Feeling Good Can Be Oh, So Simple!

What a great way to start my day: I checked my email and saw this enthusiastic feedback from a client I worked with only a few days ago. She could barely walk when she’d come to see me, and was sure that something was wrong with her hips. She wasn’t sleeping well, and she walked stiffly with little discernible movement in the center of her body. Here’s what she had to say:

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I walked into your office in pain, limping, and thinking I needed an MRI! I walked out with hips, arms, shoulders moving and feeling great – and have remained so with daily Somatics practice, including stopping frequently to do your “Standing Somatics” reaching exercise — that gets rid of any beginning kinks! This weekend I took a long trail-clearing hike, up hill, rough terrain, picking up limbs, etc, whereas the weekend before I could barely walk up a slight incline. I went for a great horseback ride yesterday and felt great afterwards.

And it’s all so simple! We just need periodic reminders so we don’t slip back into old habits… like the green light “arching” posture.  I’ve become aware this week of how doing that even so slightly throws my hips out of kilter.

Anyway, many thanks again.  We’re off tomorrow on a car trip from the farm across the Canadian Waterfront Trail with hiking/biking excursions that I’ll now be able to do!”

Come to a Somatics class, make an appointment, and learn how you can get the same results that this client did.

Hanna Somatics teaches YOU to fix YOURSELF

…and reverse back pain, neck, shoulder, foot and knee pain, sciatica, fatigue and that feeling of “getting old.” It is education, not therapy. It is simple, appropriate for all ages and fitness levels, and will teach you to maintain the movement and control you need to age well and stay healthy. And, as my client proved, it can save health care dollars by avoiding costly and often unnecessary diagnostics.

Happy, Healthy Knees the Easy Way

As a dancer I began to suffer knee pain after an accident in rehearsal in which I severely strained my quadriceps (thigh) muscles on my right leg. We were five days away from opening night, and I was a featured dancer. I was whisked off to physiotherapy (this was Holland, 1978), and underwent treatment that enabled me to compensate enough to open the show. Several months later, however, my knee began to hurt.

I was told that I had torn my medial meniscus. I had it surgically repaired, and went back to dancing. My left knee mysteriously began to hurt about a year later, despite the fact that I never had an accident on that side in my life. Then my right knee began to ache again. I underwent an experimental surgery to repair ligaments that the doctors said were too loose. At the time, I was only 22 years old and in peak physical condition. The surgeries still didn’t help, and I continued having sore knees on and off for the next two decades. It became difficult for me to sit on my knees or to sit cross-legged.

My knees stopped hurting when I discovered Hanna Somatic Education.

But how did Somatics help when traditional medical practices didn’t?

Hanna Somatics taught me what my client, “Lisa” learned last week: the problem with my knees was less a knee issue  than it was a problem with tight muscles in the center of my body. Lisa came to me with posture that showed a Trauma Reflex: a side-bending and twisted posture that resulted in leg muscles that no longer coordinated properly. Her waist, hip, and leg muscles had learned to stay tight. Her body was out of balance, and her knees were feeling the strain.  Note the muscles of the leg in the photo on the right. See where they insert at the knee on both sides? Notice the muscle tendon that goes over the knee and attached underneath. Imagine what could happen to your knee if you were bent to the side and you had more pressure on one leg than the other.

If the muscles of the leg are overly tight, they will pull on the knee and can cause pain.

The muscles of the leg had become tight, pulling on their insertion at the knee, which resulted in pain. Lisa’s knee pain disappeared once she learned to self-correct, relax the muscles of her waist, stand balanced on both feet, and move her pelvis when she walked.  We methodically pandiculated the muscles of her thigh, and reset the muscles to a comfortable, relaxed length. This caused pain from the hip to the outside of the knee, and pain from her groin to the inside of the knee to disappear.