A magical way to QUICKLY improve your handstand (or any movement!)

"Brainy What-Why-How"

Your weekly nibble of science-backed goodness to help you move better and feel unstoppable.

🧠

What (the TL:DR)

Rubbing (or tapping, or massaging, or gently scratching) the areas of your body where you've previously been injured, had surgery, or any kind of damage to the tissues, may immediately improve your ability to do something difficult (like a handstand*).

Why (the geeky neurology)

Your brain is stuck inside your skull, so it relies on information coming from your nerves to understand how everything is going out there.

The brain uses this information to form "maps".

If you get injured or have some sort of trauma to an area of the body, sometimes nerves get damaged.

Then, the brain stops getting information about what's happening in that area.

(This happened to me after my ankle injury & surgery -- around the scar I'd lost a lot of feeling and it was numb! ...

But nerves can repair themselves! And so by adding some sensory information (i.e. tapping, rubbing, tickling) to the area, we can revive that channel of information to the brain. And the brain goes "ahhhh I feel SO MUCH HAPPIER now that I'm getting more information about that area!)

And when your brain feels happier, it lets its guard down -- this often translates to greater mobility and coordination.

...Adding sensory stimulation to my ankle not only gave me feeling again, but my balance improved 🤯)

I KNOW! I KNOW!! IT SOUNDS LIKE VOODOO. But it's not. It's not even magic. IT'S NEUROLOGY! give it a try...

How (apply it to your life)

1️⃣ TEST: it doesn't have to be a handstand. It could just be touching your toes or jumping as high as you can. Test it out (warm up well, so you get your proper baseline!), see how it feels.

2️⃣ DO THE DRILL: rub around all the areas of your body that have had some trauma at ANY POINT in your life -- including tattoos, tattoo removal, surgery scars, burns, weird inexplicable pains that come up for no reason. Just for about 5-10 seconds on each area.

3️⃣ RETEST: notice if your handstand -- or whatever you're testing -- feels better!

Thank you for reading! Get in touch if you have any questions!

And please share with a friend or colleague who might find this valuable.

Enjoy touching yourself with love! 😉

Adell xoxo