Wolff’s Law

If you recall from last time, in the process of bone remodelling one of the factors that triggers the osteocytes to stimulate building bone is the application of a mechanical load also considered “resistance”. This physiological concept is commonly known as “Wolff’s Law”, proposed by German anatomist and surgeon, Julius Wolff, back in the late 1800s and early 1900s. “Wolff’s Law” says that a mechanical force/resistance applied to a bone will result in growth by mathematical law. As you know, we have since come to appreciate that it’s a bit more complicated than mechanical forces alone, but Wolff’s Law, as a general concept, is still widely accepted in the scientific community. It’s a concise way of saying that bone will respond and adapt to the stresses placed upon it and resistance triggers growth.

Though Wolff’s Law was intended only for bone remodelling, when we look at a variety of physiological processes and tissues in the body, generally we grow and build in response to a resistance or a stress of some sort. You already appreciate this concept - even if you didn’t give it much thought before now. Our skin is “thicker” and “tougher” on areas that we use more. For example think about the difference in skin on the bottom of your heels compared to the top of your foot, or that we develop calluses on our feet or hands where something rubs the most. Think also about the common saying “use it or lose it”. We’re saying we need to load something or practice it otherwise we’ll loose our strength and skill. In some ways, our lives mirror physiological processes of the body, as is true in this case. Our tissues aren’t the only thing that need resistance to grow. 

Let’s be honest with each other. There have been times in our lives when we’ve been on cruise control (not always the easy times - often they’re difficult) but we found ourselves in a pattern, perhaps limited our expectations for ourselves, we did the same things but hoped for different results - we sort of just…existed. It’s pretty safe to say in those times we didn’t do much “growing” - be that physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually etc. In order to grow, we need to apply a little bit of resistance. Resistance comes in all shapes and sizes depending on what growing we need or want to do. We can conjure it up from within, or we can wait and likely at some point it’ll be applied from other ares of our body or externally from our environment (some might say “the universe”).   

I’m sure we can all relate: We’re existing, but we feel we need to make a change, we need to grow, but we’re hesitant to rock the boat and take that first step. So we keep ourselves there. We keep ourselves the same “size”. We maybe stay in an unhealthy relationship, an unsatisfying job, or put up with the same limitations for too long. But our body and our mind yearn to grow, so they’ll often get busy creating things for us to fight against, and as a back up plan, the universe gets busy too. Sometimes we get little nudges: develop pains, more frequent injuries, chronic illnesses, we maybe fight or argue more in that not so great relationship, or we feel taken advantage of. We stick around and these things become worse and more numerous and our body gets louder in its protests. Then finally, boom! That relationship comes to a “surprising” end, we get a diagnosis we aren’t sure how to handle, we get passed over for that promotion, or lose our job. The resistance of our body and the universe have now stepped in and forced the issue of change upon us. And then let me tell you, there’s a whole lot of growing that we get done in short order now that we finally view it as urgent. Then, once the dust settles, what do we often say?… “I wish I would have done that sooner”. 

External resistance usually shows up and gets louder when we haven’t acted on that little voice in our heads or the whispers from our body that what we’re doing and where we’re heading just isn’t working for us anymore. The “nudge”, as you well know, sometimes becomes a a bit more like a slap in the face really. This route of waiting for enough external resistance to grow and change is often painful - both emotionally and physically. There is also often collateral damage, lasting scars and shrapnel littering our lives for at least a little while afterwards. 

So what if we could maybe avoid some of that and use our “resistance to change” as the internal force to drive our growth? Might that be better than waiting around for our body, mind and the universe to “make us” change? I once read that being scared just means you are about to do something very brave. Being scared but still going means we’re fighting against our “internal resistance”: the feelings of fear, anxiety and hesitancy, the uncertainty of the unknown, our “logical” side, and breaking through own limiting beliefs. Certainly that list is ample resistance applied from within and pushing through all of it will undoubtedly require us to stretch and grow.

Now let’s not sugar coat that - fighting against our internal resistance is no cakewalk. It is also hard, but often there are less of those lasting scars (physically and emotionally) and less pain in the long run when we don’t wait for the bomb to explode and the fireworks to fly (aka the arrival of the final external resistance that will force us to change). With practice, growing and adapting by challenging our internal resistance can be a smoother path. By listening to our body and our soul and trying different things, learning about new topics, looking at something from a different point of view, or by setting intentions and putting in the work to make new positive habits, we will challenge ourselves. And when we take on resistance, we change, we adapt, and therefore we grow. It’s just simple physiology -  like good ol Wolff said, back in the 1800s!