The RumbleRoller giveaway is over, but self-maintenance never ends.
The Ethics of Self-Maintenance
I have long been fascinated by the overlap of physical fitness and philosophy. My final paper in my very first college philosophy course was an overview of depictions of physical virtue across several works of philosophy. But the most direct influence behind the creation of KineSophy comes from Kelly Starrett, founder of Mobility WOD:
“All human beings should be able to perform basic maintenance on themselves.”
Since ethics is the study of how humans should act, Starrett’s use of “should” in his motto signifies that he is making an ethical claim. His statement falls in the same category as prescriptions like “all humans should be capable of performing basic mental arithmetic” or “all humans should be capable of judging right from wrong.” If you are a healthy adult human being, you should be able to move well and take care of your body when it requires basic maintenance.
Valuing Yourself
Furthermore, self-maintenance demands that you have a certain attitude about yourself and your value. You have to believe that you are worth a little bit of extra effort. You have to believe that your health and your comfort matter.
I know that sounds pretty simple, and you may find it easy to tell yourself “of course I matter.” But even if you want to believe your health and well-being are important, think about how often you also tell yourself “I don’t have time for that” when confronted with basic self-maintenance prescriptions.
When you care for your body, when you believe that you should not be in unnecessary pain and you act to make yourself feel better, you are affirming your worth as a human being. That sense of self-worth is the basis for believing that other humans have worth. When you value yourself, you recognize that other humans value themselves and that you all deserve to be treated with respect.
RumbleRoller
There are a lot of tools available for physical self-maintenance. My wife and I personally own four different varieties of rollers (foam and otherwise), lacrosse balls (separate and taped together in a peanut-shape) and a pair of squishy, grippy Yoga Tune Up balls (see my KineSophy interview with Yoga Tune Up founder Jill Miller).
A compact RumbleRoller just like the one pictured above is my go-to tool for breaking up knots and sore spots in large swaths of tissue like my thighs, calves and upper back. It’s firm enough to withstand years of use and it has little bumps that act like a masseuse’s fingers and dig into tender spots.
That’s why I’m so thrilled that RumbleRoller offered to give one of these rollers to a lucky KineSophy reader. When you enter this giveaway, you’re not just trying to win a very useful prize, you’re telling yourself that you, your body and your health are worth this prize. You’re affirming that you matter. And that basic affirmation is at the heart of what KineSophy is all about.