Might just be the flare of the pant legs, but it looks like her knees are hyper extended way beyond fully straight to me lol. The stretch itself doesn’t have to be too hard on your knees though!

knee crunching noises

It’s pretty much a standing pancake stretch, a common stretch for people working on flexibility in their splits and straddles. I was unaware it’s seen as a horny pose lol. It’s pretty intense in your hamstrings and adductors. Definitely possible to train past 30, but requires starting light and doing it consistently over many months.

I was just about to say this too!! Seriously so good. The gameplay is an understandable turnoff, personally I love it but RPG NBA Jam probably won’t do it for everyone. but WOW the story is incredible. The personal stakes of each liberation rite make each feel like a must-win; the fact that the story continues if you lose makes it all the more nerve-wracking.

And that’s not even considering the revolutionary bent of the whole thing, too, or the beautifully realized world with deeply strange history, or one of the best goddamn soundtracks I’ve ever heard… deserves some more love as a cult classic imo.

Shame is unfortunately a very bad way to encourage someone to desist from behavior. We can especially see this in addiction management. If someone is ashamed of something they are dependent on, the shame causes them to think about it more, makes them more likely to become entrenched and defensive about the subject, and causes them to use it in private.

The more effective route is in education and harm reduction. Teaching people what AI is capable of and what it is not capable of won’t immediately make someone stop using AI, but it has a much better chance of leading to desistance in the long run.

I think there’s an exception to be made here for shaming very public evangelists, but that’s less to discourage them from using it so much as it is about discouraging others from taking them seriously.

Spines are mobile in three axes: extension/flexion (front to back), rotation, and lateral flexion. (side to side) For a lot of people, deadlifts can involve some extension and flexion and remain safe so long as there’s no rotation or lateral flexion. It’s ideal if the flexion/extension stays consistent through the motion (even if it’s not completely neutral)

That’s why it’s possible to safely deadlift 500lb then go home and throw out your back putting a 50lb box on a shelf at your side. It’s possible to train yourself to lift from awkward spinal positions safely, but it requires starting at a lighter weight and progressing carefully. Gladiator deadlifts are a neat way of introducing flexion + rotation.

congratulations on your progress, being able to get into alignment is a huge milestone!! on a similar journey myself, it’s a daily struggle but these things really can get better.

I mean, in that it requires you to go out, be somewhere in person, and makes it easier to do something else on the way back home. Not a lot better but if your movement is otherwise unstructured it’s better than nothing.

setting up for some simple movements at home can really go a long way though. and definitely wish more offices had some simple weights, mats etc on hand (excluding the offices that have a gym to encourage you to be at work all the time)

is there a name for the reverse of this? like making a change for yourself that works great for your needs, but then assuming that others just need to do the same thing?

I listen to a lot of music while I’m doing things as background, but when I get a moment for it focused listening is a great experience. I don’t listen to the same type of music for both, though there’s definitely some overlap. But I’m not listening to funeral doom at work or Lightning Bolt sitting in bed before I go to sleep. I think both experiences are equally valid ways to enjoy and appreciate music.

The gym has given me an interesting middle ground as it is something that requires some planning and thinking at times, but at some point my body knows the movements well enough to do it more or less on its own. So the music I listen to ends up being the most diverse. It can either fade into the background while I’m setting up, making notes, etc. or be the main thing I’m focusing on toward the last reps of a movement I know well.

personally I like them a lot for cursors, it takes some getting used to but ig I’ve used laptop track pads a lot and I find it very comfortable and natural to use my thumb for it. definitely haven’t used it much for e.g. camera control in a 3d game though, feels awkward every time I’ve tried.

I’m significantly less convinced by the supposed mechanics of craniosacral therapy - adjustment of the fused cranial joints in particular - but more generally, gentle rhythmic manipulation of lumbar fascia and neurofascia is something I don’t see focused on often in traditional deep tissue massage and subjectively it’s had surprising effect, especially when done by someone who specializes in it. There are a lot of important nerve connections in both areas that gentle, surface-level manipulation can affect. The aspects of craniosacral therapy that are probably bunk are at least not going to hurt you, unlike chiropractic. Worst case, it just won’t do much. I am interested to see if some of the basic manipulation techniques are integrated into other modalities in the future, even though their origin doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. And yes, like other alternative therapies, anyone claiming CST can cure illnesses is a grifter.

Several did show some positive short term effects, but it’s no surprise that several don’t. Dry needling isn’t going to cure pain on its own or work for everyone, much like other forms of bodywork. Individual results vary and it needs to be done over a long period of time alongside other work to restore stability and mobility. A supplementary treatment just needs to be low-risk, accessible, and possibly beneficial enough to try. The risks associated with dry needling are less severe than those of several common PT interventions such as corticosteroid injections. To say nothing of the risks associated with chiropractic.

The lack of a standardized placebo is a problem, yes. This study had pretty good results from using a blunted needle glued in an introducer. The patient feels the sensation of the introducer being pressed against skin and “pistoned” in, but the needle doesn’t actually make contact. In the group of people who had not received dry needling before, only one correctly identified that they had received the placebo.

sameeeee! It’s a form of self-massage, and massage is well understood more generally. it won’t make muscles longer but it’ll help a lot with adhesions, tender points and postural tension.

recently I’ve been getting some great results out of using a harder plastic massage ball for some areas, seems to get deep into my psoas, quads and calves especially. also love using a racked barbell to mobilize triceps, rotator cuff, and hamstrings! it hurts so good!

You’ll find more study in the West of “dry needling”, a technique directly inspired by acupuncture. Here’s one recent review.

I see an acupuncturist because the results for me are great, she’s good at what she does, she does believe in germ theory, she practices in a sanitary way, and she doesn’t claim to cure illnesses. These are the norms for modern licensed acupuncturists. I’m not saying every acupuncturist out there is like this, hokey grifters do exist in alt medicine spaces, and that’s kind of my whole point. It really depends on the practitioner.

It’ll just do other things than other forms of exercise. Some train intensely for flexibility and so stretching is most of what they do! Most athletes except gymnasts, aerialists, etc don’t have the same demand for flexibility and so don’t need as much static stretching. But I think most people could benefit from a few stretches, especially as they get older.

absolutely this!

I also think static stretching has its place in injury prevention for day-to-day sprains and injuries. Longer, more pliable muscles = not tearing your hamstring if you accidentally fall into a split. They can be great teaching tools too, and can incorporate some core training.

But otherwise foam rolling, banded distractions, dynamic warmups get the job done just fine. Even just starting right into a warmup set if the motion feels good already.

this is my general impression too, the origins of the practice is kinda bunk and it’s probably not worth the risk for a lot of people. I particularly dislike that a lot of people will see a chiropractor for pain before they’ll consider seeing a PT.

that being said, there are individual chiros out there that do good work. The main person I go to for non-chiro bodywork, who really knows her shit, sees a chiro herself and highly credits them for her recovery from pretty severe spinal issues. I’d probably see one only if I was referred from someone I trust.

but generally speaking there’s other alternative therapies I’d recommend over seeing just any random chiro. Acupuncture can be a game changer, and is starting to become less “alternative” as some PTs offer “dry needling” now. Craniosacral work can be great for some too, it’s a very gentle form of bodywork that can have a big impact nonetheless. Both of those are a lot less focused on manual adjustment, lowering the risk significantly.

Queer spaces/meetups mostly! Or meeting partners’ partners. Grindr gets a bad rap for not entirely undeserved reasons, but I did meet some wonderful people there too.

early on I mostly just got on with my partner’s partners, didn’t form relationships with all of them but if I like someone, chances are I’ll like their partners too!