Want to Boost Productivity? Start Between Your Legs.

Recently I've been paying more attention than usual to the space between my legs. No, not that space, I mean the group of muscles that make up what we somewhat lamely refer to as "the groin."

Most people have no idea how this area of the body works, and the way we've built our modern lives we are rarely called upon to activate the muscles of our inner thighs. This is because we live in an overly forward moving, linear world. Most of our daily movements consist of walking forwards in straight lines, climbing stairs set at right angles, sitting in chairs with our knees sticking out in front of us, or lying down with the legs sticking straight out. All of this leads to the groin being seen as a kind of gray area (much like the back) that we don't know much about and don't care to know much about, thank you very much.

It is only when you take up a non-linear activity such as soccer, yoga, or a martial art that you start to see how important this mysterious group of muscles is. 2008 has been the year of the groin for me, as I finally got fed up with being woefully inadequate for some of the open leg poses that I as a teacher am paid to know something about.

So through a whole series of special trainings I've added about two feet to my open leg maximum and am getting closer to my goal of performing complete open leg box splits. Every week I'm gaining about a centimeter.

Recently, I've contracted Takako Hamada, one of the best yoga teachers I've ever met, to give me some private lessons/sessions focusing groin and hip flexibility. We meet for two hours a week and they are incredibly intense classes. Takako's methods are passed on directly from some of the most well known yogis in the world, whose names she has asked me not to divulge, and they work. Using straps, sticks and patience, we've put space where I thought I had long ago reached my max.


What I want to talk about specifically today is my experience in Takako's session last week. As always it was extremely deep and powerful yoga that left me a quaking mess afterwards. However, after recovering I felt great, my legs seemed to have little Hermes-like wings on them. Riding my bicycle after the session, I thought someone might have greased my bike chain because the ride was so smooth. I quickly realized that no, in fact it was my legs that were circulating more smoothly. Very cool.

But the changes were just starting. As you can guess at any one time I have about 12 projects that need completing. Be it PCP stuff, studio maintenance, graphic design, or just the usual paying bills washing dishes kind of stuff. Like most people I have a few projects that I haven't decided how to conclude yet, and they circulate in the back of my mind for months at a time.

Well, the funny thing was, after the deep groin stretches, suddenly the solutions to many of these long term never-seem-to-get-done projects seemed so clear. I kept on having these "why didn't I think of that before!?" moments. A few examples, all from the 4 hours following the deep groin stretches:

• I figured out how to set up a ballet bar in the studio with drilling into the walls. I'm going to run the bar off of the vertical window sills, with a bar that is able to be taken down when not in use.

• I chose and bought some carpet for the changing room of the studio, after waffling for weeks about whether it was a good idea and if it was what pattern to chose.

• I took a fresh look at my kitchen fan which was making a terrible racket when turned on. For the first time I noticed that there was a little string that I could pull on. When I pulled it a little metal flap was opened behind the fan. It turns out that the metal was hitting the fan blade. I had looked at this thing a good 10 times trying to find the problem and only today did I see the solution.

• I figured out a way to save a corrupted podcast, by editing it as a movie soundtrack in a movie program I rarely use.

• I made some calls I had been putting off forever about getting a new sign for the studio.

• I went to a Real Estate agent and got the ball rolling for my friend who is looking to open an office around here.

and many more...

It was as if after the stretches something had just gotten unlocked. Creative, problem solving energy was flowing through me.

As you probably know I am not into any of the "new-age" aspects of yoga practice, I don't go much in for chakras, crystals, chanting, and anything that takes you away from the fundamental experience of being completley in your body. However, people who do know something about this far out stuff would have a name for what I experienced following the hip opening stretches.

What I described matches almost perfectly with the experience of awakening the Kundalini energy. Kundalini is visualized as a snake coiled three times around the base chakra (the Muladhara, for those keeping score). Usually the energy is "sleeping" and dormant, but under certain circumstances it is awakened and the subject feels an intense level-up in energy levels as the serpent rises through the higher chakras. Guess where the base chakra supposedly is? Yep, at the base of your spine, in the hip and groin region. Here's a very new-age visualization of what this energy would look like:



I don't for a second believe that there is a system of energy channels running through my body that resembles the chakra mythology. The idea of seven chakras spinning along my midline, each one responsible for different aspects of my physiology, seems a patently human construction. Nothing we can find in nature works so neatly or from such a top-down design system.

However, I have been humbled time and time again by how the ancient ideas do explain a great many things about the body that science hasn't resolved yet. I believe there must some physical connection between the groin region and increased clarity of mind and sureness of purpose. Perhaps one day medical science will find that an intense hip stretch stimulates the brain to produce more of a certain chemical that helps clarity of thought. There is no doubt in my mind that something is going on there and that it explains why the ancients pictured coiled raw energy as being nestled in the hip and groin area.

While that initial burst of creative power has receded somewhat, I still find myself getting an enormous amount done 4 days after the stretches in question. Where before I would usually lose my concentration or get mired in small details, I am able to delegate problems and keep my eye on the overall picture as I move forward with my work and projects.

So if you'd like to try the groin-productivity connection for yourself, I'd start with Upavistha Konasana, which you can start exploring here.

If all goes well this blog will be updated weekly from here on out. The conclusion of the recent rounds of PCPers and my moving house put Here Lies Patrick on the backburner for a few months. Sorry about that!