Vegas

Shout out to my Friends, Chris and Lori Taplett, owners of Zocalos Steel Fabrication and Design, in the Great Mojave Desert, Las Vegas, Nevada.  What they do with STEEL is amazing.  Chances are, if you've dined out, gambled, or slept in Sin City, you've sat in one of their hand-crafted chairs, run your hand on a rail from their shop, or enjoyed about town one of their creations.  Recently, imposing Steel Cut Charm on the Tapletts, I managed to bolt the Pacific Northwest, hang with them for two weeks, and stave off the maudlin "Post-Super Bowl" Blues.  After my STEELers marched to Triumph, you see, I looked upon the rain, sensed mildew's stranglehold on the calendar, and left P-town for Jack-rabbit Country.  February (remember when the Super Bowl was a first-month affair?), mind you, in Vegas isn't warm, though neither is the sky, as it is in northern latitudes, a dungeon-esque gray.  In fact, after breaking through the region-wide storm, and leveling off at 30,000 feet, the plane made visible stratospheric color eminently wondrous for the persistency of its absence.  A sense of joy centered around the possibility of bounding rock unencumbered by cloud filled Steel Cut Oats. Blue, the color, made blue, the emotion, less blue....

Fortunately, after a day of hanging with a three-legged Chihuahua, while learning the wonders of Wi-Fi (the blame for this blog can be placed on their shoulders), Chris and Lori offered to car-pool and loan me their truck.  Vegas - my Vegas - is different from that of Madison Avenue, different from the "what happens there stays there" moral monstrosity that appeals to man's low mental base.  My Vegas is a boulder-splattered tableau.  A quick leap to a space trip of humming red rock.  Of what do I speak?  Of the National Monument west of downtown, a Garden of Stone, where, quite in contrast to the artificial cacophony of greed-driven games, Geology erupts in grandiose patterns and ravens play "pit boss" to gamblers who climb.

Yes, Open Country….  BOULDERS in every size shape and color, a Seussian version of tectonic upheaval, whose active inter-face challenges every muscle---the lats as they pull, the quads as they push, the feet in a thousand protean planes--and here one needn't stick to a trail.  I enjoy trails, but hikers yearn to roam unrestricted.  Trails are akin to lines in a coloring book: they guide, direct but kill spontaneity.  Creativity suffers.  And so it was that I went after stone, rising in spirit above the vast basin

Finish: walk-friendly, no….  Palms,  Red Rock N.M.

A Steel Cut Segue

Steel Cut Oats slept like crap last night and, as a result, found himself feeling almost malleable this afternoon.  Less than steely.  So what he did - what I did - was partake of an old-fashioned jog in the park.  Running is not my forte, but every now and then, the weight-pile, the BOSU, even a brisk walk, doesn't "fire the furnace."  A jog (not a run, but a methodical churn covering a mile in eight minutes) is just what I need.

And so I began.  Not to be confused with Frank Shorter (Munich Marathon Gold), I began tentatively, effortfully, negotiating sidewalks, on my way to a gout of primeval fir. Last time, two (three?) weeks ago, I followed my breath up a wet, muddy trail, and pretended, in exertion, to be Lewis-and-Clark.  But now, Spring had sprung.  The goose-step of clipping cross-country came with tulips.  And where, once, a Bag-eyed Insomniac beat the trail, Pheidippides emerged on a bee-line to Sparta. God, I thought, it must feel good to blaze the back-stretch, crowd in your ear.... "Oats!" "Oats!" "Oats!"

Maybe.   Hayward Field, the University of Oregon's venerable track, is the first place I ever jogged.  Woefully out of shape, I made sure the sun was down, and proceeded to wheeze eight times around the oval on which Steve Prefontaine, adoring crowd yelling "Preeeeeee!", smashed records.  I could feel his Spirit, present and alive.  So, after messing-up the long-jump pit, I drove, spontaneously, to the hills, cranking Steppenwolf - "Get your motor runnin"…. - to a place I hadn't seen.  The hair-pin was flanked by rock, smattered in graffiti where he failed to make the turn (Pre was strong in the turn), and the detritus of mourners - beer and flowers - flanked stone.  A warm night, like many a night when you put the top down and go all out, congealed death, and decades later, the goose-bumps still rise, memory haunts, and I pretend…. I am him.

Twenty-five minutes - approximately three miles - later, I was back in the driveway.  I hadn't planned on documenting the experience.  However, just as it aids in exercise to now and then "shake it up," it aids, in writing, to "shatter the pattern." Something useful in going from slug- to chug-pace (sorry, I couldn't help it) seemed appropriate.

So, here I am, blogging about jogging…. I fear the day I start blogging while jogging, but until then, I'll keep moving.... Steel Cut.


Makten, S.C.O.

Next blog: Winging it....

Fit Feet For Couch Sloths

Before I begin, I want to make it clear to the Vast Viewing Audience (5 visits and counting!) that my body-image doesn't include clown feet and scrawny legs.  Boat-size metatarsals and miniscule biceps.  Yes, I'm focusing on the foot.  But Forged Steel, mind you, is strong everywhere.  As Steel Cut Oats, I steer toward uniformity the Steel Cut Tribe, conducting a symphonic network of cells, and insist on being thorough prior to "moving up."  Tone feet may not turn heads.  No one's going to sidle up to you at a party and say they admire your abductor hallucis.  But, remember, the bailiwick of Fitness is.... function.  Strengthen your feet now--Now and Forever!--and avoid the non-function many accept.

Think I'm joking?  Consider this nightmare: After graduating in '95, I signed-up to work as a "traveling therapist."  My first job, right out of school, landed me as the ONLY therapist at a War Veterans Home in rural Louisiana.  Whether I was qualified for the job is neither here nor there---I HAD it....  I also had: enthusiastic naivety, optimistic idealism, and a tepid interest in retired share-croppers who once shot flak at flaming kamikazes loyal to the banner of the Rising Sun.  I left on a Friday, drove 2500 miles, from Oregon to Louisiana, in two days, and moved into an apartment (Roach Haven), prior to starting on a sweltering Monday morn.  In school, I'd been exposed to multiple scenarios, both in hospital and out-patient settings, but school is not reality---at least not rural Louisiana Back-Country Reality.  A "case-load" consisting of Medicare re-treads and decrepit old-timer's, wheeled in, one-after-the-other, was mine to manage sans net.  I saw patients from Vietnam and Korea, but the majority were veterans of World War II, bedeviled by age, a questionable diet, and the Sedentary Blues.  In addition to my L.W.V.H. duties, I also made "house calls" on the edge of the swamp.  In this varied exposure to preceding generations, it came to my attention that a correlation existed between foot status (strong/weak) and ambulatory vigor.  I noticed, for example, that elderly patients whose ability to walk separated them from peers, could flex and fan their toes.  Those with impaired mobility, without exception, lacked neuro-muscular pathways (the Quarterback Brain "threw" to Feet deaf and dumb) indicating that "use it or lose it" is sound.  Having observed hale "old-timers," as well as the nursing crowd, I can say, years later, that the observation holds true.  Strong, active feet, with hard-wired connections to the brain's "motion center," preserve our ability to waltz throughout life.

The Exercises: 

1) Flex-Fan: Scrunch (flex) your toes tightly, then, in reverse, spread them apart.  Flex-fan.... Flex-fan...  This exercise strengthens neural connectivity, lubricates joints, and trains muscles beyond their "normal" range.

2) Toe-Scissors: This, too, is a "flex-fan" exercise, but instead of moving your toes together, you move the Big Toe (or hallucis) opposite the others.  Remember, go for the maximum possible range, back and forth, while concentrating on recruitment of compromised neural paths.

3) Scrunches: Begin with your feet on the floor, then, without toe-flexing, arch the mid-foot as high as you can. Arch-flatten....  Arch-flatten....  This trains the intrinsic muscles of the feet, and can be performed almost anywhere (with or without shoes, sitting or standing, in public or private), without breaking a sweat.

4) Massage: Muscles get grumpy.  How'd you like to bear hundreds of pounds of pressure all day only to be ignored? Get in there.  The foot is easy to noodle and probe.  Run your thumb from the base of the heel to the ball of Mr. Big.  Squeeze the base of each toe, maneuver each joint.  The connective tissue, or fascia, that covers the bottom of feet is more pliable (less prone to injury and inflammation), if it knows you care and feels your touch.

That's a wrap.  Do the exercises in bed, while watching TV, or at the dentist....  They're easy, no shower.  Still, every ingredient to a recipe counts, and, in this case, the casserole is called Steel Cut.

Makten, S.C.O.

Is the President Fit?

I know, I know, in Blog 5, I said my next blog would offer further corroboration of the Fit-Foot Fetish that has thus far dominated this literary canon.  But, frankly, I put my foot in my mouth.  It's come to my attention, you see, that a host of voices blogging across the land espouses the President of the United States, Barack "Don't Call Me Barry" Obama, as the creme de la creme of Fitness, a model to be emulated, admired - perhaps even envied - so lean does he appear in his suit.  One blogger - presumably a Democrat - went so far as to label him "strong," and envision a hypothetical fight pitting Obama against George "I Don't Need a Tele-prompter Because I Don't Read" Bush in a partisan cage-match.  "Obama," he claimed, "would kick Dub-ya about the ring, knocking him senseless, before the latter 'tapped-out.'"  

Mind you, this wasn't the Huffington Post, Keith Olberman's Panty Party, or Rachel Maddow's "You too Can Be a Bull-Dike" web-page.  The person (Marv in Wichita), responding to an "expert's" Obama Workout, was merely adding to several voices appreciative of the president's ability--according to them--to beat the hell out of who, despite Barry's (Steel Cut Oats is unafraid) ridicule, had welcomed him to the White House.  

It got me to thinking---How would Obama, pitted against the Icon of Idiocy, fare?  Clearly, he would stand a puncher's chance.  But upon delving deeper, juxtaposing the Body Politic (Democrats in the blue corner, Republicans in the red), I found the Dems addled with touchy-feely types - Harry Reid, Fritz Schumer…. - throwing into question the party as a whole.  Reid, de facto party "strong man," in particular, represented what many of his generation call a "pip-squeak," who, when physically challenged, "rolls into a ball."  On the other side, in contrast to the Armadillo Strategy, Fred Thompson (R-Tenn) conjured images of a bouncer whose atavistic forehead can deflect small-arms fire at extremely close range.

Hardly evidence to draw conclusions.  Yet the more I considered it, the more I began to question the liberal ethos, its standard bearer, Obama, and the notion that anyone who hides a cigarette habit has the will to "kick butt." Examination of each party's "Eagle"(in the Dems' case, Obama, and, on the G.O.P. side, McCain) solidified, conceptually, that, given the option to repel a foreign army, or issue a French-style mock threat, the Democrats would buy kepis and order fondue. Reviewing further, I recalled (vividly) that Gerald Ford, an All-American lineman for the Michigan Wolverines, had been replaced, on the Dem side, by a peanut farmer whose poetry, though well-conceived, would be considered torture by the Geneva Convention. The farmer, it turns out, was perceived as a panty-waste by extremists, and heavily mocked at the expense of embassy workers who yearned for a New Guy (R-California) to restore Yankee Will.  

The "tough guy" ship canted starboard.  The Administration's announcement that the phrase "War on Terror," because it's mean, scary, and offensive to Muslims, would be changed to "Overseas Contingency Plan," appeared frail.  Just as Iranian extremists had mocked the peanut farmer, taking advantage of a poetic worldview, today's terror-cells seem equally committed to usurping the Closet Smoker.  As for McCain, after extended time at the Hanoi Hilton (six years), more positive X-rays than Evil Knieval, and a skull reconfigured to resemble a boomerang, he'd earned the title: Bad Ass.  Not by any stretch of the imagination could I imagine Barry "taking" torture.  Bush, who lolly-gagged in the Texas National Guard, would never be Roger Ramjet---yet, via party cachet, if not privilege, he seemed capable, in old school vernacular, of "thrashing the goat."

  

Now it is late, the moon is high and, according to the National Weather Service, a shift in the jet-stream will soon expose buds.  Somewhere, in a propitiously languid breeze, a former president lays in the dark, wondering "what might have been," while, his foe, dazzling admirers in foreign capitols, moons grandiloquent....  Far be it for me to judge. All I know is that My Country is fading....  In the end, Obama's being suckered by Big Tobacco, while pretending to be Adonis, leads to the conclusion that, despite their ages, he, not Bush, would 'tap-out'."  Issues - a pencil-neck, skeletal arms, a reed frame - suggest upside.  But if Obama aspires to mollycoddle pissed Muslims, he'll find, in the end, he's not Steel Cut.

Makten, S.C.O.

Next Blog: Fit Feet for Couch Sloths 

Overpronation, Orthotics and Calf-Stretching

Okay, you've discovered your feet (Blog #4), the Foundation of Movement, and are beginning to grasp, conceptually, Oat Philosophy.  But before we expand, its essential that I, with regard to YOU, build on your seminal understanding of Fitness.  Another quill in your quiver, the following should aid in avoidance of injury, while, at the same time, ensuring that each exercise you perform--each movement--is mechanically efficient and sound.

I begin with mechanics--BIO-mechanics--for just as the human type aid an engine, the kinetic variety ameliorate Power.  Again, we turn to our new pal, the Foot.  Often--so often, that I feel comfortable "generalizing"--when I assess a client's gait, I notice that they collapse, to some degree, at the in-step, or arch, while weight-bearing.  The greater the collapse, the greater the "pronation"--a fancy word for the amount of medial (inner) motion during foot-strike.  As in most things, a multitude of contributors may cause the inefficiency (Is your digiti minimi soft?  Can you see your shoes but for your stomach?), though a common culprit is tightness in the calf--in the soleus and gastrocnemius--superior to the foot.  Two types of flexion, "plantar" and "dorsi," occur in the ankle.  Shorten the S-and-G complex, and--BOOM!--you plantar-flex (point your toes).  Lengthen the calf, by actively drawing the toes toward the chin, and, with little or no fanfare, you become the danseuse of the dorsi ballet.   

But problems develop.  When we fail to stretch prior to activity, or, worse, avoid activity, the calf becomes fibrous, limiting "dorsi-flexion."  A healthy gait-pattern includes the striking of the heel upon "landing"; but if motion is limited, if the calves are unable to present the heel to the floor, weight transfers to the arch.  In time, it flattens, a deflated human tire.  Ever drive on a flat?  Bent rims, mis-alignment, poor mileage....  

Like Beemer, like Bod....  A flat arch--excess pronation at heel-strike--engenders torque above the ankle.  If your in-step collapses each time you bear weight, it follows--does it not?--that compensatory rotation will occur at the knee, hip and spine.  Bent rims, mis-alignment, poor mileage....  

There are remedies.  First: read and follow Blog-4; Second: on a daily basis, whether in preparation to rob a bank or plant parsley, STRETCH the calf muscles.  Find stairs, something flat and elevated, position the forefoot near your edge of choice, and, without bending the knee, lower one heel.  All that weight, anchored by toe and stair, breaks the bond of oppression!  Sing the Bill of Rights.  Switch feet.

Congratulations---you're on the Steel Cut Lane to Self-Reliance, a Force of NATURE, rubber-stamped with Pure Joy.  Still, as fine as you feel, a flat foot is the Humpty Dumpty of ailments, and, as such, requires support, not only of family and friends, but of "inserts," comprised of rigid plastic, to make you efficient mechanically.  Should you run to the doctor for a shoe-insert?  Whoa!  While each foot is unique, and may require an extremely inflated (and dubiously effective), "prescription" orthotic, for my money, Superfeet are the reader's best bet.  Superfeet (the name of the product) are indestructible inserts perfectly suited to support so efficient that, around the time they wear out, you will feel emotion.  I love them.  They are the BEST product available to address hyper-pronation of the foot.  The only time Steel Cut Oats panics is when he finds himself in shoes de-coupled from his smelly green Superfeet.  That said, if you suspect your arches are flatter than a cadaver's E.K.G., visit a professional--a doctor or physical therapist--and, if they confirm your suspicion, run--don't walk--to the footwear department.  Never was a product more amply named, nor so well-suited to forging Cut Steel.

Makten, S.C.O.

Next Blog: Advanced Single-Leg Standing (The Shipwreck Chronicles)

Note: Superfeet retail for around $30---1/10th the price of the "prescription" equivalent--and are available at R.E.I.

Foot Strengthening

Question: What body part bears the burden of hundreds of pounds of stress-inducing forces, hundreds and thousands of times per/day? What part of the human anatomy contains 80% of the joints, 30% of the bones, and over one-hundred muscles, ligaments and tendons? Answer: the FOOT.... Lowly, oft-covered, sometimes malodorous, this miraculous slab is WHERE IT BEGINS. Where body meets SOIL. Yet, sadly, few recognize its importance. We take for granted the foot, fail to compass where without it we would be.... Need I mention the extensor digitorum? The peroneous brevis? The abductor digiti minimi? Pecs.... Glutes.... That's all I hear---big, glam muscles! Yet, functionally speaking, it's the unheralded and ignored--the hidden vanguard of the Podiatry Army!--which deserve top-billing.... The effect of foot-tone can't be overstated. Strong feet improve balance, absorb shock, and lessen the burden on everything superior--which is EVERYTHING!--to the bunyons. Often, I hear complaint of fatigue, of that slow, progressive "wilting" universally common among adults at day's end, and always I riposte that fatigue can be had, that it's abnormal to ache after expending little energy.

Yes, I said---LITTLE. It's estimated that on any given day the average human expends 12% of the energy to leap, lope and climb--run, romp and dash!--before hitting the mattress. This I know, for I, too, in another time's space, had less than concrete and impervious peroneals! Feet doughy, I took a pounding in the knees, the hips, as dormant digiti placed the burden above.

Then, I came around. I was in Fred Meyer, perusing tabloids, when after two hours of learning about celebrity nannies, I felt a familiar soreness in the back, a compression of knee, and it struck like a mongoose---your feet are the PROBLEM! Mush, your feet are MUSH! Strengthen the feet, I told myself, and add a kind of "bumper" to shield your Shrine. Instead of taking for granted, as MANY DO, that as we break 30 pain is the "norm," that gimpy knees, back spasms, and mounds of ibuprofren presage arthroplasty and round-the-clock care, I decided to call modern medicine's bluff. The nightly ad-sewer, blaring the message of PILLS, that you, friend, are SICK, and need PHARMACEUTICALS, to enjoy a FULL LIFE, made me feel for the duped. Apathy, a spy, consorted with Ignorance, to fool a generation. And so it began.... I, incipiently Steel, could nonetheless serve as an example of HEALTH, the Body's Natural State, and communicate to the world the fundamentals of Power.

That, friend, is history. Mine. Shortly thereafter, having toned my feet, I enjoyed the results aforementioned, and now stand for hours, on the go or in place, on feet that support the rest of my body. Indeed, if there exists a panacea, a foolproof elixir, to orthopedic problems, foot-strength is IT. Nothing is so simple, so available, so lopsided in the return/effort ratio as the endurable regimen I herein describe:

Exercise #1) Single-leg Standing---exactly what it says. Lift one foot. Ah, sounds easy. But what you'll find, when you do it, is a wobble at the ankle, a little hip-shimmy, and---tick, tick, tick....---after 10, 20, 30 seconds, an ache, that is the end of the slumber party, spreading from your arch to your heel and toes. Good, this is GOOD. The effort required to maintain the position is activating, in addition to your foot, the stabilizers of the back, muscles of the pelvis, and your six-pack-to-be. DON'T SLOUCH!! To receive all this exercise has to give, you want to lengthen the spine, stand tall, and remember your Planes of Motion (Blog 3). This exercise is a Frontal Plane stabilizer of ankle and knee, and, to prevent the hip from "dropping out," requires a contraction of the abductor minimus!! Maximus, too!! Moreover (deep breath), this baby doesn't require a trainer or gym.... When do I do it? Typically, before I leave the house--an "out-the-door" exercise--but also, subtly, when I wait in line--at the bank, the store, the soup kitchen.... I would be disingenuous were I to claim, here and now, that I eschew S-L Standing while brushing my teeth! The thing is, once you become AWARE of your feet, and accept Foot Philosophy, you'll enjoy a "stealthy stork." Watch television? Rise during ads--rise and be counted!--a minute here, a minute there. To be a Foot Soldier in the Podiatry Army requires nothing, save a commitment to strength.

Exercise #2) Single-Leg Standing with Upper-body Movement---This raises the bar. Yes, standing by itself activates foot muscles, but as your feet "turn on," as endurance increases, you'll want a greater challenge. Here, a variety of movement in multiple planes works several areas, extending from the foot to the abdominal core. To intensify muscular contraction--in the "A.C." especially--it's important to remember to concentrate movement. What movement?

1) Windmill your arms

2) Throw an imaginary ball (both sides!)

3) Shadow-box (in the Transverse plane) across your body. 4) Rapidly move your limbs up and down.

5) Shift back-and-forth, heel-to-toe.

The key--and this can't be overemphasized--is to use the full range of motion--RE-E-E-EACH!--and to remain in CONTROL. The effort to move only that which you intend to move deepens contraction and isolation of muscle. The further you reach, the greater the gravitational influence on your arms--they weigh MORE out there!--and the greater the recruitment of abdominal and back fibers, the "anchors," if you will, of the Stork Ballet.

Nice work. The foundation has been poured, it's beginning to be obvious, and you are wishing you'd known what you know now when the scholarship was in-play. For those who remember the Hamel Camel, there's still the Senior Games, and for those young of body, raring to go, you've yet another tool in Victory's Quest.

Makten, Steel

Next Blog: Over-pronation, Orthotics and Calf-stretching....

Planes of Motion

In the future, I will address additional equipment necessary to becoming Steel Cut.  But first, I want to address how we move---so bear with me.  The absorption of a few, not overly burdensome, principles will aid in understanding efficiency in exercise, and how best to maximize the results of working out.  

So, yeah, PLANES OF MOTION.....  Three "planes"--the Sagittal, the Frontal, and the Transverse--exist to explain movement, and all forms of life, even Harry Reid, pass through them.  An example of Sagittal plane movement is the nodding, backward and forward, of the head; whereas, Transverse movement swivels the head, and Frontal plane movement, like the hands of a clock, occurs along the "line" an arrow makes when penetrating one ear and passing out the other.  Servants bow in the Sagittal plane.  A metronome ticks in the Frontal.  And President Obama, when orating, moves in the Transverse.

  

Please, rise....  The best way to remember something is to imprint it on the brain, not through passive reading but trial. You up?  Good.  Dance....  What you'll discover, if surrounded, is that people in the vicinity, more or less, think you're weird. But also that activity in a single plane rarely occurs independent of subordinate planes.  In walking, for instance, the dominant plane is Sagittal.  However, in transferring from one foot to the other, the trunk must stabilize, to control sway, in the Frontal, while concurrently rotating about the axis of the spine.  The spectrum is used, each and every plane, and while forward motion occurs largely in the Sagittal, a basketball player shuffling to prevent a slam-dunk has shifted emphasis to Mr. F.P.  An ice-skater decked out in Victoria's Secret incites the crowd by becoming a blur---"A girl atwirl in the Transverse plane!"  

Got it?  You're prepared.  You know more kinesiology--the science of movement--than 99% of personal trainers, and are poised to apply it to your workout regimen.  Perhaps you dream of touching your toes.... the English Channel....  the North Face of Kanjenchuga?  Excellent.  Grasping "kinetic principles" provides the template for goals.  Play baseball? Rotary power in the Transverse plane will transform dribblers into scalding line-drives.  Tennis?  The serve is a classic three-plane movement.  I, Steel Cut Oats, am not one of those curiously orange trainers who, after a daunting struggle with diet, becomes an orange "success"---I've been in shape all my life.  "Shape" is relative, however, and it wasn't until I learned the Principles of Motion, and how to apply them, that I reached the "next level."  How did this occur?  Why did injuries--the balky hip, the bad back--disappear?  Because I worked in mechanically sound ways.  Future blogs will address specific exercise invaluable to supporting joints while enhancing kinetic power. 

--- Foot Strengthening  

   --- Bosu 

--- Ballistic Exercise

--- Weighted Balls

Indeed, invaluable.  Once I grasp video, this site will feature text-supported demonstrations of me blasting through work-outs so exacting that the difference between function and flailing is clear.  Until then, remember: You don't need a ticket....  All that's required to pass through a plane is a burning desire too GET OFF YOUR _____!! 

 Makten, Steel

Next Blog: Foot Strengthening.... 

Note: I realize that the video isn't exactly High Def.  I shot the original sideways and, instead of starting over, "filmed the film," a technique pioneered by Marvin Scorcese.  If re-production is in order, please let me know.