So who is this Chris Hendricks guy anyway?
And what is up with all the weird things he says?
The goals of the site.
It’s Chris’ intention with this site to put out information that actually helps people solve their physical problems in a way that’s easy and mostly fun. To that end, you’ll see video, text, pictures, diagrams and other bits that will help your life make sense – and make it much more fun being in your body.
You’ll get posts that debunk stuff, simplify some rather complicated ideas, offer easy solutions, and show you how to be your own expert.
Can’t find it on the site?
Write Chris a note with your question – he’s pretty darn good at figuring stuff out. chris(at)bodygeometry.net
What troubles Chris?
• Stuffy know-it-alls – unlike himself… 😉
• People using and preaching the same tired stuff that hasn’t worked, won’t work and continues not to work because they were told in school that it was the thing to do – not having bothered to actually check it out.
Here follows a bio that’ll probably give you more information than you wanted; so, although it is riveting stuff, feel free not to read it.
Chris has been practicing bodywork since 1990, having studied at the Boulder College of Massage Therapy and then completing the training, under Judith Aston personally, the founder of Aston-Patterning®. He’s an accomplished martial artist of over 25 years training, with black belts in 4 separate styles, a lecturer and author (see No More Back Pain), a former teacher at the Esalen Institute and massage schools in Oregon and Washington, an ergonomic consultant with hospitals, logistics companies, and television series. Most importantly, Chris is a husband and father to the greatest family any guy could wish for.
Chris grew up with an interest in bodies and how they worked. One of the games he used to play with his mother while they were out was “what’s happening in that person’s body?” People-watching remains, to this day, one of Chris’ favorite activities (especially at airports and malls). Chris started practicing martial arts at the age of 13, becoming the youngest person in his school to earn a black belt, in Isshin Ryu karate. In the middle of his karate training, Chris discovered traditional Japanese Ju Jitsu and fell in love. Privileged to have trained with Robert Mickey Sensei, Professor George Sherman and Professor George Kirby, amongst many others, Chris has earned black belts of high rank in two different styles of Ju Jitsu.
(SIDE NOTE: Despite the current popularity of MMA and other gladiator-like combat “sports” – which are cool, what you see on TV is NOT Ju Jitsu. For more information on this, see the martial arts section of this site.)
Realizing in the middle of a Bachelors Degree in psychology at CU Boulder that prostrating himself to the higher mind for another 4 years to earn a PhD would probably cause him to commit seppuku, Chris looked for another avenue to express his desire to use his talents and be of service (he did get the BA). A friend mentioned that massage school might be a possibility – and seeing as Boulder has one of the best massage schools in the country, away he went.
Some specific advice that Chris offers folks who are thinking about going to massage school and university at the same time:
Don’t.
Regular class loads at both university and massage school will turn your brain to tapioca very quickly. Chris would wake up in cold sweats with nightmares for 6 months after finishing school – worried that he had a final that morning that he had forgotten to study for.
Realizing after just a few months of doing bodywork professionally that he was going to burn out his body very quickly, Chris set about finding information, techniques and teachers that could show him the biomechanical principles that underly all effective work.
Having studied with some true masters of mechanics – Judith Aston, Brian Linderoth and Roxanne Huang, among others – and true masters of mayhem (those masters noted above, and others) Chris began to realize the truth: biomechanics are biomechanics. There are certain fundamental principles that, followed and applied, relieve stress, increase function and decrease effort. Following the guiding principle that “if you’re efforting, you’re probably doing it wrong”, Chris has found the base principles of mechanics that make the human body sing.