Archive for Exercise
Ending your pain. High Tech meets Low Tech.
Posted by: | CommentsLearning to play with technology was introduced to me just a few years ago when my kids thought it was weird I didn’t have an ipod… little did I know I would soon have a website, and even a twitter account – for reasons still a mystery.
Whether you’ve been experiencing back pain, hip pain, neck pain, etc… you can take care of it at home.
For some time, I’ve been working with fabulous people all over the world offering private online somatics one on one sessions… all in the comfort of home.
This compliments the ongoing online classes which are also offered.
From my experience providing online webinars where you watch a presentation and follow it with some live somatics movements… combining the low techiness of somatics with a computer has been a revelation.
In fact, doctors are now using this approach too.
Cisco has been teaming up with them. They’ve discovered this is a highly effective approach which works well for many people.
All you need to do is answer an email and your computer does the rest, otherwise we can use the Free Google Video interface, Skype and if you happen to have a mac, we can use Facetime.
For those of you on the go, we’ve even done it over an iphone too while away from home.
Your initial session includes a health background intake.
Followed by:
• A posture assessment
• Movement sequences specifically tailored to your needs and concerns
• And you’ll receive an audio recording of the easy movements you did, so you’ll know exactly what to do
• + You’ll have access to a private members only area with videos and written files to further enhance your progress.
Press here to schedule a private video session.
Get out there and play
Posted by: | CommentsAfter you practice somatics… moving with awareness… get out there and really feel yourself… just like you did when you were young…
You can play at any age!
Still exercising and having pain…
Posted by: | CommentsWhat do most doctors, physical educators, professional sports trainers, magazine articles & even tv exercise shows have no clue about…
They don’t understand what Fido knows that could unlock your muscles and set you free once again.
There is a startling truth about your physical pain and how you can get out of it…
with a way most people aren’t talking about.
You can get out of pain more quickly and easily than you ever thought possible.
But let me back things up by saying “Having Pain Sucks”
Flinching & bracing is no way to live since living in chronic pain is hard… since it seems like it may never end or go away.
It might even seem like it keeps you guessing by moving around and not getting better, just becoming worse.
Having to take a hot shower just to get started in the morning to soothe already aching muscles… is no way to live.
Feeling older and over the hill before your time is not the way you thought it was going to be… but it’s become a way of life or so for the moment.
Is there any reason to live in this cave of despair?
You know that place to shut everyone and everything out since the relentless pain is too much.
That lingering flu-like feeling which doesn’t let go…
What’s interesting is that no one really get its since they say “you look fine to me”.
Like a bad movie version of Ground Hog Day… everyday you wake up in pain, everyday you wonder why does that mack truck keep hitting you… and you keep forgetting the license plate number too.
Sadly in this movie, you want to stay in the hole since you’re too tired…
And now what? Another day of aching pain… another day of misery… another day of the pain coming back.
But you know about this…you’re really tired and really tired of the endless pain which doesn’t go away.
So I’ve got a weird question…
Have you ever seen a cheetah or dog in back pain or ever seen one pull its hamstring?
The story will be continued…
Stretching… more harm than good
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“Stretching is Out…
Science now shows that stretching is
• bad for us
• a waste of time
•reduces strength
Don’t try to increase your range of motion
• can cause architectural damage
• straining muscle stays weakened
So what to do instead?
Move Like an Animal
The $5 word you probably haven’t heard of… pandiculation… aka Somatics Exercises.
Join us Saturday/Sunday, February 26/27 at 10am, 1pm, 4pm at the Starfire Complex during the Washington State Women’s Soccer Association Winter Chill Tournament.
You’ll find out what all healthy animals and even babies know.
Somatics is a systematized approach using the pandicular process that animals naturally use to reset their muscles for length, strength, mobility, agility and vitality.
By using your brain, the big muscle, you can reset all the rest of the muscles with chemicals of relaxation so the muscles are ready to be used and more functional .
Healthy vertebrate animals and babies use this process… we human adult animals are just catching on. It’s so easy any cat or dog can do it.
You’ll never, ever… have to stretch again. Somatics Exercises are so too simple.
Somatic Tip… the in – between game for your brain
Posted by: | CommentsOne aspect of exercise that often gets missed is how we transition our body from one exercise to the next … keeping the body fit is one part, keeping the brain fit is another.
We’re often in a rush to get ‘er done… and move onto the next exercise.
Especially if you do things like circuit training, when there’s a line of people waiting on the machine you’re on at a gym.
Switching speeds is another part of the exercise game… and it’s a brain changer too.
Most of the time when we’re exercising, we’re in our cerebellum doing learned movement so we can get to the next learned movement pattern.
Do we ever consider how we move from one exercise to the next?
What is really involved with your whole being?
How did you get there? Did the right foot lead… was your arm leading you…
Or was it your head moving first when you arose from a seated position?
Whatever you did, what does it feel like merely to get into the next exercise position?
Somatically speaking… this is the “body experienced from within”… sensing the way in between movements takes you to another part of your brain.
The brain which actually can plan a movement.
Getting in that gap… changing what your brain does… adds another aspect to exercise that we might not have considered otherwise.
Just for fun…
Do what you normally do for an exercise routine by going through the motions…
Stay more focused on what’s going on between each of your exercises.
What are your tendencies…
What are your movement habits?
How do you… do your move to next thing?
Being aware of a particular exercise is just part of how we can improve our health through movement.
People who practice somatics exercises… feel what’s going on in the un-exercise moments of movement and play the in-between game for the health of the body and the brain.
Move like an Exuberant Animal
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If you like to play… and who doesn’t?
Frank Forencich, author of Exuberant Animal, and now his latest book, Change Your Body, Change the World, has a free set of moves for you to play with.
Press on the picture to the left… and get some new moves to be exuberant once again.
If you ever get a chance to attend any one of his clinics or workshops… give it a try.
Playing with our bodies as we did as children, though now our bones are larger, doesn’t mean we’ve permanently lost our movement software.
It’s in one of those dusty brain files.
Shake up some neurons and remind yourself of what you used to be able to do… and amaze your peers at how well you can move.. ok, it’ll take a little practice – so go ahead and play. Your somatic nervous system will love it.
Playing is recommended for all ages!
NPR says Stretching is Out…Too
Posted by: | CommentsThat old style way of stretching that most of us were taught is.. old school.
Listen here to NPR or read what is finally changing in the world of stretching.
Some coaches and trainers are still using old, outdated ways to work with their athletes. How many PE teachers are leading your children down this path?
Your brain can change how your muscles rest. If your muscles learn or re-learn to rest, then you can use them and do what you want to do much better.
Simple, easy movement is what nature intends for us to do.
Setting up movement is the step we need before we exercise, otherwise we just keep getting tighter, rather than looser… or we keep re-injuring our self and wonder why.
Is is time for a change?
Instead of stretching, set up your body for movement with a way most people have never heard of.
Pandiculate your way to health instead… all the animals are doing it.
When are you going to stop stretching and move like an animal again?
Take Stiffness Out the Way Nature Intends
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Is this how you get your muscles ready to play or recover from a game? Bags of ice are fairly inexpensive.
Is there a silver bullet or set of pills, muscle relaxants, or balms that’ll take the stiffness out of your muscles?
Each week I get to witness people using a variety of methods like heat, ice, and various balms, just to soothe stiff, contracted, sore muscles.
Some people even chug down ibuprofen right before kickoff.
Other people keep wearing the same brace year after year and all of them are doing the best they can to release whatever discomforts and compensations their body is holding them in.
Even traditional stretching which is now known to weaken muscles is still being used.
Nature, however, has set it up so you can achieve relaxation simply using your brain and flooding your nervous system with chemicals to change the state of your muscles.
By changing the levels your muscles are contracting at, your brain can zap out the stiffness and contracted states you feel and live with.
Merely by spending some time pandiculating yourself, you can achieve the state of calmness, serenity and being-ness with which your muscles will gladly thank you for.
What’s a pandiculation? It’s merely using your brain to change the level of stiffness or contracted-ness your muscles are currently experiencing.
All healthy vertebrate animals have this know-how. They feel their stiff and shortened muscles… then they pandiculate themselves out of it. Afterwards they are ready to move easily, freely and agilely.
So if lathering yourself with creme, popping some pills and wearing braces is working for you, by all means keep doing that…
If these interventions would give lasting relief, I’d be all over it, sadly they’re just band-aids.
Nature has the answer. We’re already set up to pandiculate to take out stiffness and feel satisfied afterwards.
Somatics Exercises, which are the complete reverse of everything else out there, uses pandiculation as the means to moving more freely. Taking out compensatory patterns which bind you and lead to the cause of your stiff, over contracting muscles… is a simple matter.
You can go ahead and keep being a stiff or use that knowledge to change the signals your brain is sending by the simple act of a pandiculation.
Related Blogs
Apolo Ohno Pandiculates to 8 Medals
Posted by: | CommentsDid you get a glimpse of Apolo Ohno right before he races?
Check him out on Live with Regis and Kelly.
Did you also notice that after what appears to be a yawn… how relaxed he became? Of course you had to watch it in progress to see him show the response of relaxation.
When you’re at the top of your game or wanting to keep pace with younger talent, you’ll use any edge necessary, though in this case, Apolo is using nature’s process of a pandiculation…
And he may not even know about it, as most people don’t… but it doesn’t matter what it’s called since this is just like many natural processes we use without knowing why.
Healthy animals with spines use this little known process to remain agile, quick and strong.
They’ll practice a series of pandiculations first thing in the morning and periodically self-adjust throughout the day. This explains how well they can move and it serves notice to us what we may need to remind ourselves on a daily basis…
How well you move is up to you? 
Can you improve with age? I think so and though I was living in chronic pain for the better part of two decades… years later I earned only a couple of medals in my 40′s.
My secret training method… pandiculate of course. Now I’ve got some work to do to catch up with Apolo and the rest of the healthy animals.
Transform the Root Cause of Your Pain
Posted by: | CommentsMoving simply and easily is a gateway to the pandicular response, as identified by Thomas Hanna.
When you cross into the realm of using your cortical pathways to release brain chemicals …you produce relaxation and diminished physical pains and stress.
Instead of using techniques and methods, you can learn how to harness your awareness through a process most people have never heard of, namely the process of pandiculation via Somatics Exercises.
Can moving your self so simply and gently that it could boggle your mind be a way of out the misery? … the way out of the aches, the ongoing strains…
Your mind is very powerful and all you have to do is tap into this natural resource.
Come roll with us … Learn more here.
