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

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.

Oh those aching hips which cause us to not to be able to sit comfortably in car rides or while we walk, if only there was some natural hip pain relief method we could use to be comfortable.

Our hip may have a slight glitch so our giddyup feels impaired and not the way it used to.

Sometimes our hips gets out of whack when they are cranked too far forwards or backwards making it hard to walk up or down the stairs.

Maybe one of our hips is tilted up higher than the other or rotated so when we walk we’re either dragging one of our legs around or throwing our hips about trying to catch up.

All this effort and strain can be minimized when we re-learn how to reset muscular tension levels which will allow us to strut and swivel our hips with ease.

Hip Pain Relief May Not Just Be in the Hips

Even though we may feel soreness and pain in the hips, it may be that some of our other muscles have forgotten what to do or are too tight or restrictive to prevent us from our natural birthright of moving easily like we did as children.

Try this hip movement.

Did you make the connection? When we start to pay closer attention to how we move not just as a part but as a whole moving living unit, we can unwind that which has led us to our binds so hip pain relief happens naturally… just like some of think it oughta be.

Hip Pain Relief Online Class

Tight, tense hip muscles are no way to live, so why bear it any longer?

Join me for an online class in hip pain relief. We’ll explore a variety of simple, easy moves you so can discover which ones can release your hips to more freedom and ease.

All you have to do is login, listen and follow along. You’ll be able to let those hips be smooth so they can glide, slide and get hip again.

Are you ready to enjoy a walk rather than push or hobble your way through it? Ready to sit more comfortably and not be wiped out?

Do your hips a favor and join me for a Mo’Better Hips – Pain Relief Class.

Yes, you can do this – even if it’s your first time.

Simple, easy moves will provide the hip pain relief you thought is possible.

In these hectic and busy holiday times, we may accumulate tension and stress in our muscles. Ouch!

Why not let it all go in 7 minutes or less with somatics exercises?

Somatics exercises are usually the reverse of most approaches

While many exercises are geared towards strengthening, these easy, simple movements target the brain’s cortex so it can lower muscular tension levels.

With lower muscular tension levels, our muscles can remain more relaxed.

When our muscles are relaxed, we’re no longer fighting our self. Movement becomes easy. Stress just flies off of us quickly.

Somatics exercises are so too simple

In 7 minutes or less, our brain can rewire our nervous system so our muscles lose the tension we accumulate in our busy, hectic lives. This is why I’ve just created 7 somatics exercises videos with each one around 7 minutes long.

Watch and follow along with easy, simple movements that change the brain which change how our muscles get back to comfort.

With a little practice, we can be more mobile, have natural flexibility and if pain comes up, we can learn to lose that too, effortlessly with somatics exercises.

Knee problems are sometimes not always where we think.

We often think of knee problems happening, well obviously at the knee, yet in some cases, where the pain is, the problem ain’t.

The knee is designed primarily to bend like a hinge. It can twist a little too.

The muscles below and above the knee impinge upon it when we compensate or substitute with other muscles for instance, when we hobble around after an injury.

The muscles below the knee can be overly contracted or not functioning as well as they could be. Tight calves or restrictions in the front of the lower leg may not only rob us of energy, we may have to work that much more in order to walk and our knee problems can compound.

Knee Problems at the waist?

Often times, knee problems can occur much higher in our body than we think. You can do all the knee bends you want or turn your foot in or out to help with torsion issues.

Yet other parts of ourself can cause us to bear our weight differently. In times of injury, we can compensate by holding our side tight or cringing to the side using our waist muscles.

If left unchecked, contracted waist muscles can have some bearing on the function of the knee and the knee problems persist.

Free the waist, free the knee problems

The practice of somatics exercises, which is usually quite the opposite of other approaches, uses the brain to release contracted areas and improves the function of the muscles so we move more effortlessly and easily.

Join me for an online knee problems class.

You will learn how to release muscles below the knee as well as those at the waist.

Rather than doing standing exercises or using weights, we’ll focus on different relationships with gravity and noticing how our entire body moves, not just the knee.

Many knee problems can be solved by addressing our body as a whole moving unit instead of just the part where we experience our pains and discomforts.

A looser jaw helps if you’re a runner and exercises for face muscles may be something you haven’t considered.

Did you know that in some countries they actually target future runners by seeing who has the loosest jaw? If they only had some exercises for face muscles, maybe there would be a surge in competitors or at least, we could have freer jaws.

Somatics exercises, a different set of exercises for face muscles

Somatics exercises are usually the reverse of most approaches since we work with changing the brain’s output to the muscles.

By decreasing high levels of muscular tension, these special exercises for the face muscles work with 1/3 of the brain’s sensory-motor cortex.

Using the brain to change how muscles respond is naturally what we did as children through the process of what is known as a pandiculation.

Exercises for face muscles and then some more…

You can join our online classand learn how to have a more mobile spine to go along with those exercises for face muscles.

Besides, you’ll learn 2 simple movements which will also help you sit more comfortably crossed-legged or in the lotus posture.

So please join us on Friday and find out if somatics exercises for face muscles can set you free.

Improve eyesight… free up the neck.

There are any number of eye exercises, diet considerations and things you can do for the eyes. Sometimes getting up and drinking some water is enough to take out the strain.

Sitting at a computer for longer periods of time is not a way to improve eyesight since our range of vision and motion is compromised into a smaller space. Unless of course, you are working on building shorter, more contracted eye muscles.

Simple neck mobilizations and moving the eyes just a little differently are enough to ward off hours of limited motion.

Improve eyesight in just a few minutes

Relaxing the tension from hours of using our eyes in a small space or holding our neck a certain way, takes just a few minutes. Yet how many of us are really going to spend the necessary few minutes to take care of it.

Don’t we usually wait until the jaw pain or neck immobility becomes too great before we act. Pain is a great teacher, but why wait for our body to get locked up and not be able to lessen the accumulated tension and muscular stress.

Just a few minutes of careful self awareness combined with releasing the tension as naturally as any animal will do, allows us to keep on doing the things we human animals think we need or want to do.

Healthy animals do things like yawn. Well they contract their jaw muscles so it looks like a yawn. Go ahead, give yourself a big yawn and pay attention to all the muscles in your neck your tightening up.

Somatics exercises improve eyesight

The way to let go of tension and improve eyesight is to do what animals do. Thank goodness we’ve systematized what animals do as somatics exercises.

We’ve borrowed the very same process which is done in movement, not a static hold and release for a certain period of time.

With periodic self-adjustments and self-corrections, our neck will be freer, our jaw will be looser and we can improve eyesight simply.

Why hold all the tension in place when we can consciously learn to let it go with a little simple practice of awareness and easy movement patterns.

If you want to learn more, please join me in this online exercise class to improve eyesight, free the neck and ease a tight jaw today.

Why does this happen and is the only way to prevent it from happening is to stop stretching when I wake up?

You may be bumping into what is known as the stretch reflex. It’s a set point limit that by stretching gets violated so the muscles naturally re-contract and tighten afterwards.

When people spaz out, get a muscle cramp, they “push” past the limit not knowing how to change the signal.

Listening to our body provides a way out. In this case, its counter-intuitive. When we typically stretch, which is now known to be bad for us (though most people haven’t heard of it), the muscles re-tighten on account of the stretch reflex.

So what to do.

Listen to the body and actually pay attention to the muscles being contracted… so if you think you are stretching… think again and feel what in yourself is actually contracting… you might even feel how your back contracts as you “stretch” your leg.

By paying attention to what contracts, all you have to do is release slowly and then rest, then repeat with less effort so the muscles can calm down.

Once your muscles are relaxed enough, you can tighten the beejesuz out of them and you won’t get discomfort. If you do, repeat the process using less and less effort.

Now, when you release the muscles, pay attention to how well you can… sometimes they’ll fidget and jerk… that’s ok, your brain is now in reset mode.

BTW – this is how healthy animals reset their muscles… they feel what they are contracting and then they release themselves so the brain can bathe the muscles in relaxation chemicals – no wonder why Fido’s muscles are mostly relaxed… so you see, we thought it was stretching. It isn’t.

Merely pay attention to what you are contracting and follow it with a s-l-o-w release… afterwards you can wag your tail once again.

Contracting and releasing in this specific manner is what somatics exercises are all about. When you get rudely awaken at night… you’ll know how to take care of a painful calf.

Somatics exercises are designed to release painful signals like muscle cramps and spasms so you can rest easy.

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.

“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.

Somatics is coming to the…

2011 Winter Chill Soccer Tournament at the Starfire Soccer Complex in Tukwila, WA on February 26th-27th.

This 7 vs 7 event held by the Washington State Womens Soccer Association will have women competing in the open, over 30 and over 40 categories.

For those of you attending, you can discover an entirely new way to get those muscles ready to play before, after and in between your games.

Somatics was recently seen and experienced at the U.S. Veterans Cup in Boston.



Please keep the icy hot and tiger balm at home… you won’t need it after you learn how to move like an animal again.

Animals naturally lengthen their muscles by pandiculating. Say what?

They are not stretching contrary to popular belief. There doing a whole ‘nother thing which you’ll get to experience at the tournament.

If you’re a player, coach, or physical trainer, come find out why you never need to stretch. That’s right, in fact it’s bad for you… according to the research.

When you get your muscles ready in the ways animals do… you just might move like a healthy animal again and stop limping your way back to the car when the games are done.

Look for the guy wearing the funny shoes..

We’ll meet at 10am, 1pm and 4pm on Saturday and Sunday.

We’ll probably find a comfortable place to unwind indoors at the complex.

If you’re team wants its own session, just let the guy with the funny shoes know.

Get ready to get those hamstrings, hip flexors, quads, and inner leg muscles looser, more relaxed and in your control so you can keep on playing and playing…

or at least make it to the end of the day… and play the next if you’re one of the lucky ones.

Somatics Exercises are being taught by Hanna Somatic Educators® to primarily relieve physical pain in our back, neck, head, shoulders, hip, legs, feet, arms and hands.

The New Gravity Werks Program is now available…

Don’t Live 2011 in Physical Pain. You can live Pain Free – the way nature intended.

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.

Easy, simple movements allow your brain to change the painful messages your muscles feel.

Somatics Exercises mimic what healthy vertebrate animals do to move as well as they do.

It might seem counterintuitive, yet easy does it can have profound effects.

Here are 7 tips to help you get your Back… Back.

1. Use it consciously or lose it unconsciously.
Your spine’s ability rests upon you using it more consciously and with your awareness instead of using it unconsciously and not paying attention to it. All it takes is just noticing whatever activity you are doing for a few moments and hone in on your spine. Notice how it feels when you move.

2. Move your spine in a variety of directions.
This will keep the feelings of aliveness radiating within yourself. Creating difference gets your brain to move your muscles to higher levels of function.

3. Being sedentary works against you.
Sitting for long periods of time causes certain muscles to remain contracted and pulls your spine forward, backwards or sideways depending on how you sit.

4. Wake-up your spine with gentle mobilizations.
All it takes is easy, gentle movements to remind your spine of its function and its capacity to be used when you need it.

5. Re-build your spine’s function by updating your movement software.
Just like your computer which gets a bug, gets bogged down… by moving easily and consciously, you’re changing the software of your muscles. You can get the kinks out sooner rather than later.

6. Floss your joints.
Your spine is a series of joints, so floss your back joints by gentle mobilizations in a variety of angles. This will take the plaque out of your spine.

7. Breathe as you move.
Don’t breathe and feel what happens to your inability to move your spine. Play with your breath consciously to add in another level of difference.

Join me on Saturday, November 6th, from 10am – 1130am (West Coast Time Zone) and you’ll get to learn how to use nature’s code through a simple 3 step process systematized as Somatics Exercises.

Come find out what healthy animals know naturally… and how you can use the same knowledge to get your back… back.

Where does it go… when it goes out?

Tight, stiff, sore back? No problem.

Got a back spasm?

Nature has an easy, gentle way
to help you get your back… back.

Learn the 3 simple steps it takes.

Join us on Thursday, September 30th
10am -11am. (Pacific Coast Time)

Register Here.

As we age, most of us have forgotten this lost art of pandiculating. In fact, we all did it in our mother’s womb. If you’ve forgotten how to pandiculate, then it’s likely your muscles are getting stiffer as you age. You don’t feel as spry as you used to.

You can change all of that in an instant since this is a cortical brain response. Your brain is waiting for you to pandiculate so it can send the necessary chemicals of relaxation to the areas you target with your intention.

Brain plasticity or the ability to change your brain allows you to change the feelings of your muscles from stiffness to mobility. When you’re more mobile, you’re less likely to hold your stress… and you’ll be able to sleep even better.

Give these somatics exercises for your neck and shoulders a try and feel for yourself what all the healthy animals already know.

These methods can be quite useful but we may not always be successful with these approaches.

Your brain is set up to use the natural process of a pandiculation by using Somatics Exercises. These unique exercises send a message from your brain’s cortex through the spinal cord and out to the muscle or muscles which need to let go.

If you practice Somatics, you may be aware how to use the simple 3 step process by actually contracting your muscles followed by the s-l-o-w release and pausing to sense the effect.

When you feel or sense the release of yourself letting go, you are in a state of learning and reminding your nervous system as to the “how to” of actually letting go.

We often try to deal with accumulated stress, tightness or pain by just breathing into it. This works “if” you already know how to let go in that particular area of your body.

Using your mind to communicate with the muscles, reminds them of their function, and serves to creates a memory pattern which reinforces the learning of how to let go.

You are actively creating and releasing the chemicals of relaxation into your body through the 3 step process of a pandiculation which you can use any time you feel the need.

In other words, you’re also creating a reservoir of the feel good chemicals of relaxation which you can bank on.

The more you practice with the 3 simple steps, the more easily you can tap into your natural resource of turning off stress, tightness, discomfort and pain.

Then once you have the hang of it, and your muscles know and remember how to let go, then breathing, visualizing and following through with your intentions and mantras will move you up a notch in realizing your healthy lifestyle.

Letting go is easy once you know how… you can join us on Saturday, August 14th for a live webinar on how to use the P word to get your muscles to let go in your legs, hips, knees, ankles and feet.

In the recreational side of soccer, did you know that nearly 570,000 athletes were injured playing soccer in 2009?

While many athletes continue to “stretch” as a means of prevention and recovery many of their attempts are ill-fated and actually compound their problems. New research is out which you can use to benefit yourself.

As a self-proclaimed, Divorce Counselor for Stretching, there exists a more natural way to lengthen your muscles and have them functioning for your peak performance.

Your brain, if you will, is the big muscle which sends messages to your muscles to keep them contracted or relaxed at specific rates of contraction.

By pushing your muscles to lengthen, they actually re-contract.

It’s poignant to watch a calf muscle or hamstring get “pulled” in the course of a game and watch the trainers run onto the field and spray the muscles with the “secret” spray or forcefully try to lengthen the muscle in the opposite direction to gain length.

The obvious signal is the muscle is being shortened. This is what’s happening when you are experiencing a cramp or muscle spasm.

By pushing the muscle, when say your calf is cramping, you’re violating the stretch reflex. No worries… you won’t get a ticket for it. This reflex is what keeps the muscles contracting and set at certain levels. By forcing or pushing muscles into length, it actually recontracts and gets shorter afterwards. This is what they found out about back in 1936.

This protective mechanism is a good thing so your muscles don’t tear. This reflex can be readjusted by the brain instead of using force. If you push it, your muscles will be forced into length but the rate of contraction will continue and can be elevated so that your stiffness remains for longer periods of time.

Instead of trying to lengthen the muscle, the brain can be used to do what is clearly happening in the moment. The cramp is a muscle shortening to protect itself. So shortening it, is what is you can do in order for the muscle to allow itself to lengthen back and reset it’s level of contraction.

Now this may seem counterintuitive. Once you get the hang of a simple 3 step process, you’ll be able to use this natural approach which is systematized by Somatics Exercises. These types of exercises have been prescribed to successfully get people out of pain, stiffness and cramps or muscle spasms.

Your brain is showing what needs to be done but of course we normally “react” by pulling away from any pain.

Learning how to go with it, is what sets you free even though it’s counter to what we’ve been led to do.

Once you get the hang of Somatics, in which the goal, like stretching, is to lengthen the muscles, it’s simply achieved by the brain rather than than forcing a muscle.

Preventing injuries can be helped if the muscles are more relaxed in the first place. So it’s obvious, why make things tighter with brawn when you can use your brain to change how much activity and rate of contraction your muscles have to live with… it’s always easier to move if you’re less stiff, compensated, and not holding on for dear life in those exquisite moments of the mystery and misery of a cramp or muscle spasm.

Join us on Saturday afternoon for three hours of feeling the bliss that you can create by using your wonderful brain to move you in easy, gentle and novel ways.

Pandiculate your way to health and soar like an eagle again.

*Move with Less Effort*

A practice in moving easily is simply accomplished by dialing down your effort in moving.  Being more precise with your movements involves lessening your effort so your muscles work efficiently instead of shuddering with extra effort.

Noticing where you contract from or the area you are using during a movement may not initially be clear.  When you contract and shorten your muscles, take notice to the areas where your contract, the level of effort, the feeling, the sensations aroused or lack thereof.

As you contract your muscles, others are normally and naturally lengthening in response.  It’s not necessary to force the length, rather your observation of it happening, deepens your awareness and your coordination in what moves what and where and how it moves.

*Be Aware of your release*

If you can merely observe the release of your contraction, you’ll notice the resulting length is accomplished without force.

If you force the length, a signal is generated by your brain to re-contract the tissues afterwards.  Traditional forms of stretching actually produce tighter muscles according to the latest research.

To have the flexibility of a cat, the agility of a panther, and the ability to jump like a gazelle requires you to follow their lead.  Animals engage their motor cortex through the process of a series of pandiculations.

*First thing in the morning*

Since animals self-correct throughout their day, it would be wise once again to follow their lead.  When healthy, they engage the process first thing in the morning, every day.  There’s their key.

Who else is going to ready your muscles for you each new day? Animals are wise enough to do it first.  They are not checking the emails nor will you find a way to ready to yourself in your emails, unless of course, you happen to be receiving the Somatic Classes via email.

The natural process of engaging your motor cortex is always available to you… I know you have other things to attend to.  

It’s just a process and as far as I know most of us have the ability to engage in the process since it primarily activates your motor cortex, which has been called your highest learning center.

You can continue to learn and generate new brain cells.  Neurogenesis and neural plasticity perhaps becomes of interest as you age, unless you already engage the process everyday.  If you are, yoohoo, you’re way ahead of most people as the mass understanding of this process hasn’t reached them, yet!

Somatics is merely applied neurogenesis.

*Pay attention to how you move*

Practicing Somatics is a matter of paying attention to how you manipulate yourself in the field of gravity.  How you contend or float in the field of gravity is known to you by the signals your body generates.  You can become more One with the field of gravity.  No this isn’t airy fairy stuff, I mean you can continually fight gravity and keep kicking yourself in the pants, which would naturally lead to tighter hamstrings and a sore back.

*Use your self-correcting brain and mind*

The power lies in your brain to self-correct, adapt accordingly, merely by spending some time in your self.  When you practice the variety of movements which are offered in the Somatics classes or through your understanding and application of Somatics, your brain feeds off of these differentiated patterns to present you with possibilities of change in your habit of movement.

Your habitual and repetitive patterns lead to some of the negative results you encounter over and over.

*Differentiate your movements*

Differentiation provides an avenue to more integrated, more coordinated, more balanced and efficient movement itself.  You’ll know how, when, and at what speed, in order to move more cohesively.

So as I said, learning to move with greater ease isn’t easy, but it’s very simple once you get the hang of the process.  

The antidote for discomfort, pain, aches, soreness, etc, lies between your ears.

Engaging the process is not under your nose, it’s in it.