Fixing Everything—Putting the Core Universe Into Perspective

putting the core universe into perspective

Editor’s Note: Section Four covers both generally accepted and alternative perspectives on the core. The main point is that no particular specialist “owns” the core. We should pay attention to all who work within this region of the body: physical therapists, osteopaths, yogi, nonoperative sports physicians, the list is long. An important theme is that everything in the core is connected. One fixes one part of the body only to find out that something else is broken! Osteopathy, chiropractic, and yoga, for example, offer explanations for this corporal connectivity. As we realize that the core defines a scientific discipline, those “alternative” disciplines may no longer seem quite so alternative.

As we explore this new world in the next chapters, recognize 3 dangers that lurk in the shadows. (1) Beware of the impostors, people who profess they already know all about the core. They are out there, big time, in all the disciplines. With your antennae up, they are easy to recognize. (2) Resist our own natural tendencies, as therapists, to try to cure everything. Instead, identify the specific goals of each patient or client. For each patient, chart, unambiguously, that person’s right course. And (3) look out for the “Twilight Zone.” For example, in this first chapter, we shall travel through the fourth dimension and then into the fifth. We know we can get you into the fifth dimension. The problem is getting you back from there.

In this, let’s say, “capsule” of a chapter, we shall travel up high again, way past 30,000 feet this time, so that we visualize the entire universe of core anatomy and diagnoses depicted in the Venn diagram of Figure 19-3. While we sit gazing in space, we catch glimpses of an unidentified planet darting between and behind the other core planets. We wonder if this is real. Is it a high-speed meteorite? As we look closer, it looks more like a planet. A neon sign flashes from this furtive spheroid. The sign says: “Perfect Core Health and Maximal Performance Planet.” This is definitely not a comet. This is the Perfect Core Planet. This is our Holy Grail! Is it for real? (See Figure 30-1.)

We ask others sitting on nearby space mobiles, “Have you ever seen this Perfect Planet?”

All say no, except one pompous bonehead, who crows, “I live there. I can tell you all of its secrets.”

This is BB, the bloviating blowhard. He is obviously BS-ing. The Perfect Planet, in actuality, remains elusive. No one has actually landed there. If, by chance, a wandering soul has ever arrived there, certainly that soul would not have recognized the place, nor would he/she have stayed there stay for long.

Just for a moment now, in the yet-unboggled part of your brain, imagine you have a desire to fix or optimize everything that might possibly ail in somebody’s core, and then to deliver that perfect physical specimen, decorated with a bow, to the Perfect Planet. How do you do that? Where do you begin?

Figure 30-1.

THE MAGIC ITINERARY

What is the magic formula for optimizing our engine room, this region of the body we call the core? First, ask the question that gets us closer to reality: What is our best strategy to do that? Now ask the even simpler question: What’s the best way to begin to think about the best strategy to optimize the core?

Okay, here’s the formula. There are 5 legs to our journey (Table 30-1).

Leg 1: We must recognize our limitations. In space parlance, we allude to this leg by the expression: Don’t travel too close to the sun.
Leg 2: We set practical goals. This usually means cooling our jets, and sometimes shooting for the moon. In space parlance, we say: See all the planets, but don’t necessarily travel there.
Leg 3: We need to know what we know; plus, the corollary to that statement: We need to know when we don’t know. In space parlance, that means: Know our own planet.
Leg 4: We must catalog the varieties of therapy that might help and determine how to apply them. In other words, we make a list of what we can do, and add to that list the therapies we don’t know how to do, and then highlight in yellow or green whether or not we can find out how to do those other therapeutic modalities or have to find someone to do them for us. In space parlance, this means: Know our travel options.
Leg 5: The final leg of the journey is the decision-making (ie, determining what actually to do and also when and how to apply techniques or seek consultants). Optimal strategy figures in cost, likelihood of success, individual biases, efficiencies, and other practicalities like the need to find an expert with more experience. Then and only then, we execute the strategy. This last leg of the core journey goes by the parlance: We have lift off.

Now let’s go through the sights we see during each of the 5 legs of this magical mystery voyage toward perfection.

LEG 1: DON’T TRAVEL TOO CLOSE TO THE SUN (IE, KNOWING OUR LIMITATIONS)

From the journey’s beginning, we must be aware of 3 limitations. The first limitation is knowing we don’t know everything about the core. There are just too many systems that reside there for anyone to know it all in depth. Plus, we have way too much still to learn about it. The core belongs to us all, not any one individual or individual specialty. We may know a lot about parts of the core, but no one knows it all. This limitation insinuates 2 things.

The first insinuation is that we should respect all specialties that deal with the core in any fashion. That means chiropractors, osteopaths, yoga and Pilates instructors, fitness fanatics…everybody. They all have something to offer. We may not agree with what they say or do, but we must watch and listen. Experience means a lot in this field right now.

It is not too late for new paradigms to appear. Many specialists are looking at the core from dramatically different perspectives. Even though we may not “get it” right away, this may be on account of that “unsee phenomenon” that we talked about in Chapter 4. Therefore, in Section Four, we have included several chapters written by such specialists. From the outset, we, the editors, admit that we do not agree about everything they say. But we do recognize these specialists still might be right, at least about certain things. As we said earlier, everybody has partial ownership of the core. Nobody owns it all.

The second insinuation is that we also must watch out for the charlatans in this field. While we all strive for the perfect core, we should not let our gusto fool us. We must learn to identify the bloviating blowhard, whom we shall call BB. As we have said before, this developing field of study provides many opportunities, especially for scam artists. BB usually lays claim to total ownership. BB talks but does not listen. We go more into the recognition of BB in the rehabilitation and performance chapter. BB prospers in all specialties within the core, not just those.

TABLE 30-1

THE FIVE-LEGGED TRIP TO THE PERFECT CORE