Part 1: Defining BioFeedback

Author’s Note:
I don’t know if it’s the subject matter or if it’s me, but the start of this article series is a bit on the dry side. But I think the punchline will be well worth the joke.  I’ll do my best to make this series a sound investment of your (precious) time.

“The clarity with which a term is defined determines its usefulness.”
–Tony Blauer (adapted)

Whether we are talking about math or communication, good results start with defining one’s terms. In our foundational course, BioMechanics Level 1, we revisit definitions and at times, we redefine terms (but only because it has been necessitated by new information). One of the terms that we don’t really spend much time on in the course is the term, “BioFeedback.” With such a simple name, one might think its meaning is self evident. Common applications, though, have obscured its meaning.

If you’re like me, the first image that comes to mind when thinking of BioFeedback entails a person with wires attached to their body.  The wires are attached to a computer and the the person is staring intently at its display. A clinician is nearby directing the person’s attention to a simple interface.

That image fits with this definition that Wikipedia provides:
“BioFeedback is the process of gaining greater awareness of many physiological functions primarily using instruments that provide information on the activity of those same systems…with a goal of being able to manipulate them at will. Some of the processes that can be controlled include brainwaves, muscle tone, skin conductance, heart rate and pain perception.”

What is described above functions as a description of BioFeedback…
at least in its most common practice (and most common aim).
Is this description a good reflection of what defines BioFeedback?
What is BioFeedback?

Let’s look at the word:
BioFeedback
and divide it into its parts:
Bio
Feedback

OK, let’s define those parts:
Bio:
Referring to life.
Simple enough, right?
Now onto feedback.

Again from Wikipedia:
Feedback:
“is a process in which information about the past or the present influences the same phenomenon in the present or future. As part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop, the event is said to “feed back” into itself.”

OK…so not as easy to understand. Maybe how it applies to you will offer some clarification.  Feedback is fundamental to the nervous system…including your nervous system.  The human body possesses the most complex nervous system on planet Earth.  For all its complexity, the nervous system performs a very simple process.  It supplies the organism with both conscious and unconscious sensation and motion.

The relationship between sensation and motion is unique.  It is coupled – both anatomically and physiologically.  This coupling allows one to affect the other.  To use the term du jour, they “feedback” into each other (and in some instances, back into themselves thorough recursion).  To put it more simply:

Feeling affects Doing
and
Doing affects Feeling

To truly understand BioFeedback, I think it’s necessary to understand where it came from. Let’s take a slight historical detour.  Enter Evolution.

Those organisms without Nervous Systems evolved before those with Nervous Systems. It’s not an oversimplification to say: Sensation evolved from motion. And sensation’s presence has offered an evolutionary advantage.

Why is that so?  Because sensation changes motion.  It helps to select for better actions, more adaptive actions, more evolved actions.  But sensation couldn’t do that if it weren’t connected to action, if it weren’t coupled to action, if it didn’t feed back into action.

Motion begat Sensation
and they fed back into each other
developing more and more complex nervous systems.
And so it came to pass, humans emerged.
And with it emerged more BioFeedback than ever before.

The very thing that makes you human was built on the back of BioFeedback.
No Biofeedback, no you.
It is your past and it is your future.
That’s how important BioFeedback is.

BioFeedback evolved long before any technology did.
Biofeedback is biological and deserves biologically inclusive definition.

BioFeedback
A process in living organisms
in which information obtained about the past, present, or future
collected by “sensorimotion”
affects the past, present, and/or future sensations
as well as present and/or future motions.

(Notice I made some additions to the definition. The brain functions of consciousness, memory, and prediction merit the inclusion.)

In Part 2, we are going to explore the practices of BioFeedback and how THE MOVEMENT’s practice of BioFeedback is so different than (and natural) compared to the more common, the more narrow practice of BioFeedback.

There are A LOT of recreational runners out there.
In fact, it might be the most common entry point
I see people make to get back into exercise.

The aspiring exercise enthusiast who is looking for
better health and weight loss
will likely take to running.

Soon this exercising runner enters a 5k. Then comes the 10k.
After a series of Saturday Morning Community Race 5-10k fun runs,
the recreational runner wants a challenge:
the half marathon.

Once the half marathon is realized,
the challenge ante is raised again:
The marathon.

The ante being raised always seems to be a matter of more distance…
and so many runners are doing it.

According to marathon running statistics,
more than a half a million people finished a marathon in 2011.
That’s A LOT of people…who can go a long way.

It’s the unquestioned trend of the exercising, recreational runner that
running farther is better.

How far is a marathon?
26.2 miles.
More than a half million people do it every year.

What’s the fastest marathon run?
2 hours and 3 minutes
which is
4 minutes and 42 seconds per mile (4:42/mile).

How fast is a 4:42 mile?
That’s 1 lap around the track in 1 min and 10 seconds.

How many people do you know that can run just 1 mile in 4:42?
How many can run even 1 lap around the track in just over a minute?

So what separates the leader from the pack?
It’s not training volume, and it’s certainly not competition distance.
It’s Speed.

The average marathon finish time is 4 hours 32 minutes.
That’s more than a 10 minute mile.
That’s 1 lap in more than 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

The average runner competes and completes the same distances as the elite
yet is 150% slower than the best runners…
and still they train for distance.

If the diverse and densely populated community of distance runners
teaches us anything, it’s that
there is nothing that remarkable about the distances traveled…
and it’s many benefits are dubious at best.

What’s special is the speed
and yet speed is the most under-trained aspect of the movement.

If you’re a runner and want to be better,
whether it be for health, aesthetics, exercise, or athletics,
I’d figure out,
“How can I go faster?”

What might happen if you prioritized speed before distance?
If you’re a runner, you’ve most certainly run mile after mile…after mile.
But what about just 1 mile or a half mile faster?
What about 1 lap faster?
What about 1 lap?

Is this sexy? What makes it sexy?

After ovulation, just prior to menstruation,
a female’s joints may loosen a bit.
The ligaments may become lax
and there can be a noticeable “wag” in a woman’s walk.

During this time there is a surge in the hormone Relaxin.
Among Relaxin’s many functions is ligamentous laxity.
specifically for loosening pelvic ligaments
to make easier the process of giving birth

But there might be more to the loosening ligaments than labor and delivery.
In fact, most of the hormone’s effects,
in both men and women, are related to reproduction.

Think about the seductive sway of a woman’s hips
and backside as she strolls by…
It’s attractive.

Why?
Now there’s certainly no definitive proof for this offering,
nor is the theory my own, but…

That movement is allowed in part from the loosening effect of Relaxin.
That hormone is almost entirely about Reproduction.
So If I am a reproductive male and see that sway,
I can be more confident that reproduction is probable.

It’s quite useful that:
Form follows Function

Today in the fitness/diet culture,
so much effort and emotion
seems to center around our Form,
or the way we look.

But what are we really attracted to?
What do we really want?
Form or Function?

Form is our anatomy.
Function is our physiology….
or as I’ve heard Frankie say,
“Physiology is Anatomy in Motion.”

If form follows function,
then don’t our interests
lie less in form and more in function?

If you want to be more attractive and if you want better form,
Focus on better functions.

Our functions comprise our physiology.
Our physiology is our anatomy in motion.
So better anatomy, a better form, how you look
it’s all about how you move.
Improve the way you move and your looks will follow.

How is health related to movement?

“At least you have your health”…
Do you?
Are you sure?
What is “health”?

Most definitions of health
say much more about what it is not
than what exactly it is.

Here is a common definition:
“the state of being free from illness, injury and pain”

See there?
No mention of what it is
just what it’s not.
But let’s go with it…

“Free From Illness”
What is illness?
period of sickness

What is sickness?
state of being ill

What is ill?
not in full health
Annnnnnddd… we’ve come full circle… Sigh

So if illness is lacking as a useful definition,
what marks illness? Immune response?
Is there ever a time when your immune system is not at work?
For your sake, I hope not.

“free from injury”
What is an injury?
Injured is defined by a state of physical damage

Our body is merely a collection of cells
albeit a large, multitrillion collection of cells
but a collection of cells nonetheless.
Those cells are just a collection of chemical reactions
approximately 100,000 chemical reactions per second, in fact.

Oxidation is the loss of electrons. It’s molecular damage
that’s intentionally run in the peroxisome or smooth endoplasmic reticulum to breakdown and eliminate unnecessary biochemicals.

somewhere, right now,by definition,
you’re injured.

“free from pain”
Do you really want that?
Do you want to be without the useful communication of pain?

Like the message that your soup is too hot to eat
or the sensation that a particular range of motion is not good to move through, right now?

More of what “health” is not
Health is not the absence of illness, injury and pain
Health requires the presence of illness, injury, and pain.

Health is not the absence of a physiologic state
or any particular physiologic position.
Every position is a vital function.

Health is not a lack of positions.
Health is graded by movement from one position to another
the degree of movement through positions
and the speed at which movement occurs.

“Health is a measure of Movement.”
–Frankie Faires

Health, then, is not where you are…
Health is how you can move.

How well can you move?

Hi, My name is Frankie.
I am THE MOVEMENT.

The question is,
“Are you the movement?”

Well, you’re probably wondering,
“What is the movement?”

THE MOVEMENT is a collection of people who study and practice the science of better.  We do all kinds of things.  We lift kettlebells, clubs, barbells, dumbbells, cables and bands.  We do bodyweight exercises.  We do gymnastics.  We do feats of strength.  We do combatives.  We do Martial Arts.  We do all things fitness.

We do nutrition.
We do emotions.
We do thinking.
We do beliefs.
We do life.
We do better.

The MOVEMENT was something I conceived when Marty Lotspeich and I were composing the first version of this treatise called THE MOVEMENT MANIFESTO.  “We need a movement, a new movement, about movement.”

Craig Keaton made this a local reality by opening up the first of THE MOVEMENT studios in Dallas, TX.

Adam T Glass took the message online and became the most prominent of messengers of THE MOVEMENT. When he did, our little tribe became a little bigger.

Many other tribes build their tribes around a particular tool, particular exercises or a particular sport.  Not so in The MOVEMENT. What connects us is not what we do.  What connects us is how we do it.

The reason why we don’t follow a particular tool, sets of exercises or a set of movements is that: we are all different. Different people need different things.  Some people need to lift heavy things, some don’t.  Some people need to be vegan, some don’t.  Some people need to be religious, some don’t.  Every person needs something different.  Everyone needs to find their own path.

We find out what we need through following our body’s information – our biofeedback.  Sure, plenty of people use biofeedback…but we do it better.  We have discovered a way to progress – perpetually.  We do it so much better that we can PR, or establish a new best, daily. We move forward…in whatever direction we can.

I developed this particular protocol of biofeedback.  While looking for a way out of chronic pain, I found a way to perpetually progress.  Being a gym trainer, I applied this protocol to the weight room and called it The (GYM) MOVEMENT PROTOCOL.

We test our exercises
We test our implements
We test our loads
We test our reps
We test our rest periods
We test our sets
We test ourselves
We test everything.

The fitness industry has found itself in a dark age.  It is filled with broken people teaching their broken beliefs and breaking other people.  They are gurus.

The gurus want to lead you.  They believe only they are qualified to lead you.  We know only you are qualified to lead you.

The gurus believe and teach that in order to be better you must use effort.  You must try, toil, you must labor, you must sweat, you must bleed.  We have found that getting worse or getting better doesn’t have to be about trying at all.

In fact, trying to be better only slows down the process.  Better is your birthright; better is your biological destiny.  You need only get out of your own way.

The gurus want you to fit your body into what they believe is better.  They have the answer and you are not allowed to question.  We want you to question everything.  Question the gurus, question yourself and most importantly – question us.  We know the only way to have an answer for anything is to question everything.  Find your answer.

We know that if you follow anything other than your body, you will break your body.  Your were not meant to break your body.  To fulfill your destiny, you need only break those broken belief systems so that they cannot break you.  Rebuild those beliefs…but this time base your beliefs on results.  Results first, beliefs second.

We will help you.  We will not lead you.  THE MOVEMENT has no universal leader.  How can it?  That is the antithesis of following one’s biology.  Utilizing biofeedback is about learning to lead yourself.

Are you ready to break those beliefs that have been breaking you?
Are you ready to rebuild yourself but this time better?
Are you ready to become a scientist?
Are you ready to lead yourself?

My name is Frankie.
I lead me.
I am The Movement.

What is your name?
Will you lead you?
Are you The Movement?
Are you?

I love post apocalyptic media:
movies and books particularly.

God, demons, zombies, disease, war, aliens…
plenty of things bring about an apocalypse
and I enjoy apocalypse for all its causes.

Don’t get me wrong,
I don’t dream for a thinning of the herd.
I don’t want first world problems to disappear.
Over all, I think that would slow down humanity’s progress.

What I enjoy most about the apocalypse
is what comes after, hence
“post-apocalyptic.”

What will be the New Order?
How will man reorganize himself?
Will man completely devolve into “beast”
or will man reach new levels of civilization?

Post apocalyptic is simpler to understand
simpler to follow
than the densely layered modern world.
Less moving parts are incredibly satisfying
to my simple mind.

What gets me interested in every post apocalyptic story
is what emerges.

Does anyone figure out how to balance
the rights of the individual with the rights of the group?
(Because no one in our time has figured out how to do so.)

Until someone-
some author, some big thinker
demonstrates how to balance the rights of the individual with the rights of the group,
our group, THE MOVEMENT,
will keep on experimenting.
It’s not easy.
It’s not elegant.
It’s not efficient.
Not yet.
But it will be.
It will evolve.
And it won’t even take the end of the world to get there.

I recently watched the ESPN documentary on the Marinovich’s.
In MMA, the Father, Marv Marinovich, has come to some acclaim
as a Strength and Conditioning Coach for BJ Penn.

But before he was a S&C coach for BJ,
he was engineering a professional athlete in his son, Todd.
Todd had a successful High School and College career
before it all came crashing down in the NFL.

Marinovich has received a lot of criticism from the public
for his role in Todd’s issues.
I think the general consensus is that Marv pushed Todd too hard
and Todd broke under the pressure.
But Todd didn’t break under Marv’s watchful eye.
Todd broke when he was on his own.

But what in Todd broke?
Did he really break on the field
where he was so well trained?
No.
Todd broke off the field.

Is that any wonder?
How much training did Todd get off the field?
How much could he have gotten?

While I think there are far better and more efficient ways
of developing an athlete than Marinovich’s Russian inspired methods,
no one can disagree that they worked.

But as in every athlete’s training,
the limiting factor is time.

And for all the great stuff Marv did,
it took up all of Todd’s time
and displaced any other preparation
for life outside of football
and life after football.

It wasn’t as much what Marv did,
it is what Marv didn’t do…
which dovetails well with principles
we teach in The Movement.

I’m sure there are things you’re doing
which you don’t want to do
but before you address those, ask,
“What it is that I’m not doing?”
or even better
“What it is that I’m not doing that I can do?”

There is only so much time.
When you are doing what it is you need to do,
there is no time to do what it is you don’t need to do.

There is a pathology in many schools of thought,
including many of those in fitness.

It is exemplified in the popular phrase:
“Just another tool in the toolbox.”

There is a problem with that:
Your toolbox weighs you down.
Not just in a metaphorical sense.

Hick’s Law is something I first heard from Eric Cobb
and come to find out it was something Tony Blauer used, as well.

It deals with options.
In short, the more options you have,
the more it slows you down.

When Adam T Glass speaks of THE MOVEMENT’s purpose,
he describes it as,
“We’re not here to give you another tool,
we’re here to empty your garage.”

THE MOVEMENT offers an overarching lens to look at science
and in doing so cleans out the intellectual garage
and etches into memory where all useful tools are at
so that when you need them, you can find them
(Hope that was a clean enough metaphor, for you).

But in looking at fitness (and other sciences),
we cannot do what others do when making our offering.

Others say,
“Yes, and…”
Yes (that’s great), and..,(we’re great, too).
Unfortunately, many say this disingenuously so that they, too, might be included among the herd. But those they educate are made slower. The educated can’t find their tools because their garage (their brain) is a mess.

And so we take another approach.
Sometimes it is, “Yes, but…”
but even more often it is simply,
“No.”

Let me leave you with an adaptation of a Bruce Lee quote (which was likely an adaptation of another).
“The height of cultivation leads not to complication but to simplification.”

What can you prune from your principles and practices?
How clean is your garage?

Godin’s Purple Cow

I read a blog post from Seth Godin recently
where he was encouraging people to make remarkable work,
or art, as he puts it.

When we hear “remarkable,” I think we often find it synonymous to
words like “extraordinary” or “amazing.”
But it’s not…at least, specifically.
The key to what it means is in the word itself:
remark-able.

If something is remarkable,
you talk about it.
That is what makes it remarkable.
Better synonyms include “noteworthy” and “notable.”

Right after “Better,”
remarkable is the metric that matters
whenever I am choosing:
something to listen to
something to watch
something to read
something to do
something to think about
something to plan for
etc
etc

Will doing that thing
make we want to:
talk about it?
write about it?
hear about it?
video about it?
etc
etc

If it doesn’t,
more than likely
I’ll change directions.

There was a time when
if I ever started a book
started a movie
started whatever
I damn sure was gonna finish it.
I thought meanly of myself
if I ever quit.
No longer.

Now, I have less time than before (that’s always true)
and I know it.
And so, if I find myself in an unremarkable position,
I do my best to change my position
to one more remarkable…
a position worthy of my time and hopefully your time, as well.

Compared to others on the Autistic Spectrum,
I am an advocate of change…of variety.
I think it is important.
Especially in one’s fitness practice.

I am not the only one.
The rise of Crossfit for the last ten years
has helped to perpetuate more variability in fitness.

I think this is a step forward.
Doing the same thing over and over again
(Let’s ignore for the moment it is a physical impossibility to completely replicate any condition)
has incredibly deleterious effects to one’s body
and variety can help to mitigate those effects.

But variety isn’t the last step forward.
While variety is a step up from the same old, same old,
there is something more advantageous than different,
and that is better.

Same < Different < Better

For some, better is a nebulous term.
For us, in The Movement, better is a concrete reality.
Better is measured in terms of Personal Records
doing more than before
more than we’ve done before in things we have done before
as well as things we haven’t done before.

It is possible to do something different, albeit only slightly different, all the time and none of those times it be better for you.

But is also possible to do something different, albeit only sightly different, and have it be better for you, every time.

So while doing something different all the time
could possibly be better than doing the same old thing,
consider that if you’re not doing more than before
you’re not doing better.

Better > Different > Same