Adaptation

Adaptation is our response to adversity. It is neurologic behavior that our organism configures whenever we have the need to keep on functioning in the face of challenges that might otherwise be overwhelming. Adaptation is automatic and ongoing, the result of the persistent will to continue on in the face of adversity.

 

Adaptation is an immediate advantage that also, over time, can represent a disadvantage. It can be expressed as an equation:

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W + A = S

W (the Will to keep going) + A (Adversity to that function) = S (adaptive Strategy)

 

By its very nature, adaptation can obscure the relationship between cause and effect by extending the time between injury and collapse. This makes the full consequences of an injury difficult to detect, but a competent physical examination can reveal these patterned behaviors and their relationships to each other. A thorough anatomical examination, if properly understood, can reveal how your body has become tangled up in response to all of the things that have happened to you throughout your life, many of which you might not even remember. 

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The ongoing process of physical adaptation   

When we are injured or challenged our organism automatically reorganizes the way we access and assign muscles to achieve the task at hand, continuing on with as little inconvenience as possible. The reorganization of neurologic assignment is the ongoing process of physical adaptation.

 

For example, if you fall and hurt your knee, you might have difficulty getting up off the ground and walking. Our body automatically finds a way to do this, and immediately configures a limp.

 

The limp is a new way of walking; it is achieved by neurologically reassigning the function of various muscles, in the process creating new strains on ligaments and joints. Because the muscles both move and stabilize the body, this is accompanied by a new way of stabilizing. The tissue might heal, but the adaptive re-configuration, once habituated, can remain for life.

 

Adaptations are like detours – they are short-term solutions, less efficient, and are not meant to be permanent; but in fact, they often are long-lasting. 

 

This all happens without thinking about it; the limp is created automatically, and brilliantly, when you first rise from your injury and hobble away. Then things can begin to become more complicated. The limp, a new behavior, must accommodate all of the activities that you engage in throughout your ongoing daily life. There will begin to be some new ways of moving, and some new ways of stabilizing.