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Recruitment – Part II

Mar 05, 2024

As I write, the duelling duo of Balance (PSS) & Movement (VMS) are meeting in the recruitment centres of your Central Nervous System (CNS), algorithmically determining who gets to authorise which muscle fibres, and how many, during the next micro-second. Yes, microsecond by microsecond, this process is happening within your CNS and every muscle in your voluntary system.

You can willfully participate in this meeting and influence the recruitment ratios of your duelling duo. However, to influence them successfully, you need to appreciate the corresponding values of BOTH systems:

– how does the duo help us? 
- how does the duo hinder us?

Most people understand the Voluntary Movement System. Which makes sense because it is the only one you have direct control over.

Alexander discovered that you can have indirect control over the Postural Support System – but this takes a long period of experimentation and exploration. It is a new human skill set, not one you inherit. You slowly discover how to deploy this system to efficiently maintain your balance as you do what you want: micro-second by micro-second.

Think of it like an iPhone for a minute. The iPhone is not an instrument of Nature - a pale cousin at best - yet it can manage three trillion+ binary decisions every second. I’d wager the duelling duo makes many trillions of more binary decisions every second. Does anyone want to have a go at figuring out that number? The point is – this is an immensely complex undertaking involving a lot of moving parts in both the Central and Peripheral Nervous Systems. 

This is life. This is what makes you YOU.

Indeed, these motor activities have become so complex that Ezequiel Morsella, PhD* - a professor of neuroscience at the San Francisco State University – has put forward an elaborate and convincing thesis that our field of consciousness developed to resolve higher-order motor conflicts. For example - say you are both staving and terrified of water. You finally get food, then accidentally drop it into a river. In that instant, what will you do? 

Does your fear of drowning cancel out your need to eat? You watch the food go away.

Or does your need to eat overcome your fear of drowning? You jump in after the food.

People deal with motor conflicts like this every day. It could be a simple decision about eating another piece of cake, or whether to cross the road between two oncoming cars or say hallo to someone or ignore them. 

Today, people also have many kinds of anticipated motor actions that fill them with anxiety.

As you enter anxiety, your Voluntary Movement System goes on standby to fight or flight because power and speed are what it delivers. As a result, a lot of excess energy is burnt in anticipation of whatever your imagination is creating, while overall muscle fibre fatigue sets in. 

People twitch, shake one leg and look restless.

Shifting to PSS recruitment can bring about a significant reset. Because PSS is an evolutionarily ancient system, it is deep-wired into other core processes such as breathing, blood pressure, heart rate, sweating and so on. The switch to PSS recruitment tends to “ground” and “quieten” a person, evaporating anxiety and conserving energy.

As you can see, this is a moment-by-moment decision-making process.

Recruitment decisions best happen at your brain’s highest level of Executive Management. Recruitment isn’t being decided in muscle fibres; it is decided upon by your overall consciousness of intention. That’s why Alexander lessons often end up as conversations about your attitude, behaviour and way of thinking. Only higher-order decisions can improve recruitment at the granular level of muscle fibres. 

Tomorrow, I will link you to a 6-minute video of me assisting Shoko with a Yoga Down-Dog Asana that causes her back pain. I will explain the steps of the lesson, which illustrates how higher-order decision-making results in greater ease and flexibility of her whole system. 

She bends further and has no pain.

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