Neuro-WHAT?

We were reminded of a recent post from Annie Hopper about neuroplasticity…’the brain’s ability to change itself’.

This special characteristic allows the brain’s estimated 100 billion nerve cells to constantly lay down new pathways for neural communication and to rearrange existing ones throughout life, thereby aiding the processes of learning, memory, and adaptation through experience.

Remember, as you learn new movement patterns in GardenCore, you are laying down those new neural patterns that your brain can grab a hold.

There is that phrase… cells that fire together, wire together.

Your brain can be rigid or flexible, adaptive to change or hardwired for habitual behaviors—it all depends on how you exercise it.

Building your brain muscles or creating new neuronal pathways in your brain requires two fundamental elements.

The first is that we learn new knowledge and the second is that we have a personal experience of that new knowledge.

However, in order to strengthen these new neural pathways we must apply the laws of neuroplasticity—association, attention and repetition.

Joe Dispenza, author of the book Evolve Your Brain, states, “Just as with any relationship, neurons need to communicate, or fire together a lot in the beginning, so that they can develop a more sustained relationship.”

For example, think back to what it was like when you learned how to drive a car.

You may have gone to driver’s education classes before you even sat behind the wheel.

You were told of the rules of the road and what to do when you’re driving.

They give you the intellectual knowledge that you need to know in order to drive a car; however it is not until you apply that knowledge on a practical level that you really “get it.”.

And soon enough, with practice driving became second nature to you. In fact, you repeated it so often that you didn’t have to think about it anymore.

With consistent practice the neural pathways associated with driving were strengthened and eventually it became an unconscious behaviour.

You knew exactly what to do, when to do it and how to do it.

And so it is with any new skill.

We need to marry our intellectual knowledge with a practical application and strengthen this new pathway though association, attention and repetition.

Every move you integrate here in GardenCore is about strengthening not only your actions but your new neural pathways!

! straight from the UK…!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Foxwood Way, Derbyshire, United Kingdom, April, 16,2010 – Spring is here! As you reach for your trowel and gardening gloves. Be warned, proceed with caution.

Would you run a marathon without adequate training, kit and preparation? I suspect not, yet many people venture into the garden unprepared, only to return hours later aching and exhausted!

With a bit of thought and planning, some common gardening injuries can be avoided.

Preparation:
As with any sporting event, a good warm up is crucial to prepare your body for the task ahead. Build yourself up gradually by brisk walking a few laps of your garden, surveying the scene and assessing the challenges you face whilst at the same time raising your pulse and body temperature.

Perform some gentle mobilisations: rolling your shoulders and arms backwards; doing some gentle trunk rotations; squatting down to the floor with bent knees and a straight back.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

again, just another article with the red alert of caution.

Briskly walking is one thing, but surveying the scene and assessing the challenges you face is another.

That’s like saying go take a peaceful walk in on the nature trails and oh you’re leading a conference call from your mobile while you’re doing the lovely walk.

Doesn’t meld.

The warm up for the garden is best to keep it that…warming the body.

Surveying and assessing is getting your brain and obsession all wrapped up before you even begin.

Here’s an alternative to a walking… behind and in the scenes of a recent movement workshop.

Try it.

We do it regularly as our garden prep….add your own thing once you get the swing of it!

No, this is not square foot gardening.

But, let’s talk about those aching dogs.

After a day in the garden with all of your every which way but tight and boring movement it sure feels delightful to kick off those shoes and let your feet, well….breathe, first of all.

The foot is loaded with pressure points, some just dying to be stimulated.

Whenever I teach folks about which part of the foot we will address I see they often get confused with the arches and the balls of the feet.  The above image makes it clear.

Here is a nice treat you can do for your feet anytime, not just after gardening.

All you need is either a ‘pinky ball’ or even a tennis ball works well.

It seems to relax the foot and stimulate it, but not in a confusing way.

It feels good.

Try it out!

Ahhh, here is a great reminder, thank you Marilyn!

Six tips for smarter gardening

I was getting my hair cut the other day – not a $400 haircut, just the regular kind – when a middle-aged woman with her head wrapped in a towel approached the chair next to mine. She could barely move. She was bent over, one leg dragged a little, and she had both hands cradling her hips, barely able to sit down.

“What happened to YOU?” asked my haircutter. I was all ears, myself.
“Gardening,” the woman said. “I think I overdid it.”

Welcome to my 6 Tips for Smarter Gardening column. It’s an annual, and when I heard about that woman’s suffering – she hurt her back and shoulders and was still complaining when I left – I took it as a sign. Time for me to plant the following:

• Gardening is real exercise. It’s bending, lifting, pulling, kneeling, sometimes all at the same time, and if you’re not focused on mindful movement and steady breathing, you can really do yourself in.

• Ease into it. If your gardening tasks are strenuous – removing brush, digging up bushes, pushing a wheelbarrow – be sure to take a little extra time to warm up the muscles and joints you’ll be using. If your idea of gardening is cutting fresh mint for your mojito, you can probably skip the warmup.

• Learn to lift and carry. Bend at your knees, not your waist, and use the power of your legs to lift the load. Hold the load close – outstretched arms can cause back strain – and as you move, engage as many of your core muscles as you’ve been able to find. Don’t torque or twist carrying a heavy load. And one good way to stay focused is to listen to the sound of your breath. Exhale when you exert yourself; inhale to lift your heart to the sky.

• Be aware. Gardening injuries often happen when you’re moving from one task to another. Or if you stay at one task too long. My new best friend at the beauty shop – I like to call it my pro-aging salon – spent five hours planting in her garden after not being there for more than six months. She overdid it. I didn’t tell her that, to her sad face, but I am telling you: Don’t overdo it. That’s what being aware is all about.

• Take precautions. To protect your knees, kneel on something soft. Drink your fluid of choice to keep from getting dehydrated.

• Use gardening tools that are ergonomically correct. Don’t let your skin burn. If you feel pain or strain when you garden, stop your activity for a while and give your body a chance to recover.

• Consider asking others to help you in your garden – your kids, for instance!

Studies have shown that one wonderful way to get kids eating fruits and vegetables is to get them gardening. Read it and reap.

• Garden with grace and gratitude.

Gardening is as good for your mind as it is for your body.

It’s a quiet time to sink your fingers into Mother Earth and deepen your connection not only to her deep abundant nature, but also to your own.

And from that place, great growth can happen.

It is well known that recent studies suggest that a three week period is critical for retention.

Three weeks appears to the minimal time frame needed to install a new habit or not let it slip away from awareness.

Did you ever hear this before?

The evidence behind it is that three weeks of consistent practice is sufficient time to lay down the new neuromuscular grooves. This is poignant given what movements we ask of ourselves in the yard and garden.

I have liked to call it a ’21 day experiment’. This is what I use with new clients that come into our movement studio and are looking to make changes in the ways that they move.

If you do not reinforce or recreate the desired behavior within a 15-21 day period, the learning almost disappears.

You see, that neuromuscular groove is a real thing.

Think about like this. Have you ever used a new tool, or adopted a new system of doing things?

Let’s use the new tool as an example.  Maybe you slip right into comfort with it because it’s exactly what you have been looking for…but let’s suppose it is new to you. When you take it into your hands and begin to allow your hands to feel it, understand the uses of it, how it best serves you there is a bit of perhaps unease. You know that the tool can be helpful, yet there is an awkward feeling.  I remember this feeling a few years ago when I first used a reciprocating saw for a split rail fence we were building.  That saw was so awkward, my hands and arms did not know how to hold it let alone staying grounded myself and holding strong. And then I observed those gradual changes every time I picked that tool up again my brain and body said…‘ahh, yes, it is like this‘ and my work became smoother as I became more comfortable using that tool.

It is not only your physical body that needs to adapt it is that relationship of your muscles communicating with how to do it, the feel of it, the response to it.  Thus creating  a new neuromuscular groove. The above image is integrating nerves inside our bodies.

This truly applies to anything that we learn and thus repeat over and over.

Take the opposite end of this learning curve.  Those things that you do on automatic pilot…you don’t even think about doing them.  Many times you don’t even pay attention. Yes, it becomes habit; yet you also become unconscious of what you are doing…not always a good thing!

So, remember the 21 day experiment when learning adopting anything that is new to you.  Those 21 days are just the beginning really.

Oftentimes, it can be a fascinating learn to actually observe yourself…learning, and remembering where you started in that process.

The gardening season is a long one, depending on where you live…21 days at a time are really nothing.

Small chunks of time to learn anew and practice the old!

You know this scene…

You’ve been weeding for almost an hour and your shoulders are up to your ears with tension;

those 300 bulbs you just planted for the last 2 hours are wreaking havoc on your knees.

On your next venture outdoors for time in the yard or garden plan on using the mix of 3. Certainly, you may have a mile long list of what you want to get done whether it is one day or the entire weekend. For the sake of your body and the health of your season, always group tasks together in 3.

Pre-planning this inside is even better but if you do it in real time that will serve you as well.

It goes like this… choose 3 tasks that you will be doing in the yard & garden and alternate them every 20 minutes. Ideally, these tasks will vary according to the demand on the body. What you want to have is a choice of unrelated movements. For example weeding, mowing and raking use different groups of muscles. Or say harvesting tomatoes, mulching and dragging that tarp mixes the moves enough to not clog up one muscle group. The 20 minute time frame will give you good economy of movement while preserving energy for the next task.

You’ll find that you won’t be walking the lines of wear on one muscle group and 20 minutes gives you a healthy window for optimal energy demand for that task.

The best thing is that you’ll lessen the risk of inviting injury simply because you’re making smarter choices.

Make this a plan every time you step foot into the garden.

You’ll save yourself some aches and your body will thank you for the new pattern you created.

At the end of last week I purchased a long awaited and well thought out pair of footwear. I walked out of the store wearing them because my feet were exhilarated and smiling when I tried them on.

Can’t call them shoes, sneakers or sandals. They are the alternative to those.  Call them monkey feet as my Mother referred to them. They are Vibrams FiveFingers. You may have heard about these as they have been getting quite a bit of press lately, even in the New York Times. I considered them for 3 months, researched the material for another 3 months, and for 6 weeks began to change my running pattern to adapt to them. I don’t run a lot of distance, perhaps less than 20 miles per week.  And, I run in the pre-dawn hours because I love the connection with everything outside my head at that hour. What a way to deepen the connection to Mother Nature as she awakens.

So what does this have to do with gardening and fitness? Let me string together the salient points in the small brochure that came with my FiveFingers… “an intelligent way to deepen your connection with your natural surroundings; some say they feel more connected to the earth and more in tune with their bodies, others discovered an increased sense of balance and greater agility; customers report an expanded range of motion and visibly improved posture; the footwear liberates your body to move in a healthy, more natural way; as your body’s sensory system received feedback from the earth, the muscles and joints in your feet and legs adapt to the barefoot sensation and you rediscover a smoother, more natural walking motion; they help you connect with nature”.

Why are gardeners not wearing these?

Sure, protective footwear is a must for some tasks…but how about those less cautious ones such as weeding, pruning, and harvesting? Remember, neurally, the core starts at the feet. It is amazing how the feet have adapted to shoes, sneakers and boots. The one place I noticed it immediately besides the fact that my toes were separated and able to feel the ground was my ankles. My ankles actually get to do their job to the fullest. Wearing the Fivefingers opens the opportunities to have the foot feel the ground and thus providing the ankle a greater propensity to flex and extend upon movement. THIS is huge. Our gait is sometimes so skewed because of the lazy patterns that we have developed while wearing shoes of any sort. Take notice sometime while barefoot.  I point this out to clients all the time.  Our studio has a no shoes policy.  This is how Pilates is done, without shoes. Folks are amazed at the new learn of moving naked in their feet.

Kick off your shoes more often; explore the ground beneath you if just inside your house. This is a simple, great, fundamental lesson in learning to connect to your core from the bottom up.

Be kind to your body and remember the learning curve of anything new… take it s-l-o-w.

For sure this will help you to hold onto yourself, the ground beneath you and increase the connection of the physical you with your core.

Can’t wait to weed around the lilac bush and prepare the raised bed this morning in my FiveFingers!

Okay, I know this photo is kind of freaky BUT…don’t we wish that we had this many hands while  tending to the garden….heck, we could tackle the garden with this many.  But what fun is tackling?  After all, the thrill of gardening is to be able to plan, noodle, re-arrange and enjoy.  As Barbara Perlman points out …’you’re in perpetual motion, unless of course your idea of gardening is planting a pot of petunias or pansies on your patio’.

‘Extreme in degree, joyously unrestrained & enthusiastic‘..for sure  that definition fits the exuberant gardener. Because of total abandon and utter enthusiasm gardeners often time lose themselves in the bustle of movements that they either overdo it; strain a muscle; or are quite confused on how to even start to get fit for their season. We know conceptually that gardening is REAL exercise, yet at the heart of the matter we lose focus on ourselves because …well, there is so much to do!

In the time of one measly hour we ask our bodies to bend, lift, pull, and kneel sometimes all at the same time. It’s really about that attention and mindful movement that will make a huge difference.  And remember, mindful movement isn’t about getting all zen-like-meditative … it’s as simple as paying attention to what you are doing and how you are doing it.

Ease into your plan.  Spring clean up could be a daunting task and quite a tedious cleanup of all the debris that has found a home in our beds and lawns. These housekeeping duties are what will allow the season to begin fresh, anew and rejuvenated. Removing winter-kill and old annuals and pruning dead branches promotes clean growing conditions and reduces the opportunity for fungus and disease to become established.

Be sure to take a little extra time to warm up the muscles and joints you’ll be using. What works really well and makes simple sense is a dynamic warm up…the alternative to static stretching. It involves continuous movement and  it maintains warmth in your body and muscles. If your idea of gardening is cutting fresh mint for your mojito, you can probably skip the warmup.

Gardening injuries often happen when you’re moving from one task to another or if you stay at one task too long.  Somebody I know spent five hours planting in her garden after not being there for more than six months. She overdid it….it was that simple and it was that stupid.

The key in all of this is not the gloves, the ergonomic tools, the corset, avoiding ‘dangerous’ movement or in daily dosing of Advil…the key is to be sensible about what you are asking your body to do.  If your garden is in better shape than you are you might want to take a look at laying some groundwork.

Think of exuberant gardeners as chaordic. This is a term that was coined by Dee Hoch, the founder and former CEO of Visa. Chaordic is a mix of chaos and order and is often described as a harmonious coexistence displaying characteristics of both, with neither chaotic nor ordered behavior dominating. Some hold that nature is largely organized in such a manner; in particular, living organisms. Exuberant gardeners are living organisms and are for sure chaordic in nature!

Keep this in mind… tend to the body that provides the mobility to do it all and remember it is the play and the amusement and the love of what we do.

As Rudolf Borchardt, a German novelist, dramatist, and translator who died in 1945, and was clearly an expert gardener said…

“Gardening is not a luxury, but an essential human activity — indeed, one of the ways in which we learn what it is to be human.”