stretching - feldenkrais

7/27/2019 Stretching - Feldenkrais

1/4

The physics of Feldenkrais1

. . . . . . . . . . . .

J. C. Hannon

A brazen truth is that we don't

know what we don't know. This

series of articles will review

some important but oftenoverlooked physical

principles underlying all forms of

bodywork. Most therapists study

kinesiology in school but do they

comprehend it in their bones? We

may be able to rattle o Newton's

Laws but do we nd benet

applying them in our own daily

practice? These articles will attempt

to reconnect our understanding of

the role physics plays in enhancing

eciency, safety and economy of

eort in our therapy. Thisunderstanding involves a coherent

integration of proprioceptive,

tactile, visceral as well as intellectual

factors.

The irony is that we all have

experienced the reality of inertia,

momentum, friction and leverage.

In our earliest years we cultivate

conscious movement by the kind of

relentless exploration drives our

parents to distraction. It takes years

to learn to stand well on one leg butonly a few unbalanced milliseconds

to feel the power of gravity.

Unfortunately, most civilized

adults use their bodies ineciently;

clumsy sti movements are seen

everywhere. Athletes have overuse

injuries and repetitive strain

disorders proliferate even among

bodyworkers. Where do you ache?

Underlying ergonomics are the

physical relationships of forces and

resistances that contribute to all

movement.

The purpose of this series is toexplore the basic physics of

kinesiology and to point toward

practical strategies to improve the

way that we, and our clients, use

ourselves. The writings of Moshe

Feldenkrais lend themselves to this

study. He was a qualied engineer

and he possessed two certicates

attesting to his commitment to

learning about movement. Not only

did he earn a DSc in physics from

the Sorbonne but he also became the

rst European to receive a BlackBelt in Judo from the Kodokan. His

six books and hundreds of pages of

transcripts provide a mother-lode

from which his thoughts on the

science of movement may be mined

(Leri 1999).

This series will purposefully

ignore the neurophysiology of

motor control, theories of motor

learning, the eect of anxiety upon

human behavior as well as

kinesiological concepts not directlyraised by Feldenkrais. Instead, the

material will focus on concrete

applications of the physical `house

rules' that underline good manual

therapy. By uncovering principles of

movement science, we all may

maintain our health and deepen our

practice. Enhanced clinical results

with less eort will accomplish both

goals.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Journalof Bodywork and Movement Therapies (2000)

4(1), 27^30

# 2000 Harcourt Publishers Ltd

John CharlesHannon DC

Certied Feldenkrais Practitioner, Private Practice,

1141 Pacic Street, Suite B,San Luis Obispo,CA,USA

Correspondence to: John C. Hannon

Tel.: 1 805 542 9925;

Fax: 1 805 541 2391

Received: October 1999

Revised: October 1999

Accepted: November 1999

The topic of posture, and how the individual uses

their body is central to most bodywork and

movement therapies and approaches. This new

series of peer reviewed papers will explore the issues

around this core topic from a particular perspective.The reader is invited to participate by

communicating with the author, or the editor, with

comments, ideas and constructive criticism.

Alternative viewpoints will be published in future

issue of the Journal of Bodywork and Movement

Therapies.

Editor

S e r i e s : F e l d e n k r a i s T h e o r y a n d R e s e a r c h

27

J O U R N A L O F B O D Y W O R K A N D M O V E M E N T T H E R A P I E S J A NU A RY 2 0 0 0


2/4

But we must recall a peril in

establishing principles to guide our

practice. Too slavish a reliance on

principles may lead to ignoring the

individuality of our clients and

applying `cookie-cutter' techniques.

Perhaps this is why Feldenkraiswould sometimes say in his trainings

that the rst principle of his method

was that there were no principles.

No stranger to controversy,

Feldenkrais (1977) also said, during

his Practitioner Training class in San

Francisco, `We have as our rst

principle you have to know all

the techniques possible or

imaginable on every part of the

body and in every combination.

This way you are capable of takingout the exact error that hits the

bull's eye on that particular person.

The thing that is right on that

person. Give the thing most needed

by that person at that time

(Leri 1999).

Somehow we need to discover

principles that will help us to

gauge what `bulls eye' manual

techniques look and feel like. It is a

premise of this series that the best

place to start is by understanding

the heft and shape of the eectsthat gravity has upon our

movements. Another premise is that

the value of gentleness lies not only

in being more ecient but also by

enhancing the ability to sense more.

Dr Milton Trager's famous

comment comes to mind: `Why

ask how high you can jump, why

not ask how lightly you can land'

(Liskin 1996).

A principle from Judo that has

center stage in the FeldenkraisMethod

1 is the Principle of

Maximal Eciency with Minimal

Eort. Let us shorten this to the

Principle of Least Eort. This

principle will pop up throughout

the series; it has many applications.

Two exercises to learn more

about amount of eort we usually

exert, and how the Principle of

Least Eort may make our job

easier can be found in Boxes

1 and 2.

The series will explore, with a

maximum of experiential exercises,

the importance of awareness in

learning new movement skills. If

concepts such as the importance of a

fulcrum for leverage, (the rotation of

the pelvis in the above exercise being

an example), help organize your

clinical practice for safer and more

eective results, it will be time well

spent.

Box 1 Theinuence of the restingpostureupon quality of movement

. Sit on a solid stool about as high as your kneecap.

. Place your knees shoulder-width apart and your ankles directly below your

knees. Your shins should be vertical and your thighs parallel with the oor, the

feet parallel with each other.

. Now slide your right foot a hand's width backward toward the stool legs and

the left foot a hand's width forward.

. Your feet should be resting at on the oor.

. Using the ankle as a hinge, lift the left foot up in such a way that the front of

the foot rises without the toes tensing; in other words, rock the foot as a whole

upon the heel.

. Try not to have the toe tendons tighten but use other muscles to hoist the foot.

Gauge how high the big toe rise and see if you can lift the foot without rolling

the forefoot to either side.. Perform the same movement with the right foot.

. Naturally, the right foot does not raise as high, but are you using more eort

than necessary on the left?

. What is the height that you can reach with the right foot using only as much

eort as on the left side?

. Slowly slide the right foot forward a bit and try the maneuver and see where is

the exact point where the eort becomes easy. How is this point on the oor

related to the ankle hinge?

. Move the feet far away from the stool until the feet rest only upon the heels.

. Why is raising the feet easier still in this position?

Fig1 Rocking the heel in the sitting postion.

Hannon

28



3/4

Box 2 Exploring the ischiumas another of the body's pivot points

. This exercise is not designed for aerobics or for strengthening; its purpose is awareness so please do not strain.

Attempt to use the least eort consistent with the task. When a maximal eort is asked for, ensure that the eort is

safe and comfortable.

. Raise a knee and cradle it, ngers interlaced around the kneecap.

. Arrange your supporting foot for stability.

. The more eort you exert, the less attention to detail you will be able to distinguish. Test this idea by just once

exerting maximally: isometrically push the knee oor-ward while clasping the knee to your chest with maximal

eort. Do this for a few seconds then rest.

. As you rest, notice if you are able to sense if your diaphragm and lower ribs lost some excursion during the eort.

. Was there added tension in your tongue, eyes, jaw muscles?

. Did your support leg tense or move from its original spot?

. Are you still tensed from the eort?

. Why was there extra eort and which muscles were required to work for this task? Can you repeat the exercise with

only these muscles working?

One application to be explored in the series is how our skeleton is designed to carry the gravitational load. If the

skeleton is arranged optimally for this task, the support leg need not tighten even during maximal isometric eort

of the arms and knee. Interestingly, repose of this leg requires a solid awareness

of the best place for the ischial tuberosities to be upon the stool. Just as we saw the eects of moving the feet upon

the ease of lifting the soles, there is a relationship of the ischial tuberosities, gravity and the stool to the task of

lifting a knee.

. Explore the eects of a very small sideways rocking of your ischial tuberosities upon the stool.

. Try many positions of the supporting foot until the leg muscles relax, support being provided by the stiness and

bulk of the bones of the leg and pelvis.

. Last of all, while continuing to cradle the knee, relax the neck, back, arm, chest, the hip exors and any other

muscle that is unneeded for this position.

. Continue to prune unnecessary eort until you feel the position to be an easy and comfortable one.

. If you have found the sweet spot, a slight tilt of your neck backwards should rock your entire upper body

backwards upon your ischial tuberosities.

. Can you sense which ischial tuberosity participates most fully in this rocking?

Fig 2 Rocking upon the ischia with a clasped yet dangling leg.

The physicsof Feldenkrais1

29



4/4

REFERENCES

Feldenkrais M 1977 Training transcript: San

Francisco Year III. Portland: The

Feldenkrais Guild, 11

Feldenkrais M 1992 Body and Mature

Behaviour: A study of anxiety, sex,

gravitation and learning. International

Universities Press, Madison, 13

Leri D 1999 Learning How to Learn. The

principle of no principles. http://

www.semiophysics.com/learn.htm, p.5

Liskin J 1996 Moving Medicine: the life and

work of Milton Trager. MD: Station Hill

Press, 22

Box 2 ^ Continued

. Note that, although sometimes taking months to discover, hip exion eort is not needed when sitting securely

with the knee held clasped.

. Does your clasped shin swing like a pendulum as you rock back and forth. It is a tiny but very evident feeling

of swing.. Are your elbows tensing during the rocking upon the stool? If so, you still have not pruned enough excess

eort away from the task.

. Notice another principle: Control follows awareness.

Hannon

30


stretching - feldenkrais

Documents