HOW MANY BONES ARE IN THE FEET?

My day to day job is working to help people move better by understanding their body and how it SHOULD move and why theirs isn’t moving like that.

One of the biggest things I get is a disbelief as to the importance of the feet in relation to other bodily pain along with a complete lack of knowledge of the beautiful complexity of the foot.

Leonardo da Vinci said, "The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art."

It seems a real shame that someone who died 503 years ago understood more about the masterpiece of evolution that is the foot than 99% of the population today.

The human foot should do two thing, that’s it. Pronate and supinate. But that’s very rare that someone has the ability to do either.

In pronation, the foot is lengthened and widened and becomes a mobile adaptor to shape shift over uneven ground, it’s the moment the tissues get to be loaded and lengthened to allow them to spring back and move the body to the next stage of the gait cycle

In supination, the foot shortens and becomes narrower and becomes a ridged lever to allow for all the bones to lock together to push off and propel ourselves through space.

This video shows a client who’s ankle and leg has become stuck in an internally rotated position (turns inward) meaning that it is already too far in to allow a proper pronation of the foot and therefore has no ability to supinate back out to neutral and find its centre.

Supinating a foot requires a very specific thing to happen in the foot, including the big and little toe knuckles staying grounded. If this doesn’t happen the foot and ankle will just roll to far in and out and there will be no articulation and movement between those 26 bones and all 33 of the joints that make up ONE FOOT.

Teaching this foot to supinate and to find the talus (a bone in the foot) back towards its home point drives the entire leg up to the pelvis via the knee to straighten and turn out too.

Watch as I say to straighten the knee, the ankle and leg turns out more. The knee turning out is intrinsically tied to straightening knee.

Unsurprisingly when we had gone for a run before we started doing work, this client was unable to extend her left leg. Which was throwing off her hair and putting extra pressure into her right knee (which was what she came to me for)

So if you look down at your feet and think they look “flat” or you have been told you have no arch, drop me a line, I fucking love feet (not in the weird way) and would love to help you re-find your centre and understand your feet that much better (and perhaps just get outta that pain you have too)

Come see me for all you needs by dropping me an email on wibbs@mandukyayoga.com or just booking directly at www.mandukyayoga.as.me/121

Also Make sure you go buy Gary Ward’s book “what the foot” and check out his trainings, they are game changers www.findingcentre.co.uk

If I could give one exercise to everyone in the world for them to move and breathe better, it would be this!!!!

Now that’s the kinda post title the algorithm likes right?!?! Grabs the attention right away hahah

So anyway, is there really one exercise I would recommend to everyone to help them?!?!?

Well kinda yeah

Does everyone really need it?!?! Maybe not everyone but I would personally say that of all the clients that have ever come to see me, 99% have needed this exercise.

SO WHAT IS IT THEN WIBBS…..STOP TEASING US!

Well it is an exercise called sagittal cogs and a pre-curser of it called the meerkat.

These are exercises/drills I have learnt from my time studying with Gary Ward and Helen Hall.

The idea of both of these exercises is to reteach the 3 major structures of the body (pelvis, rib cage, skull) to interact with each other efficiently.

As we know, and are constantly told, most people have a forward head posture, rounded spine and a tucked under tail bone which can then lead to discomfort in the low back, tension headaches, neck pain and so so so many more issues.

The funny thing is, this is often said to be “bad posture” but actually this shape is something the body should be able to move into at any time, the issue comes when we can’t move out of it (Garys famous words again…one option is no option)

So this exercise aims to teach the body how to move the pelvis in a tilting fashion forward and backwards, same with the ribs and same with the soul…BUT doing it in a way in which the interaction is the same as watch/clock cogs move.

As one cog in a watch moves one way, the one next to it rolls the opposite and then the next one moves the same as the first…Confused??! Just go watch the video haha

Now this exercise allows length to be brought back into the spine while it is in a straight line, which is why we use the wall or the floor. It keeps things on axis, moving together in line.

I now can’t remember if I said so in the video but if you head has trouble comfortably lying on the floor, then make sure to pop a book under it, pick thickness that works for you, and over time you will be able to reduce the size until you are on the floor.

So why do I recommend this to EVERYONE?? Because most people have less than optimal sagittal plane posture (the the view from the side of the body) and while we can’t say that the sagittal plane movement is the most important, when one plane is compromised, it will prevent the other 2 planes (frontal and transverse) from having optimal movement.

Basically its a really easy win for most people..A really easy way to get their head back onto of their shoulders, their pelvis beginning to find some life and their ribs to actually find some space to let them lungs expand properly.

So go check this little 10 minute video out and give it a go, try and do it for a few minutes a day and see how you feel and get on. Please do feel free to reach out and ask any questions about this exercise and I will be happy to help out.

This is the long game work too, don’t necessarily expect this to have an effect on the first day but given a week or so you might well begin to really see and feel a difference.

Does your resting posture even matter??

Previously broken pelvis shifted patients posture and caused long standing pain. Pain was resolved once his posture returned towards centre

There seems to be a bunch of camps on the old social media these days (the in real life) that says your structure is fixed and that posture doesn’t really matter. You are what you are, tough shit, it’s not guna change

Hopefully by now you have seen from a number of my before and afters that that is not the case.

How you spend the majority of your time in a resting posture is a great starting point to start unlocking where and why you have pain.

Ideally we should all stand in a “holy grail” of complete centre. Somewhere in which every thing is perfectly balanced between left and right, front and back and in the round.

Obviously this is the holy grail so we can probably assume it doesn’t actually exist (or it’s put away in some government lock up Indiana Jones style) but that shouldn’t stop us trying to work towards it.

While you’re reading this I just want you to quickly stand up and just push your hips in an excessive manner to the right, as if you are moving the outside of your hip to the outside of your right foot.

Now tell me how that feels in your right hip?? It feels “tight” “stretched” “long” etc etc…imagine if you were just standing like that, but perhaps less extreme, all day everyday…do you think that the nervous system might start to get a bit fed up of those tissues being under so much tension??

All of a sudden, we start getting a signal asking for change….what is that signal?? Most often pain/discomfort

Now this is important, just because you t have said pain/discomfort does not imply any sort of pathology or damage to the area…it’s just your nervous system and body asking/shouting at you to listen and input some change

So how do we know what is good and bad posture?? Well posture can be slightly deceiving, there isn’t really a good or bad place for muscles/joints/tissues to be unless they cannot move out of that place.

Client with back pain for several years, resolved with improved posture once his left knee (previous injury and surgery) was adequately rehabbed.

Gary ward said on my move breathe live podcast, that “one option is no option”. If the body can only move where it is that isn’t an option, it can’t choose, it’s stuck.

This premise goes for all muscle/joints/areas of the body, finding the ability to move in and out of each and every joint in all 3 ranges of motion.

A joints inability to access one side of its range will prevent it from moving back towards its centre and cause us to have our “wonky” posture.

If you have an inability to access one side of a joints range of motion this will affect how much that muscle will be able to load and unload which will affect your ability to perform at the highest level. Whether that in your chosen sport or in walking up and down the stair pain free.

So here is your home work, I want you to go set your camera up or get your loved ones to take some photos of you, from in front/behind and from each side.

Take a few minutes to see if you can notice how one shoulder is perhaps higher or lower than the other, the same with pelvis. Maybe notice how one hand is higher or lower that the other, maybe how that hand is more rotated around the body or even if one arm hangs closer/further from the body.

Try to notice the pelvis the ribs and the skull and if they lean one way or another, if they rotate left or right and also if you have a slouched posture from the side or if you are your head/ribs/pelvis all stack up.

So to answer the opening question. Yes posture does matter. No your structure isn’t fixed or set (unless you have had some kinda fixation surgery) and yes you can indeed change it, you just have to start with awareness and observation.

Professional footballer who had bilateral knee pain until we sorted his posture out and unloaded the front body (sagittal plane)

From there, you can come and see me to begin your journey into greater and deeper understanding and exploration of your body in 3 dimensions focusing on human movement to help you move breathe and live a happier healthier life.

Why do I have a bunion?

Why do you have a bunion???

Isn’t that the question, let me guess, you think it’s a genetic thing cos one of your parents had them, and their parent did too….

Unfortunately (or fortunately) not…Daniel lieberman the Harvard paleo-anthropologist once coin the term dysevolution.

We seem to think evolution only works to further and better the species, but that’s just not true and dysevolution is the term used by liberman to frame the ways in which we as humans are becoming maladapted to the world we are creating around ourselves .

Bunions are one of these mismatched maladaptations….as we do

Less and less and become lazier and lazier (Wall è is like a crystal ball) the way in which we move becomes increasing compromised.

As children, we develop a series of patterns which should help us learn to move as fluidly and efficiently as possible but if we are stuck in baby bouncers or in trendy converse baby shoes and socks from a super young age these can be missed.

On top of this we begin to learn to walk by watching our parents who most like also walk like shit 🤷‍♂️🤣

So your mother and her bunion show you a way of walking which you copy and creates an environment in which you are more likely to develop one your self.

As you can see in the photo, a bunion is most often a joint which is overly open an never gets a chance to close.

Why does this matter? Well in each and every footstep all 26 bones and 33 joints of the foot should move between two different shapes in 3 planes of motion. If the big toe joint is stuck in an overly opened position it will have a knock on effect throughout the rest of the foot/ankle/leg, pelvis, spine, shoulders, neck and head.

When I see a bunion it tends to speak to me and tell me that the foot and leg it is part of really wants to be better at pronating itself. In pronation the foot should lengthen and spread wider. (In doing so the big toe should move in the same direction as a bunion.)

Because the toes are almost “open Chain” in that there is no more bones after them, they become the last line of defence for making the body work as efficiently possible.

So if the direction the toe has moved would happen in a pronation, we can see how the toe could be trying to drag the rest of the foot into length and widening by pulling in that “open chain”

So what to do??? Well of course we wanna put movement back into areas that have lost it. I have found on numerous occasions pain in the foot/ties has lessened solely through a quick mobilisation and asking the body to move towards a state in which those already long tissues get lengthen more and that triggers a signal to pull back (and in doing so closes the overly open toe joint?)

Once we start opening and closing previously stuck joints we will begin to “floss/lube” up those areas. Like taking wd40 to a rusty nut and bolt.

So that’s the key to bunions….lube 🤣🤣🤣…isn’t that the answer to so much In life 🤣🤣.

If you have a bunion and it’s causing you issues, why not hit me up and let’s get lubing them there feet up 🙌🏻🙌🏻 I work in person from my studio in suffolk or online with many from around the world. Book or email using the link below

www.mandukyayoga.as.me/121

Wibbs@mandukyayoga.com

Stop bloody cueing

SHOULD I HAVE AN ARCH IN MY FOOT????

So last week I had a client come to me with recurrent back pain. I spent some time breaking down her gait and posture prior to her arriving at my studio as always. One of the big things I noticed was the fact that when she walked she was very much on the outside of her feet and her big toe knuckle didn’t really seem to get anywhere near the floor

As we went through the session and I explained all about the mechanics and bio motion of the feet there was a sudden light bulb moment for her. 

“Do you mean I shouldn’t have an arch ALL of the time??”

“Should I not be trying to hold my feet up like that??”

So why would she think it was a sensible idea to not just let her feet be feet and move with the rest of the body?? 

We know the spine should be able to move or we get pains and aches and problems, so why not the feet??

Well this client had done ballet from age 2-18 and her ballet teacher would come round and kick up the kids aches if they ever were “flat footed”

It was DRILLED into her and her dance group that the feet are suppose to look at certain way and as a developing human child that cue stuck. 

Now this is problematic in a number of ways, some of which I’m not going to go into today, but the main one i wanna mention is just that we as adults need to be careful of any cues we give to our clients/students/children etc etc….people listen and they retain these things…do you know that you telling someone to walk or run a certain way is what is good for them and their body??

 Another classic cue for the slightly older generation was "stand up tall and pull your shoulders back”…..as if this is miraculously suddenly solve their issues. What cues like this and the feet being held permanently up in am arch do is not allow freedom, not allow movement, not allow the body to just be and do as it has so beautifully evolved to be and do. 

So my question is…have you got any cues lurking in your background that you have been told and you now subconsciously hold just because?? Or perhaps you want that slimmer belly so you started to subconsciously hold that tummy in for aesthetics?? 

Maybe just try letting some of these go and just seeing how your body responds and reacts, how perhaps making some parts of your body do less allows more of your body to do more and allow that blood/lymph/nutrients to flow as they are designed.

Let me know what your cues are/were, how it feels to let them go and is it easy to not just fall back into them??

Please also share this around if you found it of interest, it really does help me more than I can put into words 🙌🏻🙌🏻

Stop Chasing your pain...Come see me to get to the bottom of your issue.

So the title grabbed your attention.....But you know you shouldn't trust a title in an email right?!?

Now that we agree that just jumping into a treatment type etc just because the title sounds promising we can begin to introduce who I am and what I do and why I might well be able to help you take control of your own body and the pain/discomfort you are feeling.

I use a combination of many practices I have studied over the last 20 years. From yoga, western medicines understanding of physiology, anatomy in motion, breath work and more, to look at the whole body, all your injuries, illnesses, surgeries, child births (for you women of course) and see how those things are affecting the way you stand/walk and then beginning to go back and rehab those issues one at a time to find you back to a place of comfort. I work online and in person to help people as the methods are not reliant on me being hands on unlike many other physical therapy practices.

Below are a couple of before and afters from some people I have worked with to help them out of pain and get back to the life they want to be living.

Knee and ankle pain

This client came with ankle and knee pain having sustianed a knee injuries in the past and needing an operation to clean up some meniscus tears. This injury had changed the way he had started walk and affecting his ankle. we worked together and helped the knee and ankle work together better and find better alignment for less pain when walking.

Ipswich town footballer with knee pain after training and games

Posture plays an important role in how much loads and stress we put on our joints...This your player would get knee pain during and after games...We sorted his unconscious resting posture out and removed stress from the front of his body and his knees felt much happier to be running and kicking about a football. Dealing with posture in the subconscious is key to making sustainable long lasting change.

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breathing for teen in school

4am sunrise night shift before heading to kesgrave to teach breathing to year 10 kids.

Well that was an experience. This week I was invited to head into a local high school as part of their spirituality week. I decided to skip the spiritual side a bit and focus on the breathing

The reason being is that unless you are in anyway physiologically fit and “still” psychological/emotional/spiritual practices are really guna be a struggle.

When your body feels like it’s just trying to survive the onslaught of a vicious tiger attack 24/7, 365 days a year, more esoteric and emotional plans come second.

So how was it I hear you all ask (or not as is more likely the case)?? It was fun, it was weird, it was in some some parts successful and in some parts like head butting a wall.

But I loved it. There is something about the way society has set itself up in the last decade or so that really seems to put kids on the back seat.

With more attention/care/pressure given to gaining exam results which really don’t count for massive amount once you get into life rather than emotional, physiological intelligence.

Rather than setting up the kids to learn how to deal with life and stress and the realities of what the world will throw at them the syllabus just cares more about trying to be higher on the league results tables of the world.

I think education is important i really do, I feel all the teachers are on a hiding to nothing often with the way they are expected to try to get the best from their pupils.

For me, being in that space showed how much trust kids require to be open to trying something new but perhaps when they feel that you are actually on their side and aren’t just some homeless looking bloke, they actually being to open up.

Trying to get children and parents to understand that without being able to build a base line of physiological equilibrium learning is pretty much a no go. It’s non essential in a stressed body and brain.

Knowledge won’t be retained if a child is hyperventilating all day everyday. The amount of oxygen accessible to the brain is decreased when over breathing is happening.

So what did I come away from this first school experience with?? Kids are just wanting to fit in with their peers, they are scared to slow down enough to actually feel and see where they are at….but with a little time and trust they can actually just sink down into themselves.

Breathing doesn’t have to be work, it can be and breathwork exercises can be a great tool, especially as an ice breaker and to get them more comfortable with something new. But the key, the goal, the ultimate aim should really be to just begin by finding a cool, calm, mindful attentive practice of observation on being here now.

Presence in the moment, in what is going on within the body as a stressful situation is occurring and knowing what it means and how to deal with it will build far greater resilience in the youth of today.

This shouldn’t be just another thing teachers have to try to force into an already busy day, it should be something taught by parents to their children, by older kids to younger kids. It should be all pervasive practice that takes root at a young age and helps guide us through life.

That’s a very grand idea and most likely unrealistic in this day and age, but without it I fear the ever increasing “mental health crisis in teens” is only going to keep go up.

I super enjoyed the sessions I did and hope to get to do some more with schools in the future, I think it would be a fun way to try to help people take control of their own health and lives and stop using the NHS and A&E for inappropriate things.

To B(union) or not to B(union) that’s the question….or is it.

Bunions

Yes I know it’s Sunday morning and most people are weirded out by feet especially before 8am but come on, hands up, who has a bunion??

Whose big toe is pointing inwards rather than forwards??

I have worked with numerous clients who struggle with bunions and pain around their feet and toes which the medical teams have said….”SURGERY….ITS THE ONLY OPTION…..CUT THAT FUCKER UP!!!”

Ok maybe they didn’t use that language or shout it but that’s their basic gist.

Far to often the idea is just to cut and shut things which don’t look/feel right…but what if that bunion is there for a reason?

The body is bloody clever and will not do things without a good cause or reason and when it comes to the feet, they are no exception. 

The big toe (along with every other stucture in the foot) should constantly be moving in 3 planes of motion throughout the gait cycle. There should be up and downy movements, left and righty movements and round and rounds movements (those aren’t the technical terms) 

So what if you hurt some part of the foot and it stops moving properly? Could another part of the foot start to have to move more to make up for the lack of movement in that part?

Well yes. 

The movement seen at the 1st toe joint is actually an exaggerated version of what should happen when our foot pronates (which it should do every step we take) but due to issues within the foot or body is unable to stop doing it. 

If your foot cannot probate, your body may well try one or more of a bunch of things to try to get the same loading of tissues that is required for effective efficient movement…and abduction (the big toe moving towards the second toe) is one such option it can take. 

It’s like it’s trying to say “LOOK IM PULLING THIS FUCKING TOE IN THIS DIRECTION…WHEN IS THE REST OF THE FOOT/LEG/BODY GOING TO FOLLOW!!!!”

Without use understanding the 3 dimensional movement of the foot and working to improve how the foot moves as a whole, cutting the bunion back and just pulling the toe straight NEVER gets to the root cause of the issue. So guess what, the toe returns back to the same space again asking the same question

“SERIOUSLY GUYS….LOOK IM PULLING THIS FUCKING TOE IN THIS DIRECTION FOR A LEGITIMATE REASON, LISTEN TO ME THIS TIME…WHEN IS THE REST OF THE FOOT/LEG/BODY GOING TO FOLLOW AND GIVE ME A FUCKING BREAK FROM DOING ALL THE PISSING WORK DOWN HERE!!!!”

So the moral of the story is that your body is WAY cleverer than you are. Admit it, accept it and begin to learn from it. 

A bunion is there to tell you something needs to change in the way you move your feet and body. That pain it’s causing is asking you, not so politely, to take some interest in understanding how this wonder of evolution that we stroll about in works and functions and to give it some better inputs. 

If you have a bunion and you have been told that it needs surgery, before you go down that route, hit me up, surgery should always and only ever be a last resort.

Let’s work together to make you feel better in your feet so you can spread the word and we can take a whole heap of pressure off the NHS by stopping do so many needless operations. 

Remember I work in person and online both equally successfully so no reason to not let me help you learn more about your feet and get them moving better for less pain. 

Why is breathing so important for meditation??

There is so much talk these days about the important of yoga and meditation for a myriad of mental and physical health conditions. 

Gp’s prescribing meditation for anxiety and depression and much more. Same with yoga, you have back pain?? Go do yoga ( il come back to this for another blog soon) but the meditation one is important and needs to be broken down a little bit. 

How many people have you heard say, I can’t meditate, my brain is too busy, too full etc etc?!? Maybe you are one of them. 

If so, just know that it’s not, you’re not alone and that it’s a completely normal thing to feel. Most of the people feeling this are people who, as already mentioned are doing it for anxiety/depression/mental health reasons and already don’t really understand why their headspace is where their headspace is. 

Why can’t i shut off?! Why does my mind never let me get a minutes peace?!! I can’t just sit cos my brain is too busy….these are all tropes I’ve heard sooo many times and who know what?!? It’s not their fault, our society has basically enforced this pattern of thinking, this bodily response on us and yet know one has pointed it out to us.

Modern society has evolved and developed so rapidly in the last 150 years that we can’t keep up, our nervous system evolved on the wide open planes of the savanna (well certainly in Africa) and it hasn’t had the ability to suddenly get used to 24/7 news, shopping, smart phones, light in our eyes 20 hours a day, working more hours than resting, exciting/scary/funny tv shows, cunts on the road cutting us up…anything, put anything from the modern world in here and it basically fits to put us into a bodily response of “oh shit”

So what?!? What’s your point wibbs, just fucking get on with why breathing is key to mediation. 

Ok,

In yoga (well raja yoga) we have 8 limbs. 8 steps that lead us to unity (after all that’s what yoga means, unity) with ourselves and our world and surroundings, both on the gross and subtle meanings. The first 2 are basically like the 10 commandments, the do’s and ding’s to live a good life (more on these to come) 

THEN we have the asana….this is what everyone thinks yoga is, the physical practice, the bending yourself into a pretzel, the sweet ass skinny sexy middle age, white women looking wonderful in the lulu lemon shops window. This part of the practice is suppose to help build a body that’s comfortable sitting. That’s it’s, it’s designed to removed the discomforts and allow you to sit. It’s all just the beginning of the journey, a little prep for what’s to come. 

NOW we come to pranayama, or the breathing side of things, notice movement is a prep for the breathing, interesting ay, how many of you go to a yoga class and do 1-2 minutes breathing followed by an hours movement, got that the wrong way round ay. So the idea is that in this fourth limb of the practice, we slow and calm the body and the mind. We use the breath, which is really the ultimate tool we have at our disposal, to calm our nervous system. Unlike any other animal on the planet, we can deliberately take control of our breath to harness different physiological states. THIS is what’s so important

The ability to spend 5-10 minutes focusing on slowing the breath, brings the body back to the savanna, back to a state of equilibrium. It slows the heart rate, lowers the blood pressure, up regulates the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest) ans down regulates the sympathetic (fight or flight). 

All those things we mentioned earlier (cunts, tv shows, 24/7 everything) keep us permanently trapped in our fight and flight response. This keeps us on high alert, waiting for the tiger/lion/snake/hippo whatever other African animals might wanna eat us. How do you think you can meditate if you don’t prepare for it first?!? 

The next 4 limbs of the 8 yogic limbs are then where we begin the mediation journey…but of course as with everything, us westerners just want to skip all the important prep work and just do the 10 Minutes meditation. We just want a quick fix pull, we don’t actually wanna put any work in. 

Well I say to you, if that’s the case, don’t worry so much about paying for a meditation app, instead come join me every Wednesday evening 7-7:30pm (quick plug for my online yoga membership 😝🤣😉🤷‍♂️) and instead of trying to meditate for your mental health, why not try and breathe for it instead. 

You might just find that the states you find in the breathwork practice do actually just lead you to a place that meditation then just becomes the natural next step and you do it not for medical/Health reason but more to discover much more about your self fundamentally. 

I hope this little overview was of interest, if you are looking for a simple breathing practice To follow until you come join me online every Wednesday (just click here to sign up www.mandukyayoga.com/become-a-member)  try just sitting, setting a alarm for 3 minutes, close your eyes and breathe through your nose, just focus on nothing but breathing through your nose for 3 minutes. If you do need something a bit more definite to follow, try breathing in for a count of 3-4 seconds and 5-6 seconds out (adjust these as needed if they are too long just focus on the exhale being longer than the inhale). When the 3 minutes is up see how you feel. Hopefully you will just feel a bit more settled calm and quiet in the head. If so you have found a practice that you can go to as and when your brain gets busy ay. 

Pronation and supination, what even are they?!?!?!

So we have discussed the amount of bones/joints and muscles in the feet…so what?? Why could that complexity be needed? Glad you asked

The foot is amazing, and as we alluded to, we need joints to move to get the muscles to lengthen and contract. (And in fact lengthen TO contract…more on that to come) 

So if there are 33 joints and we need them all to move, there must be some important shapes that the feet need to make. Yip, can you guess how many?!?!! 

Ok il tell ya, 

2

Two shapes, that’s it. 

They should start in “neutral” in “centre and be able to move to form what’s called a mobile adaptor (technically called pronation) and a rigid lever (supination). That’s it, doesn’t seem that hard ay, just two shapes and yet we don’t tend to be able to do either, we get stuck in one shape, one that’s either more pronated or supinated but without the ability to move any of those bones and joints, can neither pronate or supinate. 

That seems obvious but just thinking about that cos it’s important. If you have a foot that is more pronated but can’t move it’s not actually able to pronate and there for load tissue, absorb shock, read the body to move off in the most efficient and effortless manner. Same goes for an overly supinated foot, it’s unable to form the rigid level to create the force to propel forward off of and allow for optimal positioning of heal striking. 

I’ve been using big words and they might seem confusing…let me back track quickly and try to break it down simply. 

Pronation - seen by many health professionals as the devil, as an evil that causes most issues within the body, something that they give orthotics to counter and prevent. This is not the case, pronation is an important necessary moment of human movement that’s key to proper loading of the big muscles of the legs and hips. During pronation we are looking for the foot to soften, for it’s joints to open along the sole and inside of the foot, allowing it be that mobile adaptor we talked about, to let the foot adapt to all the shapes that nature intended us to walk over (rocks, stones, uneven, holey ground pre tarmac times when everything became very uniform and flat)

Supination - many people look at the supinated foot shape as the optimal one for foot health, a high arch (this tends to be the shape that foot perves like the most too 🤷‍♂️..just saying 🤣). In this foot position, the shape of joint surfaces almost “lock” together to form that rigid lever..the sole and inside joint surfaces close off and the top and outside open. This makes for a foot shape that can handle the force of pushing 78kg (yes I know, I don’t look a minute over 75kg, the beard hides a multitude of chins) forward into the next step and also one that when the foot has swung through can help find the back outside of the heel to allow for the best position to allow for the smooth rolling forward into the pronated shape that gives time (0.6-0.8 seconds) to really loads the entire leg properly.

So there that. A quick break down of pronation and supination, of the mobile adapter and rigid level, the yin and the yang. The two shapes available to the foot. That’s it. It’s not complicated (well it can be if we start getting into trying to understand what some of the muscles are doing in 3D but we won’t be doing that)
Just remember every bone/joint/muscle/body part should be able to find centre…in finding centre it can have the opportunity to then find it full range of motion in both directions in all 3 planes.

More of the directions of the bones of the feet for both these shapes to come at some point. If you have anything you wanna know about feet (bunions/neuromas etc) let me know and we can discuss them too. 

Thanks for reading guys, hope you enjoyed this short little dive into the world of bare feet (and not the perverts dive either 🤣🦶)

The importance of your feet for whole body health

Vibram 5 fingers, love them or hate them, they’ve got your attention, Let’s talk feet.

Feet are amazing and totally under appreciated in the world of rehabilitation, strength and conditioning, running, cycling, walking, health and life. 

Yeah I said it. All those things. Taking care of your feet and allowing them to move as they have evolved to move (sorry fundamentalist Christians) can have life changing affects on how you experience the world and your chosen activities.

Did you know there are 26 bones and 33 joints with EACH foot. That’s basically 1/6 of all the joints and over 1/4 of the bones in your body in two feet. How you stand on them is important, in fact its key to moving your whole body well.

I bet you never considered how complex your feet were. 

Now if they are that complex do you think it could be for a reason?!? Do you think those bones should be able to articulate with one another?? Do you think yours do?! If so I’ve got some bad news. Pretty everyone who comes to see me has feet that do not move well at all. My teacher, the badass @garyward_aim has a set of 5 big rules of motion. I’m guna mention the first 2.

1. Muscles lengthen before they contract

2. Joints act, muscles react

So, if we look at the foot joints being “stuck”, “stagnant”, “not moving” then how can we expect the 20 odd muscles of the foot to be loaded/unloaded, to move blood from the feet back up the body along with lymph, to experience there full ranges and be capable of handling whatever loads we through at them.
It’s imperative for whole body health and movement that we can allow the join within the foot to move as this will Allow the muscles to be taken from centre, to their end ranges in all 3 planes of motion as the muscles and tissues are lengthened and shortened.

We will discuss this idea of why moving our feet is important for whole body health in more detail tomorrow. But I’m the mean time take your shoes off, give your feet a bit of attention and love and just stand and feel your feet. 

Pay attention to them in a standing position and feel where you are most connected to the ground…left or right foot?? Inside or outside?!? Balls (of feet 🤣😜) or heels?!? 

Take a few minutes to scan your feet and make a bit of that, we can see what happens over time, see if that changes 🙌🏻🙌🏻. 

Why I went from being a nurse to a yoga teacher.

Life on the front line in Accident and Emergency as a nurse

Having been a nurse for 10 years ish, I had really started to get fed up with seeing the short sighted way patients were treated within the hospital/general practice. I had spent half my career in coronary care and half in accident and emergency and I always felt as if we were trying to shut the gate after the horse had bolted (or what ever the saying is.)

Now I understand that by the time people get into hospital teaching people to understand their health and physiology is too late, but it inspired me to want to help prevent people having to get to the stage of being in hospital. There are a whole bunch of things that we can’t do a whole bunch about with our health (environment toxins, genetic variability etc), but there is also so so so so much that can be done to improve your chances of living a happy and healthy life. 

One of the biggest things I notice is the amount of people who come into hospital chronically, overly mouth breathing. It is now seen as normal for people to have a respiratory rate (amount of times breathing in and out a minute) of 20.

Yoga teaches us, through the practice of pranayama, to be able to slow our breathing and find self awareness. When we slow our breathing and use our noses in particular, there is/should be  a knock on effect which slows our heart rates and lowers our blood pressure (and can even help control blood sugars for you diabetics too) Cardiovascular disease is the biggest killer in the western world these days and having higher bloody pressure and heart rates will play a major part in this (hence why you get prescribed medication to help lower both) 

A slower life of stillness in yoga

Pranayama teaches us to become far more aware of being present and in the moment which helps to alleviate feelings of stress and anxiety which also increase our risk of cardiovascular disease. In todays modern busy go go go society, stress and anxiety have become ubiquitous and something that many actually look on like a badge of honour. In my eyes this really really needs to change. Stress causing anxiety and panic attacks can play havoc with mental health and is becoming increasingly common, especially among teens and younger adults. There is a physiological reason stress can cause people to panic and cause anxiety which if understood can be leveraged to bring back a sense of calm and inner peace

Yoga isn’t exactly a panacea for all lifestyle conditions, I have realised many things in yoga miss out a lot on an understanding of modern physiology but there is so much that we as health professionals could learn from the world of yoga .

So if you are someone who is worrying about there health or have been told they need to start looking after themselves, finding a decent yoga teacher that has a decent understanding of movement, breathing and the physiology behind them, can be a great place to start. I have tried to just highlight a little bit about how the breathing side of yoga can play a crucial roll in taking control of your own lifestyle and health, there is another essay that can be written about the joy that can come from the physical aspect of asana (yoga poses) but I will save that for another day.

If you are interested in learning more about yoga/breath work and health why not sign up for our news letter and our online membership at https://www.mandukyayoga.com/become-a-member (the news letter sign up will appear as a pop up) where you can have access to 11 weekly classes of movement, yoga, Breathwork and meditation all for £15 a month with both myself and my beautiful wife Jenny, who is also a long standing nurse with backgrounds in vascular care, accident and emergency and much more

Improving posture and gait in traumatic brain injury…using Anatomy in Motion.

The wonders of understand the human body and movement through the lens of @garyward_aim and his anatomy in motion lens.

This week I started working with a client who suffered a traumatic brain injury after falling three floors  from a roof.

The Left Hemisphere Traumatic Brain Injury left him with Right Sided Ataxia (A Loss of the ability to coordinate muscular movement )along Painful and slow walking for 21 years.

When we explored what his feet were doing on the floor, how he stood and walked there were some pretty key things happening that would affect his balance. 

Getting his foot tripod on the floor was a big one and allowing the joints to move as they have evolved to suddenly have him a strong, deep grounded sensation. 

He could also actually balance on his foot which he said he hasn’t since his accident. 

If a brain is to maybe relearn lost movements, perhaps we need to change the lens through which we rehab them. 

Gary ward has 5 big rules, one of which is that rather than looking at the body in a way that muscles move joints, we get the joints to move the muscles. 

How does that even work?? We all know that the muscles pull on the bones to move the joints right??

Well perhaps yes, while we are working out, trying to get fit and strong, but in gait, as we walk, no. 

Take 20 seconds right now to stand up, close your eyes and just observe yourself in space. 

Observe how you cannot stand still.

Observe how you drift forward/back/left/right

All without having any control, your joints are moving/swaying/falling with gravity and you muscles are reacting to hold you upright.

This is the same principle we put into practice when working with our lens turned to see through anatomy in motion.

If someone, say this clients, balance/gait is hideous and we just say it’s due to his accident and tough shit, but don’t dig down, we are doing ourselves and them a disservice by not looking into some fundamentals of how perhaps we are reacting with our environment 

This clients feet, had compensated to his new way of walking such that he was on the outside of one foot with his toes gripping the floor, holding his tripod away from the ground.

The optimal tripod is when we have out 1st/5th metatarsals and our heel all firming connected neurologically with the ground. If just the big toe rather than the metatarsal head is grounding, it can throw the whole body off.

Because of this, he always felt as if he was standing/walking on a thin blade of his foot, Making walking, standing balancing feel off balance, uncomfortable and unsafe.

By allowing the bones to move the muscle, using AIM wedges, by getting the client to relax and try to do less, the foot bones did the only thing they could really do and following the joints shapes they have.

As the joint surfaces in the foot glide over one another properly, the muscles attached to them will have no choice BUT to lengthen, causing them to slow the movement and pull those joints away from their end range.

This is really where, in this kind of brain injury, I would suggest the best changes can be made. By not making the body try to move but by allowing the body to move itself so that all those tissues are just lengthen to slow movement down naturally to return it to centre. 

And what seems to be even better is that, perhaps, even in a brain injury where the movement has been lost for 20 years, that very movement is actually hardwired in and when it feels that ability to pass through centre, to both lengthen and contract properly, the brain grabs hold of that movement and says “I’m keeping that”.

Efficient movement is hard wired into us, efficient movement is less energetic meaning we would have more for over endeavours, evolutionary speaking. 

If we can have a body that wants to stand upright, stacked on its axis’ properly then it gives the greatest amount of of opportunity to both lengthen/contract, flex/extend, rotate left/right and always return back to centre. 

As if I wasn’t already aware that Gary Ward’s anatomy in motion model was the best through which to view human movement, working with a traumatic brain injury that’s 20 years old and seeing such a marked change and have the client also immediately notice it too, just puts the cherry on the cake. 

If someone with a traumatic brain injury can begin to move and feel better within 90 minutes, perhaps you can too. 

Why not get in touch to start your own movement journey to move with less pain, more confidence and a far greater understanding of your own body and how to move it better in the future yourself.

Our boy Dexter’s health

We first noticed something wasn’t right with dexter when he was struggling with his food, he was taking ages to eat a meal. A long time ago dexter cracked a tooth, we are not sure how but we used to  call him “dead tooth dex” as the vet had said we didn’t get to it in time for root canal so it would just die, but if wasn’t causing him any problem to leave it in, so we did. So when he started having rouble eating we just put it down to his dead tooth, and thought it must be painful so we started softening his food which seemed to help. We then had a visit from our lovely friends from home who regularly walk our dogs and know them, they commented on the change to Dexter’s face shape. We hadn’t really noticed it which you don’t really when you see him every day, so chatting to vets, sending pictures and doing a bit of research of our own we booked him in to the local vets straight away, being holiday season and classed as a “visitor” the initial consultation we waited a few days, which was fine. Due to restrictions and having all the dogs, Wibbs went in with Dexter and chatted to the vet. We came out nine the wiser, still unsure of what we were dealing with and an appointment ten days later at the city vets ……. This was torture, thinking the worst and waiting for an appointment which was for an X-ray of his head and neck ….. I was slightly confused. I called home to our vets in hadleigh and Richard, as ever was great, told me all the things to ask for and look out for whilst we waited for the appointment. 

Appointment day! No food or water in the morning which is hard when you have three dogs, so they all have to wait for food and water. The vet nurse met us on arrival and went through a few routine questions and I was waiting on hand with all my “vet” questions. After going backwards and forwards with the vet on that day he came out and spoke with us, also great, confirmed our suspicion of MMM(I’ll explain later) looked at the tooth said he’d examine it and take it out if needed. Off dexter trotted into the vets as good as gold with Toni our vet nurse, who continued to phone me all day to let me know how he was doing and what they were doing as we had kind of handed him over for blood tests and possibly other things so we weren’t sure what was going to happen. 

Cue collection …. 5pm! I dropped wibbs off at work then drove to Truro to pick him up in our very temperamental care. I managed to get ten minutes away and broke down (fuel was low so thought it might just be that) at a round about somehow I managed to coast the car down a hill and into a petrol station and into an empty spot, hallele-fucking-lujah. Now to fill up with fuel but the fuel cap is on the other side of the car and I’m not close enough …. Fuck fuck fuck!! It’s ok, I’ll roll forward. Got the guy in front to move, I moved forward, all good filled up with fuel!! But still wouldn’t start, anyway finally got it going and made it to the vets. Finally, get to see my boy. Handover from the nurse …

Kidney failure 

Tooth extraction and 

MMM (awaiting confirmation of a blood test) 

So out of all of that I can deal with the tooth extraction. 

Kidney failure …. Dexter has had kidney stones in the past and elevated bloods but before we left to come away in the van I got a set of bloods done and in comparison there was an elevation of blood results, the treatment is a change in diet and monitor it’s something to do with how much protein he has in his food, so we now have some special kidney suitable food (which is about 8 times more expensive than the food he’s on now) kidney failure in dogs is not good as you can imagine and at six years old is not really what we wanted to be hearing for him, it will be a life long management.

Now the MMM is an especially dangerous condition in your dog where it’s own immune system attacks itself, and as a result, causes inflammation of the mastication or chewing muscles and that inflammations destroys cells totally. This could have been one of the reasons that he was unable to eat, it is also the reason that Teresa noticed a significant change in how he looks as it affects the muscles around the head giving the dog a sunken look (or Dino head dex as he’s now known, can’t really call him dead tooth now that it’s gone). 

Now it’s a mixed bag of goodies as to how this came about and also to how we manage it. First await blood results but given they way he looks the vet (Truro one, not Perranporth one, he was vey vague) was pretty convinced it is MMM which stand for Masticatory muscle myositis. Now I’ve been surfing the net and it could be anything that brought it on from the kidneys to the tooth infection to bad luck. The treatment can be steroids or nothing the risk is the muscle eventually go and he will not be able to eat, some dogs end up tube fed as their jaws lock. 

So that’s where we are, we are still waiting for the results. The tooth has healed up nicely and Dexter is enjoying is new kidney food, which is not surprising given the cost of it, must be like his mum and have expensive taste! He’s happy in himself but if you know dexter, you know that he’s doesn’t complain. Some articles I’ve read have said that both MMM and kidney failure can be really painful so we just have to keel and eye and hope that we can pick up on any signs. Rest assured that we are giving him his best life, what ever the outcome each day, Dexter’s needs come first. He is loved, he is on an adventure and exploring new places everyday. We will keep you posted!

A big nose? Yes, but all the better for breathing with

The nose, snout, beak, hooter, schonz.

What a beautiful piece of architecture we have been blessed with on our faces.

I’ve actually spent my life with people telling me I have a big ol’ snout but im realising that actually I might be somewhat lucky with a bigger, proboscis like snout!

The nose SHOULD BE the primary orifice through which we breath.

Advantages of nasal breathing include

1) humidify the air we breath

2) warm the air we breathe

3) clean the air we breath

4) act as first line of defence

5) stimulate greater diaphragmatic movement.

6) move us towards a more parasympathetic nervous system state.

7) slowing the breath to allow great oxygen uptake in the blood via the Bohr effect

These are just a few from the top of my head.

If you are unsure why any of these even matter, WHY you should start to observe your natural breathing habits and start making a change then here are a few reason WHY.

The warming, humidifying nature of the air moving through the nose allows for the body not to get a “shock” and there for allows for a bronchi/vaso dilatory effect. That means the blood/airway vessel open rather than close (think how everything shuts down when you get cold and your hands and feet go blue…say idea)

Through nitric oxide and mucus (maybe other methods to) the air we breath is cleaned of virus’s and bacteria and prevented from entering the lungs. Might be kinda important in this day and age ay 🤣🤷‍♂️

Getting the diaphragm to engage more fully, well apart from just the obvious (more air being moved into and out of our lungs) it also helps to move the organs around within our abdominal cavity which helps us to move the waste products around and out of our system.

Yes I am talking about helping to move our gut but also the lymph. There are, in @stopchasingpain legend Dr Perry Nickelstons words, more than 1 lymph node in the abdominal and thoracic cavity’s and their main method of being moved is through movement and breathing!

If you aren’t getting the bad stuff out…all the good stuff you out in will just turn bad to.

Finally if you wanna get all that oxygen you breath into you brain, muscles, organ and everywhere else you need it…you gotta make the most of the Bohr effect which is when you have a high enough level of co2 to allow o2 to be released from the haemoglobin that carry’s it around.

Yes that’s right, there is a good chance you are just breathing in and blowing back out a big chunk of that oxygen you keep breathing in (well you definitely are, we all are but you could be WAAAAAY more efficient and effective with what you are doing.

This is doubly important if you are any kind of athlete, fun runner, sailor, generally someone who moves at all in their life. More oxygen into@muscles means less lactate/less hydrogen = less aches/stiffness/DOMS/slow recovery.

So yes. Maybe I have a big nose, but i love it ans it helps me with everything above and so much more (maybe a big nose = chilled out/horizontal mother fucking badass?!? Or it could just be me 🤣🤣🤣)

The warrior poses. We all do them in like EVERY FUCKING YOGA CLASS……EVER! What do they mean?

But have you ever wondered what they are all about and what the story behind the pose is? In case you are unaware most yoga poses have some kinda story behind them, many taking their names from Hindu mythology. This also gives the poses some actual purpose and meaning when practiced with an intention. 

For instance, today we will discuss the Virabhadrasana sequences (1,2 &3). Just as a quick over view incase you were unaware, this word can be broken down into 2 main parts (we will split it further in a bit) 1st being Virabhadra and the 2nd being asana. You probably will recognise that asana gets used a lot in yoga Sanskrit words and that’s cos it’s at the end of every pose we do as it means pose/posture. 

So then, let’s get to the story. 

Back in the time of the gods (whenever that might be) shiva was hanging out in his gave dancing, getting stoned and meditating ALOT. Shiva hooked up with the daughter of a pretty powerful guy called Daksha. Her name was Sati and was a strong devote of shiva. She spent ALL her time dedicating her life to shiva and performed severe penances to the lord of destruction, shiva. 

This impressed shiva, who eventually married sati. The issues comes with daksha, he wasnt into shivas (what we now see as ) typically hippy yogi appearance/life…dreads, likes to get stoned, dances around whenever he feels like it, hangs out covered funeral pyre ash and is one with the creatures of the world (ok some of those aren’t typical these days but still.)

To kinda spite the lovers (sati and shiva) he organised a big old party (a fire ceremony calls a yagna) to which he invited EVERYONE, all the gods from all the worlds, except shiva and sati. This broke satis heart who was hurt that her father was so spiteful towards his daughter and the man she was deeply in love with. 

Sati then decides to go to the yagna, despite not being invited, to which shiva says….nope, I don’t care enough and I’m not invited, he’s clearly being a prick and trying to wind us up, let’s avoid it (I am paraphrasing now). Sati decides to go all the same and when she gets there daksha goes out of his way to humiliate her in feint of everyone, playing the big I AM. He insults shiva, saying he’s basically just a filthy beast. This upsets Sati so much that she practices deep meditation practices to raise her temperature so much that she self immolates (sets her self in fire)

There is a big fight kick off between shivas followers and Dakshas and dakshas win the skirmish. When shiva hears all that has transpired, let’s just say, he loses his shit. He cuts a lock of his hair and breaks it in two and throws It into the earth. From this two killers are raised up. The warrior goddess kali and Virabhadra (broken down this translates to vira (hero) and bhadra (friend). 

These two are sent to the party to take vengeance on Daksha and all his friends and followers. This brings us to what we really wanna know, what the warrior poses signify and what we can bear In mind as we practice them.

Virabhadrasana 1 = the demon hero friend being raised out of the ground with two swords raised straight above his head

Virabhadrasana 2 = this is the warrior demon setting his sights and pointing his sword at shivas father in law, daksha (I always like to make this point as some people can perhaps relate to the in laws being a nightmare 🤷‍♂️🤣)

Virabhadrasana 3 = Virabhadra launching to behead daksha with both swords out in front to just slice through the father in laws neck. 

So what does this even mean?? Apart from sounding like shiva has a temper. Well what followed is important. Shiva suddenly felt full of sorrow for the lose of his wife and the destruction that was left behind. This sorrow turns to compassion and he decides to bring daksha back to life and so finds a goats head (probably just kicking around like you tend to find at these kinda party’s 🤷‍♂️🤣). This story ends with shiva carrying his wife across the Indian continent to find a suitable resting place in peace for him to become a meditating recluse again, this then goes on to lead into another story in which sati comes back to life as Parvati and remarries shiva, but that’s for another day. 

What this story is trying to tell us is that Shiva is our higher self, who slays our prideful ego, (Daksha), for the sake of the our hearts (Sati). Trying to bring to our attention during our practice and our lives, the idea that our ego wants to constantly rule us over our hearts and that we sometimes need to violently cut back our ego to let the compassionate side of our selves view our hearts wishes. This story leading into the next also helps us find the idea that love is the essential nature of our hearts and that in one form or another will always return.

So I hope that in some way helps understand why we do warrior 1,2,3 and perhaps gives another lens to view them through when you are next practicing or just when you are thinking about situations in life. 

A new podcast and competition ...just for you.

This is a super exciting blog to send out to you all.

Jen and I are really really stoked to bring you a new podcast, along with a competition to help launch it.

Simply enter your details below to enter. You don’t have to join our mailing list but we would love it if you did. Please share this competition with your friends.

Why are we launching a podcast and running this competition?

We will be launching this new little part of our journey to help bring you some really fascinating people with way more knowledge than we could ever have, in the next week. The podcast will be called Move, Breathe, Live with wibbs yoga and spirit wren and will be exploring the subjects of the title with some of the best and cleverest in their fields.

Most of you know that both Jen and I are registered working nurses, who have both spent over a decade working with the NHS and in private health care. Within that time we have found that we constantly felt that we were always dealing with people too late and had too little to offer them.

Well through our personal journeys of movement/breath work and living lives in which we have experienced all that life can throw at us, we felt that maybe if we could bring the knowledge we have gained from a more traditional setting and begin to apply that to the areas of pain/stress/anxiety and how the breath can be tied into this and how these can affect every aspect of our lives.

Some of the guests we have lined up include some of my teachers, Gary Ward and Joanne Avison. Yoga teachers i have a lot of respect for, who are doing great work to bring a much more updated understanding of the body to a new generation of yoga practitioners. There will be some of the leading lights in the world of breath work including another teacher of mine, Patrick Mckeown. Most excitingly for me, is discussing the stress physiological response and how our psychology and the stories we tell our selves are all driven by our physiology with some of my favourite people i follow online Rob Wilson, Emily Hightower, Rob fortune. Also because i have grown up as a punk and hardcore kid i will be getting to chat to some of my absolute musical heroes from when i was about 14/15 who have all have a yoga practice or developed a deep physical fitness/health practice, Ragunath/Adam Blake and Robert Ehrenbrand. There will also be nurses from mental health backgrounds and likely physical health along with many other practitioners in the health and wellness world who are trying to make a difference and help prevent people really ever needing to end up in hospital in the first place.

AS WELL AS ALLLLLLLLLLLL these incredible guests, there will be shorter 10-20 minute episodes in which Jen and i will be breaking down life as a couple. The highs/lows/laughs and hurts that we go through and how we go about using the tools we try to help bring to others and how as two people we have such different takes on the ways in which we deal with stresses/pain/anger/heartbreak and much more. Basically it will be a very open/honest couples councilling live on tape hahahaha.

This podcast will be available every where you normally get your epiosdes, Apple and spotify, stitcher and where ever else you could care to i am sure (literally dont know any other places you would get them from.) I really Hope you will come and join me and jen on our little journey to bring you some amazing guests, some incredible information and even some actionable tips to impliement into your life to try and help make life that little bit easier.

Finally (i promise..i know your bored of reading already) there is a MEGA competition we have managed to get lined up for you all to help launch the podcast and get as many of you listening in and helping us grow to be bigger than Joe Rogan haha.

We have secured a £200 gift voucher from one of our podcast sponsors Bamboo Clothing, which as you know i am a massive fan of, who make the comfiest, softest clothes EVER. TWO HUNDRED POUNDS….Pretty fucking sweet ay.

£200 gift voucher to be given away.

As if that wasnt enough, a second sponsor we have managed to secure, Manduka Yoga are going to be letting us give away a Manduka Pro yoga mat…This is the same mat jen and i use and in my eyes is THE rolls royce of yoga mats, ive never found anything which comes close to it in 15 years of yoga practice.

I think you can agree that these are pretty incredible prizes and so keep an eyes out on social media and in the emails from us to enter the draw to win.

See you all on your matt real soon.

big love from me, Wibbs and my beautiful wife, Wren.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

There is no cash alternative to the prize. This competition closes on the 30th June 2021. prize winner will be selected at random and informed by email. If the winner does not respond within 48 hours we will choose a new winner.

The Nose...anatomy, function and why we should breathe through it. Part 1.

My nose, i have been told many a time i have a very large snout hahah, all the better for breathing with i think

Nasal functions: Nasal concha

I am doing little series on the nose's functions and why we should be breathing through it.

A great place to start is part of the nasal anatomy called Nasal concha, or the nasal turbinates. These contain various tissues, and we tend to have three pairs of them. The septum separates each pair (the middle bit of the nose coke heads lose when they snort too much).

From the pictures, you can see that they are a teardrop shape that hangs down, separating the nasal cavity into passages: the inferior, middle and superior. Weirdly, the big ones are called the inferior and the small ones the superior (obviously, the middle ones are the middles ones!), but this is more to do with their position - its anatomy speak.

The inferior ones (the big one nearer the nasal entrance) are super important because they help direct the inhaled air, humidifying it and filtering it as it passes towards the back of the cavity and into the lungs. The middle and superior one protects other structures and performs similar roles as the inferior ones. Their shape and position create a large surface area within the nose, allowing the air we breathe to circulate over the mucosal membrane.

The nasal mucosa is made up with a whole bunch of tiny hair-like structures called cilia. Even with a shallow blood supply, it helps to heat (32-34 degree c), filter (more on that in a minute) and humidify the air (to 98% water saturation) as it is inhaled and passes over them. This makes it much easier for the lungs to deal with as it passes down from upper to lower respiratory system.

Remember the filtering? The mucous and cilia that partly make up the concha are the bodies first line of defence against airborne pathogens. They help catch them before they reach deeper into the body, using mucous (like a sticky fly strip) and the cilia (a bit like a sea anemone). All of this works together with the lymphatic system to kill the pathogens caught.

Now here's the question - did you know that your schnoz concha has erectile tissue within their make-up? It plays a massive role in the nose becoming congested and then decongesting depending on, and in response to, the weather and what is going on within your body.

Some of you yoga lot will know that the nose cycles through a partial congestion/decongestion somewhere between 90-150 minutes. In India, I remember hearing people say that Pattabhi Jois said that if your right nostril was congested, that meant you had to wait the 90 minutes for the cycle to change and your right nostril to be clear and the more energetic side to be open (I'm not sure he had a paper on that one, but maybe you can use it to avoid having sex tonight if you need it ). I will do a post in more detail about this nasal cycle and why in yoga, we do an alternative nostril breathing soon.

Something else you may not know about is a condition called honeymoon rhinitis. When you and your partner are getting it on, you may get congested and have no idea why. Well, your body is getting all sympathetically driven and excited for the sexy time, but your body doesn't seem to be able to differentiate between the erectile tissue in your pants and that in your nose.

Once you are done, and the body calms down, and the erectile tissue of the concha becomes less engorged (what a word) you become decongested again. Now, I mentioned earlier about the increased surface area the concha gives the nose and how this helps with filtration/humidity and warmth of the air, but it also increases your sense of smell by keeping the nose moist, in particular a little area at the top of the nasal cavity, which is related to a system called the olfactory system, which is all to do with odour.

Finally, there is an inadvertent connection between the nasal concha and the bronchi/respiratory muscles, including the intercostals and the diaphragm, via some reflexes that regulate our breathing.

So, you see, these things that have evolved within the organ on the front of our faces are FUCKING important. It's funny, to me being a "mouth breather" this has always seemed somewhat of a diss...kind of like a window licker...yet the majority of the people I work with mouth breathe for the majority of their daily lives.

All the things I have put in this post is NOT happening when you breathe through your mouth. Cold, dry air causes the lungs to constrict, to narrow...I am sure you can see how that would make breathing harder, especially if you are asthmatic or have other underlying pathology.

Look out for more posts soon. We'll dive deeper into more functions of the snout and its anatomy and why we really should be nose breathing and not mouth breathing for the majority of our lives.

"6 million adults do not do a monthly brisk 10 minute walk..."

Oh..pre-lockdown unsocially distanced walks…weren’t they just the best

4 out of 10 (41%) adults aged 40 to 60 in England walk less than 10 minutes continuously each month at a brisk pace - PUBLIC HEALTH ENGLAND!

Thats right…You read that correctly. 6 million adults aged 40-60 dont even get 10 minutes of alking in A MONTH…A FUCKING MONTH. how crazy is that?!?! This statistic is taken from the govenements own website, gov.uk.

Now there are obviously numerous health benefits to moving. We are all told about the benefits to our cardiovascular health, the reduced chance of heart attacks, strokes, raised blood pressure etc etc, but i want to bring up some ideas of moving for our skeleton.

Approximatly 5% of the uk population as a diagnosis of Osteoporosis. This is a a condition in which bones loose their strength and density and are more prone to breaking (sometimes just a sneeze can break a rib) but why do our bones become fragile?

Throughout “human” history (im talking the last million or so years) bone density was never an issue (obvs there was a lot else to worry about ) and that actually since bone scans show that our ancestors had far better bone density than we do now.

“Density remained high throughout human evolution until it decreased signigicantly in modern humans, suggesting a possible link between chaged in our skeletn and increased sedentism.”

— Habiba Chirhir, Tracy Kivell - recent origins of low reabecular bone density in modern humans. 2015

Image taken from Primate Change - Vybarr Cregan-Reid. (great book well worth a read)

So us getting cleverer with out time and ability to pass off work to machines has had a pretty massive affect on out bodies. It has meant that all the hard manual work we once would have done doesnt need to be done by hand any more. It means that we dont need to walk the 5 minutes to the shop cos we can drive.

As a species we literally evolved to walk and run..we came out of the trees and off 4 limbs and onto the african plains on two legs. we discovered the world through walking. Our hips, our spines our feet all evolved to make this our go to form of movement. Fuck exercise and the gym…we all know no one likes them things really (jokes all my gym loving buddies i know how much you guys really do haha) but walking is the greatest tool at your disposal to help load your bones. yes loading with weights is helpful but your own body weight is more than enough, you just need to give it a good old go.

Start with 5 minutes walk a day. thats basically around the block right?!?! thats totally doable, right?

After a week and when your bored of those views up it to 10 minutes. Thats like 1/3 of an episode of friend/scrubs/insert favourite sitcom...Nothing Ay?!?!

“Everything Needs to move”

— Gary Ward - Anatomy In Motion

Just remember that while pretty much EVERY fit person has to will themselves to get up and at it, our whole body does need to move and be loaded. We as a species have not evolved to want to “exercise”. Traditionally Its a massive waste of hard fought for energy (im talkimg hunter gatherer era humans here) and so why the fuck would they walk/run/jump/climb/build muscle in excess, when they needed all the energy from their catch to last them till their next meal.

Also remember that its NORMAL to want to take the lift/esculator rather than the stairs..but again, our whole body NEEDS TO MOVE, just start looking at these movements as your free gym. Fuck going and getting all sweaty on a treadmill, just take your body for a walk and pay attention to it. Go slow and steady and let it build up and adapt to the new loads (this is important and as humans our egos tell us we can do that…what ever that is….most of the time it cant and then you get put off doing it again when everything starts to ache and hurt.)

If you need to, come see me or another AiM practioner to ge your feet and legs moving as they should and enjoy moving your own body again. Its amazing the difference you will feel and how much you will enjoy it when things move as they should

Why dont we look at this whole 2020 lockdown bullshit as the perfect oppertunity to get out of the house for small little walks and strolls and to get back in touch with ourselves and with nature. Why not also take your shoes off and walk about barefoot in the grass..let all them nerves in the feet actually feel something. you won’t regret it.

Modern man, pathetic example of earth's organic heritage

Modern man, evolutionary betrayer,

Modern man, ecosystem destroyer,

Modern man, destroy yourself in shame,

Modern man, pathetic example of earth's organic heritage - bad religion, Modern man 1990

So I was listening to against the grain this week and this song jumped out at me. It’s 30 years old now and yet it fucking nails humanity more so now then it did back then. I think that watching kiss the ground and sacred cow this week really brought it to the fore. Humanity really has lost all idea that we are apart of something bigger, that we are supposed to be apart of this biosphere, this ecosystem, that we are in-fact, nature ourselves and that we are not above it, or that we are not smarter/cleverer than Mother Nature. If you’ve not seen these films yet they are surprisingly hopeful looks at how we can combat and reverse climate change if we go back to looking at how ecosystems and microbiomes really work...I.E. in the macro. Knowing that life has cycles which include death is key to this, knowing that we are a part of those cycles is also huge. We cannot avoid death, there is no life without it. We cannot just hope to use new science gadgets to get our way out of this climate emergency, we have to go back to treating our selves and the earth as one. Science is INCREDIBLE and has and will do so much for the planet but people’s use of it has and is also destroying the world and taking our minds further and further away from nature on a daily basis. These two films go on to discuss how using regenerative agriculture to draw co2 out of the atmosphere into the soil using ruminant animals/crop rotation, non-till farming and other methods to do so can help to save the soil under our feet. I implore you go watch these programs. The whole move within society of moving towards “quicker and easier” or “healthier and healthier” foods has not only had a massive detriment on  the earths soil (hello monocrops) and climate but also our evolution as a species. Or should I say dysevolution. The world of smoothies/shakes/juices/avo on everything (for those that can afford it) or white bread/white rice/highly processed beige food/ convenience convenience convenience has had such a huge negative impact on the human skeletal structure too. Soft/easily eaten food has meant that that we no longer work the jaw to the degree it should be used, which has meant a loss of muscle building and shaping around the Mandible (jaw) and masseter. This has caused a recession and narrowing of the jaw. Those crocked teeth you dislike so much that you wanna spend a fuck ton on to get straighten? Yip, poor eating habits from practically birth leading to a vicious cycle of mouth breathing pushing the jaw further back. The scary thing is that this causing a closing and narrowing of your airway and makes breathing through the nose HARDER. It creates flaccid airway tissue meaning snoring and sleep apnea are more likely. This could end up proving fatal as the increased risks of diabetes and heart disease from sleep apnea isn’t insignificant. We are dysevolving in a way to make us more slack jawed, anxious, tired, groggy headed, less metabolically able to cope with the stresses the modern world places upon us pushing us towards a more unhappy society with shorter fuses. and yet no one sees it. The Morden man, so evolved, the pinnacle of natural selection? Or as Greg sang 30 years ago

“Modern man, evolutionary betrayer,

Modern man, ecosystem destroyer,

Modern man, destroy yourself in shame,

Modern man, pathetic example of earth's organic heritage” 

We are organic nature personified. Try to remember that. Breath through your nose and eat proper whole foods (maybe including some great local grass fed/finished 🥩) that make you chew for a decent amount of it. Your anxiety and stresses might just thank you!

If you want any of the papers which back up any of the statements in this blog please feel free to shoot me a message and let’s get some good discourse going.