Heart Carving

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- skiing for precision, power and freedom

I’ve always had trouble categorizing myself as a skier: was I more of a racer, a moguler, big mountain freak, trickster or speed demon? Yes to each, but only to a degree. However, with the arrival of the thicker, shorter and deeper sidecut skis that started production in the late 90′s, and the heart-centered skiing approach that I developed in response to them, I realized above anything else I was a carver: a heartcarver. This in turn improved those other aspects of my skiing significantly.

Contemplating the heart in Whistler 2008.

 

Heartcarving is about harnessing gravitational and centripetal forces enacting on a skier’s body in a more intelligent way by using the heart as one’s focal point (instead of say one’s poles or knees) because the heart is a skier’s center of mass, or a very close representation of it. With this as a focus, these forces are then utilized by having different muscle groups tense up and relax to alter bodily feedback points and subsequently a skier’s path down a run. The end result yields smaller movements yielding larger changes in sensation and trajectory than a more conventional skiing style with planting, swinging and spraying.

For me, heartcarving has meant virtually no falls, higher speeds, far less bodily and mental stress and more accuracy. Furthermore, more endorphins and less adrenaline.


The first step toward heartcarving is recognizing the yaw, roll and pitch that the heart can take whilst skiing.

 

It was about 10 years ago that I realized by focusing on the heart I could relinquish my ski poles. Ski racers at the time were adapting to these new skis. I felt that poles weren’t needed anymore to be counterweights to work alongside the long, straight-edged skis of yesteryear. However, the heart is not a muscle that can be moved at will like one’s arms, it is passive, so I realized I’d have to do more than just recognize the heart, I’d have to recognize patterns that the heart could and would follow during turn sequences and then build a muscle memory around those patterns with the goal of running the feedback loop in reverse: use the heart to alter my skiing via the patterns I’d already determined.

6 ski style patterns were identified based around the 6 movements that the heart can take whilst skiing: the first 3 movements are up/down, forward/back, right/left (as with an aircraft’s travel through space.) The second 3 movements are pitch, yaw and roll (as with an aircraft’s tilt axes.) Any of these movements can be taken individually and oscillated to create a turn sequence down a ski run (each point in the oscillation corresponds to a different point in the turn); or they can be mixed and matched for different effect. Ultimately, no pattern needs to be applied to create a turn sequence: only very slight muscular relaxations with the body remaining essentially straight and upright above the skis. Even still, these patterns are how heartcarving was born and gives carving massive variety.

 

Presently I am gearing up for a ski trip to further push the boundaries of heartcarving. I will be using the 2012 Summit Marauders, 125cm (14.7, 11.7, 14.7). Previously, I was skiing on the Nordica Dobmerman Pro SC model, 158cm (116, 64, 104 / 11m) which are already a short, shallow, and highly parabolic ski with a carbon wrapped wood core. I’ve found that skis play a very important role in the overall experience of heartcarving as they interact so strongly with another focal point: the feet, which could act as a counterpoint to the heart because so much force is transferred to and from the body via the feet, a force which is heavily affected by one’s ski choice, with its flex, length and sidecut. Interestingly, forces can also travel through the boot and bypass the feet to some extent so boot choice is also important. I am planning to shoot some instructional video and posting it here.

With the heartcarving paradigm in place, things such as touching the snow, aiming for a certain radius turn, dodging moguls or trees, sitting back or standing forward, high speed cruising, holding grip on ice, feet together or apart, or maintaining a precise line become products of one’s learning, functioning and choices. They are not ends in and of themselves: the end is the feeling of elation, relaxation, fun and a spiritual high.

Mastery of heartcarving comes in seeing what the heart is doing at any one time according to heartcarving’s 6 patterns, and then choosing to continue with that pattern, change it, or mix in another pattern. The choice depends on many things including where one wants to go, the precise line desired, feedback from one’s body, and what leverage point is tweaked to create that result: ie which muscle groups will be used to execute what pattern. Heartcarving is eventually integrated into the subconscious.

Liver and Body Health part 2

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Liver health is very important, because if it is congested:

  • blood pressure will rise
  • blood quality and thought will suffer
  • constipation issues will arise due to nervous system changes
  • energy levels will suffer as liver glycogen stores won’t function properly
Congestion is a symptom of damage: damaged cells will be congested with toxins and fat, and they might be scarred. However, the liver has a remarkable ability to heal. Scarring is said to “melt away” as scarred cells die and renew themselves in a healthier state.
Liver damage symptoms can be associated with the poor flow of bile for eliminating toxins and aiding digestion, whereby if the liver is damaged so may its bile production and secretion function: bile ending up in the blood and damaging other liver cells instead of winding up in the gut though the biliary tree and gallbladder. One major component of assessing liver disfunction and damage is thought processes and mood changes as blood tests often show normal readings in spite of damage.

So how do you know if your liver is congested?

  • low energy
  • poor complexion
  • yellow teeth (from intrinsic staining)
  • coated tongue, protruding veins on the underside of tongue
  • bowel/constipation issues
  • neurotic and confused thinking
  • pain on liver meridian points (including the master point top of the head and halfway down to the hairline)
  • body fat

There are more serious liver issues such as abdominal swelling, liver pain, portal hypertension, swelling, generalized itchiness, frequent and/or dark urine, and jaundice. So how do you fix your liver?

It takes time and commitment: if serious, over 18 months as that’s liver cells’ approximate turnover time, perhaps years and massive focus (and help) if scarred.

The first thing to do is completely remove items from one’s diet and environment that place excess burden on the liver for them to be filtered. Or rather, how did your liver get to the point where it is now? Fix it. Items can include:

  • medications such antibiotics
  • table salt
  • white sugar
  • alcohol
  • paint fumes
  • supermarket food
  • smoking
  • fried food
  • refined white flour products
  • anything on your skin that you wouldn’t eat

The next step is breaking healing products into 4 food categories:

  • protecting: allowing liver to function despite congestion
    – milk thistle (also reverses fibrosis, stimulates cell rebuilding, can be used for up to 4 years, gradually tapering off to alternating days), green tea, coconut oil, goji berries
  • boosting: kickstarting detoxification and stimulating function
    – beetroot (with moderation), unheated fresh extra virgin olive oil, dandelion (must not be used for more than 90 days or can cause muscle stiffness and cramps), turmeric (fresh or powdered), apples and apple juice (thins the bile),  papaya and watermelon (aids fat digestion), barley (binds to bile), fatty foods (hard cheese, fatty meats, cream: yes these will stress the liver but in small amounts will stimulate bile and blood flow within the entire liver including damaged and sluggish cells, moving out their congestion, but it is important however that the other food categories are used in conjunction with, and after fatty foods or it can cause further damage)
  • rebuilding: nutrients for liver cells to rebuild themselves
    – raw fish such as smoked salmon or sushi (seek wild caught fish as farmed fish can be toxic), goji berries, brewer’s yeast (small amounts for alpha lipoic acid), raw eggs, chlorella, spirulina (best for situations of significant damage, but over 6 pills per day long term can affect the biliary system negatively), raw milk, small amounts of meat cooked briefly in hot water, lightly-roasted peanuts (for gallbladder, with a vitamin c complimenting food such as oranges)
  • detoxing: nutrients that support detoxification and antioxidization
    – lemon (should moderate), dandelion (as above), globe artichoke, raw egg, carrot, onion (sulfur), wheat grass (chlorophyll: fresh or powdered), garlic (sulfur), unpasteurized butter (hard to find), celery, raw eggplant, raw cacao (also relaxes gallbladder), antioxidant synergies (pepper+turmeric, radish+broccoli, grapes+grapeseed, green tea+onion)

The process of liver cell damage is as follows: normal, fibrosis, cirrhosis (scarred.) Also, during fibrosis the cells become fatty, so a damaged liver is also a fatty liver. The above steps are designed to reverse liver damage and restore the liver to normality. The steps should be switched around until one gets a good feel for their own healing process and what it requires for that process to be supported. The practices and habits learned can remain even after healing has completed.

NB: other tips including massaging the liver using right-twisting sit ups (liver pump), dancing, running and back stretches (all in moderation). Also, coffee has supposedly good hepatoprotective properties, I just don’t drink it.

NB2: I will add fermented Cod Liver Oil and Ghee as strong recommendations for liver support. FCLO for its very high levels of preformed Vitamin A (retinol) which is

“linked to the prevention of your liver accumulating tough, fibrous tissue that is characteristic of a disease. A diet rich in vitamin A can help to reduce damage in a diseased liver. If you take in too much of the vitamin, however, it may cause disease and liver enlargement.” (source)

Also, being fermented, it will still retain Vitamin D to reduce the likelihood of toxicity. Also, I have found Ghee with its saturated fatty acids to assist with detoxification (by alternating with coconut oil), very easy to digest and like FCLO, has Vit A + D.

NB3: Seek the highest quality foods, especially the animal based ones – buy at health food stores and check out the scorecards at Cornucopia. Also, aim for the highest quality water, reverse osmosis filtered, or directly from a spring.

* disclaimer: I take no responsibility for these steps or advice, but this is what has worked for me. Feel free to contact me with tips or feedback.

Liver and Body Health part 1

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Did you know up to 1 liter of bile is produced by the liver every day, is passed through the liver’s billary tree, stored in the gall bladder and squirted into the digestive tract when needed to assist in fat digestion? Did you also know that bile contains toxins as filtered by the liver from the blood, which presumably aren’t supposed to be reabsorbed even though they are secreted within bile into the digestive tract?

I didn’t.

As such, there are two products that come to mind that specifically cling onto heavy metals in the digestive tract and a multitude of other toxins. These are Chlorella and Calcium Bentonite clay, and both are marketed as detox products (amongst other things.) So when a person is toxified (as many people are) and they are engaged in detox practices such as saunas, chelation, liver flushes (like drinking olive oil) or even if they are not, then I think it is important to have either of said products consistently in the digestive tract to pickup toxins in the bile that would otherwise be reabsorbed further down the gut.

I personally use Synergy Natural chlorella from Australia because it is inexpensive and of high quality. I also like it because the other chlorellas I’ve come across are either from Mainland Japan (Sun Chlorella), Taiwan or Ishigaki Island, Japan (Mercola, Lifestream): both too close to Fukushima for my liking. Chlorella must be grown in a pristine environment because it is so absorbent.

I haven’t yet used Bentonite clay yet, but am interested in the Calcium Montmorillonite from California Earth Minerals (vid), and Calicum Bentonite is meant to be preferable to Sodium Bentonite for detox.

“Montmorillonite is the main constituent of the volcanic ash weathering product, bentonite.” ~wp

If there’s one reason to be especially interested in heavy metal detox, it is because radiation from Fukushima (and in general) penetrates the body within heavy metals, and so if you’re eliminating heavy metals, you’re also purging yourself of radioactive materials inside your body.

As I understand it, Fukushima radiation is much more prevalent in the Northern Hemisphere, where it has generally doubled background radiation, and probably much more so in the Pacific, US and Japan.