If you have a job that requires you to work a lot of hours, and you fall into the category of people who make excuses as to why you aren't active (specifically using your job as that crutch) evaluate your current situation in life, and proceed how you see fit.  The direction allowing for more movement will likely make you happier, physically at the very minimum. 

If you're in school and you throw away your whole active lifestyle the moment it's time for finals, evaluate how you learn/study.  Likely, if you are in college, you spend a lot of time fucking around, when you could be looking for better ways of learning that are specific to you. (I graduated. I fucked around a lot in college, never studied, and still made it out above C level). 

Above all, do some other shit so as to move in new directions.  You'll likely get better at your goals, and you won't "plateau." This can be any kind of movement.  Study something new, do a new sport, write differently, watch new movies, or what have you.  Then you will know the true meaning of "PR everyday."

My favorite month

A prelude to May:

I love May. Last year, Adam posed a challenge to Pick Shit Off The Floor Edvery Day in May.  It is called PSOTFED.  I intend to do this all 31 days in May.  Anything counts.  Kettlebell swings/snatches, Axle deadlifts, Pendlay Rows, Barbell Snatches, Rack pulls, Pinch Lifts, etc. 

I don't give a shit what you do, as long as it falls in that criteria.  You might have to be creative. Take a video. If you do something cool, or potentially useful or it makes you proud and you want to share, post it as a comment, email it, or post it here.

Make it fun, hit the PRs and notice your body comp improve.  You'll be thankful.

Eponym: Death Metal and Deadlifting

The other day, I posted my latest post on my facebook page.  (Go like it, if you have not).  Some motherfucker asked what it had to do with death metal and/or deadlifting, then proceeded to call me a motherfucker.  Fair enough.  I rarely post about death metal, though I come from a land where it was once revered like the holy grail of all music, much like powerlifters tend to think three lifts are the holy grail of exercise.  Consequently, those who fall into both camps stagnate.  



Opeth: as innovative as Pink Floyd, Meshuggah and Iron Maiden

It's quite easy to make a comparison of death metal and deadlifting.  Both appeal to a small minority of the general population, both are generally male dominated fields, and the practitioners of both seem to have deeply focused anger issues (though, in actuality this is not the case--many in both camps are genuine people and are very humble). 

With such a fringe appeal, it's difficult to market either practice.  If you have ever been to a powerlifting meet, it's fairly boring, from an excitement perspective and from a movement perspective.  The psyching up and what not can be somewhat laughable, if you aren't used to it, and the same thing goes for a crowd of metalheads getting ready to mosh. If you have been to a death metal concert and have but a passing interest in the genre, you probably won't have a fucking clue as to what's going on, since the majority of bands don't do a lot in the way of theatrics--which is to be expected, since they have normal jobs and lack the budget to go as theatrical as a band like Pink Floyd can do.  Moreover, you probably don't understand a word they are saying, unless you are a fan and have listened before. 

With such an obvious lacking in the formula department, nothing catches on.  It makes it less marketable.  The one thing we notice in all art forms are thematic elements that repeat themselves that are communicated coherently.  My favorite song has all of these, and consequently it is regarded as one of the best songs of all time. 

In powerlifting, as well as metal, there are also ridiculous amounts of division.  If you ask someone what metal is, the answer will be different, and the genre preference will be wide (death core, death metal, metal core, djent, grind core, black metal, symphonic epic metal, etc.).  Compare this to powerlifting.  There are so many federations in existence that it is almost becoming meaningless to set world records because someone is bound to do it sooner or later (though the all time records are a bit tougher to touch).  With these divisions, it makes it even less appealing to the general public than it already is.

Combine all this with a lack of interest from the public (if I knew five years ago how to sell people in the death metal capital on the music I played, I would probably still be in a metal band) unless it is someone that established themselves 20 years ago, it makes it a seemingly godless endeavor.

I don't purport to know the full answers on how to make either of these avenues extremely marketable again, aside from assembling a loyal fan base.  For lifting and metal, I think getting more women involved will probably help immensely.  From what I have seen, colleagues are accepting of women in these two fringe areas than in other areas.  (I'm sure sexism will still exist in both, but based on watching bands like Arch Enemy succeed, and athletes like Kara Bohigian, or Ronda Rousey do their thing, acceptance is more common, than it would be in both, since in all fringe events it seems like overall ability, at the end of the day, is key).

Angela is a far superior vocalist compared to the last guy singing for them.

So, there you have it.  A few of my critiques on the entitled subjects. 

What do you read? Words, Words, Words

I think I will continue on a subject I spoke about several weeks ago.  I decided recently that I will refer to my significant other as my partner as often as I can, because it takes some of the possession out of the phrases "my boyfriend," or "my girlfriend."  I think a partnership describes the end game--which is not really an end, but a continuance--of the relationship a little bit more accurately.

Around four years ago, I took a class in the Women's Studies department at USF (University of South Florida).  It had to do with feminism studied from films, or something like that and we talked about the portrayal of women and the language revolving around the subject often.  What interested me most at the time was that the professor was a bald black man who referred to his wife as his partner as well.

Professor Gary Lemons himself

At one point, I asked Dr. Lemons a question I had been thinking about for some time.  "How can I recognize my masculinity as a positive trait when much of it is built upon the speech of negativity?"  A good question.  One of those ones that leads to more questions and has no real answer other than a path to follow leading to self discovery.  One of the associating factors of the question stemmed from something that happened in late 2008.

In late 2008, I entered a short relationship with a stripper.  I'm not judgmental about a lot of the things people seem to give a shit about, nor am I particularly jealous.  What briefly ensued was a swell learning experience.  We met at a restaurant I was fond of in my area. I would go often to study, and she worked as a host and would often neglect her job so we can discuss literature, since most of my studying was reading books for class.  Stripping was her night job, as it were.  She also made a fuck ton of money as such.

Like every couple, we talked about our jobs--I was honing a craft that I fell right into as I taught music at a local store, and she told me about the "gentleman's club" (get a load of the language there) and the restaurant.

From what I was able to gather, from her and other strippers I have encountered in the past, the ones who were more self assured were pretty brilliant.  They played off the fantasies of deluded males and made money off them in a simple trade of money for pseudo-sensual services with no real meaning.  I think that if this ex, or any other stripper I had spoken with had let the negative language of their job get to them, they wouldn't have had the mental fortitude to continue on and feel halfway decent about themselves.

Moreover, a lot of the negative connotations surrounding a job like that, I have found, comes from females.  Which, as far as looking out for your fellow humans, is not a good thing, especially if you want to empower someone.

At the very least, their peer group should laud the physical strength some of the women who dance on a pole display, since it is quite impressive.

Back to the question I asked my professor.  How can we recognize our masculinity as a positive thing?  I think some of it has to do with recognizing how we--the XY--refer to our friends and companions with the XX.  For starters, magazines marketed to men are guilty of linguistic maladies.  On Facebook, Scott Sonnon cited a study where scientists had quotes from rapists and men's magazines mixed together.  The participants were required to attribute a source to the quote.  Some of the dirtier shit was from a magazine.

If we start to reimagine our speech, we can take the positive attributes of our biological male-ness and be thankful for it and celebrate it, much as we can celebrate the biological woman-ness our sisters, and we can find ways to form a decent partnership amongst all of us.

The Wisdom of Yoda

Us Movement folk seem to have a lot in common regarding a select few things that are not related to exercise.  Mainly, Starwars, Batman and other superheroes.  This is not strange at all--great minds, birds of a feather, etc.

That said, in the Starwars category, we could all learn a lot from our Jedi friend Yoda, if we stop and think about what he offers up, be it in fitness, or life. 

One of my favorite quotes from the Jedi regards death. "Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them do not. Miss them do not. Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed that is."

Speaking to a young Anakin Skywalker on the death of his mother, Yoda offers some words of wisdom that we could all do well to heed.  The Buddhist view on death is kind of similar to the Jedi view.  Both views have a very cyclical quality, and both do not signify an ending as we see it.  In Buddhist thought, the deceased party will keep on circling the wheel of Samsara in a cosmic (and Karmic) cycle of Birth, Life, Death and Rebirth.  For the Jedi, the deceased will disperse back into the Force, unless they can master it enough to manifest in an afterworld--like Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker and the Sith counterparts who would manipulate the dark side of the force to cheat death (like Darth Sidious did several times). 

Western thought finds us placing a lot of emphasis on line segments, as opposed to anything infinite, like circles or full on lines.  As such, the view that death is an end of something leads us to have extravagant rituals, wherein we doll up the corpse to look lifelike, and preserve them with embalming fluid.  All the while, we face the grief over our loss and instead of moving on, we get stuck and suffer as a result of our desires.  I think Yoda was on to something when he said that we should rejoice when one joins the Force.

One of my other favorite soundbites is when Yoda tells a young Luke Skywalker to move some stuff using the force.  His X-Wing Starfighter, as I recall. 

He says, "Do or do not. There is no 'try.'"  The profundity of this statement stuck with me since I was 11 years old and I went and saw Return of the Jedi in theatres when the special editions came out.  This is one I seek to apply to fitness and all of my life.  It is pretty simple, at its core.  Take the steps necessary to accomplish a task.  Those steps will work, or they will not work.  If they do not, do something else then do the task at hand.  "Trying" implies that you can get stuck and be at a dead end.  "No matter how hard I try..." is a lament I often hear.  Someone says they "tried" doing something time and again.  Often times they are simply doing the same shit but with more fervor, and getting nowhere.

"So certain are you. Always with you it cannot be done. Hear you nothing that I say?" You can encounter these types of folks everywhere.  It reminds me of a Frankie quote that says "once you start knowing, you stop thinking."  It kind of becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.  If you are certain something can't be done, it most likely won't.  Or the adaptation to do so will be really slow.  Moreover, this type of attitude can affect you if you let it.  Know less, think more.

Lastly, "Named must your fear be before banish it you can."  I think the take home message of this is to know your obstacles so that you can experience a greater clarity of thought if you move on with life.  In other words, seek to find the root of an issue to adjust, fix, get rid of it, as needed.  If you know what you are after, easier will it be to progress on a better path.

If we all pay attention to the little green guy who stole our hearts in The Empire Strikes Back, we might find that we are stronger in the ways of the Force.