Stagnation & Disease: Part 2- Stagnation Vortex

Hello again friends,
Today I would like to speak to you about stagnation and how it can be the unknown silent killer of your overall health.

Consider your body is a liquid life form exchanging fluids at every turn. It doesn’t matter if it is hormones, blood, lymph, neurological chemicals all while holding itself together. The human body is spectacular.

Understanding also that the body has over 600 muscles that work on train tracks called anatomy trains that dictate not only tensile function but also meridian flow to enhance bipedal motion. You should be amazed at how you as a human remain not only alive, but also at how you work in your daily life. Adding the undercurrent of meridians that essentially are the nerve pathways coming from every elemental organ system you have in your body, then you can see how complicated we truly are as humans.

Lastly, the opposable thumbs make for a new neuron track that is only available in the upper plexus of the body in people, especially for fine motor skills. I mean, you could not make such a syncretistic system even in a lab.

What does stagnation have to do with all of this? It is elementary. We are prone to it when we are introduced to modern life.

Humans are made to move, which includes walking, run, hunt, and throwing. Modern life has indoctrinated us in stagnation. Sitting for extended periods of time not using our muscles, ligaments, bones, and body in ways that are productive for health.

Yes, modern conveniences are nice because we know that flying over walking from California to Georgia is much easier and will take less time. That is a mechanical advantage, yet most humans, especially in the modern industry and culture, have reconditioned their natural predisposition to move and have instead opted to be bombarded and not restore themselves.

This is where stagnation enters.

When you obstruct a fluid or path, and it doesn’t matter the capacity, then you become one who induces an inactive state. Flowing water never grows stale, but stale water doesn’t flow.

I’m sure you’ve heard folks state that they have either fluid in their joints, pain in their necks or somewhere else? That is often a sign of trauma due to a stagnation issue. Usually, one that is induced by a physical, chemical or depressive challenge.

After all, what do muscles do innately? Contract and if they cannot contract due to either an overly shortened or lengthened state then they react (spasm, adhere, atrophy, etc.)

However, you don’t want to just hear about why we are broken, right? We want to find a starting solution to the challenge of stagnation. This is where we find the standing bridge to bring us back into balance.

In martial arts, there have been many variations to this method, but none as functional as the one found in How to eat, move and be healthy. In this book, Paul Chek gives you examples of why the standing posture is one of the most useful portions to not only having a neutral spine, but also restoring neuronal flow in the body. It opens the gateways to all the meridian channels as well as the deep non-accessible meridian points in the body. You can find these points named the governing and conception vessels.

Today we will begin with a portion of the standing bridge for you to try at home.

Standing Bridge (Neutral Spine) Stance
Begin by standing up and finding your feet directly under your larger leg bones.
Once there, I want you to see if your legs or feet are flared out
Once you have them facing in a normal direction, follow by having your pelvis into a neutral state. (Often you as an individual will have either a forward tilted pelvis or a posteriorly tilted pelvis.)
Once there you’re going to feel a bit of shaking, that is ok because your body is finding proper tension.
Retract your lower abdomen now towards your spine and hold that position for 20 seconds.
You should notice it is quite difficult to hold this at first, especially with your hands are at your side.
Photo credit: Functional Patterns.

Practice this, and what I will do is make a video next week, so you can see an example of a neutral spine. It applies to clients who are in pain, suffer from depression, anxiety, or stress-related issues.

If you’d like to have a conversation to overcome pain, anxiety, or stress challenges, click here.

I’ll speak with you next week.

~Luis