Unlike other mammals, human movement is not hardwired; humans do not stand up and start walking hours or a few weeks after birth. Although movement begins shortly after birth, we teach ourselves how to move little by little by actively engaging our brains to learn how to move. Dr. Feldenkrais reasoned that if human movement is a learned process, movement patterns that cause pain can be unlearned and replaced with more comfortable, efficient ones.
After realizing adults adapt to physical and/or emotional trauma by changing how they use their bodies, Dr. Feldenkrais studied how infants, babies and toddlers organically develop movement. After birth, infants find themselves in a foreign gravitational field that is constantly pushing them down. They don’t know what movement looks like because their vision isn’t fully developed, verbal instructions are meaningless because language is yet to be learned and speech is years away.
Initially, infants orient their heads in response to sounds. As their bodies grow and develop, they teach themselves to lift and extend their heads by using their innate kinesthetic or “felt” sense which doesn’t rely on visual cues. Movement patterns that feel inherently difficult or unbalanced are equally important as easier ones because they capture the attention of the nervous system for comparison to refine the brain’s movement choices.
Similar to human movement development, Feldenkrais lessons are designed to present movement choices to the brain’s kinesthetic sense which processes movement and body position. This part of the brain is present in other mammals; its evolutionary function is survival, and therefore learning how to move conserves energy, and isn’t painful or injurious. Importantly, by attuning to where the body is in three-dimensional space, the head with its sense organs is optimally positioned to detect danger.
I’ve been teaching a series of Awareness Though Movement® lessons on spinal flexion lately and the questions my students asked regarding the abdominal muscles made me think about our cultural obsession with having a flat tummy. A common question is, “Don’t we need to engage our core muscles so that we don’t sag when we stand?” It reminded me of my cycling accident where the various physical therapists I worked with commented that I have “very toned abs”. The paradox was, I wasn’t able to work out for years!!
When my back was injured after my cycling accident, my nervous system’s solution was to chronically contract my abdominals to stabilize my back, hence the “toned abs”. But by chronically contracting my abdominal muscles to “brace” my body, my breathing was extremely shallow, even during sleep. My body was extremely stiff because my back extensor and front flexor muscles were simultaneously contracted. Through Feldenkrais lessons, I relearned how to use my spine again and was able to safely explore releasing my abdominal muscles.
In Feldenkrais lessons, students begin to recognize their habitual, unnecessary “background” muscular effort(s) that cause pain or restrict movement. They learn to safely disengage these habitual patterns to maximize their comfort and diminish pain. By eliminating habitual muscular patterns that aren’t useful, students discover a greater range of movement that is more efficient and comfortable. The power of choice allows each student a personal exploration into how his/her body moves optimally and gently guides them towards independence and empowerment.
