Exercising Your Freedom

I had bouts of terrible back pain and the necessary sitting I do working on a computer, despite a good office chair, finally caught up to me at the beginning of this year. It was difficult teaching, worse sitting in a car to get to work. A physiotherapist got me moving again and the solution was to exercise. I needed to build the muscles that support my spine. Did I do it? Nope.

I teach my students to listen to their bodies as a key approach to improve their drawing, and it took me 6 months to heed the advice of my doctor, physiotherapist, and most importantly my own body. Full credit to my partner Lorraine for inspiring me to try a new concept in exercise. I’m not going to shill for this particular gym, but I love their approach —exercise to failure.

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Each area of the body is focused on with weight machines that progressively increase in difficulty, 8 machines/ 30 minutes/ done. The task is to learn your limitations and with proper guidance you begin to understand that the limitations aren’t just physical. Why did I ignore the potent message my body was sending me through my aching back?

It’s easiest to blame having kids, but they have enough of their own freight to carry, they don’t need any of mine. Before Lorraine and I had kids, exercise was part of our life. We ofcourse had a Nordic Trak, in the early 1990’s it replaced the stationary bike for a time in popularity, and then soon became an expensive clothes rack. You used it like you were cross country skiing and it got both the upper and lower body moving, but it needed a ridiculous amount of space, which was fine when we had a factory space live/work studio. This is when I began teaching drawing and I know that my physical well being was an important part in how I approached developing my drawing lessons.

My body got lost in a busy life as my role changed to directing the Illustration program, I knew the muscle memory of drawing and could encourage it in my students, and it continued to inform my studio courses. I was skiing with my kids, and I helped out with my son’s hockey team, so I was on the ice each week, and this indirect activity became a substitute for exercise. I was still aware of my body, but the messages were faint, until the distress signal came from my back.

The feedback from our body is one of the essential advantages us humans have in a screen based world. The act of engaging our bodies in the real world and being present and aware of our physical surroundings is where ideas begin. During COVID-19, when my students were all drawing from screen images I could see how their drawings lost form and space. The brain was reading a 2D image, not experiencing a 3D form in an environment, and their drawings reflected this. Studies of brain imaging show that parts of the brain engaged in 3D object recognition aren’t engaged by screen images.

We can’t just mimic space and expect the same impact of embodiment. Evolution has gifted us with a body that does more than passively soak up the visual, it sends a message about reality that I hope exercise will help me hear a bit more clearly. I would be curious to hear what approach to health or exercise you use that helps your creative practice. Please share in the comments.