Tensegrity -More Than A Feeling?

The BreathBoard™ springboard that fits so well under my back was formerly a ‘standing’ platform that earned me weight-bearing standing steps to complement walking steps. Scientists had shown a novel ‘passive’ exercise to supply cardiovascular dependence on Nitric Oxide, and named this whole-body periodic acceleration (WBPA)¹. WBPA was my inspiration to make a foot-sized springboard, the first such springboard patented² in over a century. A user of my Standing Step Trainer became my friend and another powerful inspiration. I had never seen anyone ‘walk’ in the powerful way that Mort did, then in his mid-eighties and still recovering strength after stroke-related illness. It was while learning his ‘Malkin Technique for Aerobic Walking’ I began thinking of how during periodic (back and forth), head to toe accelerations of my body, tensegrity (tensional integrity) trains autonomic whole-body balance and stability. Such periodic accelerations of the whole body are sustained in Mort’s style of athletic walking, as well as in standing step activity. Both of which I still do almost daily. A slew of products for ‘rebounding’ have appeared since I first encountered scientists investigating WBPA. Yet if it ain’t got that swing, head to toe, which Mort and I sought out in WBPA, then it can’t do the thing that tensegrity trains.

Myofascial is a contraction of two words into one, myo- refers to myocytes (muscle cells) and to muscle generally, while fascial refers to the supporting tissues that surround muscles and that accomplish a wide range of supporting functions.¹ Earlier this year, I discovered a fascinating property of tensegrity, compelling me to recognize in new and startling ways how involuntary myofascial responses may result from WBPA. My discovery led me to build the ‘Tensegrity Trainer’ for a supine body position (flat on my back). A crucial component of this trainer is the BreathBoard. An ideal tool to facilitate quick, comfortable and gentle elastic rebounding of body weight along the spinal axis while one is lying down. Much like trampoline-type rebounding equipment, or a moving platform bed developed by scientists to deliver WBPA benefits to users in a supine body position, the Tensegrity Trainer accomplishes head to toe rebounding over the whole body. However skeletal structures within the hips and the shoulders may NOT be translating (moved) back and forth. Rather these structures may firmly oppose periodic accelerations of the body’s center-of-gravity. In other words, softer elastic structures within the body trunk may undergo accelerations, thereby compressing firm (skeletal bone) structures. The compression in both firm and yielding structures builds a tension distribution throughout. Force conduction to achieve balanced stability within a bouncing body is conditioned by tensegrity. You got it, I got it, we all got to just discover it! The periodic accelerations in the body trunk can be and likely should be gentle, and can easily be made synchronous with back and forth accelerations of both legs. Nothing in my own experiences allows for such GENTLE WBPA rebounding, so simple to begin with and so easy to keep it going! Nothing before resembles or works like the Tensegrity Trainer.

But without using a BreathBoard I made the discovery I mentioned above. I made it while lying on my back against the floor with my legs propped on a large foam roller under the calf muscles. What was my discovery and what do myofascial responses have to do with it? To begin with, I had recognized the importance of the hip flexors muscle group to performing ‘upright’ WBPA, via my studies of Aerobic Walking and standing steps activity. This recognition led to asking if WBPA rebounding in a supine body posture could be initiated by the hip flexors. To find out, with unbent legs propped up on the roller, and clasping my hands behind my head I tried to initiate back and forth motion (rolling) of my legs. I found that using the hip flexors to move my legs in this way was difficult and unproductive if my arms and hands were at my sides or against the floor. But if I lifted my arms to make drumming motions of my arms (try to imagine a large drum placed perpendicular to the abdomen) like in the video in page header, then I noticed big changes! My arm movements apparently obtained the release of a myofascial ‘hold’ on the hip flexors, allowing this muscle group to begin working to roll my legs back and forth. And without too much difficulty I was able to sustain movements of my legs that were accompanied by seemingly involuntary back and forth movements over my full body. Actual WBPA rebounding on the floor. But clasp my hands behind my head again and all movements head to toe froze, apparently a hold was again placed on using the hip flexors. I was intrigued by these changes, and I next tried putting my hands beneath my hips rather than clasping my hands behind my head. The weight of my hips then firmly pressed down on my hands. I expected the movements of my unbent legs would again be very difficult. To my surprise, my use of the hip flexors was fully restored, and back and forth movements of my legs were accompanied by back and forth movements over my whole body.

However, if I then moved my hands out from under the hips, the hold was again placed on using the hip flexors. My legs wouldn’t budge. So moving my hands aside by an inch or two to avoid pressure from my hips weight, this was enough to block voluntary use of this powerful muscle group! Push my hands back under the hips, or put there only my thumbs, and immediately the hold was released. If I rested my hands on top of my hips, rather than underneath, then the hold returned. In every instance, whether my hands were on the hips, beside the hips or under the hips, there was no apparent tension or force generated in my hands or arms while I endeavored to use the hip flexors. The release could only occur, and did immediately occur if the hands or a portion of the hands were under the weight of the hips, or else by allowing the hands (along with arms) to move, such as in drumming type movements. My discovery of a myofascial release that allows the use of the powerful hip flexors muscles group led me to build the Tensegrity Trainer in order to comfortably and gently compel this release! And to perhaps compel other abrupt myofascial release? Anecdotally, I can report noticing in my own experience that airway (breathing) and gastrointestinal (absorption) indications suggest (to me) that daily WBPA rebounding leads to myofascial release beyond the hip flexors muscles group. I am thrilled by this and many other changes I am witnessing! Yet the excitement I feel about WBPA won’t make a lot of sense to someone seeing me bouncing on the floor.

In how many other ways I wonder, might one feel how tensegrity trains myofascial release? Yet it’s not for a ‘feeling’ that I built the Tensegrity Trainer. I have been on a science driven path to riches that others too may travel by recruiting the versatile and powerful hip flexors muscles group. I pay for my riches now mainly with daily adherence to gentle WBPA rebounding using the Tensegrity Trainer! Skin cleansing is my best game, played with reliance on using the hips flexors daily for myofascial release and for increased Nitric Oxide. This strategy, in my own view, promises unbounded ‘inside out’ cleansing of skin and scalp.

The Tensegrity Trainer greatly assists gentle WBPA rebounding while I am clasping my hands behind my head. A feat that in a supine body posture I find is difficult and unproductive unless aided by the Tensegrity Trainer! However, a ‘beginner’ familiarity with how tensegrity trains gentle WBPA rebounding in a supine body posture may best be obtained and with least effort by choosing from among wide-ranging arm movements. Or by choosing movements of only the forearms and hands. As long as all movements from head to toe are made in synchronous fashion, then one ‘bounce’ can rule them all. This trainer really does serve to amplify myofascial release of the hip flexors, and aided not only by arm movements but also by rhythmic movements of body torso weight supported on the BreathBoard. In other words, movements of the chest and / or the shoulders. With this trainer I can sustain prolonged, gentle WBPA rebounding sessions while my arms are folded over my chest. I will be sharing a video of this soon! These sessions bear in my own estimation such great promise for realizing mental clarity, for calm reflection, and have served ably for my ‘bouncing zazen’ meditative practice.

An onlooker however, cannot distinguish the practical purpose of my bouncy head-to-toe movements. Only I, using this novel Tensegrity Trainer can sense that tensegrity trains the entirety of physical being, from one bounce to the next, dedicated to its work of compiling the head-to-toe distribution and integrity of tension. Soon I hope that you, the reader will also realize how tensegrity trains inertia-strained structures of a balanced body and a clear mind!

An upcoming blog entry will be discussing a perspective on increases in Nitric Oxide release in the body (often visible in the skin). Increases that are sustained by periodic reciprocal movements, such as in WBPA rebounding, and also as incorporated into certain forms of ‘dancing’, or as well as in meditative or spiritual training that connects regulated body activity with the mind. In particular, the latter regulation may be emphasized in Rinzai Zen training. A ‘bouncing zazen’ practice may yet be what brings troubled humanity to recognition that shared existence is the sole existence, And to reflect on the innate resilience in all living things (Allostasis) that belongs to new beginnings.

‘When one door closes, another opens’. Just Move!

“To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful.” –Agnes De Mille (renowned choreographer)

Larry Licklider PhD, President, Niacitrate LLC