On Faith and Foolishness

Categories: Blog Nov 04, 2015

Usually, I always know what I want to write and have no problem writing it. This week, I was just stumped. For hours. On end. I sat down and tried to write, staring at this blank piece of “virtual” paper. Nothing.

And then I got my idea this morning after reading my pastor’s autobiography.

Faith.

And foolishness.

Original Strength is funny. People either embrace it, or look on it with contempt, thinking of it as foolishness. I mean, come on, who in their right minds would crawl around on the floor like a baby? That’s for babies! Right? C’mon… Adults have completely different dimensions than babies and once off the floor, we’re supposed to never go back.

So I want to tell you a cool story.

Back in early April 2010, four of us met to discuss what would become “Becoming Bulletproof,” and then “Original Strength” - Tim, Mike McNiff (who co-authored “Becoming Bulletproof” with Tim), my wife, Courtney, a Doctor of Physical Therapy, and myself.

We were discussing the developmental sequence and the importance of the vestibular system in restoring lost movement and function. We knew that the vestibular system was stimulated by head movement, but didn’t really grasp what to do with that information.

Mike, a combat veteran, had some major issues with his neck, and as a result, had some pretty severe chronic pain. We had him do a simple standing torso rotation test with his feet together, and his arms out to the side, similar to the image below.



He didn’t couldn’t rotate very far either way, and was, as I recall, more restricted rotating to his left than right. And he had pain associated with the rotation.

And I’ll never forget what happened next. It’s weird to write about it, so let me give you some background on how OS got started, just for context’s sake. OS got started from a prayer. Tim prayed one day (after he and I had a conversation about how the body’s not meant to be fragile) and asked God to show him the best way to become resilient. You know the answer, because more likely than not, you, like us, and so many thousands of people around the world, have experienced it from the simple RESETs.

So, back to what happened next... The Lord gave me the idea of doing Neck Nods (Head Nods) to activate the vestibular system. I remember the conversation I had in my head with Him because at the time, the trend in the industry was to keep a long spine and pack the neck (capital flexion and cervical retrusion). I said, “Lord, everyone’s preaching “long spine” and “pack the neck.” This is just the opposite. I need science on this. Where am I going to get the science?”

His response was, “Don’t worry, I will provide the science for you.”

So I demonstrated Neck Nods from quadruped and then we had Mike do them.

Then we had him re-test his standing rotation test.

The rest, as they say, is history.

In what seemed to be a near miraculous event, Mike’s could rotate his head and body freely to both sides, pain free.

That of course IS science - hypothesize, test, observe, re-test, and try to disprove your hypothesis.

But that’s not the amazing part.

Tim and I were teaching an OS 2-day workshop in Minnesota in June of 2013. During the Neck Nods section, one of the attendees, a chiropractor, piped up, “I think I know why this works.” He then went on to describe, in detail, what happens in the brain during Neck Nods.

That attendee was Dr. Mike Musselman, DC, who is now part of the Original Strength staff. He is our “science guy” and he presents a major portion of our upper level course, ProRESET, which is designed for trainers, coaches, massage therapists, physical therapists, and other [medical] professionals to understand and apply OS in their businesses and practices.

Here’s just a small sample of what Dr. Mike has uncovered about how Neck Nods work to help reset and restore our function so quickly:

(From our new book, Pressing RESET: Original Strength Reloaded.)

“1. The specialized sensory cells of the upper cervical spine that communicate with your brain have a direct connection with the vestibular nuclei.

2. The vestibular nuclei are responsible of maintaining your upright posture.

3. Activation of these nuclei helps strengthen your postural patterns.

4. Due to the high number of these specialized sensory cells in the upper cervical spine, head movement is fantastic for brain nourishment.

5. Upper cervical spine sensory input has direct connections with the brainstem nuclei, which relays that information directly to the nucleus tractus solitarious, a part of the brain that helps regulate the immune system, the gastro-intestinal system, the heart, and the lungs.

6. Scientific evidence shows that input from the upper cervical spine is necessary for the proper regulation of these critically important body systems.”

Yeah, that’s what I thought too - BRILLIANT.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg of the information that Dr. Mike presents as the scientific basis for Original Strength at our ProRESET workshops.

So as silly as nodding your head, or rolling around on the floor, or crawling on your hands and knees as a baby seems, there IS hard core scientific evidence to support its use.

However, I don’t think that a lot of people who use OS care about that. They approach it with child-like faith. They hear that it works from someone they trust, and they try it out, because for many, like myself, they’ve exhausted all the other options. It looks silly, but it gives them hope.

It takes faith - great faith - for some, like myself when I first started - to use Original Strength. After all, it’s so simple, it couldn’t possibly work, could it? How could it? I mean, rolling around on the floor and crawling on your hands and knees like a baby? P-uh-lease…

To some, Original Strength is foolishness. To others, regular people, trainers, strength coaches [for professional teams], massage therapists, physical therapists, chiropractors, and medical doctors from all around the world, OS provides real-world, measurable, and indisputable results.

For example, here’s a case from one of our physical therapist friends:

“In using the Original Strength Resets, we have found that adding cross-crawls, even while sitting, will help to reinforce the balance and coordination gains we are making in therapy. It is safe, it can be easily made more or less challenging, and it isn’t physically taxing to the patient.

In clinic, we have seen some of the most drastic improvements in the patients who have Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s is a progressive disorder of the nervous system that affects movement. It often affects walking, balance, coordination and speech. As Parkinson's disease progresses, so do the symptoms. The hope with therapy, is to slow down the progression and maintain the status quo. Improvement is not much of a consideration. However, with the addition of cross-crawls, even while sitting, we have seen patients improve with their standardized balance testing.

Barbara is a 85 year old female who has a history of back pain and knee pain. Late in 2014 she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. “I was very troubled by what I heard when I was got my diagnosis. Along with my concern of falling, I was worried I would no longer be able to continue coordinating ministry here in my community or enjoy activities with my friends.”

Her initial Tinetti score was 7/28, a 75% disability. Her most recent Tinetti Balance score was 21/28 which is an improvement of 300%! All while having a progressive disease where maintaining physical skill is considered success and advancement is rare. There have been no changes in medication, and very few changes in her therapy program from her previous interactions with physical therapists with the exception of Pressing Reset with cross-crawling both in therapy and at home. Barbara is pleased with both the physical progress as well as the emotional response. “Not only does it seem to work, it is easy and I can work on it on my own. I have some control again, not many 85 year olds can say that.””

- Chris Stulginsky, PT Charlotte, NC

There really isn’t much else I can say in this post.

If you’ve heard about Original Strength and have been on the fence about it’s validity and it’s ability to help you, there’s only one way you’ll ever find out if it will:

Take a leap of faith.

The rest of us did.

What we found was the facts supported the hope that made us take that leap in the first place.

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