Be Your Own "Lab"

Categories: Blog Feb 24, 2016

People, trainers and other fitness/rehab experts are always surprised at Pressing RESET workshops when I tell part of my story, especially the part about using the foam roller incessantly back in 2002 to 2006, and then switching to the PVC pipe and how it didn’t work for me.

You can see the wheels turning in their heads. Speaking of heads, we used the “foam roller your calves” example this past weekend at one. I gave the a visual of how posture - which is a reflex, NOT a position - affects weight distribution and therefore tightness in the calves by pushing my head forward into what is most people’s “normal” head position.

Then I explained how when you restore, or reset if you will, your body’s natural posture through head control exercises that strengthen the neck, the vestibular system, and reflexes, you take the extra stress off the calves, eliminating the excess tension in the calves and therefore the need for a foam roller and self-myofascial release.

Throughout the workshop, I made the point of encouraging the participants not to take my word for it but to test out what I was saying.

I think for many, it was a shock.

Why?

Because most people look to “authority” figures for permission to do or do not, especially it seems these days, with exercise and working out. “You can do this when…” or “Don’t do that because…” are common phrases these days. (Interestingly enough, if you say those things, or phrases like them often enough, or in a loud voice, people will tend to believe you more.)

I often tell of my early days of using the OS RESETs, which I’ve been using for just shy of 6 years now, and how I experimented with them. I’d “cycle” certain RESETs, primarily crawling, in and out of my workouts and use one exercise - the Pistol (rock bottom single leg squat) - as the baseline.

I’d put crawling in for 6 weeks, and I’d get closer to getting my bodyweight Pistol. I’d take it out, and no matter how much I’d practice my Pistol, I’d fail to make adequate progress. I did this over the course of a year until I finally made the correlation between backwards crawling and being able to not only achieve, but maintain my bodyweight Pistol.

The next year, I did the same thing with the One Arm One Leg Push Up. Take backwards loaded crawling out, lose the ability to get close, then do, the OAOLPU, no matter how many other techniques I practiced. Put it back in, and voila! OAOLPU.

I was my own lab.

I encourage you to be your own lab.

Test out the RESETs and what they do to and for your own body.

Here are some ideas / correlations we’ve noticed as trends across most populations over the last 6 years:

Diaphragmatic Breathing - seems to help almost everything. Major stress reliever.

Neck Nods - Improve upper body work, especially pressing.

Rolling - Very good for gait related activities and unilateral, or unilaterally-biased exercises like the Turkish Get Up and Single Leg Deadlift.

Rocking - Improves squatting and deadlifting.

Crawling - Improves almost everything and anything, dependent on the person.

Will these RESETs do the same for you?

I don’t know for sure.

But you can.

Test them out.

Be your own lab.

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