In order to have a healthy body, we might want to investigate a different approach to stretching in order to lengthen your muscles and remain flexible and agile.

How is Somatics different than Stretching… same goal different process.

We’ve been lead to stretch in lots of our sports activities… you know … stretch your hip flexors, the hammies, the quads, your back, etc…

What happens when you stretch a muscle…

There are receptors in your muscles called spindle cells which are sensitive to stretch.  When you stretch your muscles, they send a message out to the spinal cord and back in to the muscles again.  Immediately afterwards, a message is sent to re-contract the muscle.  This is done quickly as a monosynaptic reflex, just like when you jar your funny bone, you’ll move quickly.

So when it come to stretching in the traditional manner, your muscles actually re-contract neurologically.

How Somatics is different?

First, you are doing the opposite of stretching.  In stretching, you are trying to stretch or lengthen a certain muscle.  In Somatics, you approach the muscle through a different process in order to gain length.   It’s like you having a mind tool to access.  The process is in your brain’s motor cortex and not in the spinal cord like stretching.

If we think of moving reflexively, I’ll call this a level 3 movement, from muscle to spinal cord and back to the muscle.  As you walk, this can be considered a level 2 movement, from your brain stem to the muscles and back.  This way you can do movements unconsciously and not have to learn again how to walk.

With a Somatics exercise, you are moving from your motor cortex, a level 1 movement, since it is this part of the brain which can create a movement in the first place.  It is the only part which can be used to change the resting levels of your muscles via your voluntary and conscious self.

Somatics is designed so you can regain control using your brain to decrease the output to the muscle which effectively lengthens it…  With greater control, your movements are more efficient since you are beginning from a more relaxed position.  Unless of course, you like to turn the light switch on when it is already on.

If your muscle is contracting, your brain stem is sending a message to have the output at a certain level, by sending out a message to have a number of motor units firing at whatever rate …  with Somatics you are taking control of the number of motor units that are firing in order to decrease the brain’s output to the muscle so it lengthens with chemicals generated in your brain-way cool-it’s like free drugs.  The good news is, this pharmacy is available 24/7 and it lies between your ears.

With stretching, the information only makes it to the spinal cord and not all the way up to the pharmacy itself, namely, your brain’s motor cortex.

So here we are, same goal, yet a completely different process so that at the end of this your muscle is lengthened… the joint near the muscle is not being pulled by the muscles that attaches to it and you move with greater ease and awareness.

Whenever you want to lengthen a muscle, you’d want to voluntarily contract the muscle and slowly decrease the contraction and allow for the muscle to lengthen.

With just a few reminders to the muscle, you end up with a muscle which is lengthened and now not “ready” to contract yet start from a more relaxed position.  This more mindful approach allows your brain to integrate and coordinate its actions, again it’s just a mind tool to use.

Your muscles are subject to either your voluntary or involuntary mechanisms.  Again, the pharmacy acting as the voluntary control and your spinal cord just sending the message to the muscle to be ready.  Would you rather be ready in a relaxed state or one in which your muscles are contracting to contract?

Somatics reduces the likelihood of injuries since stretching is now found out to actually weaken muscles since they are contracting and recontracting afterwards.

Sometimes it is hard for people to unwed themselves from the concept and practice of stretching like when people lie on their back and pull their knees in towards the chest to “stretch” the back… once again it may temporarily feel good yet you have actually set yourself up so your spinal cord will then re-contract the very muscles you stretched… maybe this is why you keep having to repeat this and hold on to yourself for any length of time.

Injuries being another matter also become exacerbated since what may have set you up in the first place is your muscles overcontracting so that when you tumble or get bumped off course and try to compensate with over firing muscles, oops you get the message with a slight mishap or two.  Your result is pain, discomfort, restricted movement, etc… sound familiar… don’t reach for the ice or ibuprofen yet.

Take it to the Bank

If your body is sending messages of being more relaxed then you are less likely to fall, less likely to hurt yourself, since your muscles won’t be working against you and you’ll have an ability to sense them more…  so you can readjust more quickly to get out of harms way.  And if harm is done, your able to get back in the game much quicker.  I am often amazed at how I keep getting older, yet recover much quicker.  Yep, I’ll take this one to the bank.

Besides, these Somatic Exercises are mindful tools using your brain to effectively handle the minor mishaps we encounter.  As a form of moving meditation, there are more benefits than can be derived from merely stretching.

You are engaged in a learning process whereas in stretching you are pulling and not really learning anything?  As you get the “how” of Somatics, you’ll discover how your brain changes the output as you sense your bodies ability with a finer appreciation of how you coordinate your movements… and if you watch most people stretch, they aren’t really paying attention, it’s just an unconscious act of doing this or that since we were trained without really knowing why other than it’s supposed to be good for us.

Hmm, don’t belive me, try it for yourself.  Then again I haven’t stretched in 8 years and I’m moving better than I ever have…and oh, the Fibromyalgia I was diagnosed with, is no longer an issue as I use my brain to produce output which has changed the very nature of the painful signals I used to generate…  Now it’s a pleasure to run, kick, jump… though I do miss the need for a hotub to recover…naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah…

Got Brain, Get Fit, in an Instant… Your Mind is the Tool.

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Fitness Health Self-care Somatics
Edward Barrera
Edward Barrera

Founder of Gravity Werks, Hanna Somatic Educator. (H.S.E) Author of Move Like an Animal and The 1 Thing to Do to Relieve Pain, Stiffness, Tension and Stress Ed lived with Fibromyalgia (chronic pain) in his 20’s and 30’s. Now helps people overcome physical pain, reduce muscular stress & tension, and recover quickly from injury using safe, simple, natural (and Pharma free) tools known as somatics exercise. Where the brain changes the neuromuscular system back to comfort so you can confidently do what you want with your body.