The World of Fighting Monkey Part 2
Christine Ruffolo **Part One of this series can be found here. Engaging with your work demands a certain degree of ownership. There must be a benefit to the challenge presented, beyond just a hard-to-apply confidence. A task can serve as a test of will, a test of adaptability, and/or a test of inquiry. […]
The World of Fighting Monkey
Christine Ruffolo Doing without knowing. Playing, creating, learning. Adjusting and adapting. Describing Fighting Monkey is an act in organizing verbs. Everything overlaps and intertwines and is a wonder. The only certainty you are left with is that you have experienced something good and and provocative. Personified as one of their videos, those who enter […]
A Feldenkrais Experience
Christine Ruffolo In a top floor studio space that felt more like a cozy attic, I had a revelation. A soft-spoken yet commanding gal led me into my own body with an almost story-time cadence and tone. Knowing I was new, she crouched down to explain that Feldenkrais is made up of tiny, repetitive movements […]
Rediscovering Play
Give a kid a list of tasks to do, and you’ll find yourself with one unhappy kid. Give an adult a checklist, and they transform into blissful busyness. One basks in all they have achieved, and the other laments all the other potential possibilities lost. A child isn’t ruled by numbers or fear of being […]
Decoding PAILs and RAILs
Christine Ruffolo The one flaw in the Functional Range Conditioning system is its heavy use of acronyms. It has created a culture of separation, utilizing a language only understood within the context of the FRC group. Starting with CARs and developing into the new Kinstretch IsoMPs, there is no lack of subjective nomenclature. The […]
Getting Articular Independence
Christine Ruffolo As examined in my previous post, joint function defines what kind of movements you are prepared to perform. Articular independence must come before articular interdependence. The ability to isolate a particular joint leads to more control, increased awareness, and lessening of pain. Below, Dr. Andreo Spina reveals a corresponding case study: A […]
The NEW Joint-By-Joint Approach
Christine Ruffolo The popular — and still conceptually relevant — joint-by-joint approach championed a decade ago lent logic to the idea that a problem that revealed itself in one area may be caused by dysfunction in another. There were stable joints, and there were mobile joints, and the function of these joints alternated based on proximity. […]
Exploring Controlled Articular Rotations (CARs)
Christine Ruffolo Controlled Articular Rotations (CARs) are the entrance point to Dr. Andreo Spina’s Functional Range Conditioning system: They are meant to: 1. assess joint health (particularly the function of the deep joint capsule) 2. maintain outer ranges of motion 3. rehabilitate through anti-inflammatory movement ASSESSING JOINT HEALTH Before beginning, we cannot […]
The Interesting Science Behind Functional Range Conditioning
Christine Ruffolo Functional Range Conditioning (FRC) is a system of creating, controlling, and expanding useable range of motion, defined as mobility. Unlike flexibility which is typically achieved passively, FRC uses tension and isometrics to minimize neurological safeguards that inhibit mobility in the first place. It is designed to progressively convince the brain to release […]
Lift-Offs and Passive Holds
Christine Ruffolo Systemized by functional range conditioning (FRC), lift-offs are an ingenious way to focus on stability to achieve gains in mobility. Lift-offs are essentially lever tighteners. You place yourself in a supported end-range position, ‘screw-in’ the limb connection to the torso, and attempt to elevate independently off the surface. Here Hunter Cook locks […]