BLOG - Fundamentals Of Movement

True Weapons

3/14/2015

Some people develop nuclear capacity, a mental one. It's a powerful tool that comes from a big vision, and can supply electricity and power systems, appearing like it was created from nothing. It can also be used like a weapon and create great destruction.

Using it too often or using it to destroy will take away from its power, and will gradually make it less then nuclear, but also those who use that side of it often many times never fully develop it. It is so powerful but also elusive that some people don't realize they have it. Wanting to test it the wrong way to prove it to themselves, will cause great destruction and an adaptation of the surrounding.

Those that harness it for the good know very well what they are developing, they are intentional about it, and use it to fuel and grow themselves and their happy surroundings, and in case of need, use it to protect their loved ones. Though even then, using it as a weapon be the wrong choice. The true magic of it is in creating subtle currents and energies that are powerful yet happy and playful, that just make things go right, and these subtle energies needs to be nurtured again with great consciousness for them to stick around.

Some people wonder when they see a walking nuclear reactor, thinking, how and why would someone develop such a great power if they never intend to use it. But they do use it! Just not all at once.

Amir Solsky

Creating patterens in time

1/30/2015

With everything we allow to happen through us, we create ourselves, and set patterns in motion, with potentially numerous repetition to happen in the future, for who we are becoming.
Will you take that Ritalin so that you can study (what are you really teaching yourself). Will you have this drink with these people (what emotion are you trying to erase from your experience). Will you have that soda with this less then nutritious food ( why is there this vacuum in your belly). Will you take advantage of this person weakness to make a few bucks (who are you becoming).
Or will you take a walk by the water, read an enlightening book, have a satisfying nutritious meal, help this person out making sure he has been helped as much as possible.
If going from the first group of actions to the second is not easy, it's because you already set things in motion. Truth is it could be easy if you didn't stand in your own way (but on your way instead). You should be asking some questions (and you should have the answers).

Amir Solsky.

Working with Strength And Skill

1/20/2015

The right balance between those two can be very elusive, unless it is clearly a strength skill. For most other bodily skills, the better you get at it, the less strength it requires.

People that engage in a high strength practice with little or no skill involved, be usually more in the category of fitness people, while people that fully engage in skill work would be ranging from artists to athletes.

But other then categorizing people, strength is generally known as one of the biggest factors that determines improvement in a sport, and adaptability to new patterns. Strength does help in the first steps of acquiring new skill, before higher efficiency sets in and strength become less of a factor. Which also mean that weaker people could acquire it with more patience.

Strength and flexibility also play a big part in injury prevention. Flexibility in yielding to unexpected impacts and strength for joint stability.

For fitness people, getting into skill work might not be a requirement of their field, but it always broaden their perspective and understanding of their field and would have a big impact on their coordination and quality of performance even in their fitness field, if only due to the fact that the central nerves system gets so much more developed in this type of activity.

For skill people, strength work could offer a bridge to brake through plateaus, but here it is much more individualized and the main purpose should be kept strongly in mind, it is a matter of a fine balance and setting clear goals, or even periodic goals to allow measuring the progress throughout the years.

Are you informed?

1/11/2015

Does a domesticated animal understands its wild counterpart from a domestic view point? does it have any type of knowledge at all? off course it does, and quite a lot. But how applicable is this knowledge to the true ways of this planet. Is the domesticated animal's knowledge more valuable then the wild one's? in a fairy tail world it is... but is it in reality? what is reality?
This is the age of information/misinformation, and we are all domesticated! There is nothing to fear. When starting to understand anything, one of the first steps is understanding that you understand nothing.

Art is not a choice

12/10/2014

All living things are expressive- artists, from flowers of plants to the human face, from the shape and state of our bodies to the way we move and interact.

Expressing our point of view and perspective on one end, expressing biological and physiological processes on the other.

We have the ability to take responsibility and conscience control over it or we could be the effect of it, not giving any thought to it and hoping that the end result would be graceful enough for the level and shape of the harmony with the environment we wish for.

Which ever way you look at it, higher discernment of that expression would put your resources to better use in way of allowing better freedom of harmony for those who seek it.

Amir Solsky.

Function

9/17/2014

Little kids are such bouncy spirits, they are not so focused on their bodies, their body is only there to function and express themselves. It doesn't take much focus on its own. Similar to animals.

As we grow older seem we are more and more conscious of our body, specially if it give us hard times. I don't think that is a necessary process, at least not as long as the body keeps its original purpose, as a mean for an end and not the end in and of itself. We should allow ourselves to stay free spirits true to our nature and not bogged down by this material body.

Keep your function strong!

Amir Solsky.

Capoeira

9/12/2014

The Capoeira game is a complex body dialog, most people that never done Capoeira will have hard time understanding what they are seeing. And for a complex game like this even Capoeira practitioners have hard time seeing all that is happening.

It is a fight like game, where in the more advanced level every single move or gesture would have a reason, be that getting to a better strategical position, marking an attack, or escaping.

When an attack become real it might slow down the interaction having to wait a player to recover and taking away from density of the game, but that does need to happen sometimes in order to keep the game real.

Let's see if you can find the reasons for each move here, and if you are more advanced, can you find the subtleties.

The fine line between Form and Art

8/10/2014

Since the 70's and 80's 'fitness' had become mainstream, with the desire to look better, whatever that means, and the advance of bodybuilding.

Nowdays while fitness is still strong, seem like people have found that sport rather empty and are now looking into movement, bettering movement, whatever that means.

And I'm just thinking... The real beauty of the body, the real magic, and where the value is, is in the expression, you can say art.

Looks and movement is form, a mean to an end and meaningless by itself. It is the content that is interesting.

It seem like people are so invested in this form and that one, that the reason behind the form get obscured and forgotten.

Physical culture used to be about health, bodybuilding eliminated that aspect.

Health introduced balance and host of beautiful concepts but the world left that behind..

form has triumphed over content, and love has lost its meaning.

Amir Solsky.

3 Advanced Bodyweight Workouts for Capoeira Acrobatics

8/10/2014

This is a second blog I published on "Onnit" online Magazine, click on the link below to read:

3 Advanced Bodyweight Workouts for Capoeira Acrobatics

The Spiritual Revolution

7/15/2014

We are all familiar with various revolutions that took place in our history. Most profound ones are probably the agriculture revolution 12,000-15,000 years ago, and the Industrial revolution some 200 years ago.

One major revolution that seem to be left out is the Spiritual revolution. Started over 3,000 years ago as Judaism. In a time when most humans practiced polytheistic religions came one of the first monotheistic religion, and preaching for high morals and ethics, placed a mirror for the rest of the world to compare itself to. Needless to say they were hated pretty much from the start for that gift.

Later on Judaism became the foundation for other religions such as Christianity, Islam and the Baha'i faith. As it also laid the foundation for the western world we know today among others.

The Jewish faith managed to survive all sorts of mishaps as a result of it's high correspondence to the power of life. It managed to demonstrate many achievements on many fronts of progress throughout it's existence. It did so together with other religions and people that built themselves on it's principles. By doing that it demonstrated its validity and helped to enlighten and enhance the world.

God is Love!
Peace.
Amir Solsky.

Mediocrity in Training

4/18/2014

Resistance training with body weight follows many similar principles to training with weights.
Everybody knows that going to the gym can have an effect. We've all seen the Body Builder and the such or the Aerobics Instructor. Yet many people go to the gym for years and experience no major changes.

On the one hand people say "I don't want to be a workout fanatic, I want balance in my life". On the other hand people cling to various excuses, like bad genetics, and others.

Resistance training with body weight isn't different than the gym in this regard. If you are not willing to make the lifestyle changes to support the practice, giving all that you got, don't be surprised if the years go by, and you spend countless hours in the gym watching other people tone up and getting stronger while you stay the same.

It isn't a matter of fanaticism, or even of balance in life. It is a matter of the scientific effort it takes to get results. If you are not willing to make a change, extend a real effort, make a sacrifice, then don't be surprised and don't look for excuses when you get 10% of the results possible from your form of training.

It does take sound nutrition to succeed, since love by itself is not sufficient in providing all the building blocks of a healthy body for most people.

If you are willing to spend hours training, be willing to make some dietary and lifestyle changes to support it.

It is a very important path, taking care of this body you were given tends to change peoples perspective and appreciation for other things and improve the probability of a satisfying lifetime.

People now days want to do less for themselves and get more. Nothing wrong with being efficient, but how about doing that and doing more.

Find a path that makes sense to you, and follow it with all that you got, holding back on it, is holding back from yourself. Give it your whole for a few months, then look back and ask yourself if it was worth it. Most likely you will just dive back in harder.

Amir Solsky.

The Top 5 Capoeira Moves to Get Started/ Amir Solsky

4/8/2014

An onnit Article I wrote:

Top 5 Capoeira moves to get started

"Cardio" vs. High Intensity Interval Training.

12/17/2013

Or LISS (Low Intensity Steady State Cardio) vs. HIIT Simply put, "Cardio" is bad for you.

It make you produce a stress hormone called Cortisol, which in turn break down muscle and make you gain fat. Also it usually pound the joints to dust since your muscles are too loose to absorb the impact. all in all, surely an inferior practice.

In HIIT on the other hand your muscles absorb the shocks of the movement and take away unnecessary and floppy load off of your joints. Hence, muscles get stronger. The body secrete androgen which are helpful hormones that help build muscle and burn fat in addition for increasing libido (so that after your workout you are in a more positive social mood).

Heart rate go higher then in the low intensity version, which improve cardiac vascular systems to a much better extent. And you can instal better patterns of movement that can help with other skill work, since the many repetition performed are that much more controlled.

For further information and comparison between the two, click here:"http://www.simplyshredded.com/cardio-for-fat-loss-high-intensity-interval-training-cardio-vs-low-intensity-steady-state-cardio.html

Amir Solsky.

The ways of Governments

10/28/2013

Don't know about democracies and dictatorships anymore.

What I see is catabolic governments that explicitly don't represent their people, instead rob them and exploit them, and are on a perverted financial decline as a whole.

I see governments that claim to be anabolic, with a record of being disproportionally anabolic, but are now in a plateau, the past growth created many weak links as a result, and produced many injuries that halt the past growth. A continuous plateau is destined to decline unless the weak links are addressed, injuries fixed and a more responsible balance achieved, which would allow for a healthier growth.

And I see places where people seem to feel represented by their government, feeling that their representative are being transparent and genuinely care for the well being of the population which in part returns the affection, and the environment which is part and parcel of that harmony.

Amir Solsky.

Cellular health

10/27/2013

For many of us it is hard to perceive, but our body is a colony of cells.
It is similar to this Coral from my fish tank. Each circle that you see in the coral and in every coral is a single organism, the hole in the middle is used for consumption, breathing and excrement. Together these organisms form a colony (Each organism is made of living cells on the cellular level, and they in turn all have different tasks in the contribution of the livelihood of our organism).

At home I grow lots of colonies of coral, fish, as well as my own body.
For many of us it is hard to imagine, but our arms, livers, and other various organs are a living colony of organism, ones that can express themselves to a similar extent of other life forms we encounter, only that our own body is there to support our personal livelihood.

For better or worst in our culture we have been perceiving ourselves separately from our bodies thinking that the state of our body doesn’t have much to do with our personality and the capacity of our intellect.
That perception doesn’t take into account the fact that we have a set of cells that allows our spiritual self to express itself though our body. Those are nerve cells and the center of command, our brain.

When our bodily organs degenerate, the same happens to our brain and nerves. We wouldn’t necessarily lose the ability to talk, or compute, or use other functions of it. Same like we don’t easily lose our ability to run or hold things.
It is a biologic adaptation that once we intensely use one of our functions, our body will support its growth even if that is on account of another body part failure. Still that function will be less then optimal in that case.

Many of us have lost the ability to squat, sprint, jump, or perform other vital actions that used to be crucial for our survival, and you can make your own calculation as to our brain functionality. We might be keeping it functional to an extent, but is it as adaptable as it should be?

There are many things that effect our livelihood, be it money, care for our dear ones or communities. All of these have the capacity to better the conditions of living colonies of cells, and therefore better the conditions of those who govern them.

And I say, don’t just worry about those who govern. I make it a point of bringing the animals around me to as much life as possible by understanding how their biology works.
There is a problem to life, while spirit is all one, every living organism is feeding on other organism since the dawn of creation, that could be looked at as a moral contradiction but if you think about it enough you will find that it is not!

I do the same with the people I surround myself with, increasing their livelihood by education regarding our eating habits and the system that feed our cells, and on the effects of various movements on the adaptation of these mute organisms that follow our instructions for good or bad.

And of course I make it first priority to take the best care I can of my own self, which sadly is much more then what I see most people do even though it defy any good judgment to me.

I see good people looking in the wrong places, not knowing how to start thinking about these concepts, living at mediocrity with themselves.

All of that could and should be changed as we have the means to do much better.

Amir Solsky

Strategy In Training

10/16/2013

physical achievements is riddled with fear of failing to achieve objectives. With every successful practice, meal or decision, we enforce our faith in succeeding and arriving to our destination. Investing in a commitment to a long term strategy of practice, nutrition, and education help pounding that fear to further away territories.
If you're not into over achieving is for a different story...

Amir Solsky.

Things About Health We Sometimes Forget

8/11/2013

People go to the gym, or train with resistance, in order to look good, what ever that means. But one thing seems to be forgotten.

Seems like doing that becomes a synonym with improving health but I don't see much conscious effort being assigned to health ( It is pretty close, you can get two birds in one shot). Very little attention is given to nutrition by most, and all the working out has all sorts of damaging effects from pounding joints into dust to strength work that diminishes flexibility and mobility.

Real health shines brighter than exercising to look good. Consider your eating habits, reevaluate the efficiency and weak points of your practice, and consider health.

Life doesn't need to be detrimental to health, I could be good for you!

Keeping safe while training

6/7/2013

Over the time I spent in the fitness industry I couldn’t count how many times I saw that guy in the gym, at the beach, or elsewhere come up with all sorts of creative resistance work. Some times there would be interesting qualities to those, but mostly he would be a reason for mockery among the viewers.

Truth is that as obvious as this case is, it is hard not to justify the reputation that training has achieved, as far as the health benefit verses the risk of injury or creation of weakness and various wrong/overuse syndromes.

As a rule of thumb exercising should throw the body out of balance, where the body can eventually super compensate and find a new balance within a stronger structure. when the structure is weakened without getting stronger the work load isn’t a proper one.
With that said there are specific alignments for loading the body with resistance, and there is a lot of structural knowledge needed in order to do so safely.

Here is part of a conversation I had with one of my online trainees:

Me :
“Well performance on the squats, I would slowly lower you to a full squat as these are called half squat, that way you get to work the pelvic floor muscle and it has many other benefits over the half squats. that is as long as we don't lose form, form is the main thing.
As far as the Dead-lifts, I would avoid it for now, you are putting lots of pressure on your lower back (L3, L4, L5, S1) for the fact that your back is rounded at the bottom and your hip a bit protracted, it should be retracted.

I will give you a warm up mobilization routine that will help you articulate those hip angles.

When the Hip is retracted and the back extended, the erector spinae muscle takes the load. the way you do it most of the load falls on the disc, vertebrates and rest of the structure in a way that can cause disc issues.”

Tom:
“Hi Amir,

That's fair enough....I knew I wasn't quite going full range on the squats. I didn't honestly realize I was rounding my back on the deadlifts...but yeah, if we have to avoid those exercises for now so be it. I won't say I'm happy about it - I quite like doing them - but I am happy to take a step backwards in order to take 2 forwards, and obviously being able to do them with great form and most importantly safely is definitely two (or many more!) steps forward. “

Me:
“I wanted to see those lifts cause there are different approaches about the execution on them, some actually promote rounding the back at the bottom, especially with SLDL, saying if you don't have a problem in the back then it's not an issue.
I am sided with those who call this practice “hanging by your back ligaments.”, I believe that this movement is a natural one when it's unloaded, but loading your body this heavy I believe should only be directed to strong structure that is supported by the flexed muscles.
With that said I like dead lifts a lot myself, but I would just want to see proper back technique, one that I wouldn't have to worry could lead to issues.
Again, this is just commenting on the video of what you been doing, regardless of the program that i am putting together for you.
There are lots of ways to work these muscles, and I will choose the ones that would bring you to your goals the fastest, and it is good to change exercises in any how once you might got adapted to them.”

The lower back has an interesting structure, the disc between the vertebrates often compared to donuts where once flexed under some pressure could squeeze its content toward the spinal cord in various ways resulting in different issues that many people have unknowingly.

Sitting in a chair with the natural curvature of the spine will add %40 pressures on the lower back as the lower joints are not involved in bearing this pressure, where leaning forward will make it % 90 pressures and that even before loading your upper body with weights as you guys like to do at the gym.

And this regards only a few of the problematic joints.
Tom (fake name) was a competitive athlete with lots of knowledge about training and very nice ability. As you can see there is a lot of knowledge to be learned, mistakes could cost not only in health, but also in bad patterns that would inhibit development and take longer time to change then it takes a beginner to learn.

The lesson to learn is when coming to developing skills, fitness or health, if you are not a hundred percent sure about the safety of your practice (and even if you are sure about it as you can see), make sure to find a good practitioner to help you out. Certificates are nice, but I find personally more important the ability to demonstrate personal results as well as results with other people.

If there ever was an investment that gives back the most for your money, it’s your health.

HS Seminar

8/8/2012

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 think 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

The human experience spinning out of Life.

5/5/2012

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

Moderation in Eating.

4/13/2012

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 proof 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 foods. 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.

On being a mover

3/27/2012

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

1/7/2012

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

The making of FOM

8/26/2011

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

Arabs

4/4/2011

We are first of all Huma
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.

We are first of all Human, before any religion or other divisive notion.
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, can’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 times 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, joining hands and doing what it takes to fix damages once created.
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