When someone says, “Make a muscle,” what do you do?
Of course—you flex your biceps. That’s the muscle on the inside of your upper arm. In case you didn’t know the name. But of you knew that.
The biceps isn’t a complicated muscle: most of what it does is flex—or close—your elbow joint. Also known as bending your arm. You knew that too.
It also rotates your wrist from a palm-down to a palm-up position, a movement nerds call supination.
You may not have known that. But regardless, that movement—turning your wrist over, bending your arm, bringing something in your hand closer to your face, is a pretty primal action. Watch a baby sometime—they do it all the time: grab, pull, inspect, eat. It’s one of the first movements they learn how to do.
I think of this move as an initiatory action. You’re starting something. Checking something out. Engaging with your environment. What’s out there, you think? Well here’s something. Let me see it. Bring it closer to me. Then I’ll decide if it’s worth keeping. It’s the beginning of action.
Your hands and face are the two of the most neurally-dense areas of the body. Flex your biceps and you bring those two points of your body close together. Face, meet hands. Eyes, nose, ears, mouth, meet object in hand. The capacity to do that—for our hands and the objects in them to connect with our brains and senses—is a big part of what made us, and makes us, human.
The biceps are, then, about taking an important, bold step. Asking a question: Is this mine? Is this me? Is this necessary? My grandfather, Dr. Roy J. Heffernan, had powerful biceps till the day he died, at age 98. Why? We hold onto biceps strength and muscularity late into life. Perhaps that’s because we need it to interact with the world. Among other things, we need it to feed ourselves. The biceps are foundational.
Maybe that’s why biceps-flexing is so fun. It’s like saying, I’m here. I’ve got strength. I can affect the world.
Try the move and see what it does to you.
Feldenkrais practitioners—and I’m one of those—often use the “picking fruit” action (bending the arm to bring the hand close to the face) at the beginning of a session to help the client find smooth and easy movement in their arms, wrists and shoulders—even if those structures are injured. It works: it’s a simple, familiar move, something they’ve done since they were infants. Because it’s a basic move. A beginning move. It’s all about starting things. Also known as initiation.
Plenty of trainers and anatomy-types can talk in detail about muscle fiber types and biomechanics, topics that interest me as well. But fundamentally I’m a meaning guy. As some of you know, I’m also an actor and a physical performer, so I’m interested interested not just in what muscles do but in what they mean.
I’ve been formulating some ideas around that for awhile. So now and then over the next few weeks and months I’m going to jot down some thoughts about various muscle groups.
I’d love to hear your thoughts as well.
Like I said, I feel like biceps are about beginning. So natually enough, I’m starting there.
Love the description and all the philosophy that goes with it.