As I approach the floor, suddenly understanding of where which side of my body vanishes. Isn’t it supposed to go this way? No, didn’t work, try again. Was it left or right, the same side or the opposite? Where left and right is even? The moments in the air are completely blank. How do I do this? It seems impossible! This is the line of thought that passes through my head every time I approach something new in my practice. With experience, the processing element happens faster, but still, there is this moment of being stuck. And this is what I love the most about it.
Ido Portal often says: “Your movement practice should be a life practice”. It is a confusing statement, but when you lay the template of the practice out and inspect it, it becomes self-evident. Our practice is based on problem-solving. So is human life. If you ever expect to wake up one day and have absolutely nothing on your to-do list I have to disappoint you, it will never happen while you are still breathing. Besides, why would you even want that? Our life is a series of constant worries and events that we need to take care of. Starting from preparing a meal and up to deciding on approaching the most important financial deal of your life – everything needs the capacity to make decisions and solve problems efficiently. Otherwise, it would be sluggish and uninteresting. Being alive means constantly moving forward. Our brains in coalition with our bodies have evolved to overcome obstacles. The issue starts when we are so used to have obstructions taken out of the way, that as soon as a minor derivation from our expectations appears all kinds of issues bubble up and we end up discouraged or even depressed.
I think it is useful to start with understanding this simple idea – life is a series of problems that you have to solve. Constantly, at every moment that you are awake. If you resist it, every time something minor comes up it shoots you off the rail. If small issues break your boat, what about big events like losses and huge failures that will inevitably happen? I have been talking previously in this article about how movement affects our cognition. I find it very important to keep reminding people about this correlation. Structuring your physical practice in a way that constantly makes you encounter problems and solve them will help you approach it with ease when you encounter real-life situations that require the same skills. It might seem that learning a new acrobatic element has nothing to do with your water pipes blowing up, but it gives you a mindset that will keep you centered and calm when making important decisions about important issues and structuring your response to them.
The effect of movement on cognitive capacities is not anecdotal. There was a study in 2019 conducted by Regina Harbourne and Sarah Berger where infants with developmental delay participated in interventions based on motor-based problem-solving. It showed that motor skills that involve problem-solving had a great positive impact on overall cognition. The study was small, with not too many samples, but it opened a conversation about exploring this correlation further.
Another study showed that even just 10 minutes of walking significantly improved problem-solving capacity in older children (Mualem, Reisman, et al, 2018). It was comparing some movement to a sedentary lifestyle, so results are not surprising, but If we look at the physical activity that implies problem-solving in its very essence, it is even more prominent. Climbing is unarguably one of the most complex sports there is. Every time an athlete approaches a wall there has to be made thousands of micro calculations to solve the task. It is done before (visualizing) and during completing the routine. In 2018 Milena Marczak, Michal Ginszt et. al. conducted a study that was comparing neurocognitive functions in climbers as compared to their active counterparts, but who were not involved in activity with such complexity. Climbers showed better results in all cognitive tests that were used in the study. It shows a correlation between the type of movement you are involved with and cognitive performance. Another underestimated but important intrinsic quality of climbing is variability. I already talked previously about its effect on cognition and the development of movement skills in this article.
Where is the correlation? Anyone who has been to one of Ido Portal or inspired by him movement classes and is familiar with the method can recognize his approach in this few strategies that are often listed for problem-solving on thematic web sites:
· Abstraction: solving the problem in a model of the system before applying it to the real system
· Analogy: using a solution that solves an analogous problem
· Brainstorming: (especially among groups of people) suggesting a large number of solutions or ideas and combining and developing them until an optimum solution is found
· Divide and conquer breaking down a large, complex problem into smaller, solvable problems
· Hypothesis testing: assuming a possible explanation to the problem and trying to prove (or, in some contexts, disprove) the assumption
· Lateral thinking: approaching solutions indirectly and creatively
· Means-ends analysis: choosing an action at each step to move closer to the goal
· Method of focal objects: synthesizing seemingly non-matching characteristics of different objects into something new
· Morphological analysis: assessing the output and interactions of an entire system
· Proof: try to prove that the problem cannot be solved. The point where the proof fails will be the starting point for solving it
· Reduction: transforming the problem into another problem for which solutions exist
· Research: employing existing ideas or adapting existing solutions to similar problems
· Root cause analysis: identifying the cause of a problem
· Trial and error: testing possible solutions until the right one is found
I see each one of the listed strategies as part of my everyday practice. I see how the capacity to approach the tasks I am given through this lens helps me navigate through life with less resistance to the course it is taking, but with clear intention and ability to confront any issue that might arise.
Unfortunately, there is not yet a lot of scientific literature that shows the evidence of the effect of movement on cognitive function, but it raises more and more interest in the academic community. Soon, hopefully, we will see solid evidence of the importance of having such practices for the quality of human life. If it is what it takes to convince people to take on this lifestyle, I will patiently wait. For me, the correlation is self-evident, though, because it is clear that our body has evolved to move in a complex way and precisely to solve problems that come with survival. Everyone will benefit from the ability to solve daily challenges in an efficient and timely fashion. Tools to practice this skill can be different and can support each other, but one thing is very clear to me – movement practice that is structured as a practice of life itself is the most powerful of them.