HS Seminar

When it comes to body weight exercise and upper body strength, Hand stands are where basics starts.

From an anatomical view point our arms and shoulder blades are designed to manipulate objects against our stable body, or to manipulate our body against a stable resistance of an object, hence the use of tools, and hence the way Chimps are moving on trees with great freedom (we share a very similar design). Our shoulder is the joint were we have the biggest range of motion in our upper body.

If you would th

ink of a big size person who can bench a very heavy weight, that person still might not be able to perform a pull up, or maneuver his body in space using his upper body strength , compare that with a little skinny girl who can go to a hand stand, one arm HS, back to HS, and lower to a planch; As skinny as this girl is, her upper body strength is greater then that of the first guy for the fact that she is stronger in relation to her body, and that strength will transfer much better to other ways of using the body. The body building strength will not translate as well into other fields of movement and it isn't the most efficient to develop upper body strength.

In this Seminar we will look at HS from various perspective, get a deeper understanding of the processes that are taking place, and get many tools to develop and progress on our HS work.

Amir Solsky
www.FundamentalsOfMovement.com

Human Subluxation of Life.

Humans together with rest of the apes share a common characteristic, and that is the fact that a very big percent of our behavioral patterns are learned, verses more of an instinctive predisposition in other animals.

In the very recent modern humans however, this very fact is coming back to bite us in our behind!

Becoming the species that takes the longest time for its infants to reach independence allowed us to learn and teach the secrets of our environments to our young with great success, however nowadays that we are so removed and detached from it, we also lost touch with our roots and connection to life.

  Once forming our random opinions regarding what we conceive to be food, we constantly injure ourselves with our consumption, mistakenly believing that our degeneration stem from chronological age and laziness. We have developed the ability to sense lust for various substance, and secrete enzymes and saliva to the sight of things unrecognized by our inner environment.

Similarly we got so accustomed to bodily shapes that never used to exist (with correlating health issues), that they are now considered normal and are fully accepted. While it is the reality we live in and one would naively say who are we to judge, one need to be blind not to. I am not looking to put blame on no one in particular, not even on us as a society, but I feel it is important to recognize the situation as it is, especially since the answers to it been around us since before we even appeared, and since during recent times even science managed to prove lots of our misconceptions about them, the reason to point this out is that we could actually do a lot about it individually and as a society.

It is hard and often disheartening to write, talk and work with this issue, however I feel a strong obligation to pursue it as there is so much proven science about it. I have so much proven results to show with myself (having same background as anyone else in our times) and other people I worked with. And I am still looking for the venue to be able to put this knowledge out there on the much larger scale that it deserves.

We are a new and genius species, And our geniuses has so far cost us a heavy price!

Structural evolution has progressed by the use of bodies and the adaptation of muscle formation to changes in movement needs and environmental demands, without any conscious awareness of that change, over periods of millions of years. Nowadays with human physical development, we have the science of biomechanics with regards to our bodies,  and there for we are able to design practices that would cause calculated changes in our physic for better of worst.

Likewise with our diet, while our digestive system modified as a result of changing circumstances, we now have the scientific knowledge  of the way that system works, and there for we have the means to get more accurate and articulated results out of it, by optimizing its use.

Theoretically we should be as advanced in our health  as we are with our technological developments, however as close as this issue is to our hearts, seems like there are many things in the way of achieving that one, individual reasons and social ones.

I am all hope that we would learn to work around those quickly and restore our health back to the way it should be.

Amir Solsky

wwww.FundamentalsOfMovement.com

Moderation in Eating.

I like the idea of eating in moderation, however from conversation with people, most of the time when I hear this argument, it is by proponents who hide behind it as a reason to not learn or understand nutrition.

For moderation in eating to work for your individual needs and get you your maximum health benefits possible from your diet, there is a lot for you to know about nutrition as well as knowing your body (and while most people will tell you they know their bodies, they are far from being in their optimal health condition).

The first workable data about Moderation, is that it needs to refer to food, in other word, if you ingest thing that are not food, moderation with it will not propel you to better health. A clear example could be wood, while it has calories and some life forms can digest it, consuming it will not produce any benefit for us, and probably even hinder our progress into a healthier state.

Now while this one is quite obvious, some other biologic matter has fallen to a grey area, since some substances are very commonly consumes by our species nowadays, for instance;

Trans fatty acids- while we all know it is not good for us, most of us don’t know that it is actually never been food, it originally was an industrial by product, a fatty acid that does not exist in nature, and is causing lots of havoc in our systems, no moderation can be of help here either.

While most of us would swear they don’t consume it we don’t realize that money making industries were smarter than us by not calling them tarns fat on labels, instead they could be recognized as hydrogenised vegetable oils to their sorts.

One of the things that from early times got our species to be successful is the fact that we are highly adaptable, and prove to that exists in the variety of diets we were able to adapt to in various parts of the planet.

Having said that, among other things that should not be consumed in moderation are alcohols, and grain food. To each his own problems, but just to show for the latter, it was mistaken for food many ages ago; while only recently science is starting to realize all the problems it had created.

Here is an article that shed light on some of the related problems:

http://www.celiac.com/articles/759/1/Early-Diagnosis-of-Gluten-Sensitivity-Before-the-Villi-are-Gone-by-By-Kenneth-Fine-MD/Page1.html

In order to fully understand the full meaning of eating in moderation, one need to understand that havoc creating substances in the food is NOT included in moderation, damaging the cells and tissues of your body with things you consume cannot be called moderation!

Eating in moderation has to do first with eating real food, and when it comes to that it is pretty much consist of various meats and eggs, produce (not including grains and legumes), tubers, and nuts.

The Word moderation imply ratio between these ingredients, and that is a very individual thing, it would vary with age, physical activity as well as changing existing plateaus in health and body composition, it would also vary for different ethnicities.

For one thing we need to realize that we had developed for millions of years to be a meat eating species, one of our closest relatives, the Neanderthals, were proven by bone tests to be a complete meat eating species, even though there were lots of veggies and fruits in their proximities, they did not touch those, and that does say lots about us.

However, we have adapted to various diets across the globe, some of complete carnivores, others less so.

The bottom line is, there are many ways to manipulate food intake for bettering physical conditions, and there is a lot to know.

While it is a very exciting journey to get to know your body, it does help shortening the way by working with individuals that know the bigger picture, as there is a lot of confusion in this field, even among people that claim to work in it.

Amir Solsky.

www.FundamentalsOfMovement.com

On being a mover

Some people like to get in shape without bettering any ability, some people like to get in shape without having to learn anything new, some people like to look better without having to be more connected to their bodies, without having to sense what their body is trying to tell them.
some people are spending some very hard work without betterment of any skill, too lazy or tired to have any brain activity while practicing, yet they have enough energy to train hard.
You could say well since they never experienced gaining abilities before they just don't know what they are missing and therefor they are excused for being mentally lazy, but truth is there is no replacement for really using your body for a purpose, for being connected to your body by finding ways to move in spaces, and there is no better balanced workout then doing just that to develop the most healthy look. other specific work can improve this experience but without this experience and constant real movement it would always be just a mere replacement and will never produce the same powerfully lasting results of really using your body.

Functional World Revolution

In the world species come to life and go extinct for the average time of 4 million year each.

In the duration of that time the species live in his natural habitat mostly in a very healthy condition of most of its specimens, which is in regardless of his preferable diet, it is just born into a balanced environment, and eco system that supplies all of its needs in abandon.

In the Human species we have lost that place of balance a while ago, and we are not in a place of abandonment for our needs with most of mankind, we have diverted from the place of balance when we changed our diet we were designed to eat, and as you know mind and body, energy determine structure and vice versa, once the body is out of alignment it will affect the course of the spiritual development.

Since that diversion happened we have developed tremendously with our abilities and technologies and basically took over the planet and put it in our control to an extent, however coming from a spiritual place of lack, of under nourishment and not taking care for our basic needs, we have failed to put the planet under the kind of control that would provide the natural blessing of abundance to all of our specimen.

We live in a society where many forces take place, those forces are natural forces that work on people and societies, forces that put together communications between living organisms in all levels of complexity and awareness, and those same natural forces takes place in our most complex governing systems, however since the organisms that are mostly involved in those communications are humans that for the most case have lost their natural connection to their bodies and there for not living in a balanced state even though they have reached places of great power, it is impossible to expect that the natural forces that are used by those individuals be in the right proportions for the coordination of our efforts as a species to care for each of our individuals to live in health and wealth as we are capable of as this planet has all the resources to do so.

Same like a body, where his cells are not provided with correct nourishment and are not existing happily,  were the person in that body will find it hard to lead a happy life, same is for our species, were big portions of our population are living in lack, that inhibit the well being of all of us as a whole.

With that said I must mention that in every tribe or animal pack there are always the strongest that get the best shares and the weakest that sometimes get disposed of, however that is in the micro, for I am looking obviously in the macro here.

This planet is a ball of energy, raw matter, where life energy been applied onto it for millions of years, affecting it and changing it.

And look at what life does to matter in the micro, when a living organism come to life, it starts as some kind of a yolk, that yolk have a sperm at one end of it that slowly surround it until it fully covers it, and then, a layer of muscles slowly ending up covering that yolk, while inner organs grow as well, and all of that happen using the yolk energy and building materials.

Once that work is done, the new born might already in the free world or still within his mothers belly, but eventually the specimen will learn how to use all of those muscles, to coordinate them together and create the full range of movement he was born to perform, basically taking the original power and agents of the raw yolk material and applying them for the purpose of his DNA or whatever other purpose he can conceive of using it for, hence, the raw energy converts into coordinated muscle mass that integrate a joint effort of all the living cells to create a further outcome that  is specific and determined by the awareness of the species.

Well this is in the micro, because in the macro, our species hasn’t got yet to the awareness of where it would like to go and how to harness the planet energy for the fact that it hasn’t managed to aligne all the muscles of its society, in other words, as long as we have war, genocide and famine, it basically means that we haven’t managed to take care of aligning ourselves as a species, as mankind, for the discovery of our purpose on this plant.

It would take the discipline of us conquering our genetic code, learning how to control our need to create these phenomenons; it would take us learning how to get back in balance before we can successfully align our species- Homo sapiens together.

Amir Solsky

www.FundamentalsOfMovement.com

The making of FOM

To fully understand FOM conceptually, it would help to also understand how I came up with it.

 It really goes back to my early childhood, a perception I had as a little kid, back in Tel Aviv, Israel.

 As a kid I used to look at adults around me feeling that they look so far from nature, un-natural and deformed. I also couldn't understand some of the behaviors I saw that did not correlate to nature, which I always enjoyed observing. Behaviors that I would always ponder, was it a mere invention of our creative ability that had nothing to do with nature, just like our physical issues, or is it that you don't see them in nature due to the fact that we are the most developed creature intellectually.  

At the time it made me feel a sense of disconnection, thinking I would not want to live in Israel, thinking America, through what I saw on TV, made much more sense, only to discover later that these problems are world wide phenomena.

I recall thinking I would not compromise with looking anything less then in a way I would be able to survive in nature had civilization would cease, thinking hardly anyone I see would be able to survive live in nature.

As you can tell I had lots of questions and very few answers.

Run it forward a few years, at 15, I started yoga with some friends, discovering oriental philosophies which were the first thing I found that went along with my observations. I practiced breathings and mediations, later to be followed with exercise, which till that time I used to hate. But I adopted the thought of control your body control your soul; I needed a cause to start moving with intention.

At 16 I started going to the gym, at first for the girls. I used to be very short and skinny, but my body changed very quickly, and then right before 18, I found Capoeira. That was a real rescue for me, on a social level the community was very tribal, everyone was very communicative and I got to interact with people I had never interacted with before, a community that practice social inclusion, and is designed for it. That was my first encounter with a community of people that made sense for me, was a real therapy, and I have been very fortunate to be able to provide that to many generations of groups and peoples.

Another thing Capoeira gave me was a great chance to explore my body, ways of movement that are very organic, very natural ways for people to move, which also made more sense biomechanically than other forms of movement, that also gave me many tools to distill into my workout practice.

Then came gymnastics. I got to do some flips in Capoeira by 1994, 95. and in 97 I was going to school for sports in a facility in Israel where the Olympic teams train, I used to go watch the gymnastics team, and I got into good terms with their coaches. We ended up partnering to teach a class open for the public in that institution, which was very successful. I got to get a major start with the gymnastics field, to be later further explored with many elite gymnasts and coaches.


In my late teens and early twenties I was also heavily involved in searching, I got into studying and practicing various alternative medicine such as classical homeopathy, Chinese medicine and various forms of massage therapy, which I also became certified at and took many courses to increase that knowledge at various of the disciplines.


On another note I was a heavy user of marijuana, experimenting with my mind.


And then I was also looking into the study of nutrition, reading research and lots of material about the field, trying to maximize results from my hard practice in a natural and healthy way.


Over the years I tried many diets and food philosophies till I achieved the knowledge I could fully control my own weight and look the way I desire, which ever look that is. 


While those fields mentioned are the ones that had the most impact on my development, I was also involved in many other fields of movement.
I was swimming for many years, I did running, I tried many martial arts, as well as tried my Capoeira skills against them on a friendly basis.


I took many dance classes, Classical Ballet for a few years, martial dance and contact improve, various Latin dances, some Feldenkraiz, and jazz dancing. At the top of my dancing career I had numerous stage performances with major Israeli artists, as well as being on TV for the beauty contest of 1997, escorting one of the models as a dancer.  


Since Coming to the US I’ve been involved with stunt work as well as live shows, which I’ve been doing since my early days in Capoeira, and added various circus skills to my repertoire, such as hand to hand balancing, Parkour, Aerial (dancing and acrobatic moves on fabrics and other apparatuses which are hanging from the ceiling) and Equilibre (one hand balancing).


Since my early twenties I was eating lots of grains which I was dealing well with (macrobiotic diet).
In life there are corner-stones that tell you that you are on track for your fulfillment, I usually find those by trial and error.
In my early youth I did any activity under the sun, various instruments among others just to find the ones that stuck. Those were yoga and then Capoeira.


However recently I came across another ones of those, around 2007-2008 a childhood friend I had from Capoeira, that also did his own track of research around the same fields I did, introduced me to the Paleo Diet. Eating according to our genetics, ancestral diet, which is a whole field that made so much sense to the level that it really put an end the this lifetime research trying to understand what really happened to us, humans, on this planet, and how things came to be this way. 


Together with that and some further research I was conducing, I also put together this system that encompasses all of the knowledge I had acquired, to prepare the body for strenuous activity and building strength, in a way that work with the body, and prepare the body to perform many skills, teaching individuals how to listen to their bodies and preventing injuries in an active way. 
Basically taking the skills and expertise from the fields I worked with, and processing them in a way that would be easy for any individual to practice, needing no prior knowledge, and maximizing the results by understanding the Fundamentals Of Movement. 


While I had been inspired by so many individuals throughout my life, I can't take the time on this blog to thank all who sure deserve it.  I would really like to take this opportunity to thank some of the people that took a major part of my formation:


First is my older brother Itzhak Solsky who always shared my life perception, and desire to benefit mankind.


My Dad, Ze'ev Solsky who always have been a great inspiration with his strong character, man of values that know how to navigate through 
life and get the best out of it. Around this man everything always fall in order, I am so lucky for his example and wish to one day reach his magnitude.


My high school friends Kobi Hanoked and Amir Armoza which introduced me to Yoga, followed by Erin that took that knowledge further.


My Capoeira Master that initiated me to Capoeira, Daniel Sela, without him I would not have been attracted to this art, he was the first to reaffirm many of my believes.  


Mestre Marcelo Perreira and Mestre Espirro Mirim who inspired me forming my Capoeira style.


Dianna Farr, who always inspire me with the most thoughtful advice and insight into life and people as well as her deep knowledge of Naturopathy.


And last but not least my Friend Ido Portal who has been there with me through everything I’ve been through with my journey. He helped me discover Paleo diet and formulate FOM, shared knowledge of various movement arts and contributed a lot to my knowledge of Capoeira in particular. Ido has been a more technical inspiration than I can say and I highly recommend looking him up.


Thank you for reading this far. Now I would like to know your story and how did you come this way, I would love to know what I can learn from you.
Much care,

Amir Solsky


www.FundamentalsOfMovement.com

Arabs

 
 

The Arabs are remarkably awesome people. They are known for their rich culture and hospitality. In colonial times they were knows as courageous warriors, they were very innovative people, they won many battles and had a huge empire. They stood out among other civilizations at those times for being most modern and able, and as a result they still have today a very big portion of the world map for their peoples.

Unfortunately since then they let a group of selfish regimes take over their freedom, and gone into long decades of stagnation.

But now days it is their time to rise again, Arabs are taking their first steps at realizing the situation they had created for themselves, and they are taking the first steps in changing the ways their countries are being run, again, showing great amounts of courage.

Another unfortunate point that holds the majority of Arab population today back is the fact that they hold a lot of anger and frustration, which as itself keeps prosperity and success away from them.

Up until these lines it is all well known as the current situation; however there is something that is being missed by many sides in this developing situation, and that something is fact that best things for the Arabs people nowadays, the thing that has the most power to help them with the change they are seeking, the biggest present the world gave to this big nation of Arab people, is the state of Israel and their Israeli brothers.

Unfortunately many Arabs and Israelis are missing on this point.

If you put aside the fact that many Arabs hold anger and Israeli society is protecting itself against that anger, a fact that create lots of sad stories and spread anger, if you put that fact aside, who do you think is capable of delivering the Arabs with the tools to create a new prospering culture, who knows the Arabs the best, and understand their mentality and needs, who is the closest nation to those Arab states that hold the most modern technology and any sort of knowledge in the world, as well as strong character people with a big heart to share and better the condition of these poor people.

I know it is not easy to see through all the thick layers of public relations that been playing big part around the world, years of media work dedicated to the preservation of hate and anger, helping nations across the globe to pick sides in this silly story, what will the world do if we take this awesome story away, where will the world find such a reliable source of news???

As much as I hate giving up on such a great source of stories, not even mentioning all the money industries that are living on it, and the rates of unemployment this could cause.

Isn’t it time we look at the real story here.

Human societies developing in various areas had to develop certain ways to help them survive on their land, Arab societies grew in very harsh land, people of the desert mostly, some tough nation, maybe not as lucky as other civilizations that had easier time developing, with less competition on food sources etc, maybe lucky in other ways for they did earned their toughness.

Overall the rainbow has lots of colors; every society has its place. But in these days, communication brings the world together, some of the ways we human needed to be in order to survive, doesn’t hold true to the new millennia, its time for the Arabs to come out of the stagnation, don’t let your ‘haters’ hold you back, time to excel again and show the world that the ability and potential you once had are still with us.

These are new times, no longer times of colonialism and witch hunts. These are times of modern technologies and human rights.

These are time when we only keep on the table what’s relevant; bullshit doesn’t sell so well anymore.

Time to put away the angry stories, the silly religious stories. Time to see where the various cultures stands today in relation to progress and evolution.

We, the progressed nations, have the tools to help other nations to step up their game, and we are doing it little by little to everyone’s advantage.

So when is the wall breaking? Who will seize the opportunity?

Amir Solsky

Los Angeles

www.FundamentalsOfMovement.com