Somatics Exercise

Before you move or exercise, your muscles need to be ready and you can easily remind them of their function so you can move, sit, stand and walk comfortably throughout your day.

After a nights rest or when you’ve been sedentary for a period of time, like sitting in front of your computer, your muscles shorten.

You can do like a lot of people and not prepare yourself to move before you actually move. You know how when you get up, sometimes you’re a little stiff. Your pet on the other hand, reminds its muscles first of their function, then it moves.

How does an animal remain agile, flexible, move effortlessly and appear to us as grace in motion?

All healthy vertebrate animals prepare themselves for movement first thing in the morning and periodically throughout the day and they do it everyday.

The process of what animals do is called a pandiculation. You can think of this as yawning, though it goes much deeper than the definitions you’ll find. In fact, it only describes the act and not the result of what you observe when an animal appears to stretch.

The result of this act is a process. This process was identified by Thomas Hanna as the pandicular response. An animal contracts to arouse it’s brain and it has the wherewithal to pay attention to the release. It knows what needs to be contracted since the animal can sense what muscles have shortened overnight and during sedentary times in the day.

Hanna Somatic Educators know and understand the process as the pandicular process which is at the heart of Somatics Exercises.

Somatics Exercises are primarily designed to mimic the pandicular process in order for you to immediately decrease any stiffness and improve your flexibility naturally.

As a result, many people learn how to get out of pain using the brain rather than brawn.

You see, there is a part of the brain which actually can change the information to your muscles. Using your brain in this specific manner targets various chains of muscles, which is what you use to actually move.

Somatics exercises foster natural movement rather than isolated movement patterns. When you move, you move with your entire being and all your parts are affected.

When you develop this awareness, you can self-correct using the pandicular process.

Find out for yourself now.

Somatics exercises are easy, simple, and when you do them… aftewards you’ll be reminded of the comfortable, youthful way you used to move. But don’t take my word on it… though you could since I used to live in chronic pain for two decades… that’s gone. Now I practice and teach these simple movement patterns.

Somatics exercises set you up to move and you may discover a new exercise method, which is mainly using the part of your brain that resets your muscles.

Healthy movement is a brain event and healthy animals access it all the time.

If you love your current exercise, this will just add another layer as it is the foundation to all of your movement practices. Moving somatically lets you tap into increasing the potential of your nervous system by letting your brain handle the details.

I love what Mel Siff, Author of Facts & Fallacies of Fitness has to say – “programming your brain is more important than strength training and aerobics. Central Nervous programming must never be neglected at all stage of training”.

In other words, something has to program your movements and now we know that your brain’s motor cortex, can change itself with your awareness. All healthy animals are doing it every day.

You gotta wonder what happened to the human animal along the way… Don’t! You can pandiculate yourself to higher levels of performance, even if it just means being able to tie your shoe.

Dowload Your Free Introductory Somatic Exercises Go Ahead Pandiculate Yourself I dare you