SF Movement Group

02/11/2022

Brazilian jiu-jitsu training needs an update- our conceptualization of techniques isn't accurate. These inaccuracies aren't just academic, they're holding us back. So, it's time we get an update from the world of motor learning.

In Jiu-jitsu, grappling, and many other sports, we're taught that techniques are a simple, linear series of steps to be memorized, practiced, and refined. When you're in closed guard for example, you can break your opponent's posture, get a cross collar grip, get a second grip on the other collar, then perform the cross collar choke to submit your opponent.

Anyone who's done BJJ before knows that doing the cross collar choke (or any technique) against a non resistant, vs a resistant partner (during sparring or a competition) are 2 completely different things. But it's absolutely not because you're just 'not good enough' at performing the technique that was shown to you. It's because the linear series of steps that you saw is the tip of the iceberg in terms of the actual information and skill you'll need to perform it against resistance.

There's a concept from motor learning of perception action coupling feedback loops. (see here https://youtu.be/Ilud2Lu_TSA?t=407). Basically, when performing a skill, your brain is constantly engaging in these feedback loops based on current perceptions of the environment, predictions of the future, and performing actions based on them.

When we work against a resistant opponent in any sport, our perception-action coupling feedback loops are pitted against each other in an information processing- movement war. On the macro scale, each person works to progressively increase their own movement options relative to that of their opponent, until the opponent only has one option: submit.

02/21/2021

Last weekend I decided to teach my parents how to do a headstand because I wanted to show you guys anyone can do it.

My parents are in reasonably good shape for their age, but my mom hadn't really done any headstands since she was a girl. I don't think my dad has ever.

If you've ever wanted to learn headstands or handstands, I highly encourage you to give it a try. I'm currently building a series of courses on handstands and inversions (more on that later) and headstands make up a fundamental part of the level 0 and 1 courses.

Headstands are very valuable; I even use them as a foundational part of my favorite stretching routine. In addition to building basic levels of balance, body awareness, wrist strength, and a strong neck, they represent one of the first steps toward inversions and the wonderful world of being upside down. You will literally learn to see the world from a different perspective.

Have a great day! :)

02/07/2021

There is an entire field of scientific research that is being ignored by the general population. Instead, we listen to fitness celebrities, athletes, and instagram models. Sometimes, even doctors, physical therapists, and chiropractors don't know, forgot, or don't fully realize it's practical implications.

This field (or perhaps one of many) is pain science.

We all experience pain in our lives—some of us constantly and yet very few people know anything about pain (maybe because we just want to be rid of it.)

But pain is an incredibly important tool we can use. There are people with certain disorders that don't experience pain, and contrary to what you might think, they live in a semi-constant state of anxiety, never knowing if they've scratched their cornea or torn a muscle. It's not nearly as pleasant as you might think.

As a former biochemist turned movement teacher, I've had to deal with a lot of injuries throughout my practice and have used modern pain science and rehabilitation concepts to recover from my own injuries. I have 'skin in the game' - because unlike most doctors and PT's, I'm out there training w

and help my clients and students deal with theirs—often with dramatic effect. Over a year ago, I decided to write a book so I could share, at a large scale, this approach to pain and injuries that we have to deal with over the course of our lives.

This video is an outline of that book's basic premise: work with pain, use it as a guide, and use movement and loading as your stimulus to demand your body become stronger while desensitizing your injured joints. Enjoy.

There is an entire field of scientific research that is being ignored by the general population. Instead, we listen to fitness celebrities, athletes, instagr...

11/07/2019

Is there an optimum difficulty level for training? In this paper, the authors show that for the widely-used class of stochastic gradient-descent based learning algorithms, learning is fastest when the accuracy during training is 85%.

10/20/2019

Locomotion and a general practice of learning can often have a dilemma of freedom. Too much and we often don’t practice any particular skill enough for progress or even retention. Too little and the practice becomes stale, context becomes limited or non-existent, and our understanding of the skills we’re working on becomes two dimensional. Here, we use one of the many tools from our teachers to keep things interesting in a full contextual environment while still focusing on certain skills.

10/11/2019

We started a new strength phase not long ago utilizing some modern periodization concepts and a few new ideas I wanted to experiment with. It’s really working: everyone is already seeing dramatic results- with only ~20 minutes 3x/week. Senthil had zero chin-ups when he started with us, and yesterday did work sets of 5 with added resistance. Excellent work Senthil!!

08/21/2019

There is no field in existence where everyone agrees. Even with global warming, 2-3% of SCIENTISTS (not laypeople!) still disagree. Over the years I’ve learned quite a few tricks to help separate fact from fiction. Using logic can actually be quite tricky for people unfamiliar with the field in question, because it’s easy to make false arguments sound nice (inaccurate analogies, false assumptions, logical leaps etc. etc.) One of the biggest tricks I use is extremely simple: what are the incentives for a person or party to make a certain argument?

There’s a nice aphorism here from the great Warren Buffet: “Never ask a barber if you need a haircut”. So, my friends, ask yourselves:

Does your Chiropractor have an incentive to tell you that your spine is out of alignment, and that he can fix it for you?

Does your Surgeon have an incentive to tell you that you need surgery?

Does your Physical Therapist have an incentive to convince you that your body is weak and fragile?

Does the massage therapist have an incentive to convince you that your muscles have knots and adhesions that need to be ‘worked out’?

Many in these fields remain generally naive, and keep pushing outdated paradigms that ignore entire fields of research. I’m convinced that almost everyone in these fields are good people, and they aren’t purposefully doing harm to their clients. But don’t be so easily fooled, they are often incentivized NOT to tell you the truth.

Your spine (and body) are NOT out of alignment, and chiropractic adjustments do NOT change that alignment. Your are not in pain because your body is damaged, in fact almost half of the people in pain have no significant ‘damage’ in the tissue where they are feeling pain. It is NORMAL to see some degeneration on an X-ray or MRI; it’s benign- the equivalent of ‘wrinkles on the inside’. Your muscles do not have ‘knots or adhesions’. Most importantly: YOUR BODY IS INHERENTLY STRONG AND ADAPTABLE, NOT FRAGILE AND WEAK- DON’T LET ANYONE CONVINCE YOU OTHERWISE.

Besides, did you really think that an organism at the pinnacle of Billions of years of evolution would be thwarted by such a simple thing as knees going past our toes?