HUtch's Pool: Part II

[jbeegoode]

The following day, we decide to stay and lazily relax like proper naturist in their element.

A beautiful day, place and state to be in.

https://thefreerangenaturist.org/2019/10/08/hutchs-pool-part-ii/

Jbee

[nuduke]

That is as much like Eden as I can imagine.  Arcadian freedom, calm and communion with nature.
A particularly lovely report.
Your skeletal problems, Jbee must be something other than knee or femoral joint based of you can do the half lotus so effectively and (presumably) sit there comfortably for a while.
John

[jbeegoode]

Arcadian! That's a new and useful term.

About the time that I got the Morten's Neuroma and started rehabilitating my feet and getting barefoot (a SN/FRN thing that many here were playing with) throwing out damaging shoes, I got into my India spiritual thing. Bending working on feet for hours at a time and the desire to be more immersed in what I was studying and practicing got me to stretch into those sitting positions. I enjoyed it and found benefits beyond.

I am more comfortable sitting basically such for long times than sitting in chairs, especially conference chairs. I think it is better after adapting to it. If I've got back support, I'm very comfortable.

What slowed me down in the first place, was a couple of rear-enders decades ago. Now, I'm finding ways to eradicate the systemic problems caused instead of listening to my chiropractor, but I do stop in on occasion. I had some bad posture habits from younger years, too.

The sitting positions do help those damages, the lower back pain, etc., but there is more to it.

As my feet aligned the rest changing to more healthy, I realized that the bones don't support the body as much as the muscles support the bones. I'm working out the band around the waist into the crouch.

Then a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that my knees were pointing in because of musculature reaction to the more healthy stance. So. I'm stiff and sore today after experimenting with various squat exercises to get the glutious maximus to pull back the knees, before I develop knee problems from walking. Posture in health is fascinating.

So, yea, and I'm doing things to improve it all. It has been slow and complex to repair my slouch issues and bad habits that accumulated for many years. I also have a problem with regimen. I also squat with both feet flat on the floor, third world style, which is getting more and more comfortable. I can do it for up to 10 and twenty minutes sometimes. The cross legged thing is relaxing, associated with just shutting down the mind and disappearing into...well.
Jbee

[nuduke]

UK speakers often use arcadia./arcadian to designate a place of rustic innocence and simple, quiet pleasure. Arcadian can mean "idyllically pastoral" or "idyllically innocent, simple, or untroubled."

a couple of rear-enders decades ago

  What's a rear-ender?

I see that your sitting habits and posture has been the subject of much diligent practice.  I wish I was so diligent with my yoga which, even at the relatively simple and infrequent (2 x per week) times I do it has had a great effect on my flexibility and has alleviated some of my back problem(s).  As ever, Jbee you are an example to us all of focus and self help.

John

[jbeegoode]

I must confess that keeping an exercise regimen is one of my shortcomings, I'm not a good example, but I keep working on that. Too much ebb and flow to my schedule and that darn innate laziness and joy in relaxing.

I got a styrofoam roller and doing squats and just hanging around seeing how long that I can sit like that flat footed has kept me from the chiropractor the last year or two. I go in for a neck crack and maintenance every so often. I've got a lifetime of bad posture to correct, so I must have patience.

The swinging helps my back, too. Over years, I've gotten so I can barely do one pull up, but that will change. If I'm out enjoying the more rugged outdoors naked and safely into older age, I'll need all of the youthful elasticity and strength that I can muster.

A "rear-ender" is getting rear ended by another driver. I've had two. The last one had me laid up for a few months with whiplash problems. Another driver didn't anticipate that since it hadn't rained in months that there was oil buildup which creates a very slick road when it finally rains. The asphalt doesn't wash off for months here, then add water and it is like patches of ice. The accident's effect has messed with me for over twenty years, but I'm getting over it now that I have been using muscles and getting away from my chiropractors over-cautious restrictions. I didn't understand the simple notion that the muscles support the bone's structures, not so much the other way around. Nice slow focused yoga and stretch does wonders for me, too.
Jbee

[rrfalcon]

a couple of rear-enders decades ago

  What's a rear-ender?

John

I believe JBee is using shorthand for a rear-end collision - where your car is struck from behind. This does nasty things to one's back.

[nuduke]

Wow JBee, I didn't know you could get such a lot of repercussions from a rear ender (fully briefed thanks to rrfalcon!).  It must have been a pretty big prang (UK term used by middle and upper class people for a small vehicle collision, usually causing dents!). You have my sympathies.
I have had enormous benefit from yoga so I'm glad to see it on your list of 'remedies'.
If a 'pull up' is raising your weight with your arms holding on to on a horizontal support such as a door lintel, join the club - I haven't got the upper body strength to lift my own weight - although I do a pretty mean dangle!

John

[jbeegoode]

Yup, that's a pull-up. Used to do them every morning and then hang from gravity inversion boots way back in the day. I'm swimming and adding attempts at these pull-ups. In the meantime, I'm swinging from ring to ring, or bar to bar to build up those muscles. It will take time. The trick for me is to keep at it regularly, which I tend to fail at.

I found that a whiplash does all sorts of weird things. There is a list a page long of symptoms, some don't seem that they would be related. I went through it for a few months. One day I'd have one, the next another. I had about a dozen before it was calmed down. I didn't know about these and wondered what was going on, then I read a pamphlet in the Chiro office.

So, he had me staying stiff and often the alignment would pop out just a few feet out of the office door. I was told not to do things, to be careful. I was restricted, too much. Then, after a few years, I caught on. It's the muscles! I need to wiggle dance and be elastic and flexible.

I was out of work for a few months and it ate up savings and the money to fix my old Ford van's bumper. The poor 'ol gal never recovered. That old droopy mangled  bumper follows her everywhere. No worries for me, she is just an old work truck, and needn't be so pretty at her age of 38 years.
Jbee

[MartinM]

Hi, JBee. Lovely account.

If you ever get a chance to try Alexander technique, give it a go. It helps posture/alignment by learning to do less with your muscles. So many problems after injuries, like whiplash, are caused by holding ourselves against these injuries, but the muscles get into a habit that remains long after the original injury, putting pressure on joints and causing bad alignment.

Squatting and hanging are all good, as of course is yoga, if you don’t push it too much like we are sometimes tempted.

[jbeegoode]

I'll have to dig deeper. I see that some of the methods that I have experimented with had some origin, or influence from his technique.

There is always something new to be aware of. This weekend we took Granddaughter to the Children's Museum and there was a display that would make a movie of the action of jumping. Then, it would play slow motion. I found myself spreading my knees when squatting before a jump.  I tried it without spreading the knees to a different result, but found a stronger compression in the lower back when landing, felt different muscles. Then, I watched the children around me. They would use their entire body. They were using their arms, swinging them for better result. I noticed was using no arm movement concentrating on the legs. Being able to continue with simple actions like jumping will make a difference with overall elasticity and ward off the lack of use of muscle groups as I age. Use it or lose it, or become like old people, before I have to be old. The little kid jumping with me jumped a whole foot higher than me!

 After being stiff for so long, I don't notice these little things. Walking, sitting, displaying more dignity comporting like respectable adults tends to make problems. The muscles don't support as they once had. The compensating muscles like the Alexander method make a terrific difference in movement, too. I had a shoulder problem a few years back and the masseuse and therapist worked on it that way.

I wished that I could use that kid's display nude to see the different parts of the body move and compress, etc. Watching just my bare feet and ankles and some calve move was fascinating. I wonder if there is a computer software or app that slows a movie's motion down? 
Jbee