Posts by rustybadger42

Lisa Rogers94 said:I’d go for that overbuilt look myself—definitely my style. 😁 Can I actually pull this off if I spend the rest of the year just gorging myself on cookies? 🙂

That’s easy! Just eat six servings per bite and you'll have a six-pack before the deadline.
I just don't know how many pieces your leg is actually going to end up in...😁

So, there’s basically no difference in muscle hypertrophy between cardio and strength training. Rock'n'roll. Give me more.

@Tandara97 - Maybe just skip the isolation moves and stick to compound exercises. And honestly, someone tell Gregory to stop helping... 🙂

Combining cardio with strength training could definitely get you the results you're looking for. If you're aiming for that lean, wiry muscle look—maybe try cycling or some long-distance running. Though, if you're already naturally gifted with stronger legs, you might not even need that. And honestly, don't stress about hypertrophy; it doesn't just happen overnight, especially for us women. It’s all about myofibrillar growth—something you can actually target with a solid mix of strength and endurance work.

I'm not entirely sure what they mean by "interstitial fat," but I doubt that's what's being described here. That's pretty rare and usually points to some kind of metabolic issue, since fat doesn't typically just settle in the interstitium. Some people—it's rare, but it happens—are just born with lower levels of GDF 8. They end up with more defined muscles, especially in their legs, and they don't have to grind nearly as hard as everyone else to get the physique others struggle for.

Noah Harris50 said:Meditation isn't some scary thing. You just sit there and give your brain a break by repeating a single word or, even better, just focusing on your breathing and counting those breaths. It clears out all that mental noise that’s weighing you down.

Since the brain stops spiraling, your body finally chills out too.

Meme Man, I've been dealing with constant stress and anxiety lately, so I get it. It sucks. Sounds like anxiety is pretty much running the show for you right now. Hang in there.

I get it—the whole point is about finding focus and channeling your energy to cut through the distractions. It's a win-win for both the mind and the body. 🙂

Read it. I definitely need to brush up on the actual concept first just to wrap my head around everything—but I get what you’re saying about the timing. Thanks again!

Noah Harris50 said:If you're struggling to sleep, your brain might mistake meditation for actual rest, leaving you feeling wired once you stop.

Try some light relaxation exercises instead. Morning meditation is better for clearing the fog and getting hyped for the day.

At least, that's what I've read and how it works for me. Then again, there are tons of styles. I usually just play something on my phone before bed—a guided session with a chill voice and some lo-fi beats can actually knock me out.

Check this out too.

Ah, okay—that makes sense. Honestly, I don't know much about meditation—I'm not really into that scene—but I'll give it a read. Thanks so much for the reply. 🙂

Noah Harris50 said:Meme Man, don't even think about meditating right before bed!

Do it when you wake up instead. It clears out all that sleep fog and gets your head ready for the grind. Also, just pepper in five minutes a few times throughout the day.

Why's that?

rowdyangler5 said:My experience with Nicole Ross, IN CASE THIS HELPS ANYONE:
I’ve been dealing with pain for over four months now. Despite having massive respect for my doctors, kinesiology experts, massage therapists, and physiotherapists, none of them actually helped me. Even after all the scans, physical therapy sessions, pills, and injections—which felt almost useless since I wasn't seeing any progress—my attempts to fix my "unusual" version of regular sciatica were going nowhere. Thank God I finally stumbled upon Nicole Ross.
The man truly knows his stuff; anyone who has sat down for a conversation with him can confirm that. It isn't enough to just surf through his website or read about it... you have to, as Nicole would say, "feel" it 😍. You really need to understand and sense how your own body moves. It’s essentially a learning process, almost like autogenic training, where you figure out what’s wrong and where your movement patterns are failing... and then you start correcting them. That moment when you finally realize what's happening and know how to move forward because someone guided you correctly—that's where the real progress begins
. You really should give it a shot, because it’s hard to explain exactly how this therapy works to someone else. Actually, it’s impossible to describe. It doesn't hurt, it isn't exhausting, it isn't boring, and it works!!!!!!!!
Folks, after more than four months of pure misery, these last three weeks have been life-changing. I honestly thought I’d never walk normally again or that the pain would be permanent, and then—BOOM!!! Suddenly, I actually want to WALK again, and hopefully, I'll be RUNNING soon!
I'm only halfway there, but I feel like I'm sprinting toward the finish line 🙂🙂🙂

super !.. so glad to hear things are looking up. You put it perfectly—you have to actually feel your body's movements to understand them. Wishing you the best of luck moving forward. Cheers 🙂

Nicole Ross said:Well, she still has some of that natural talent left—not as much as before, obviously—but toward the end, those old habits were definitely creeping back in.

Lisa’s stride is decent, though she’s dealing with some pretty intense lower back pain.

Landau?

Nicole Ross said:As a coach, I'm just as happy for Elvan, even if everyone was banking on gold.

She was performing beautifully right up until the 35km mark—that's when you could tell the lack of mileage finally started catching up with her. But honestly? It doesn't matter. The main thing is that she had the most fluid movement of anyone in the lead group and showed the least amount of physical breakdown. She’s coming back to see me next month for four days of work to fine-tune her biomechanics, fix that rounded posture in her back, and get everything dialed in perfectly for the Olympics.

All in all, a really solid performance.

Yeah, I've been watching the girls' styles... a lot of them are running with reduced pelvic and hip rotation, so they end up compensating with their shoulders—you can actually see the strain in their neck and jaw muscles. I didn't notice that with Elvan, and it looks like our Lisa has a great style too—really nice stride with that full leg extension at the end.

Abeylegesse 5. That’s a massive result—especially considering how little prep she had and the issues she was dealing with. Her running looks incredibly synchronized and fluid; she seemed totally comfortable and relaxed out there. I wonder what her coach thinks?

Nicole Ross said:thanks!
there’s going to be plenty of surprises coming your way this year and next

black magic!

Dabome.
It looks like it's already starting to work. 🙂

Nicole Ross said:oh, no...
it was blood in my left thigh near the hip bone and fluid in my left groin. Turns out—the culprit was a tight core combined with pelvic immobility, which just led to way too much stress during running.

Okay, that's clearer.
Congrats on the successful rehab. I never doubted it would turn out well.

Nicole Ross said:Just a little more regarding how she saw her coach

lp

Nicole Ross

Super dyslexia 😁
Super.
Waiting for Zurich. And Rio.
And our athlete. 🙂

That's really good to hear. Was the injury mentioned Hyperlordosis?

By letting go.
Hey 🙂

Walter Ross10 said:OK, thanks. I see the cause, but I'm not sure about the solution.
I read through the start of this thread and I'm honestly even more confused than before. It helps that I have better quality input now that my back isn't such a massive issue, whereas I was just skimming everything earlier.

But let's get down to brass tacks: can my issue actually be fixed by relaxing or strengthening certain muscles to balance out my pelvic tilt? If you think that won't work—unless we're talking somatic therapy—then how are other people successfully tackling this with conventional methods?
I'll be completely blunt; if I had to choose a path, I’d rather go to Ales than some standard physical therapist (assuming the cost was similar or even slightly cheaper). However, I'm not in a financial position for either right now, so I have to help myself as much as possible. For the time being, at least.

Read it again. 🙂

Yeah,relaxing those posterior muscles will reduce tension, which allows the pelvis to realign (exactly what Ales told you). It might be worth noting that stretching is also just applying force to a muscle—it doesn't actually lengthen it, it contracts it, in case that confuses things. Basically, the classic approach of stretching/strengthening can have a counter-effect; the situation seems to improve temporarily because collateral muscles activate and it feels like the body is balanced. But then the problem resurfaces after a while—usually showing up as pain in the shoulders, knees, or feet, along with even more pelvic rigidity. How long it takes for the body to adapt and show these compensation consequences is different for everyone... it depends on motility, movement quality, and muscle condition. To give you an example... a colleague told me yesterday that after going through piles of physical therapy, blocks, electrodes, and finally being so disappointed she sought help from an established chiropractor, the only thing that actually relieves her lower spine pain and relaxes her back is a pelvic relaxation exercise I suggested she try. Now, that exercise won't change the natural pattern of movement that’s at a subconscious level—the one the brain has adapted to, which caused the SMA in the first place—and for that part, active clinical somatics is the best therapy (for now). If you can't access that, doing the exercises the way I suggested will still do you way more good than traditional stretching and strengthening opposing sides. Try it for a while and you'll see if the problem pops up again during squats.

Walter Ross10 said:Talk to me 🙂

Regarding your lordosis—in your case, that lumbar hyperlordosis is actually caused by a reflex known in medicine as the Landau reflex (think of a baby lying on its stomach who instinctively lifts its legs and head into a slight reverse C-shape). It’s a natural reflex that pops up whenever our bodies prepare for action—like the body getting ready for a "go" command. By constantly repeating these types of movements, the pelvis tilts forward (that tilt you mentioned)—the body tries to compensate by shifting the hips and head backward. You probably have a ribcage and abdomen that protrude slightly forward, too. Muscles work through contraction to shorten and tighten, while relaxation lets them loosen and lengthen; every agonist has an antagonist. With this kind of posture, the muscles in your front are being stretched out, while the ones in the back are tightening up to fight gravity. Imagine an arrow bow... if you take a stick, bend it, and tie the ends together with a string, you get a bow. The tighter you pull that string, the bigger the bow becomes. That’s what’s happening to your body—you're tilting those hips forward, throwing off your balance, and shifting all your weight onto your quads. The pain you're feeling is a direct result of those lumbar muscles being stuck in a sort of sensorimotor amnesia—they are constantly activated, exhausted, and tight. Eventually, the brain accepts this constant activity as the "normal" state. This adaptation causes the bones to shift out of their natural alignment due to the constant muscle contraction, creating a postural issue—and when you move, you might even feel a nerve pinch or a clicking sensation.
Basically, the muscles in your posterior kinetic chain aren't weak or loose—they're tight like a drawn bowstring, and they need to be relaxed (if you let go of the string, the bow shrinks; if you release it entirely, the stick straightens out). And you won't achieve muscle relaxation through what everyone thinks is helpful—stretching. If you try to force a tight muscle to stretch, it’ll just fight back with more contraction, making the tension even worse.
That’s why I wouldn't recommend lifting heavy or doing anything intense until you fix your posture first.
You should probably re-read what we discussed at the start of this thread about how stretching and strengthening affect muscles in SMA—those muscles aren't actually weak or atrophied like most people assume.

Walter Ross10

I get why you’re struggling with what Nicole Ross suggested—that idea about not strengthening the posterior chain—since it feels totally backward compared to what you think you need to do. If you want, I can try to explain my take on what's actually happening with your movement patterns and why I think following that advice might be the way to go... just so you can see if it clicks for you. 🙂

Hyperlordosis is basically just a slight curve in your lumbar spine—stretching from the first L vertebra down to the top of the sacrum. Depending on how your pelvis sits in relation to your femur, you’ll be looking at either an anterior or posterior tilt.
I'm not sure what PLM refers to—it might point toward some scoliosis issues. You should definitely ask a doctor to explain exactly what that means and how it happened.

Since we're talking about book recommendations, here’s some solid technical reading for anyone dealing with rounded shoulders or posture issues. Best 🙂

Vernon B. Brooks: The neural basis of motor control
Crossman and Neary: Neuroanatomy
Hans Selye: The stress of life

urbanwalker72 said:The concept of learning is quite convenient in this context. If the therapy succeeds, the practitioner takes the credit; if it fails, the blame is shifted to the client for failing to learn properly.

And if their condition returns to its previous state in ten days or a month, it is simply dismissed as them forgetting.

It is a win-win situation. This is precisely why such therapies are so difficult to investigate scientifically. They aren't exposed to the risk of being wrong, which allows them to always claim they were right.

Don't mistake my position for being against movement training. As someone who is a member of GymnasticBodies and has studied both Primal Move and the Ido Portal method, I know that it works. I am a proponent of movement-based training and the art of learning motion. In fact, I could likely teach you more movements than you could teach me.

The issue arises when pseudoscience begins to take hold. Any procedure that claims to be scientific must possess falsifiability:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsifiability

With this specific therapy, that principle is absent. There is never any mention of how one might theoretically prove that the therapy does not work.

That is the fundamental requirement for testing any hypothesis within the realm of science.

No.
With somatics and differentiation, the cool thing is that you feel the impact almost immediately after an active session. The more severe your postural issues are, the more pronounced that positive shift feels—and man, it’s a great sensation. You don't even realize how tight you actually were until your brain finally recognizes what relaxed muscles actually feel like.
Active therapy combined with movement learning brings you right to the center—you can see that in the examples provided—but from there, it’s really up to you if you actually stick with the exercises to improve your proprioception and maintain that optimal balance.

urbanwalker72 said:The concept of learning is quite convenient in this context. If the therapy succeeds, the practitioner takes the credit; if it fails, the blame is shifted to the client for failing to learn properly.

And if their condition returns to its previous state in ten days or a month, it is simply dismissed as them forgetting.

It is a win-win situation. This is precisely why such therapies are so difficult to investigate scientifically. They aren't exposed to the risk of being wrong, which allows them to always claim they were right.

Don't mistake my position for being against movement training. As someone who is a member of GymnasticBodies and has studied both Primal Move and the Ido Portal method, I know that it works. I am a proponent of movement-based training and the art of learning motion. In fact, I could likely teach you more movements than you could teach me.

The issue arises when pseudoscience begins to take hold. Any procedure that claims to be scientific must possess falsifiability:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsifiability

With this specific therapy, that principle is absent. There is never any mention of how one might theoretically prove that the therapy does not work.

That is the fundamental requirement for testing any hypothesis within the realm of science.

If he slips back into that old state, it just means he isn't actually working on himself—or putting in the effort to improve his own health.
When you're centered, your proprioception kicks in—it basically guides you to stop moving the wrong way, which is usually what caused the problem in the first place.
Honestly, I think once you actually experience that kind of fluidity and ease of movement—the way it’s supposed to feel—it's pretty much impossible to go back to how things were before.

urbanwalker72 said:The concept of learning is quite convenient in this context. If the therapy succeeds, the practitioner takes the credit; if it fails, the blame is shifted to the client for failing to learn properly.

And if their condition returns to its previous state in ten days or a month, it is simply dismissed as them forgetting.

It is a win-win situation. This is precisely why such therapies are so difficult to investigate scientifically. They aren't exposed to the risk of being wrong, which allows them to always claim they were right.

Don't mistake my position for being against movement training. As someone who is a member of GymnasticBodies and has studied both Primal Move and the Ido Portal method, I know that it works. I am a proponent of movement-based training and the art of learning motion. In fact, I could likely teach you more movements than you could teach me.

The issue arises when pseudoscience begins to take hold. Any procedure that claims to be scientific must possess falsifiability:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsifiability

With this specific therapy, that principle is absent. There is never any mention of how one might theoretically prove that the therapy does not work.

That is the fundamental requirement for testing any hypothesis within the realm of science.

There’s no philosophy here—none of that pseudo-scientific nonsense. It's just interdisciplinary work that understands movement isn't just about muscles and bones; it's happening in the brain. Any issue you run into is really just one small part of a much larger pattern of locomotor system dysfunction.
Once you actually feel and see the physical results in your own body, there’s no better proof than that. Just give it a shot—it'll make your Ido Portal method and Primal Move look much smoother and more effortless.
Sometimes, overthinking things just leads you to lose sight of what actually matters.