Being able to twist the spine around is enough to make some of us shout – some in the agony of pain and the rest of us with joy.
Certainly there are yoga poses where you turn the spine and pull back counter to the twist.
As one contemplates our breath and associated feelings, some people attempt to achieve greater length by trying to get more.
Twist and Shout Another Way and Lose the SMA
In Hanna Somatic Education, we use somatics exercises to engage the brain in order to affect a change of information the muscles receive.
Somatics exercises are unlike most approaches since we go at things from a brain based perspective where we use mindful movement rather than any static holding positions.
The brain, the one big muscle, can effectively reset the resting tension levels using a more delicate approach. Much like untying a knot, gently moving our tissues unlocks held tension and stiffness.
When we push a contracted area, the targeted muscles become shorter. They pull back to the known set levels. They have lost their way to neutral or rest with high tension levels. The term we use is sensory-motor amnesia (sma).
SMA, muscular stiffness, stress and high tension patterns are temporary yet ongoing phenomenons until we change things with a simple movement update using the brain’s cortex.
You are a self adjusting living organism and you can adjust the feel and sensitivity levels of your muscles so they remember their way back to neutral when you twist yourself about.
Birthright to Move Well – Twist and Shout
When I lived in the near 2 decades of chronic pain, I knew there was a way out. What I didn’t know was how to simply update the body’s movement software.
Using the brain and adjusting with what appears to be deceptively simple movement, I could live a comfortable life and take out any kinks, stiffness, stress, tension and recover from injury quickly.
Our birthright is to move well. When we get off track, we can use that space between our ears to get things back online, running smoothly once again. We can twist and shout for joy as often as we want.
Twist and Shout Class
The ability to twist our self in one direction and then another can be enhanced through conscious movement rather than arduous exercise or holding our self in position for any length of time.
If we find ourself sitting too much in a day, we can grow our spine to greater length by doing a few simple easy movements which may seem initially challenging until our brain remembers to inform the muscles to let go.
Surely they will… and you can twist and shout about it.
This week, I’ll be offering an online somatics exercise class where all you have to do is listen and follow along. You can join me live or get the replay.
You’ll learn one amazing somatics exercise pattern to counter what our back keeps encountering… its gradual decline and shortening.
In a few minutes, you can:
• feel taller, straighter and longer
• feel the back relaxing
• and have greater mobility so movement itself is freer
C’mon and twist and shout with us.
