How Movement Education Can Prevent Obesity and Improve Learning

Daily movement improves overall health.

I’ve written before about the importance of daily, vigorous movement for everyone. One doctor cites studies in a compelling video (seen in this blog post) that shows that daily movement is the best prescription doctors could possibly give to us to help us improve our overall health. You don’t need to go to the gym – just find an activity you enjoy, and do it every day. “Movement education” is akin to eating habits: first and foremost we learn it at home. However, it is also the responsibility of our society to encourage movement in every aspect of life – from the creation of recreational areas, available playgrounds for underprivileged children, parks, bicycle lanes, and longer gym periods at school.

Movement enhances creativity.

I encourage my clients whose jobs keep them at a desk all day to get up at least once an hour to do simple movements that “wake up” their muscles. This keeps muscles from getting tight and “frozen.” It also stimulates the brain, relaxes the nervous system and enhances creativity.

Thomas Hanna wrote about the importance of encouraging somatic awareness in our lives, especially when children go to school. In schools children are encouraged to stop paying attention to their bodies and movement: “feet on the floor!” – “don’t turn around!” – “stop fidgeting!”

In the Western world, children sit at desks, eyes facing forward. They are rewarded for sitting still and keeping quiet. They learn to ignore the sensations of their own bodies. They learn to stop moving. Even on playgrounds children are told, “don’t run!” in order to prevent any injury or liability on the part of schools.

It’s old news to say that children are getting heavier and moving less, creating a true public health crisis. Children who don’t move become adults who don’t move, and who risk developing sensory motor amnesia, joint pain, diabetes, and musculoskeletal problems. I will leave it to Dr. Kwame Brown to fiurther explain the detrimental effects of “movement-deprivation” on young children and adults.  Suffice it to say that the more one moves, the more one’s brain develops.

For anyone in the teaching profession and for those working with children in any capacity, I would highly recommend Kwame’s work. He will be teaching his first New Jersey Move Theory weekend seminar in Pompton Lakes, NJ.

Here’s a video of Kwame teaching children, through play, the basics of movement. Below the video is information about his upcoming event:

March 10-11, 2012 at Jersey Strength Systems    

Our Toronto event this past weekend was such a success, we are coming to Pompton Lakes, New Jersey in March.  The FUNction Method is the only training for teachers, coaches and parents that addresses skill development within the framework of Active Play and the myriad issues that lie at the root of childhood inactivity/malnutrition.     

This is a 2 day training where you will play games, learn about the neuroscience behind the method, innovate new games and approaches on the spot, and really get to know the people you are with! 

To buy Martha’s book, or any of her pain relief DVDs, click here.

Why It’s Important to Vary Your Movement

In Somatics class last night I taught the “seated twist,” a wonderful exercise that never ceases to astound the students doing it. In this exercise you learn to increase your range of motion and ability to twist around yourself by doing seemingly random things like moving your head while keeping the body still, or shifting your eyes side to side without moving the head.

Varying your movement can speed your progress.

I love teaching this exercise because the students experience the dramatic changes that can occur in their movement merely by “differentiating” movement in simple ways. In this video from his Intervention: Course Corrections DVD, Strength coach Dan John points out this same principle in regards to strength training. He notes that athletes often sequence their workout drills according to what they want to do. However, if they really want to quicken their progress, they should do the movements they don’t already do. People are amazed that simply doing more of what you don’t normally do can increase motor control, strength and athletic ability.

One of the reasons this works so well is because movement variation stimulates the brain with new and different sensory feedback. The result? Improved motor output. You improve your overall movement and strength without having to push harder.

Differentiated movement creates intelligent motor control.

Moshe Feldenkrais, originator of the “seated twist” exercise, developed some extraordinary movements based on what he called “Differentiated Movement.” He discovered that differentiating patterns of movement brings an almost instantaneous greater coordination and range of movement in the muscular system. Seemingly random little differentiations – moving the head separately from the torso, the eyes separately from the torso and head, increases our ability to move and twist the whole body – eyes, head, neck, shoulder girdle. This occurs not with force, but with intelligent sensory appreciation of what we’re doing and with greater motor control.

As a ballet dancer, I would often get frustrated and take several days off to do something completely unrelated to dancing. My favorite “other” activity was vigorous bicycle riding. I’d look for the steepest hill possible and just ride. I’d get a vigorous upper body workout, then return to the dance studio and find that my ability to do the movements that had frustrated me had improved – without practice – but with “differentiation.”

For those who simply want to improve their mobility and joint health by walking, for instance, it’s also important to vary your movement.  On a daily basis it’s easy to “get stuck” in the repetitive movements of today’s society: sitting with our eyes straight ahead, driving, working at a computer.  These repetitive, “stuck” postures can cause back, neck, shoulder, hip and knee pain. It’s critical that we remind our muscles that they can move in different ways (which is why the “seated twist” is such a good exercise) – bending, reaching, twisting, rotating, pulling, pushing.

The brain thrives on stimulation and new sensations. When you vary your movement by moving in ways you don’t normally move, you stimulate the brain with new and different feedback. When you return to your original movement you have not only a wider range of possible movement, but more intelligent motor control; not through force or struggle, but through laying down of more sensory feedback to the brain.

Try this fun exercise:

When you’re struggling with a movement, stop. Do something different for a few minutes. You can circle your arms like a windmill, run in place or do “the twist.” Make it different. Then return to the original movement. What’s the change? Is it easier?

Somatic Exercises stimulates your brain.

For professional athletes, a short routine of Somatic Exercises is an excellent use of movement differentiation. You move slowly as you focus on sensory awareness and proprioception. You practice movements you probably think you don’t need to practice (like side bending, twisting, moving the shoulders and hips in different directions). You’ll find that it’s those different movements that help to increase your overall movement mastery.

To order my book or any of my pain relief DVDs, click here.

How Stress Affects Necks, Shoulders and Breathing

The holidays are over, the New Year has begun, and my clients are complaining of neck and shoulder pain.  Most of them work 10 hours a day at the computer, commute, care for their families and get in a workout whenever possible. And most of them don’t realize that they don’t know how to breathe fully enough to positively reduce their stress. Every one of these clients has elements of what we call the “red light reflex” in their posture: rounded and slumped shoulders, a neck that juts out slightly, tight abdominals

I started writing this blog during the holidays, so I’ll give you exactly what I’d written:

At holiday time with all the commitments and obligations people have to family, work and their yearly traditions, there is a tendency to get stuck in this “red light,” stress reflex, even when there is no life-threatening emergency or threat to one’s own survival. For many people just the idea of how much needs to get done as they race through the mall (or click away on the Internet, slumped in their chair, to order their gifts), buy gifts, put up Christmas trees, decorate the house, host family members, or attend parties, is enough to cause them to stop breathing, hunch their shoulders and stiffen their necks – as if danger is right around the corner. Repeat this all day long, and the end result is neck and shoulder pain, or sheer fatigue from shallow breathing and lack of oxygenation to one’s brain.

Hans Selye, the endocrinologist who created the General Adaptation Syndrome, is considered “the father of stress research.”  He was known to have stated that all disease is disease of adaptation – meaning that humans adapt to stress, which alters metabolism and other physiological states in our bodies – and that we have a limited amount of adaptive energy to deal with stress. If ignored a continuously stressed body, constantly in a “fight or flight” stage of high alert, will lose its defenses against illness. This is a very basic overview (and I will write more about it in another blog post about how stress affects joints and mobility).

“Hunched” posture is a response to stress.

The fight or flight state of stress is a primal survival instinct that kicks in when there is real or perceived danger. In Hanna Somatics the physical posture is the “red light reflex” (or startle reflex) of protection and withdrawal:  hunched and rounded shoulders, a neck that juts forward, and tight abdominals that suppress breathing. This posture occurs due to fear, anxiety, danger and on-going emotional stress.

We’re no longer being chased by meat eating predators, but too many of us experience the stress of our lives to be equally as dangerous as that kind of scenario. The real danger nowadays occurs when we habitually respond to non-life threatening events as if they were truly life-threatening.  When the “red light” reflex of stress becomes “the norm” in our bodies, here’s what can happen:

• we suppress our breathing
• our brain doesn’t get the oxygen it needs
• our hearts don’t get the oxygen it needs
• suppressed breathing negatively affects our mood and our creativity (which adversely affects our working environment)
• we contract the muscles of the front of our bodies, which rounds us forward
• we lose our equilibrium, causing other muscles to work harder than they should to keep us in balance.

Try this exercise to reduce your stress:

Here’s a wonderful exercise, called “The Flower.”

The Flower 9-30-11 720X405

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Come learn this exercise and others in my workshop, “Boost Your Immune System with Somatics” Sunday, January 22 at Shakti Yoga in Maplewood, NJ.

To buy my book, Move Without Pain, and my pain-relief DVDs, click here.

New Pain-Free DVD Series Available Jan. 13!

Pain Relief DVDs available now!

My new “Pain-Free” DVD series is available.  For those of you who have pre-paid for the 3 DVD set, I will be shipping those sets out on Friday, January 13.  Thanks to all of you for your patience.

My website has been updated to reflect the new DVDs as part of the Essential Somatics pain relief product line.  You will be able to order 3 DVDs for $79.00.

For those of you who don’t have my “basics” DVD (Pain Relief Through Movement), you can chose that one, plus two others you feel you need. Browse the selection and feel free to contact me with any questions or advise on which DVD might be best suited for your particular muscle pain problem.

Start with the basics and background of Hanna Somatics.

My book, Move Without Pain, is the perfect complement to my basic Pain Relief Through Movement DVD. In an easy to read format you will learn the “basics” of how muscle pain develops, how it presents in the body and what to do about it.  Use the detailed photographs and instructions to learn easy, gentle Somatic Exercises that will improve your mobility and movement and relieve your pain.

Once you learn “the basics,” the new DVDs will teach you exercises you can add to increase your learning and “mix up” your routines. Join runners, yoga practitioners, dancers, weight lifters and others who are learning to relieve their muscle pain by improving their movement with Hanna Somatics.

 

 

Is Yoga Dangerous?

Today’s New York Times article about “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body,” by William J. Broad. Broads covers yoga injuries and how yoga teachers themselves suffer from muscle and joint pain. I’ve worked with quite a few yoga students and teachers after they “over did it” in class. Yoga can be a very “somatic” discipline (“somatic” meaning being aware of what it feels like to be in your body) if you pay attention to your body and move within your comfort level.

For many yoga students the element of somatic awareness is completely absent. Much depends on the teacher, your own attitude and your level of body awareness.

When you push yoga postures, or compete to look like the teacher as she twists herself up in a pretzel, yoga - like any other sport – can cause injury. It’s critical to be able to distinguish between fun, vigorous movement, and competitive over-training. Very often the rule is: less is more.

“Athleticized” Yoga can cause injury.

I see the rise in injuries and muscle pain as saying more about the way in which many embrace yoga than it does about (most) yoga postures. This is similar to Thomas Hanna’s contention about the source of most  back pain:

“the prevalence of back pain has everything to do with the kind of lives that we live and the kind of society in which we live.”

We live in a culture that “athleticizes” everything, and yoga is high on the list. Yoga can be practiced in a non-competitive way with the sole goal being one of mastering movement and improving posture and breathing. So can life. The answer lies in the awareness of what you’re doing and how you’re doing it.

Why people get injured in yoga:

#1 – They have Sensory Motor Amnesia (SMA) and don’t know it. They are unaware of where their muscles are tight and not working properly. So as you attempt to perform a yoga movement, the muscles don’t coordinate properly; some are working while others are compensating and working too hard. This kind of unconscious compensation can lead to injury.

#2 – They’re unaware that they might be stuck in a full body reflex pattern of muscular imbalance. SMA presents in patterns of contraction. If you’ve had a trauma, regaining muscular balance, symmetry and coordination is critical before engaging in any sport – much less yoga.

If you do any sport or vigorous activity when your muscles have sensory motor amnesia (SMA), you’re bound to get injured sooner or later.  SMA causes muscles to be recruited involuntarily when the muscles you’re supposed to be using can’t function optimally. This simply means that in whatever activity or sport you’re doing, you’re working way too hard! Again, this is the fast road to injury.

(Hint: Our major goal in Hanna Somatics is to teach you to reverse SMA as it presents within the three somatic reflex patterns. It’s easy and it gives you back control of your body.)

#3 – They over-stretch.

You can read more about my take on stretching here. When you stretch a muscle beyond it’s comfortable length, or too quickly, you can invoke the “stretch reflex,” which contracts the muscle tighter than it was before. Overstretching is a major factor in yoga injuries, from hamstring pulls to lower back injuries.

Instead, learn to pandiculate. Pandiculation re-sets the muscle length at the brain level. In fact, you can easily learn how to pandiculate many of your yoga stretches!

Ultimately, if you’re getting injured doing yoga, you’re doing something wrong – or you’re over-doing it. This applies to any sport. If it causes muscle strain, why do you continue? Don’t feel bad; the overstretching and athletic approach to many yoga classes doesn’t work for most people. However, incorporating a few easy yoga poses (I’m partial to the sun salutation, done very slowly and somatically) only serves to stimulate your brain.

Hanna Somatics and Yoga complement each other. Hanna Somatics can improve your yoga practice and help you prevent many of the common injuries associated with yoga.  To learn a few basic Somatic Exercises, click here.

And if you’d like to go to a yoga class with teachers who don’t treat yoga like an Olympic event, try Shakti Yoga in Maplewood, NJ.

To learn more about Hanna Somatics and how it can help you eliminate chronic muscle pain and regain balance and symmetry, buy my book, and instructional DVDs.

Compression Fractures, Back Pain and How to Get Pain Relief

I just received this testimonial from a client who came to see me from upstate New York. He learned how compensation to a severe injury had caused muscular pain, and how to begin to reverse it. He is now doing a daily routine of Somatic Exercises to keep the muscles of his back, waist and hips more relaxed for easier, more comfortable movement. Read what he has to say below

Trauma compression fracture pain – solved:

I recently suffered my second trauma compression fracture to one of the vertebrae of my back.

The treatment for this fracture was to wear a rigid back brace during all waking activities.  I had significant pain with this injury and needed strong pain killers for two months just to function.  Having gone through this healing process five years ago I was familiar with how long it takes to get back to what I would call full functioning. I am a long time Tai Chi student and also enjoy many other physical activities and challenges.  As a result of my recent injury I researched body work and decided that Hanna Somatics would be very complimentary to my Tai Chi practice.

I had two private clinical somatic education sessions with Martha Peterson in December 2011.  Prior to the first session I was not able to lay flat on my back.  Martha worked to help me understand how to move my upper back muscles and I was able for the first time to lay flat on my back.  During the second session we worked on the trauma reflex, specifically with the side bending and hip hiking practices.

After this practice I was able to lie flat with zero pain. This was a huge improvement for me and tears of joy rolled down my cheeks!

As the days have passed there is still much work and healing for me.  I know all this is a process of two steps forward and one step back.  From my own experience of teaching Tai Chi and healing from injuries I recognize that Martha is a superior and passionate practitioner.  I look forward to future work with Martha and know that each session will be an adventure in healing and gaining control of how to move effectively with less pain.

Thank you Martha!

D.L., People Manager, Anheuser-busch

Ring Out the Aches and Pains and Ring in Good Health – Happy 2012!

A short note to all of you to say Happy New Year!

For all of you I wish the most important thing of all: good health, awareness of yourself and your purpose and a year filled with learning.

On that note, here’s the simplest, best message for all of us to begin 2012.  It’s a video many of you may have already seen, but it’s worth seeing again. Taking time for yourself doesn’t have to mean sacrifice or pain. Just a small bit of time.

Adding daily movement to your life can change your life and your health.

Taking care of ourselves isn’t just for ourselves, either. It’s for those we live with – our friends, family, co-workers and community.

Tom Hanna once told his students, “there is NO ONE in the world who will care as much about your body as you.”

Debunking the Myth of Stretching…Again

Recently Outside Magazine ran an article called, The 10 Biggest Fitness Myths. In this blog post I’ll add my perspective on one of them – the one they consider the #1 fitness myth: the usefulness of stretching. Here’s the article so you can read about all 10 or them.

Myth #1: Stretching prevents injuries and improves performance.

For those of you who are new to my blog, I’ll explain the basics of why stretching doesn’t work and what you can do that gets a better result than stretching.

First of all, the brain controls muscles and movement. Any movement we perform on a daily basis establishes habits at the level of the central nervous system.

There are good movement habits – like being able to pole vault, ride a bicycle or write with a pen. And there are bad ones – like learning to hold the back tightly due to repetitive athletic training, or learning to limp on one side due to an injury on the other sides of the body.

When we work out and perform repetitive tasks, our muscles accumulate muscle tension. They learn to stay tight and become involuntarily contracted. This is called Sensory Motor Amnesia.

The only way to reverse chronic muscle tension is for the brain to take back voluntary control of the muscles and movement.

When you passively stretch a muscle that has learned to stay contracted (or has become involuntarily contracted due to repetitive tasks or an injury), you are pulling it into a length you want it to have. You are acting upon the muscle. If you pull that muscle farther than it can go you will invoke the “stretch reflex,” a spinal cord reflex that contracts the muscle back against the stretch to prevent against muscle fiber damage. This can make the muscles tighter than they were before.

SOLUTION: PANDICULATION = “no stretch stretching” 

Pandiculation is the best way to re-set muscle length, and sensory motor control of the muscle.

A pandiculation is an action pattern that involves contracting a muscle first, then lengthening it slowly past the point that it was contracted before. This slow, deliberate action actually re-sets muscle length at the level of the CNS and allows the brain to take back voluntary control of muscles that were once involuntarily contracted. A pandiculation releases tight, “frozen” muscles that cause pain and allows them to function optimally again. The end result is enhanced muscle function, improved sensory motor awareness, and muscles that coordinate efficiently and properly.

It’s easy to ‘pandiculate’: simply contract into the tight muscle, then slowly lengthen all the way. Then completely relax.

Pandiculation prepares your muscles for use in sports, or to wake up for the day, or even when you get chronic pain or a cramp. Pandiculation simply prepares your muscles for use.

In the Outside Magazine article they finish their piece on stretching with the following conclusion:

The jury is still out on the best pre-workout alternative, but dynamic stretching, which incorporates a range of body movements rather than muscle isolation, doesn’t stress tissues to the point of activating the nervous system’s protective instincts.

At the end of the article they suggest 4 movements that could work as “dynamic stretches” to “warm up” the body. They are:

1. 20 Jumping jacks
2. 1 minute of skipping, forward and backward
3. 1 minute of high-leg marches, kicking each leg in front like a tin soldier
4. 10 reps of “Kick your own butt:” hop on one leg, kicking the other leg backward, touching your buttocks

While these are interesting and useful movements, they are not “dynamic stretches.” They are movement patterns that don’t re-set muscle length or brain control of otherwise tight muscles.

Somatic “stretches” for improved muscle function:

Try these Somatic Exercises (which are “dynamic stretches,”). They will retrain your brain to take back control of the muscles, and leave them more relaxed and efficient. And yes – they will improve your athletic performance:

1. Arch and flatten – 1 minute – lengthens back muscles.
2. Arch and curl – further lengthens back muscles and coordinates the abdominals with the back.
3. Washrag – lengthens waist muscles, abductors and back muscles.
4. Hamstring pandiculation – lengthens the hamstrings in coordination with the back muscles (it takes the place of the painful stretch seen in the photo of Drew Bledsoe above).
5. Reach to the Top Shelf – lengthens the lattissimus, and trunk rotators and coordinates hip movement.

Click here to view these exercises. “Reach to the Top Shelf” (seen in the photo above) and “Arch and Curl” can be learned by watching my Pain Relief Through Movement DVD.

In my next blog post I’ll write about Fitness Myth #3: YOU NEED TO FOCUS ON YOUR CORE
Truth: Core strength is probably overrated, and you risk injury by focusing too specifically on it – that of core strength.

Move Without Pain available now!

Martha’s book now in! Just in time for holiday gift giving. Give the gift of pain relief to those you love!

Purchase a signed, single copy for $24.95 or as part of a package with my DVD for $47.95. Free shipping included.

A limited number of copies of Move Without Pain, by Martha Peterson, are now available for sale. Get your signed copy for $24.95, with free shipping and handling.

This is a great gift for the holidays for anyone you know with back, neck, shoulder, hip or joint pain, or for those wanting to learn how to regain flexibility and improved muscle function.

A great combination gift is my easy to read book and my Pain Relief Through Movement DVD for $47.95.

The book and DVD together will help you:

• learn not only the Somatic Exercises, but also the theory and methods behind Hanna Somatics in an easy-to-read format.
• learn Somatic Exercises not yet available on DVD.
• save with free shipping!

To purchase the book and/or the Move Without Pain book/DVD package, click here.

Read what they’re saying about Move Without Pain:

Move Without Pain is not another stretching book – it’s a must read for anyone who wants to feel better and move better. It will get you dancing around the room again in no time at all!

- Dan John, author of Never Let Go

Martha Peterson shows us a path to genuine physical education, awareness, and pain relief. This is a profoundly important book.
- Frank Forencich, author of Exuberant Animal and Change Your Body, Change the World

Pain-Free DVD Series Coming Soon from Essential Somatics

If you enjoyed learning the basic Somatic Exercises of Hanna Somatic Education on my  PAIN RELIEF THROUGH MOVEMENT DVD, you’ll love learning even more Somatic Exercises on my upcoming DVDs.

These are movements you can learn to add to what you already know in order to not only create variety in your daily Somatics practice, but also to increase your own “vocabulary” of Somatic Exercises. These DVDs will be available by December 20. Please check my website for availability within the next two weeks.

SET OF 3 – $79.00 – plus free shipping for the holidays!

PAIN-FREE LEGS AND HIPS

with Martha Peterson:

Legs and hip joints can lose their flexibility and become tight and painful due to long hours sitting in a car or at a computer, a sudden fall or accident, or a one sided repetitive movement (like holding babies on one hip). can cause tight waist, back and hip muscles. This can cause the pelvis to become twisted or rotated, and one’s gait to become uneven. In this video you’ll be learning easy, gentle movements that will:

• relieve hip joint pain
• improve mobility, coordination and muscle control in both legs and hip joints
• improve walking, running, dancing and other activities
• help in overcoming injuries that resulted in leg, knee or hip pain

This DVD is especially helpful for those suffering from sciatica, plantarfasciitis, leg length discrepancy, tight, painful hip joints, knee pain, or an uneven gait due to an injury.

PAIN-FREE NECK AND SHOULDERS

with Martha Peterson:

The muscles of the neck and shoulders can become painful and tight due to slumped posture, overly arched back muscles or one-sided repetitve movements (like computer mousing). Painful neck and shoulder muscles are also often stress-related and point to tight muscles in the center of the body. In this DVD you will learn Somatic Exercises that will

• relieve neck and shoulder pain
• relax the muscles that connect the back, neck and shoulders
• improve posture
• relieve pain from excessive sitting, computer work, or driving

This DVD is especially helpful for those suffering from slumped posture, “stiff” necks, disk problems, carpal tunnel, tension headaches or frozen shoulder.

PAIN-FREE ATHLETES

with Martha Peterson:

Athletes are known for working hard, training hard and often having to retire earlier than expected due to repetitive injuries and chronic muscle pain. When an athlete is injured, sometimes repeatedly, what develops is a learned pattern of physical compensation and reflexive muscular tightening, often evenafter the initial rehabilitation is over.

The Somatic Exercises on this DVD will help athletes, whether amateur or professional, to:

• move without pain
• overcome training injuries that compromised your form
• improve muscle balance and efficiency
• prevent recurring injuries and recover from recent ones

On each of the new DVDs you will learn a sequence of Somatic Exercises – some of which you already know from my first, “basics” DVD – interspersed with brand new exercises.

Each specially designed “playlist” of exercises will increase your awareness of how you can combine some of the most basic Somatic Exercises (ie. the back lift, or the walking exercises) with exercises meant to target a painful area (ie.”hip lift and reach,” “invert/evert,” “psoas release,” “neck and shoulder variations”) for an effective overall routine.

Each DVD will have a list of sample routines to choose from, depending upon how much time you are able to set aside for your daily practice. If you are interested in pre-ordering this new set of DVDs, please contact Martha Peterson. Discounts will be applied for those ordering all three DVDs.