
“Inversion postures testing well, master Wayne?”
Greetings, all.
If you are familiar with Batman in any film media, you may have a favorite Alfred.
Are you a hardcore Dark Knight-er? Did you have an Alfred Pennyworth voice recite that quote for you? I grew up with the TV series from the 1960s, yet it was Michael Gough, an excellent Alfred, whose voice prompts mosts inquiries to one Bruce Wayne. In the Batcave of my conciousness.
I could rock the t-shirt while I invert, but I will not. Respect first the inverted posture, not the iconic association to a stoic, dark detective.
Inversion postures are found every day in life, sport, dance, yoga, etc. They are everywhere you would never think to look.
Though I do have 5 Batman t-shirts, I lost 90% of my Batman comic collection when my parent’s water heater burst. 1999, some cold day at 7AM. I was out west with C 1/1.
I respect the posture. I reflect now upon a period of instruction just prior to the full-on flirtation with the Movement. One of the final Dragon Door events I attended was their April 2010 Indian Clubs certification with Dr. Ed Thomas. These two days were sandwiched between two single days of meeting with ‘others’ in St. Paul. Hooking up with frankie, not done since 2006. Quite a balanced event that spring, 3 weeks prior to a follow up trip to MN.
Dr. Thomas presented information as did Brett Jones & staff. The ‘3 uncommon postures’ were detailed as brachiation (hanging from the limbs), spinal extension (forms of standing back bending, or bridging, hip bridging as well), and inversion, defined as having the hips above the heart, in turn above the head. My lumbar’s ego moaned in ecstastic belief. ‘Unstack me, you jackass!’ it yelled up to it’s cranial end.
The 3 uncommon postures of the first world economy. Compare those three postures to the movements involved in your day. Do these listed positions and movements sound uncommon to you?
Inversion.
Inversion tables. Inversion Boots. Deuce Bigalow the male gigolo’s mentor. Franco Columbo. Late night TV ads for inversion tables. GITMO.
These are my off-the-cuff associations to inversion as I type this sodding sermon.
I directly associate inversion postures to a feeling of release in my knees and ankles, as well as a controlled change in the blood pressure in the area superior to my clavicular shelf.
Inversion.
List some ways you could invert, on a piece of paper right now.
I will wait. Go.
Resume march: Did any positions involve physio balls? Bosu balls, smith machines, back extension apparati? What about from standing?
Yogi and yoga practitioners know the benefit of having the hips above the heart. Healthy way to massage organs and put pressure on glands that produce that magical juice.
Standing forward fold. Head aligned roughly to the knee/shin area. Chest positioned on the thigh, heart still below the hips. Butt reached up high and everything relaxed through the knees and feet. You should work on this posture if you have no history of blood pressure or stroke, nor are you fresh from the ophthalmologist.
‘Standing forward fold’, when practiced well and in the absence of missed signals, could have you talking it up with the same fervor I am now.
When a practice of inversion postures came to record after testing many variations of postures and movements from inverted postures, there were noteworthy ‘life movement’ qualitative increases.
-Less stiffness upon waking
-A clearer head when more ‘sure footed’ in the waking moments of a day
-A reduction in the frequency/intensity/duration [ F.I.D ] of existing damage to the sternoclavicular and acromioclavicular joints of my right side.
-Novel tilts to the mechanics of known movements (also known as changin’ it up).
Examples of beneficial modifications include
-the dumbbell or free weight row from standing forward fold
This movement can be modified frequently and offers unlimited painless work at any range of motion or mini-cycle within the given R.O.M.
No lie, I have continued to stack my upper back with unholy mass while hitting 6-7 reps with a pair of 15LB DBs. Tough stuff for a light training load.
These light DBs had me resting around :45 between. Low density work. A great new movement that allows me to operate any load or tempo, R.O.M or hand/shoulder position, by signals which emerge unique, within nearly every lesson with this movement.
The inverted free weight row from standing. You are like 1999’s ‘Mer de Noms’ or even ‘Paranoid’ on LP. Over and over again we move these feet forward, irrespective of orientation.
Inversion via adaptive spectrum:
Specific, component specific, contra specific, non specific.
Specificity: bending back from standing. Life movements-falling, recovering from a fall, tumbling, squatting, jumping, landing, etc.
Components: Spinal and hip extension and flexion, compensatory angle changes form shoulders, knees, elbows/wrsits, ankles
Contra specifications: Loaded hanging spinal flexion, flexion of hip/knee/ankle from standing, fast tucking, or spinal flexion for jumping movements
Are you with me?
The inverted posture, which may occur from standing spinal flexion, can be acheived with a simple supported back bend. Tools such as physioballs, BOSU, chinning or parallel bars, doorways, poles, adjustable benches in the weight room, all enter as component support.
Specificity: component contra-spec work is where the best stuff is for me, right now. Or, a part of a movement which is contraspecific to a movement I spent years drilling the same way. Component/contra specific. A piece of a movement testing well as a means of undoing some bad learning and unresolved stress. Stress I input myself, by chosing that ‘how’ for said movement. Should not have pressed weight from the shoulder that way.
I’m getting the shoulder back, however.
Current postures & movements from inverted which have tested well in these last 6 weeks.
A) Single leg press
-tri-fold mat stacked and under the bar of a Smith machine
-50lbs loaded, single foot on the bar. I perform an inverted ‘mock pistol’, does not hurt my right knee
B) Chest press/Smith machine
-On my back, comfy on the tri-fold mat
-legs up with the air or in a split stance,
-supported on the smith machine upright hardware
C) One-arm free weight row
-Stand on a step with one or two risers
-leaning forward with the inversion posture secure (hips above heart, heart above head, shoulder really on it’s own
-beautiful rowing movement sure to have my shoulders ready for #75 Vince Wilfork’s tailor

Why do I believe?
Why this works for me? Numbers prove it, but I certainly looked into the specificity model enough to have dialed up a nice new, signal-free movement.
It will reduce pain in the shoulder? Again, the specificity model indicates that an inverted posture, where the shoulder and elbow are the dominant joints involved in a manner where the concentric portion of the lift is against gravity and lies across the spectrum by maybe 170 degrees, as it is contra specific to the Marine Corps pull-up, in so many ways. In more ways than years I spent in love with the ole palms-forward dead-hang pull up. But my neck and AC and SC joints are ready for something in between now and soon, not now and way the heck back when. . .
EW