With the Sporting mayhem now over. Britain once again seems to be back on the map as being great. We beat the French at Cycling for the first time ever. We also seemed to have trounced pretty much everyone else at cycling in the velodrome too. Our Golfing Hero's have managed to create history in the Ryder Cup with an astonishing comeback against the Americans.
Add this to possibly the one of the best Olympics I can remember for a whole host of reasons.
This to me is nothing compared to the astounding revelation of just how good our Para-Olympians are.
Why am I so impressed? Well as a Bowen Therapist I am always looking at the 'tensional optimum' of the Human Body. Personally i like to think of the Body as being built like a suspension bridge. In a very real sense the Human Structure does indeed function very like a large roadway (spine / bones) supported by a complex series of wires under tension (muscles).
When this bridge is complete it performs magnificently. If however we remove a section of the bridge, then the 'tensional integrity' of the bridge is affected radically.
In the case of a Para-Olympian, the analogy is the same. One may think that the psychological effect, as well as the obvious physical limitation brought about by the amputation of a limb would be the defining problems to overcome.
However I would say that the 'Tensional Integrity' of the body has been radically affected, which means that for the likes of Richard Whitehead and Oscar Pistorius to compensate for this disparity, (which we mustn't forget affects the whole body, just as a suspension bridge would be affected across its entire structure) they would working at least twice as hard over the same distance as an able bodied athlete.
Whether an area of our body is missing, damaged or simply not functioning at it's optimum, the rest of the body will be compensating in some way. The longer this compensation goes on for, the more problems will occur. Eventually just like our suspension bridge, something will go 'Ping'.
Truly awesome when you think about it.
Perhaps a little bit of Bowen Therapy could help them run even faster......
Add this to possibly the one of the best Olympics I can remember for a whole host of reasons.
This to me is nothing compared to the astounding revelation of just how good our Para-Olympians are.
Why am I so impressed? Well as a Bowen Therapist I am always looking at the 'tensional optimum' of the Human Body. Personally i like to think of the Body as being built like a suspension bridge. In a very real sense the Human Structure does indeed function very like a large roadway (spine / bones) supported by a complex series of wires under tension (muscles).
When this bridge is complete it performs magnificently. If however we remove a section of the bridge, then the 'tensional integrity' of the bridge is affected radically.
In the case of a Para-Olympian, the analogy is the same. One may think that the psychological effect, as well as the obvious physical limitation brought about by the amputation of a limb would be the defining problems to overcome.
However I would say that the 'Tensional Integrity' of the body has been radically affected, which means that for the likes of Richard Whitehead and Oscar Pistorius to compensate for this disparity, (which we mustn't forget affects the whole body, just as a suspension bridge would be affected across its entire structure) they would working at least twice as hard over the same distance as an able bodied athlete.
Whether an area of our body is missing, damaged or simply not functioning at it's optimum, the rest of the body will be compensating in some way. The longer this compensation goes on for, the more problems will occur. Eventually just like our suspension bridge, something will go 'Ping'.
Truly awesome when you think about it.
Perhaps a little bit of Bowen Therapy could help them run even faster......
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