IOL Strength and Conditioning

April wrapped up a full year of regular Feldenkrais training, both in group classes as well as in private, hand-on sessions. Not only has the training propelled me miles ahead of where I could have gotten on my own with self-taught corrective exercises, stretching and myofascial release, but it’s also been a real eye-opener for casual movement, moving posture and even in learning.

The biggest wow moment was learning to think of the skeleton separately from muscle. When doing joint mobility, I now think of the bones moving and let the muscles move naturally, without purposeful attention. Good joint motion happens when it’s smooth and effortless.

Good movement through the joints requires the right rhythm. Muscles have to fire in optimal order to move well and freely, without pain. Yet how do you do that? How can we possibly teach our muscles how to fire in the right order? Some—many—ways to move are never learned, or are forgotten. Remember this: In movement, we’re self-taught!

In reading of corrective exercise, we learn about joint coordination, how the right hip effects the left shoulder, for example. In Feldenkrais training, especially during the Awareness Through Movement verbal classes, we feel it. That’s why I consider Feldenkrais the ultimate in joint mobility.

In this ancient 21-minute video clip, Moshe Feldenkrais demonstrates how he teaches the brain of this whiplash patient—reminding her brain—how to move the skeleton. Notice especially how easily her joints move at the end of the session as compared with the beginning.

Feldenkrais Functional Integration, the hands-on sessions, are normally done lying down, supine, on the sides or occasionally prone. Few practitioners work with a seated client; I believe that’s because the body is more relaxed when it’s not working against gravity. More relaxed means the brain will be more trainable.

Would you like to give this a try at home? There are numerous good session sets available via mp3 downloads for pay, but before you head off in that direction, here’s a link to do-it-yourself ATMs, where you can try these out for free.

A favorite instructor of mine, Larry Goldfarb, has this free mp3 lesson, Rolling Fists, on his Mind in Motion site. Along with Suzie Lundgren, the woman who’s been walking me through this remarkable year’s process, Larry is co-presenting a new 12-week session beginning May 4th for anyone in the local Santa Cruz area. Suzie also does hands-on work, which for me has been priceless.

Susie Lundgren, Feldenkrais practitioner at work in Santa Cruz

A few of the paid sessions available for download are found below.

• Larry Goldfarb, Back into Action
  
• Ryan Nagy, Eliminate Back Pain Now
• Lavinia Plonka, Unstress Through Movement, and Power of the Pelvis
• And here’s an interesting set of three lessons: Lengthen Hamstrings and Spine. The Feldenkrais method is done without stretching; amazing, and I promise you, this works.

Learning to move with the ATM lessons is powerful, but those with chronic pain will find faster relief in the hands-on Functional Integration lessons, in which the practitioner will be able to quickly zero in on the patient’s individual needs. There’s a directory of local therapists here at the Feldenkrais.com website.

Nothing has influenced me physically as much as Feldenkrais work, not even 30 years of weight training. I really can’t recommend it highly enough.

One final thought: I had a conversation with Mike Nelson via twitter the other day. He’s a Z-Health Master Trainer who’s also familiar with Feldenkrais. I asked him if he could explain the difference between the two, and his answer was they’re similar, but Eric Cobb’s Z-Health is faster to both learn and apply. This makes sense to me, because while I’ve often had jaw-dropping breakthroughs during a session, it’s taken the entire year to get fully comfortable with the work.

One of the Z-Health dvd and manual sets, perhaps the R-Phase for $85, could perhaps get most readers where they need to be with regards to athletic, pain free movement.

Chronic pain sufferers, get a Feldenkrais practitioner to put hands on you. It’ll give you back your life.