Heart Sounds

Because yesterday I learned
that the heart is a beautiful thing
and today I learned that
it is sometimes
not.

Ovid Debut

These photographs appeared in this week's issue of The New Scientist. Some sort of marsupial? Nope. It's a miraculous, accidental appearance of a human egg. While performing a hysterectomy, Dr. Jacques Donnez of Catholic University of Louvain, Brussels, managed to capture human ovulation on camera. Ovulation has been thought of as an event in which the egg sort of erupts from the ovary. Not so. The egg in these photographs took about fifteen minutes to be expelled. The findings and photographs will be published in the next issue of Fertility and Sterility.

~Postscript: Argh. I am sorry about the lack of open-source material in academia. If you want the F&S article, email me.

Eccentric Contraction

I had a cardio conditioning class at the circus center two nights ago, and now I am hurting all over. A class taught by circus folk is very different than the traditional aerobic experience: think Jane Fonda at Burning Man + steroids and a heavy-duty stimulant (she was drug free, of course, she just had way more strength, energy and spirit than your average Betty). Needless to say, I almost expired.

I was recently discussing my very sore muscles with one of my acro training partners, who also happens to be a physician's assistant. Contrary to what I've always been told and believed, she reports that the sore muscle factor has nothing to do with lactic acid. Apparently, delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is caused by small tears in the muscle fibers caused by eccentric contraction (elongation of the muscle under tension due to an opposing force greater than the force of the muscle).

Exercises that involve many eccentric contractions will cause the most DOMS and thus the most pain. The pain is believed to be caused not by the damage to the cell but the muscle's response to the contraction, reinforcing itself beyond its strength by increasing the size of the muscle fibers. So the reason my calves feel swollen today is because they are. The jury is still out on whether or not to train during DOMS, and while it is always a good idea to stretch and warm-up before exercise, (and this should be of note to cirq-types) stretching on muscle soreness is not a good idea as over-stretching itself can cause DOMS. The only proven treatment so far is contrast showers, to increase circulation.

I think I'll just wait it out, thank you.

Muscle Memory

My tissu teacher (who is great, by the way) has been trying to get me to keep a notebook so that I will remember the different wraps and drops. My take on this is that for chronicling what we've done week to week, this is a fine exercise, but for learning, it is an exercise in futility. As a former dancer I have pretty decent body awareness. I am aware that my body learns through repetition. The trouble is that at the circus center, other than during class, there is no way to practice because the silks are not hanging. I maintain that without this repetition, I will make slow gains and will, likely, need to be reminded of where my feet, hands, butt should go. But this argument was putting me at odds with my instructor, so I conceded and whipped out the handy dandy moleskine, with a mental note to check up on this one. I recalled a piece I had seen in the NYT last year about a professional dancer who had a very detailed explanation of learning by watching and repeating movement, something which is quite natural for me - and imperative - in physical activity, even though I am much more of an auditory learner, generally.

After class I looked into muscle memory, aka neuromuscular facilitation, a very real phenomenon. The way it works is that through repetition, training movement of the body will stimulate neurological adaptation processes. The outcome will eventually induce physiological changes resulting in increased levels of accuracy in movement. Both fine and gross motor skills are involved in muscle memory. As we reinforce specific movements through repetition, the neural system learns those fine and gross motor skills so that we no longer have to think through the action. We merely react and perform. As you can imagine, anyone learning a new activity has a significant amount of brain activity occurring. Since muscles grow accustomed to certain types of repetitive movement, (walking, brushing your teeth, driving a vehicle) the best way to insure correct and adequate unconscious performance is repetition. Practice. Ask any musician or athlete.

So while doubting its efficacy, I will write down the drops and wraps until there is a tissu up on which to practice, at which point I guarantee marked improvement (and decrease in trainer frustration over having to shout out, "no, behind! no, left leg up! no, turn to the right!"). Which brings us to the confidence factor, another documented phenomenon in which a person's sense of being unable to perform affects muscle memory. But that's a different problem for another day.

Why is the Room Spinning?

This single point trapeze has got me thinking about balance. After the first round, which was a solo lesson lasting about an hour, I felt pretty good. My instructor, mightily prepared with water, ginger, smelling salts and a bucket (just kidding about the last two), was very conscientious about checking up on my dizziness every few minutes: “How are you doing? Do you need some ginger? Drink some water.” And I was really fine. Until… I finished the class and made it all the way to work when I realized I felt exceedingly tired, had trouble focusing, was walking very slowly, methodically placing one foot in front of the other. I imagine I looked drunk, which is not the best way to appear at work. When I made it to my office, I sat at my desk, both feet placed firmly on the floor. With hands flat on my desk I stared straight ahead for about an hour. Then, quite suddenly, it passed.

So, what is this experience? The theories in the single point class abound. I’ve heard everything from fluid in the inner ear moving too rapidly, to low blood sugar. The remedies are even more diverse: eat protein before class; after you’ve been on the trapeze place the palm of your hand an inch from you face and study your life line; jump up and down; or my personal solution, which is to invariably, inadvertently close one eye.

According to more knowledgeable sources, our balance is maintained by a complex interaction of many different parts of the nervous system including the eyes, inner ears, joints, spine, muscles, sensory receptors, the brain and spinal cord. The symptoms of dizziness occur when the central nervous system (brain and spine) receives conflicting messages from the other systems. Each of these systems works in a particular way. The inner ears, or labyrinth, help us to know the direction of motion of our body, such as turning in different directions. The eyes monitor where the body is in space and also the direction of the motion in our environment (think about sitting at a stop light in your car and the car next to you begins to move slowly forward and you slam your foot on the break, having the sensation of movement). The joints and spine are skin pressure receptors which communicate which part of the body is touching the ground. Muscles and joint receptors tell us which part of the body is moving while the brain and spinal cord processes all of the information from the other systems. So, when the systems are sending contradicting signals, such as a spinning on a trapeze, hanging upside down from one knee, while simultaneously trying to focus either on nothing or an unmoving body part, this will inevitably cause the CNS some confusion. Rightfully so.

Now, how to combat the dizziness. This guy calls dizziness his idea of “absolute hell”. I wouldn’t go that far, obviously, or I wouldn’t be on the trapeze. But dizziness can be a real drag. So his remedies seem quite useful. Recommendations include: move slowly and find a focal point, stay hydrated, practice deliberate movement (walk a straight line), build focal strength (do exercises like following moving objects with your eyes). His final solution? Avoid dizziness-inducing activities. Heck no!