129M.R. Pitkin, Biomechanics for Life,DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-17177-2, © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011

In Sophocles’s (497–406 bc) tragedy Oedipus Rex (Sophocles 2007), when the Priest thanks Oedipus:

“For you came here, to our Cadmeian city,and freed us from the tribute we were payingto that cruel singer—and yet you knewno more than we did and had not been taught”1

he is referring to Oedipus’s intellectual victory over the Sphinx (the cruel singer). The Sphinx, a creature with a lion’s body, wings, and head and torso of a woman, tyrannized the citizens of Thebes by not allowing anyone passage into or out of the city, unless the traveler could answer the riddle: “What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?”

Oedipus solved the riddle, the Sphinx committed suicide, and the city was saved. The correct answer, discovered by Oedipus, was “a human being.” In a man’s early ages he crawls on all fours, and in his old age man uses a cane as the third leg.

Traditionally, Oedipus has been treated as a hero, and his conquest over the Sphinx has been regarded as a symbol of the triumph of light over darkness (Breal 2010). I too prize Oedipus’s courage and clever thinking, but refuse to see “three-legged” walking as an inevitable attribute of elderly people. I believe that timely care of the skeleton’s health can effectively fight with pain from walking that we begin to feel as we age.

By saying “timely” with relation to “care” it might be useful to recall a story about the Fisherman and the Jinnee (Genie) told in the Tales from the Thousand and One Nights. When one day the fisherman hurled his net far out into the sea, and brought it back to land, he found in it a bottle. Once he opened the bottle, there burst from it a great column of smoke which resolved itself into a jinnee with his head touching the clouds, while his feet were planted in the sand. The fisherman expected that the jinnee would rightfully reward him for freeing him from his imprisonment. The opposite came true. The jinnee announced that he will kill the fisherman, and gave his explanations as follows:

“In the ocean depth I vowed: ‘I will bestow eternal riches on him who sets me free!’ But a hundred years passed away and no one freed me. In the second hundred years of my imprisonment I said: ‘For him who frees me I will open up the buried treasures of the earth!’ And yet no one freed me. Whereupon I flew into a rage and swore: ‘I will kill the

Postface

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man who sets me free, allowing him only to choose the manner of his death!” Now it was you who set me free; therefore prepare to die and choose the way that I shall kill you.”2

The rest of the story is devoted to the fisherman’s successful strategy of surviving and to making the jinnee his loyal servant. What I would like to take from this passage is the time-less message that even right things, if done too late, can lead to unwanted consequences.

Whenever a joint becomes too painful, due to its isolation from the hydraulic net (as described in the Floating Skeleton concept in Chap. 1), I suggest to myself the image of the jinnee trapped in that joint. I tell myself: “Do sanomechanics exercises (Chap. 4) now. Free the jinnee while he will still serve me happily.”

Now, in the end, I would like to salute you, my reader, who may have discovered in this book new ways of improving your health. I hope that you were skeptical enough to be interested in the scientific facts and hypotheses behind the approach here called sanome-chanics. If the arguments were reasonably convincing and you will consider applying this approach to your daily life, I see my mission as accomplished, as one more person will benefit from the findings which were helpful for me.

References

Breal, M. Le Myth D’Oedipe (2010). Whitefish, MO, Kessinger Publishing CompanySophocles. (2007) Oedipus the King (Translated by Ian Johnston). Richer Resources Publications,

Arlington Tales of the Thousand and One Nights (translated by N.J. Dawood (1973)). Penguin Book, London

2Courtesy of the Publisher

131M.R. Pitkin, Biomechanics for Life,DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-17177-2, © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011

Index

AAnkle, 1, 4, 15, 63, 102–103Anticipation, 25–28, 32, 59Arthritis, 16, 64, 113Autosuggestion, x, 25

BBiomechanics, 1–2, 25–28, 37–62, 114–115Borelli, 1–2Breathing, 123

CCriterion of correctness, 29–32, 40, 80

FFloating skeleton concept, 1–18, 38Foot, 1

dorsiflexion, 1plantarflexion, 53

GGait, 6, 40

analysis, 92ballistic, 100–113normal, 110

HHeel-on, 6Hydraulic, 11–12, 18

connectivity, 85

JJoint, 1

net, 9, 19, 85

KKnee, 15

extension, 52–53, 103flexion, 103

MModeling, 6

ballistic synergy, 15, 101step, 117

Moment, 93–119active, 106passive, 106resistance to angulation, 16

PPain, 17, 114Pleasure principle, 29Poses

ankle, 83–86hands and fingers, 66–69head, 66hip, 70knee, 70neck, 88shoulder, 49, 86–88spine and pelvis, 70–76toes, 70torso, 52, 86–88

Pressure, 2–8Propulsion

intentional, 105–106regular, 103–105

RResonance

tuning into, 115tuning out, 114

132 Index

SSanomechanics, 25–36Sciatic nerve, 37–38Sensation, 29–31Stance phase, 103

Standing, 37–41Swallowing, 125Swing phase, 102Synergy in normal gait, 100–113