Foot Work
ByDid you know that a little mindful foot work could help our troubled feet and knees? I’m not talking about fancy foot work either. More like what preceded our baby steps as we developed.
Do you have sensitive feet, the ones which don’t like to walk over stones or rocks. Ouch! I remember those days as a kid. Now past the half-century mark, I relish how supple good foot work feels.
Foot Work for All Ages
As children we did some very interesting foot work. We loved to pull on our toes. Little did we know we were in a very receptive state of learning and coordinating the little piggies so we could get to a market with our own feet.
These days many of us simply drive to the market and keep our poor painful feet wedged in shoes all day long. Can’t imagine how life would be if we were all to wear glove liners and mittens all day. What would happen to the function of our hands if we did the same?
What are we doing to our feet? That fleet foot work we used to have is a long distance memory as we have aged and bottled up those poor lowly feet.
Now we’re left with mangled toes, foot pain, orthotics, and the search for the right kind of shoe. While shoes have certainly advanced, did our foot work remain in the dust.
Do we really need an orthotic? Maybe we could do some foot work and remember to move well once again.
Foot Work, Handiwork is it the same?
Most likely you can still fold your hands. So try this. Lie on your back, and take your hands behind your head and interlace your fingers. Then once you’ve settled in, switch the position of your fingers and hold your hands the other way.
For some of you, that’ll be no problem and then for some us that could feel strange, awkward as if someone else is holding our hands.
Our habits which we groove in over time are necessary. We may forget small differences help us use our self a little bit differently so we don’t wear our self out as fast. Slight adjustments and little differences lets the brain thrive. It thrives on subtle differences to renew us.
As we readjust to a newness, we change both our body and brain. Now try doing the same with your toes. Yes, try and fold those toes together. Whadya mean you can’t reach down there anymore?
Maybe this is where some of you are now at. Others of you really had to work it to even get the toes to wedge together.
Awhile back I made a video on some foot work. Try this move if you haven’t given it a try. For those of you who did, did you keep working it so this type of foot work is now improved and easy.
That type of footwork can come in handy to change the function of the feet and even the knees so you can walk more comfortably.
Another Foot Work Class
Many times I’ve taught foot work movements to soccer players which had them laughing about how what appears simple isn’t as easy as thought. Though with a little practice, our movement system remembers to move and improve.
We can rekindle the feelings of childlike movement which felt good and free since we have a sensory-motor feedback loop which allows us to reset and readjust tension levels.
We can get back in this loop so our balance improves, our feet feel lighter and our knees can lose their aches simply through subtle readjustments to move us to higher levels of coordination and integration so we manage those formerly painful stones and rocks.
You can join me for an hour’s worth of foot work online, by phone, or even get the replay this Friday where you’ll learn to free up the feet, lower legs and knees so you can dance and move easily again.
In the meantime, just go ahead and pull those toes so your foot work doesn’t get left behind.
Pains in the shoulder, stiffness, weakness and even pain while sleeping on the side can be lessened with a simple set of exercises for rotator cuff. Over time, the situation can become chronic or if you’ve had surgery, it may be necessary to keep the shoulder functional.
The rotator cuff area allows us to both internally and externally rotate our shoulders while also letting us move the shoulder away, out and up to the side.
A Different Set of Exercises for Rotator Cuff
Normally both stretching and strengthening exercises are recommended by doctors, and orthopedists. Physical therapists will have you follow this protocol.
They may want you stretch after doing a reach up the wall or have you strengthen in between the shoulders. While the idea is good, we can go about it in a more intelligent fashion and manner so that the muscles lose their restriction and regain their function.
Instead of the heresy of stretching, we can pandiculate the tight, restrictive areas so those areas regain both both function and remain limber.
Somatics exercises for rotator cuff, on the other hand, use the process of pandiculation to regain mobility and give us back our function so that we can comfortably move the shoulder area back and forth and up and out to the side in this case.
A Diversity of Exercises for Rotator Cuff
With a number of stretches and strengthening exercises for rotator cuff, you learn to hold things for a period of time or do numbers of repetitions.
With somatics, we target the brain’s motor cortex. It can reset the muscles so they “remember” their function. This higher level of intelligence doesn’t require the physical strain that most people endure, instead we use our awareness of the quality of the movement. We can sense the connections we use when we move our shoulders about. This gives us a better range.
Exercises target muscles where intelligent movement takes care of the movement system which includes more muscles since we are of one piece. One integrated movement system, rather than the parts, which allows for greater cohesion and more effortless movement in general.
This gentler yet highly intelligent approach, gives us the ability to create more options to move despite the very ones we’ve guarded against or haven’t done on account of the binds holding things together.
Exercises for Rotator Cuff Class
A diversity of movement lets the brain thrive too. By going cortical, the brain creates more cells, it releases chemicals of relaxation, and we restore and recover naturally rather than forcing, straining or pushing our way through it.
“Being” with our movement system is another tack or way to move more comfortably about. To be free and regain our strength is simple.
You can join us in this week’s somatics class: Diversify Your Movement Portfolio – Exercises for Rotator Cuff. You may join us either online, by phone or get the replay.
In the little over an hour class, you’ll learn a number of different ways and movement patterns to experience how simple somatics is and yet how much power you can have.
The diversity found in the exercises for rotator cuff class will give you plenty of intelligent ammo to keep the shoulders and more, happy for life.
Wall of Fame
ByI didn’t exactly make the Hall of Fame, yet I managed somehow to survive the nearly 20 years of fibromyalgia (chronic pain) and make the Wall of Fame at the University of Texas.
The Wall of Fame houses the pictures of students who won various intramural sports competitions.
Little did we know we were headed for the Wall of Fame
Back in ’79, amidst the days of unrest of the Iran hostage crisis, the last 11 guys who didn’t make the soccer team formed an intramural team.
We beat our fellow University of Texas club soccer team in the semis and played against a raucous crowd of Middle Eastern students in the finals. We had to go to a penalty shoot-out to win the coveted burnt orange t-shirt.
University of Texas Wall of Fame T-shirt
The celebration lead to my dorm room where there happened to be a very large bottle of spirits that we managed to finish off early in the morning. Somehow I made it through the 3 final exams the next day. Ah, to be young again.
My playing days got interrupted with what at the time seemed to be mysterious chronic pains. Eventually, the diagnosis of fibromyalgia gave me something to wrap my mind around during that nearly 2 decade struggle.
Fortunately I came out of it and learned very valuable lessons to pass onto others.
The University recently sent a Wall of Fame t-shirt commemorating our efforts. In a box, I discovered I had the original t-shirt we won in ’79.
Wall of Fame Moves
In those days, I was taught to stretch. It was something I never liked to do even though I would go for nearly 2 hours per day during my bouts of chronic stiffness and pain. Fibromyalgia was a 24/7 event.
Years later, I became a Hanna Somatic Educator and gave up my stretching ways and learned about the marvelous ways we can reset our muscles through the natural process of a pandiculation.
This simple reset brings our muscles to rest, lets us lose our stiffness, decreases tension and by magic, releases our physical pain.
There is really no magic about it. All it takes is 3 simple steps. Done with a gentle, easy conscious awareness. Our brain will reset muscles back to rest for comfortable movement.
Please join me either by phone or online this week as I offer some Wall of Fame moves where you’ll learn to release the inner leg muscles (groin), chest, diaphragm, and waist.
As we get older, we can move with greater ease. Life doesn’t have to be a struggle, at least this Wall of Fame individual knows it to be true and so can you.
Somatics is the reverse way to lengthen muscles. Instead of stretching, you can use the brain’s motor cortex to reset the muscles back to comfort.
Here’s how somatics works
You target the area you want to lengthen. You contract those those tissues by being mindful of what it is you are doing.
With somatics you pay attention to how you release yourself. In some instances you can immediately notice if there is any physical change.
As an example, many people will bend over to lengthen their back.
This could lead the back to bump the switch of the stretch reflex and get the muscles to reflexively pull back, even into a back spasm.
Try the somatics movement below. This particular somatic movement can relieve the back and hamstrings of its excess tension.
In less than 2 minutes feel what happens. You might want to listen through the first time and then replay it again.
Otherwise, all you have to do is listen and follow along:
Check out this somatics move
Did you gain any length?
Maybe you did, maybe you didn’t yet isn’t this a far different approach than stretching.
When we voluntarily use our muscles, our brain’s cortex can reset the length of the areas we target. It’ll actually create chemicals of relaxation so we relax our self back to comfort.
Somatics movement classes
Each week we offer 45 minute to one hour online somatic movement classes where you use your brain to release the muscles.
All you have to do is listen, follow along and let your muscles go along for a somatics journey which can give you the reverse way to feeling free once again.
Anti Aging
ByDon’t let the young punks think there aren’t any things we can’t do in terms of anti aging.
Anti aging at 86
While trying to find a means to anti aging may be filled with ideas on what to eat, what exercises to do and what good company to be in contact with.
Watch this 86 year old women. You think she’s got a bead on anti-aging?
Moving well as we age is one of our anti aging antidotes. It looks like Johanna Quess has got it down.
How can we continue to move well as we age or move well in the first place if we’re already struggling?
Simple. Learn to move well by refreshing the muscles the way nature intended.
Our brain can be used to reinvigorate the muscles. The brain thrives on learning. By paying attention to the quality or lack of quality of our movement patterns, we can re-establish comfortable and successful movement at any age.
Anti aging is a misnomer
Instead of trying to defy aging, it may be high time to get with the program of using the brain and the nervous system to work for you instead of against you.
Muscles will atrophy with disuse. The muscular system will slide ever so slowly downhill as we age yet we can remind our nervous system how to remember to reset itself.
Aging gracefully comes with practice. Who says you’re too old to learn?
Best anti aging products
You can spend your time looking for anti aging creams, anti-aging supplements, anti aging lotion, etc.
No worries though. A number of 15 and 16 year olds can no longer touch their toes. They are well on their way to being programmed to buy anti-aging products long before their time.
Understanding the very organ we can learn to harness to remain supple does require a few moments to use it.
The best anti aging product is the very process you were born to use. By employing the brain, anti aging happens naturally so we can move well at any age.
Core workout
ByWe often hear about a core workout. So how do we go about knowing what to do and what will help us?
The middle of our self is what many call the core. How we move the core and translate our coordination out to our extremities is important. We can then move easily, agilely and powerfully when we need to.
We used to believe our muscles were attached to the bone. Now we’ve come to understand our muscles are attached to other muscles. We generate movement with our brain’s intention. We let it coordinate our actions and we know whether or not there is room for some improvement.
A Complete Core Workout
The core is generally considered to use the muscles of the spine. In the front, muscles such as the abs, and in the back, those muscles which run from the neck to the lower back. On our sides, we can use our waist muscles.
A core workout wouldn’t be considered complete if we left out the hips or pelvis muscles. A typical core workout could be doing a variety of ab crunches so we can help stabilize the spine and protect the back.
Can a core workout be too much of a good thing? Certainly some people specifically focus on the abs. If you want a core workout such as this, just hold your breath. That way you can develop your six-pack abs and stabilize all you want.
Too much of core workout centered on the abs can eventually pull the chest wall down and leave you with a tight stomach, a sunken chest or less mobility. The other way to achieve this is to sit too much and let gravity take care of it.
On the other hand, the one big muscle, the brain, controls the resting levels of our muscles. Mel Siff, the author of Facts and Fallacies of Fitness, noted that reprogramming the brain was more important than strength training or aerobics.
Instead of stabilizing our spine for a base of support we can use our dynamic movement system for easy, comfortable movement. When we need more power, we can use our ability to generate it with a seamless transfer throughout our entire coordinated being.
A core workout for good posture
To be able to sit comfortably with a good posture takes the requisite amount of balance of tension. Too much on one side and we could be pulled too far forwards, shifted to one side, rotated or slumped back.
Maintaining our mobility so we can move comfortably lets us use our natural flexibility to be strong. Lose the flexibility, diminish the mobility and now the posture will struggle to keep upright or even walk comfortably.
When we shift towards a brain based way of reprogramming tension levels, then sitting and walking becomes more effortless. A good posture is maintained by the signals we can self-corrects through our sensitivity of this fine balance in tension levels.
A simple easy core workout can be the reminder it takes. Minor or micro-adjustments can be the shift we need or have forgotten to remember to use to be able sit comfortably upright without a back support. The best back is the one you have and can maintain with ease.
Rock around the clock core workout
Simple, easy movement using an intention to move uses our brain’s intelligence to rewire the nervous system so our muscle to muscle system is enhanced. This enhancement is how healthy vertebrate animals naturally reset themselves and remain agile and powerful.
You can join me in this week’s online core workout where you’ll learn how to rock around the clock and free up the front, back, sides, and length of the spine. We’ll also get those hips and pelvis involved.
All you have to do is lie down, listen and follow along. It’s “oh too simple”.
A core workout doesn’t have to be arduous, we can simply move and coordinate our own powerful actions to leave us both relaxed and ready.
Dr. Blaylock, the author of Excitotoxins, has caught the eyes of folks like Bill Maher who thinks this merits some credibility. There is of course the establishment who will counter what they call pseudo-science based medicine.
Dr. Blaylock – The Taste that Kills
Dr. Blaylock contends what we don’t can kill us or is a pointer to what may ail us in what we eat.
Whether or not Dr. Blaylock is correct, our body experienced from within is our own gauge, which if we listen to it, we can heed its feelings of wellness and signals for help, though it can be tricked and seduced. Where’s my chocolate!
The book is a fascinating read and may have you checking the food labels a little more closely.
Here’s a video on what Dr. Blaylock has to say:
Our kids aren’t a big fan of Dr. Blaylock
I know our three children are tired of seeing us put back items on the shelves. Our motto is, if we can’t reasonably explain it to them, we’ll investigate further before we eat it. They’re not a big fan of Dr. Blaylock but we were doing that long before we heard about him.
Of course, they’re tired of the story I repeat, that in the pre-historic 60′s when we were thrilled with a transistor radio that sort of worked. We all knew the one fat kid and we all the knew the kid who was hyped up.
Have you walked around the school halls today? There isn’t just the one kid anymore, is there?
It amazes me that our youngest gets rewarded in primary school with candy of all things. With candy machines and the prevalence of too much sugar readily available by teachers and all the other children who have it on hand, we’ve learned we’re the meanest parents on earth.
We don’t get a chance nor stand the chance to provide a sweet to enjoy because we know the sugar overload is evident besides, we don’t know what’s in natural flavors.
But hey, eat that food stuff, just don’t check those labels.
Has your health deteriorated because it is supposed according to the commercials on tv? Do I really need a pill for what ails me? Or is Dr. Blaylock and others onto something? Is it in the food supply?
Cancer survivor on Dr. Blaylock
Jerrold Sessor who survived cancer talks about Dr. Blaylock and the book Excitotoxins:
Thomas Hanna who coined the term, Somatics, defined it as the body experienced from within. The more we pay attention to our experience, we can do as Hippocrates may or may not have said, we can let our food be our medicine. Is Dr. Blaylock close to the truth or pseudo-science as some are saying?
Walking with pain everyday
Are you walking with pain when all you want to is go on a leisurely walk and be comfortable?
Being able to walk comfortably can be ours again when we remind our muscles of their connections to each other simply through the natural act of a pandiculation. Fortunately the “p” word has been systematized as somatics exercises
Walking with pain can seem like we’re dragging a heavy weight around. Lose that heavy albatross and we can be free again.
I remember what it was like to walk a mere 50 feet and my shoulder would sear in pain. It was no fun to go on a walk.
The hips on the other hand, had felt off track and had been clunking around since the age of 14 when I first noticed it. Pain seemed to come out of nowhere on the side of the hips, that stitch in the side, or the back of the legs when I experienced that hot poker of sciatica – ouch, ouch, ouch.
When we get off track, we can get back on by losing what un-tracks us. Sounds complicated. It really isn’t.
Walking in pain is miserable. Who wants to walk when we know if we do, bad things can happen. So why bother.
By not doing one of our more natural acts, we’re doing a great disservice to our self. It’s a tough situation to be in, you want to walk and then you end up walking with pain.
Walking has been considered one of the best exercises we can do for any number of health reasons but doesn’t that sound kind of lame. We’re the two legged animal, this is what we’re here to do. Walking in pain isn’t the option we’d like.
Walking with pain and compensations
A couple of considerations to amble easily is to have things arranged with less compensations or habits of movement which no longer serve us.
If we live with a rotated hip and it clunks or doesn’t move well, this can have negative effects on the knee, ankle or our back. We’ll do a walking rather than ambulate with ease and grace.
Tight, stiff, overly tensed leg muscles which restrict or inhibit movement may result from compensatory habits, injuries or even lack of water. Diet plays a role since the muscles need fuel. Re-programming our movement patterns, on the other hand, has been lost on many people.
If we’re not self-correcting, we’re missing opportunities to lengthen muscles back into shape. Those lazy dogs which sleep all day usually don’t miss a beat and pandiculate themselves after periods of being sedentary.
If we’re sitting for hours on end for instance, this type of day in day out programming doesn’t help us walk any better. The muscles atrophy towards dis-use which furthers our inflexible hobbling ways.
The good news is, we can reprogram the muscles so walking in pain no longer afflicts us. We can improve the connections of our muscles by moving our parts lazily around in a conscious manner where the brain resets tension levels.
Reducing tension allows us to self-correct, change our compensations and gives us new ways to move so walking with pain no longer is an issue.
Walking with pain online class
To end our uncomfortable ways, you can learn some simple, easy movements which resets our muscles back to comfortable resting levels. When our muscles are programmed to be more relaxed, they remember how to get there more quickly.
Please join me for an online class of somatics exercises where you’ll learn how to lessen walking with pain. All you have to do is lie down, listen, and follow along to free things up.
Recapturing our youthful ways of movement is a memory not long forgotten, we just haven’t accessed the part of our brain which can restore and refresh our muscles so walking with pain is a thing of the past we can forget.
Learning to get out of physical pain is easy once you have the somatics know-how. Mastering the art of moving well takes time since we have to develop our ability to do so although our brain can quickly make changes in our movement system.
A difficult somatics move
In the book Somatics, by Thomas Hanna, there is a very interesting movement to release the hips, legs, knees, ankles, back and as far up as the neck.
The pattern is one of inversion and eversion of the ankles and how that relates to the knees, hips and back.
I know some of my fellow Hanna Somatic Educators don’t like the particular pattern but these are the kinds of somatics, not semantic, arguments we get into.
Like all things such as fine wine, time and practice to mastering movement is necessary although one can imagine movements too and still reap tremendous benefits.
When I first learned this particular somatics exercise, I was in agonizing knee pain. This remarkable pattern caused great consternation on my part. It felt as if my leg was going to break.
Treating this movement as exercise was a sure fire way for me not to break through learning how to simply move instead of trying and pushing with all my efforts in vain and pain.
Why did I make a somatics move so hard?
Coming from the exercise world of pushing, straining, going to exhaustion and breaking myself down, built in a pattern of doing things from the types of physical activities and the cueing received.
To change the habit of movement required I had to tone it down, way down. My muscles were locked-up although I could compensate around that. When the knee gave, this was the beginning of a new chapter, one where I had to put Humpty-Dumpty back together again by rewiring the nervous system since I had reached an end.
When we brace, it doesn’t take much to fire off a painful signal. Learning how to de-tune what seems like an amplified response gets our attention so we can begin to refresh things rather than push against the wall of pain we come against.
In time as I explored this movement, I came to love it once my brain un-locked the pathways so I could move easily and understand the many ways we can hurt our self.
It’s how we unconsciously or habitually move or try to accomplish things with our wise body which feeds back its signal of pleasure or pain… and the richness and variety for which we have no verbal descriptions for.
Somatics Blow Off Class
This week I am teaching an online class where you can get join me live or get the replay of the somatics movement many people blow off.
Why do I know this? My very own clients tell me that they’ve shirked it or found it hard to do by looking in the book… so this is why I recorded a version of it and you can learn by listening and following along.
When we apply the simple somatics system with a helpful guide and we’re interested in learning, success happens and the knees, hips, back and neck simply ache less.
A first timers guide to somatics exercises and brain functions to improve the body and mind.
Since it is brain awareness week, somatics exercises can be considered one of the most useful brain exercises around.
Unlike traditional exercise, somatics exercises target the brain’s motor cortex to change tension levels in the muscles. When our brain functions better, we can move with more comfort.
Slow movements help brain functions
When we do a brain exercise like somatics, the movements are done slowly, gently and with as much awareness as possible. To watch someone do it, is similar to watching grass grow.
Here are some benefits of a somatics exercise practice.
1- Pain Relief Using the Brain
Since the brain thrives on novelty, somatics exercises engage the brain and body in unique ways by challenging the mind to be focused. Although the movements appear to be lazy and simple, the mind is highly engaged. One of the brain functions of the motor cortex is that it can reset the resting levels of the muscles. The muscles are left more relaxed.
2 – Improved Memory
Movement is memory. Our cerebellum remembers set points and does our quick, fast movements. We can change those set points using the brain’s motor cortex. By improving the quality of how well we can move at any age, the brain functions and gets to remember that youthful movement we once had.
3- Gain Strength
This brain rather then brawn approach lets us lose excessive tension and stress. Our body becomes more balanced. We remain strong like animals in the wild who reset their muscles naturally.
4- Posture Changes
We can change our shape by losing compensations such as a curved spine which has our belly hanging over. Our new appearance results from letting go of the tension which held us in place by the brain. When the brain remembers to reset to neutral, the brain functions much better and now we appear more easily upright and relaxed.
5 – Natural Stress Alleviation
In the wild, how do animals shake out the stress? When they feel tight, they contract in motion and then they release. Somatics exercises use the animal process of pandiculation which we’ve known since 1680 brings muscles to rest. Targeting the brain functions lets us create natural chemicals of relaxation.
6 – Regain Natural Flexibility
Regaining flexibility is not about getting longer or going for range of motion. When we let go of the binds of stress, tension and long held-injuries and compensations, the body knows where to reset to neutral. We move more freely and naturally by reprogramming of the brain.
7 – Improve the Immune System
When we’re constantly triggering flight or fight, we’re not giving our self the chance to calm things down. Resetting our self so we can ramp it up and then back it down allows us to live more easily with a system which can reset itself and not get hung up to take us down.
8 – Sleep Better
Tuning down tension levels using the brain relaxes our body wide network of muscles. The body and brain functions much better. Resting easy happens when we feel calmer and can let go of the body and the mind.
9 – Greater Sense of Peace and Tranquility
Somatics exercises use the brain to reset the entire body system of movement. When we move with greater ease, our earlier sense of freedom returns. To change our painful, aching, stressed out signals off with confidence, returns us again and again to levels of comfort where we fully understand the mind and body connection.
Better brain functions
The more intelligently you practice, the better the brain functions, the easier we move around.
Healthy vertebrate animals naturally reset themselves with a conscious awareness towards improving the quality of moving at all ages. This type of brain awareness has always been with us, if we only dare to remember to use those brain functions, we’ll move well.
