“IT IS NOT THAT SOMETHING DIFFERENT IS SEEN, BUT THAT ONE SEES DIFFERENTLY." – CARL JUNG

The Body Keeps The Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. By Dr. Bessel van der Kolk. Penguin Books, New York, NY. (2014)

The most effective coaches are those that have the ability to connect with others, understand the importance of psychology, and value knowledge about human behavior. You cannot have physiology without psychology. There is information out there about coaching tactics for personality and temperament (Brett Bartholomew), neurological profiling for program design (Christian Thibaudeau) , and targeting neurotransmitters for adherence.

These can be important considerations for training and coaching, however humans are extremely complex and there is always a deeper level. When you interact with others, that deeper level may include understanding how trauma can manifest itself in the body.

We all interact with people who are in pain (not just...

“A book is like a portrait as opposed to a photograph. A portrait is something that you layer on and layer on in which there is still this single image but there is a depth to it. A book allows you to think and then rethink.” -Dr. Jordan Peterson

WELCOME TO MY FIRST BOOK REVIEW.

Lucifer’s Legacy: The meaning of asymmetry. By Frank Close Oxford University Press Inc., New York, NY. (2000)

This book was recommended to me by Michael Mullin.

It opens with the line, “The world is an asymmetrical place full of asymmetrical beings.”

We tend to try to make things simply: “We are asymmetrical because our liver is on the right and our heart is on the left.”

Sure. Why though?

This book allows you to explore and appreciate complexity: 

Why is our heart left oriented?

Each amino acid has a left (L-type/’laevo’) or right (D-type/’dexter’) asymmetric form (mirror images of one another) and chains of amino acids will twist...

“What else is a legacy if not that which you leave behind after you have gone?”

Book Review:

Legacy: 15 Lessons in leadership. By James Kerr (2013)

James Kerr extracts lessons of leadership from The New Zealand All Blacks rugby club, which is considered the world’s most successful sporting team.

The structure of the book consists of a chapter directed toward a lesson in leadership, such as character. Kerr provides a brief explanation of why that lesson is important to the All Blacks organization, connects it to other successful organizations or individuals, then summarizes the chapter.

“ONLY BY KNOWING YOURSELF CAN YOU BECOME AN EFFECTIVE LEADER.” – VINCE LOMBARDI

Okay I can get on board with that…

I consider this book ‘a reminder’. It’s a reminder to be conscious of your environment as you will be a product of it. The book is focused on creating the right environment for the right behaviors to occur.

Strength...

“Nature does not find its members very helpful after their reproductive abilities are depleted… Nature prefers to let the game continue at the informational level, the genetic code. So organisms need to die for nature to be antifragile—Nature is opportunistic, ruthless, and selfish.”

Book Review Written by Jaymin Chang, ATC:

Antifragile: Things that gain from disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Recently, in the fitness industry, the importance of understanding complexity has been growing, and our overall understanding of stress has also improved. Fortunately, this has encouraged care providers to take a more holistic view with their clients and to incorporate a multi-disciplinary, client-centered approach. However, the pendulum never swings in moderation: with the emergence of terms like variability, the prescription of “reset exercises” in order to make clients more resilient to stress has subsequently skyrocketed. Yes, we experience loads of...