Art + Insane Wrist Pushups
Movement of the week
If you're a handstander, yogi, bodyweight training or locomotion nerd, you'll love this.
This week we have Wrist Heel Raises... but a special, brutal version that feels much more connected.
These were first shared with me by Juan Rueda - someone I'd consider to be a mentor, who exemplifies fantastic teaching and has a background in gymnastics, circus arts, music, Ido Portal Method and martial arts (internal and external forms) and meditation.
They are nothing like standard first-knuckle pushups (heel-raises). Try them. You might not even be able to do one. Stand upright and use a wall if necessary.
Insight of the week
ART and ARGUMENT
Life is made up of both art and argument.
In fact, great art is the graceful expression of an inner argument… It bubbles up from the unconscious, insisting on its own becoming.
And so in creating, the artist comes to terms with their worldview in a way they never have before.
This process is more therapy than entertainment.
And so the best artists can seem ruthless, because they are honest.
Great art often creates argument, speaking boldly to what has been unsaid. Turning a mirror on the viewer and asking “What are you so desperate to make of this? What judgement are you craving?”
Just as life can seem ruthless in recycling itself, because it is infinitely giving.
Like a mother to an infant, the artist must wholeheartedly embrace and honour their creation as they bring it into the world, making no apologies for its perfection. Because art is a living process — perhaps the ultimate proclamation of life.
It represents integration and newness in a world that is constantly grabbing, gripping and getting out of touch with its own rhythms.
And if opinion and common-sense-making are allowed to meddle with it before it has been blessed by its creator, art dies.
So, there must be space for argument. There must be loose ends. There must be potential for conflict.
Because anything real is messy to a patterned mind.
But art can also be remedy for the pain of what has not yet been integrated. It gives a neutral space to what we can’t yet hold kindly, and allows us to revisit the conflict later on, when we are ready… or to see it in a new way, as its own entity. A creation, rather than as a problem to be solved.
So life is both art and argument. And the best arguments often lead to the best art. And arguing well is an art in itself — perhaps the finest art.
Where your conditioning tells you that you should not be feeling what you’re feeling, make art.
The intellect says “Am I doing this right?” …and waits for an answer to validate its own existence.
Art waits for no answer and defies words.
Update
I’ve been revisiting back-bending with new layers of body awareness.
I think it might be one of, if not THE best indications of spinal health and movement freedom, which both hugely reflect health. Why?
It requires you to manage your breathing (internal pressure) and the diaphragms of the body to create deep core stability. This involves everything from tongue posture to pelvic floor function. It’s highly reflective of the state of your nervous system.
Your spine is the main highway for your nervous system all the way from your crown to your crotch, and the same exit roads that innervate the organs are also necessary for movement. This is why there’s such a link between movement / sensation at certain segments of the spine and health of particular organs.
It requires you to demonstrate high levels of spinal segmentation (controlling how much each part of your spine moves and ensuring you’re not dumping into your lower back). You need to feel safe enough, balanced enough and pain-free enough, to arch backwards… and if you can effortlessly control this range and express yourself, you’re definitely a good mover.
Now, if you sit too much and your hips and shoulders are locked, or your digestion is really poor, or you’ve had a back injury, or you have postural issues, or your nervous system isn’t in a great state, or you don’t breathe well… all of this will be highlighted.
You don’t have to back bend that often to have a healthy spine. You can build the necessary attributes in isolation and then bring them together.
But if you CAN back-bend, that’s an indication that your spine is in great shape, so it’s worth keeping back-bends in your life as a regular check-in.
Note: back-bends feel more like hip and heart openings than actual “back-bends” and the sign of a great backbend is that you can distribute the effort and load through as much of your anterior (front body) chain as possible.
I’ll keep exploring this in more detail and maybe at some point I’ll have a program for you!
Until then… I just released a new gym program called BodyMind Evolution which, as the name suggests, covers more than just the exercises you’ll be training. Check it out here.