There is a special meaning for that term — The Somatic Codes.
It’s more akin to Morse Code than it is to the Codes of Hammurabi. However there is virtue to it that would potentize the Codes of Hammurabi, if they were integrated together.
The Somatic Codes are rhythmic numerical sequences that beat a resonance through oneself — using specific movement elements to create specific rhythmic and timed sensations.
This resonance of deliberately created self-sensations links or integrates memory, imagination, and sensation into an integrated, resonant, mobile faculty of intelligence.
(And what would that do for your golf game — or your video games.)
These codes accelerate and deepen the effects of somatic exercises when incorporated with somatic exercises. There will be video in the near future on YouTube showing how this is done.
See many videos of pandicular maneuvers. Here’s the general channel of (some) of my videos.
Add your comment — what you would like to ask or tell.
Sensory-Motor Amnesia (SMA), as Thomas Hanna defined it, is a state of habituation in which patterns of muscular tension and movement formed during trauma or under stress displace (make amnesic) the memory (and availability) of free and balanced (healthy) functioning. One memory of a functional pattern displaces another, resulting in chronic pain and changes of movement (“chronic injuries”), and a life is altered.
In my work, I have discerned more than one expression or form of SMA.
This article details those findings, which apply when we assess the condition of a client and when we work with him or her.
I identify three variations:
Chronic Contraction (chronic desire – “rajasic” SMA, for those who know yogic terminology)
Restricted Free Range of Movement (chronic limitation – “sattvic” SMA)
No Control/Substitution (chronic differentiation – “tamasic” SMA)
I explain each variation.
CHRONIC CONTRACTION
In assessment, palpation reveals hard, contracted, ticklish or sore muscle. Kinetic Mirroring (passively moving a body segment along the involved muscle’s line of pull (doing the work of the muscle for it), followed by a lengthening movement) reveals an indisposition to lengthen (muscle stays contracted or involuntarily, sporadically contracts in fits and starts, or “rachets” on the way to length). This is the most obvious form of SMA. (If they’re not floppy, they’re contracting.)
I describe this form of SMA as “rajasic” because it involves chronic activity.
RESTRICTED FREE RANGE OF MOVEMENT
A lengthening movement, either active (by the client) or passive (by the practitioner) reveals free movement up to a point, beyond which no movement is possible without forcing – hence, “restricted free range of movement”. This form of SMA may be (and probably often is) confused with restriction by adhesions.
I describe this form of SMA as “sattvic” because the person has no pain in the involved muscles when at rest and believes (s)he has free control. (S)he’s “fine” when (s)he stays within the “healthy”/”normal”/”anatomically correct” range of motion, but exists in a state of chronic (unconscious) limitation that shows up only in movement (as pain or restriction).
This is the same mentality, by the way, that blames pain on “having slept wrong” or “moved wrong”.
NO CONTROL / SUBSTITUTION
This form of SMA, I feel, is more correctly described as “Sensory-Motor Obliviousness” (SMO). (Please see related article.) Muscles are relaxed and lengthen freely, but the person has little control or coordination involving them; (s)he is oblivious to them. There’s a “hole” in his/her control. This form of SMA/SMO is easily missed if the practitioner identifies SMA as a state of contraction, rather than of habituated dysfunction.
I describe this form of SMA as “tamasic” because it involves chronic non-responsiveness of certain muscles in movement or the inability to move in a certain way, altogether. The person substitutes other muscles to accomplish movements more properly and better done by the muscles to which (s)he is oblivious and/or involuntarily distorts the movement.
The first two forms of SMA respond well to the three basic techniques of Hanna somatic education: Means-Whereby, Kinetic Mirroring, and Assisted Pandiculation.
The third form, SMO, requires a completely different approach, which I will outline.
Addressing “No-Control/Substitution” (SMO)
Isn’t it aggravating when you ask for one thing and receive another? This is how people in SMO live. Everything seems fine until they do something; then, unexpected, mysterious pains appear. They may not know why things go wrong. But we do.
In SMO, because the person isn’t in a painful or restricted state (at least when at rest and when moved passively), we may not know how to interpret their pain when they move.
The pain comes from the substitution of muscular actions that are ordinarily synergistic (helpers) to the “prime mover(s)” — but without the prime movers. It’s “going through the motions” — but badly. It’s “taking action without a leader or clear sense of purpose.” It’s awkward. If awkward enough, it’s painful, particularly if they are as incompetent in controlling the substituting synergists (helper muscles) as they are oblivious to the synergists’ prime movers. (The terms, “prime mover” and “synergist”, are terms from kinesiology. If necessary, “Google” them for understanding.)
The answer for SMO people is somatic exercises. They need to awaken control of certain muscles and develop well-coordinated movements. Then, the synergists relax and their painful excesses diminish into a healthy, well-coordinated grace; joints are no longer put into awkward positions. When such people take action, things no longer “go painfully wrong”; instead, they get a healthy experience and a sound result.
Avoiding Pitfalls
The pitfall of practitioners during assessment is failure to check for full, free range of motion and so to miss the SMA.
During working sessions, the pitfall is failure to achieve full, free range of motion. In Assisted Pandiculation, this failure to achieve full, free range of motion shows up as carrying a pandiculation only through the range of free motion evident upon initial functional assessment — the restricted range of motion — stopping before achieving full lengthening, as if going past the restricting limit would hurt the client. (We assume that the practitioner knows the full range of motion available to a healthy individual and does not fall prey to the “everybody is different” cop-out, but rather understands the kinesiology of the human design and the limitations imposed by pathological joint changes.)
The virtue of Assisted Pandiculation is that it frees movement beyond any previous limitation (within the range of movement determined by joint structure) with no pain or sense of stretching, and this is the “miraculous” appearance of the work to which Thomas Hanna referred in his Wave 1 training. The only dangers of hurting the client are by (1) forcing, by imposing stretch upon the client, rather than relying strictly upon the pandicular response, or by (2) poor (poorly controlled/poorly regulated/awkward) pandicular technique.
When working with a client, never accept a response or action other than the one you asked for. Coach persistently until you get it. That’s how we teach.
Another “never”: Never accept a movement out of contraction that goes along a line different from the movement into contraction. That’s like changing the subject in the middle of a line of inquiry. (“Thank you for the answer, but that answers a question other than the one I asked.”)
The only exception is pain, and for that you do “prep work” to clear up the interfering pain until they can comfortably do what you ask.
are synergistic action patterns . . . . .
movement patterns
composed of numerous simpler movement elements
that combine together
into larger, more complex, integrated movement patterns
that make sense . . . . .
movement patterns . . . . . as integrations of smaller movement elements
. . . . . elements that naturally coordinate together
that wake up and organize your brain in a certain way
. . . . . that allows stretching
to move beyond stretching
with no experience of stretching
as you come out of the grip of musclebound back muscles
and elongate into a more relaxed state.
You learn to control the tight places first
by tightening into tension
that is already tense,
then by slowly relaxing into relaxation
that is release . . . . .
Tension and release,
control in both directions,
getting tighter and letting looser,
deeper into relaxation than before, deeper.
You get a grip and then let go.
You assert control and then rest
and that is control.
By repeatedly practicing each movement pattern
you awaken it,
put it together,
develop it,
and end with deeper,
more balanced equilibrium.
You get a feeling for what
“well-organized” and “well put-together”
feel like.
You gain freedom of movement so natural
that you will soon start
to take it for granted.
Naturally well-coordinated, well-balanced and easy-moving,
such are the lasting improvements of this approach
. . . which begin immediately
… and become more and more …
the more you do it.
You develop good unity of movement and balance
without danger of cramp or spasm
. . . you get free of the grip
more reliably, more durably, more completely
than by being manipulated
or “worked-on” by somebody else.
Because you are controlling it from within
rather than being done to
you can own it,
keep it and refresh it.
This brief piece outlines both conventional and alternative TMJ treatment approaches.
mouth guards / appliances / splints
neuromuscular dentistry
reshaping tooth surfaces
mouth massage
Mouth Guards / Appliances / Splints
The principle and hope of these kinds of devices is that by separating the teeth, they are prevented from grinding each other. However, from the very name, “mouth guard,” we infer that this kind of device doesn’t solve the problem, but only hopes to prevent tooth damage as the problem — tight jaw muscles — continues. It’s obvious — what the mouth is being guarded from is … the mouth! “Appliance” and “splint” are other names for “mouth guard”
Neuromuscular Dentistry
Neuromuscular dentistry takes a more sophisticated technological approach to the use of dental appliances. By measuring electrical activity of the muscles of biting and chewing, practitioners of this approach identify patterns of movement, of position, and of dental stress and then prepare an appliance to retrain the nervous system’s control of those muscles. The desired outcome common comes in a few months; cost ranges from $5,000 to $25,000.
Re-shaping Teeth
Dentists have found that by changing the fit of upper and lower teeth, they can alter neuromuscular control of the muscles of biting and chewing and thereby alleviate TMJ Syndrome. This approach posits that the cause of excessive jaw tension is poor fit between upper and lower teeth. Its method is to reshape tooth surfaces by a polishing process to improve the fit. This method does get results. By changing the fit between teeth (by removing contours that prevent uniform contact among teeth), the process changes ones experience of biting and chewing. This change introduces such a new experience of biting and chewing that habitual patterns of muscular control are interrupted, allowing new movement patterns to form. However, it’s an indirect approach involving ongoing dental surgery in a series of steps to a good fit. While its effects are beneficial, it misses the role of dental trauma in the formation of dental stress.
Mouth Muscle Massage
While the approach sounds relevant, given what I have said above, the limitation of this approach is that jaw muscle muscle tension is maintained by the brain — it’s conditioning — not by the muscles, themselves. So, the results of mouth massage tend to be short-lived.
A New TMJ Therapeutic Approach
Understanding that we are dealing with conditioned postural reflexes that govern muscular tension, one way to cure TMJ Syndrome/TMD naturally would be to retrain those conditioned postural reflexes — in effect, to eliminate residual trauma reflex and to ease dental stress. The video on this page demonstrates exactly that process — called Hanna Somatic Education®. The video shows changes in real-time — painless, fast, inexpensive, and lasting — produced by dispelling automatic, reflexive contraction patterns and re-awakening control of free movement.
The various symptoms of TMD/TMJ Syndrome — headaches, earaches, bruxism, poor bite, tinnitis, postural changes, limited ability to open or close the jaws — resolve into normal function.
In this entry, you also have instruction for Emotional SuperPandiculation, a technique for freeing emotions. Negative emotions are always states of contraction, actual contraction, of the musculature.However, they’re organized differently that the motor behaviors of movement, so you use a slight difference of technique, given below. You can use the same technique to dissolve pains that you don’t know how to move, to re-create.
Onward.
In his original instruction to us, his students of his 1990 Clinical Somatic Education training, Thomas Hanna showed us how to use The Pandicular Response to free people from the grip of The Landau Reaction, which tightens the back/posterior side of the body and, when excessively activated for long periods of time, causes back pain, sciatica, tight shoulders and tension headaches.
In Lesson One (Green Light lesson) for Landau Reaction, he showed us how to coach our client through a Whole-body yawn (pandicular maneuver), beginning with a lifting action of one leg and its opposite shoulder, arm and hand, and head, as in the video, below — to lower them by stages in steps of relaxation, with a mini-in-breath with each mini-lift . . . . . before lowering some more.
First, the video, so you know for sure the maneuver to which I refer.
I have found that “staged” or “stepped” relaxation can be made more powerful by a technique that I have named, “The Diamond Penetration” maneuver (or SuperPandiculation). The reason I have named it The Diamond Penetration Technique (like drilling through rock with a diamond bit) will become clear to you once you start doing it. For now, I say that uses The Power of Recognition, as I have described it in the linked article, “Attention is a Catalyst“, to amplify pandiculation, or any other therapeutic or educational technique, for that matter. Assisted Pandiculation is accelerated learning, and learning involves recognition and development, based upon memory. Memory, learning, recognition, function and development are five development stages of a single function. There’s one more.
Memory — the ground function, memory — persistence of pattern, memory
Learning — modification of the ground function into a durable pattern of memory
Recognition — the closely approximate match of some memory with an experience happening now
Function — initiation of action, memory activated and applied to this moment
Integration — facility to move freely and functionally among different remembered patterns
Evolution — expansion of attention beyond both memory and the moment — the space of emergence of newness, for patterns newly emerging into the moment, to be remembered into existence.
Take the starting initials of each, and you get MLRFIE! Well, that’s as far as we’ll go with that one, folks — at least for now. We’ll come back to that strange, unpronounceable acronym, later (or not).
In his demonstrations to us, Thomas Hanna had the person on the table lower the leg part way, then lift a bit, then lower some more, repeating by stages, to complete rest. He even commented that that same maneuver was what Joe Montana did, spontaneously, after his back surgery and commented ruefully about to what the rapid improvement was attributed — namely, surgery and physical therapy!
Here’s the “inside” of that maneuver: The lifting action produces a sensation. By re-lifting after lowering part way, the client re-locates the sensation of lifting (contracting the muscles of lifting the leg). To re-locate the sensation activates the power of recognition, which is central to all learning. (No recognition — no learning.)
That’s the central principle of The Diamond Penetration Technique. I give detailed instructions, below.
Hereare the advantages of using The Diamond Penetration Technique. It:
rapidly penetrates Sensory-Motor Amnesia
rapidly awakens sensory awareness and motor control that has never been awake, before (penetrates Sensory-Motor Obliviousness)
speeds integration of multiple “movement elements” into a single coordinated action
increases the result of a single pandiculation — relaxation and control
decreases the number of repetitions needed for pandiculation to get the desired result
shortens the time needed to get a good result from a somatic exercise lesson
Obviously, these benefits are interrelated and just “a tiny bit” useful when working to transform yourself.
I have elaborated that principle into a very powerful technique, “Diamond Penetration” or SuperPandiculation. Very powerful. Clinical practitioners can apply this technique to assisted pandiculation maneuvers; clients can apply it to somatic exercises, and to free-form pandiculations you may do to work out pains or restrictions for which no somatic exercise currently exists.
I have developed several increasingly powerful variations of The Diamond Penetration Technique, which I outline, here.
“The Quick Return”
“The Quick Return and Sustained Hold”
“The Two-Movement-Element Combination”
“Twos and Threes”
“The Diamond Pattern”
“The Multi-Movement-Element Combination Sequence”
As you can see, these variations increase in complexity. The way to learn them is to do them, not to memorize them as instructions. Learn only one at a time to full proficiency.
Now the instruction. I’m going to spread things out in detail, so stay with me.
The Quick Return
Repetition is basic to recognition.
In The Quick Return, we contract into movement and feel the sensation of the end-point of movement (“where we end up in the movement”), then relax part-way for an instant, then re-contract and re-locate the exact same sensation.
Contract and feel what’s tight.
Relax part-way.
Re-contract to feel the exact same thing.
That’s a Quick Return. It activates The Power of Recognition (familiarity, or memory). We might call each repetition “a pulse of sensation.”
An example from Lesson One of the Myth of Aging program would be,
“Lie on your belly, head turned, with your thumb in front of your nose, your hand flat on the surface. Lift your elbow to the limit. Feel what that feels like in your neck and shoulder.
Now lower it a bit, and immediately lift again. Find the exact same sensation at the same place and intensity. That’s called, ‘a Quick Return’. Remember that for use, as we go along.”
“Mini Quick Returns”
During the relaxation phase of pandiculation, you can do many “mini” Quick Returns on the way to complete relaxation.
PRINCIPLE
It takes two incidents or occasions to activate memory; prior to that, it’s just sensory awareness or cognition — no recognition. In fact, without recognition, something happening is identical to nothing happening; we don’t know what it is, other than that it’s “something but we don’t really know what”, which makes the experience somewhat evanescent.
Now, the thing that makes one occurrence different from two occurrences of the same thing is the contrast between “happening” and “not happening”. “Not happening” has to separate the two occurrences. That’s the principle, “Somas perceive by contrast,” or “Somas can perceive only changes.” In somatic education practice, the common contrast is between activity and rest — which is why I instruct clients, “Come to complete rest between repetitions.” Without “not happening”, there’s only one long incident.
The Quick Return and Sustained Hold
We know that for a sensation to emerge, and for attention to steady on a sensation, takes time. Quick things escape our noticing.
So, after the Quick Return, we sustain the action (“sustained hold”) to let it “fade into view”. Attention steadies in and on the sensation. The sensation becomes more vivid.
To apply a sustained hold, you first do a series of Quick Returns (however many) then hold the final Quick Return; during that holding time, remember the pattern and tempo of the Quick Returns that got you there, i.e., brought you into this holding pattern. Then, you slowly relax, taking time at least equal to the amount of time it to to do all of the Quick Returns . . . . . or longer . . . . to complete relaxation.
Thus, you
first sense and do the movement and a number of quick returns
hold the final quick-return, then
remember the movement (counting out the same tempo) while holding the contraction, then
back out (ease out) of the movement slowly and deliberately to complete rest.
You come to know the beginning of the movement, its middle, and its end — initiating it, sustaining it, and letting it go.
How useful do you think that might be for learning to occur?
The instruction would be:
“Do a Quick Return and hold. Now, slowly relax.”
PRINCIPLE
Experience takes time.
Sustain the hold for the total amount of time it took to do all the Quick Returns. For two Quick Returns (three movements into position), sustain the hold for a “count” of three — equal to the time it took to contract and then do two Quick Returns — then relax during a count of three. (That doesn’t mean, “Relax and then count to three.” It means, “Take a count of three to go from contracted to relaxed.”)
Comparing Memory to Action
Integrating the flesh-body and the subtle-body (mind).
Having done a Quick Return and Hold, you now remember the sensation of movement (while holding the contraction)and then do another quick-return to compare the sensation of doing the action to the memory of doing the action. Are they the same? If not, keep making new memories until they match.
You might then repeat the movement and compare to memory until the movement and the memory closely match.
PRINCIPLE
Memory is the root of action.
HIGHER INTEGRATION
While sustaining contraction, create a memory of the feeling. You have two things going, now:
doing the action
creating a memory that matches the feeling of the action
STILL HIGHER INTEGRATION
With each act of creating a memory, scan yourself for any sensation you may have missed, in earlier repetitions, and include it in the memory. Compare your memory to the sensation of the action.
STILL HIGHER INTEGRATION
While sustaining an action, scan the rest of you for any effort that doesn’t directly help the action, and relax it (usual result: elongation).
Emotional SuperPandiculation
This is an opportune time to tell you about Emotional SuperPandiculation. You use Emotional SuperPandiculation to free yourself of any painful
emotions associated with your condition (or any negative emotion, altogether).
To do that, identify any emotion
that you have present and do
the Diamond Penetration Technique with it,
with the following subsitutions.
Instead of doing a movement, merely put
your attention on the present emotion.
Instead
of relaxing out of
contraction, merely release your attention
from the present emotion
(while, as appropriate, retaining attention on
the memory of it).
Instead
of releasing the memory of the sensation of
contraction, merely release the memory of the
emotion.
Repeat with a
single emotion until
you’ve released it. Then address
whatever emotions remain
the same way.
The Two-Movement-Element Combination
Coordination develops when we combine two actions (“movement elements”) into one.
In the Green Light lesson, we lift the elbow-hand-head-shoulder with the opposite-side leg, as in the video. Those are the two movement elements.
Using the Quick Return, the instruction could be:
“With your hand flat on the surface, lift your elbow to the limit. Now do a Quick Return (relax and re-contract) and hold.
Now, lift your straight leg. Now lower it a bit, and do a Quick Return.
Now, do a Quick Return of both, together.” (combination Quick Return)
When doing the Quick Return of both, together, the movements should be synchronized to start and end together. That develops coordination (integration).
HIGHER INTEGRATION
I have discovered another kind of “three part action” that rapidly integrates two movement elements. It goes beyond The Equalization Technique.
It goes like this.
Do a Quick Return of the first movement element and hold.
Do a Quick Return of the second movement element and hold.
Both movement elements are now active. Now, integrate them with each other in a three-part maneuver:
Pulse the first movement element to firm up the second movement element.
You’ll feel it. If you don’t feel it, you’ve partially lost the second movement element. Bring it back and pulse the first movement element, again, until you feel it make the second movement element stronger.
Pulse the second movement element to firm up the first movement element.
Pulse the first movement element to firm up the second movement element.
You’ve now forged a better connection between the two movement elements. That’s the other kind of “three” maneuver, an integration maneuver.
You can use this “three” maneuver with any two synergistic movements of any somatic exercise (“synergistic” means that the two movements help each other).
Twos and Threes
Now, we get a bit more sophisticated.
Once you or a client have done a combination Quick Return, you’re in a position to do two Quick Returns. That makes for, not two quick experiences of the same thing, but three — the first action and the two Quick Returns.
If that’s confusing, lie on your belly with your thumb by your nose and do two Quick Returns. You’ll see it creates the same sensation three times. Just do it.
Here’s the thing: If, with a single movement, you alternate between one Quick Return (to complete relaxation) and two Quick Returns, you alternate creating two experiences of a sensation with creating three experiences. That’s a contrast, in itselfand it keeps attention fresh.
When done as a combination Quick Return, it’s a very powerful way of creating learning that causes a series of internal shifts of sensory-motor organization.
The instruction could be:
Lift your elbow. Now do a Quick Return and hold.
Lift your leg. Now do a Quick Return and hold.
(two movements at the same time)
Now, do two combination Quick Returns (a “three”). Relax completely.
Now, do one combination Quick Return (a “two”). Relax completely.
Alternate doing two and doing one. Continue until you get better coordinated.
PRINCIPLE
Changes of patterns awaken the Power of Recognitionand trigger learning.
Do (some action, such as lifting the elbow) and hold. Now, relax completely.
Do one Quick Return (2 experiences of a sensation) and hold. Now, relax completely.
Now, do two Quick Returns (3 experiences of a sensation) and hold. Now, relax completely.
Now, do three Quick Returns (4 experiences of a sensation) and hold. Now, relax completely.
Now, do two Quick Returns (3 experiences of a sensation) and hold. Now, relax completely.
Now, do one Quick Return (2 experiences of the sensation) and hold. Now, relax completely.
Now, do the action without a Quick Return (1 experience of the sensation). Hold before relaxing to complete rest.
The experience “backs a person out of contraction” and gets them able to feel more and more with less and less stimulation.
To see the value, try it with any movement or combination.
PRINCIPLE
Bucky Fuller pointed out that four incidents or occasions of an event were the minimum needed to recognize a stable pattern.
It goes like this: one incident or occasion:
internal experience: “Something has happened.”
(capture of attention)
two incidents or occasions of the same thing:
internal experience: “This seems familiar.”
(recognition)
three incidents or occasions of the same thing:
internal experience: “There seems to be consistency.”
(building upon recognition – “There is something to learn, here”)
four or more incidents or occasions of the same thing:
internal experience: “There’s a consistent pattern, here.”
(development of knowledge)
Test this out in yourself through introspection.
APPLICATION
The Diamond Penetration Techniquecan be applied to single movements, to simpler somatic exercise lessons (e.g., those of “The Cat Stretch” or “The New Seated Refreshment Exercises“), to more complex somatic exercises that involve as many as seven movement elements in combination (e.g., “Free Yourself from Back Pain” or “The Five-Pointed Star“), or to inherent action patterns such as those of walking (“SuperWalking“), twisting, or wriggling.
This technique lends itself to The Equalization Technique, discussed in The Evolution of Clinical Somatic Education Techniques. In a combination Quick Return, match (by feel) the effort of one movement to the effort of the others; equalize them. Read the article.
The Multi-Movement-Element Combination Sequence
In general, it goes like this:
Do a Quick Return of the first movement element, and hold.
Do a Quick Return of the second movement element, and hold.
Do two combination Quick Returns of the two movement elements, and hold.
Do a Quick Return of the third movement element.
Do two combination Quick Returns of the three movement elements (with Equalization Technique).
Do a Quick Return of the fourth movement element (if there is one).
Do two combination Quick Returns of the four movement elements (with Equalization Technique).
Keep adding movement elements that fit together (synergistically) until they are all assembled into one Grand Coordinated Movement.
You can do Mini-Quick-Returns with the entire movement pattern, through the relaxation phase to complete rest.
Calibrating Memory (Subtle Body) to Sensation (Dense Physical Body)
Having done any of the variations, above, you can end a sequence by alternating a single quick returnwith a moment of rest (or a moment of holding the contraction), during which you remember (or imagine) and compare what you just felt with what you remembered.
You alternate a single quick return with remembering/imagining until your memory matches the experience very closely.
Then, you do a final contraction, hold and remember, then relax very, very slowly.
When the memory matches the experience, you have integrated your subtle and dense physical bodies. Relaxing at that point enables you to come out of contraction much more completely than otherwise.
PRINCIPLE
We perceive by means of contrast; we correct things by making a comparison. We gain control by means of the memory of action combined with the memory of sensation.
SUMMARY
Each pulse of movement creates a sensation that you locate as your “target” for Quick Return.
In each repetition of a pulse, you locate the identical sensation in the identical location.
In combination Quick Returns, you locate the identical feeling of the whole movement each time you do the combination movement.
Each pattern of repetitions (2’s, 3’s, “diamond pattern”) magnifies the Power of Recognition.
I know this is complex. That’s why you start simply, at the beginning. Internalize each level of complexity until you have it all under your belt.
Then, teach your clients to their capacity, but not beyond. If they “lose it”, coach them until they’ve mastered what you’ve covered, before going further.
COPYRIGHT 2011 Lawrence Gold ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
reproduction by permission, only
Add your comment — what you would like to ask or tell.
A basic understanding of muscle tone recognizes that the seat of control of muscles and movement is not muscles, but the brain, not “muscle memory” but “movement memory”, not “posture” but habitual or learned movement patterns.
Lasting changes in muscle tone require movement training at the neurological (i.e., brain) level, something that manual manipulation of muscles accomplishes, at best, slowly, but which can be achieve quickly by somatic education, a discipline that rapidly alters habitual posture, movement, and muscle tone through an internal learning process.
While “good posture” is considered a sign of good movement health, there are true and false teachings about how to achieve it.
The popular view of good posture is that it is something you have to maintain; it’s a “good” holding pattern. The concepts, “neutral spine position” and “alignment”, fall into this category. “Shoulders back, chest up, stomach in” are typical instructions for maintaining good posture.
The popular view and the typical instructions I have described constitutes a false teaching about good posture — and by false, I mean detrimental.
Here’s why: It adds strain to an already strained muscular system and unnaturally restrains movement.
The common teaching about good posture assumes that good posture is not the natural or free condition and that one must therefore do something to maintain it. This view may seem reasonable and inevitable; “If you don’t do something to maintain good posture, you’re left with the poor posture you had, already.”
But an unrecognized truth underlies this assumption: Most people are beset by habitual muscular tension patterns that drag them down from good posture, tension patterns of which they are unaware because they are so used to them, tension patterns formed at the time of injuries or of emotional stress (i.e., nervous tension).
In actuality, good posture is the easiest condition to maintain — if you are free of habitual tension patterns. If not, then you must do something to counteract those tension patterns, to restore good posture. That’s the condition most people are in.
This assertion may be hard to accept until you have experienced the reality of what happens when you get free of your habitual tension state.
Massage and bodywork typically seek to alleviate habitual tension, but with rare exception, they do not alter a person’s postural set because to do so would require a second step: to develop better coordination.
Coordinationis the basis of good movement, good posture, good alignment.
Posture, viewed another way, results from moving into a certain shape and holding it. It’s a function of movement.
Most movements are developed by learning. So is posture.
The difference is that injuries and stress change movement patterns in lasting ways that are commonly beyond the ability of people to change; these movement patterns persist on automatic. That’s why teachings about posture recommend counter-actions to those movement patterns.
So, what’s the answer? Are we forever destined to poor and worsening posture as we grow older?
The answer is, no. But what is needed is a way to undo habitual muscular tensions formed by injuries and stress, not to counteract them (either through “good posture” disciplines or through strengthening of muscles).
Such a way exists. The discipline of clinical somatic education teaches and employs exactly such a way.
All animals with a backbone do a certain action instinctually upon arising from rest, as they become active. This action, commonly mistaken for stretching, involves a strong muscular contraction followed by a leisurely relaxation; different animals have different patterns, but all do it in some form. This action pattern called, “pandiculation”, refreshes the brain’s body image and purges accumulated tension. Birds do it by shrugging their wings back, reaching their legs back, one at a time, and then flapping their wings; cats and dogs do it by first bowing, arching their back, and then shaking. Humans do it in the natural “yawn and morning stretch” (different in performance from the calf or hamstring stretches athletes do).
Clinical somatic education uses techniques that activate this genetically-present action behavior methodically and in a magnified way to free people from the grip of tension patterns formed by injury and stress. In the case of clinical somatic education, we apply the contraction/relaxation behavior to places where the person holds tension; with injuries and stress, these tensions always exist in patterns, so it’s not a matter of “releasing muscles”, but of releasing entire patterns of tension. The result is a lasting release of muscular tension. Then, we teach movement patterns that link muscle groups together in certain inherently well-organized patterns of coordination, to replace less well-organized pathological patterns. It’s a lower-effort, easier, more efficient condition of living.
No longer is the person dragged down from good posture by habitual muscular tension. (S)he is free to stand and move at her or his full stature and in the easy balance that free and well-coordinated movement permits.
The results of pandiculation distinguish the good posture of freedom from tension from the ‘good posture’ maintained by pitting one muscle group (used to maintain good posture) from other muscle groups (held tight by the lingering effects of injury and stress).
Easy balance is the natural state, whether at rest or in movement. Good posture isn’t something you maintain; it’s nearly effortless, the product of good balance and good coordination.
To see and hear how we apply pandiculation to back trouble, view Back Exercises for Lower Back Pain. See other examples of pandiculation instruction in the somatic exercises shown on YouTube channel “Lawrence9Gold”.
A common misconception exists about core exercises or core workouts — even, or particularly, among some athletic trainers. The misunderstanding of which I speak is, “What is ‘core’?”
Commonly the muscles of the abdominal wall are considered, “core”. This is incorrect. Those muscles are surface, the way the skin of an apple is surface to the apple core.
The core muscles are the deepest muscles; they lie closest to the bone (or body center) and exert the greatest control of balance and coordination. Among them, the psoas muscles, the quadratus lumborum, the diaphragm, in the the trunk, and the scalene muscles of the neck and the muscles of swallowing in the throat, as examples — all of which affect spinal alignment, and thereby, balance. Strength is not their primary contribution, and so the notion of “core strengthening” is inherently misguided.
What is sought through core strengthening is usually stability, but stability doesn’t come from strength; it comes from balance.
Balance is a consequence of close coordination between opposing muscles and between muscles and their synergists (helpers).
When a person gets musclebound, as often happens in physical conditioning programs and in cases of injury, close coordination gets distorted, as one muscle or muscle group overpowers another.
Easy balance is impossible when one is in that condition; the person is inherently unstable and muscle tone must shift throughout the body to compensate for those imbalanced in a less-easy stability.
More than that, a person cannot strengthen what they cannot feel, and one can’t feel the core if one muscle group overpowers the other. The core can be sensed only when muscles are closely coordinated in a condition of easy, dynamic balance.
Even if core strengthening exercises give equal attention to strengthening all muscles in the (supposed) core group, they don’t necessarily give attention to both freeing musclebound muscles and developing balanced (i.e., equal) control/coordination of all of those muscles.
More than that, if muscles of the peripheries of the body, e.g., legs, arms, neck, are musclebound or poorly coordinated, they cause unbalancing pulls from the peripheries of the body to the core. They cause instability that cannot be corrected by core strengthening; they can be corrected only by restoring suppleness and balance among opposing muscles and among muscular synergists (mutual helpers).
So, approaches at core conditioning must have the following two elements present:
alleviating musclebound conditioning
developing balanced coordination
That said, I’d like to point you to an example of a core conditioning program that does just that: called, “The Five-Pointed Star“, one of a number of programs people use to alleviate pain, to recover from injury, and to cultivate balance and suppleness.
Another program that has garnered special interest concerns the psoas muscles, Free Your Psoas, also has that effect. Recognizing that the peripheries affect the core, this program presents a whole-body approach to freeing and integrating the psoas muscles.
We all respond similarly to injury: we tighten up (involuntarily cringe).
Stress (in life and relationships) and repetitive motions (e.g., in our occupation) have similar effects: we tighten or get tight so often or for so long that our brain — the master-control organ of our muscular system — learns to hold muscles tight indefinitely, automatically, habitually, and ultimately, beyond our ability to relax them.
For example, a car mechanic may develop back spasms or neck pain; a haircutter may develop wrist, hand or shoulder pain; a massage therapist may develop low back pain, and and wrist pain, or leg pain; someone with a stressful job or home life may develop headaches — and of course, joint pain due to overcompression by tight muscles is common among the general population; they call it, “arthritis”.
A person going through a life crisis may emerge with new tensions, restricted breathing, and low energy.
We forget how we used to be and get stuck in a strange new condition. The burn of muscle fatigue and stiffness become permanent. Inflammation, chronic fatigue, and joint degeneration commonly occur as long-term side-effects of that tension. Stress-related symptoms such as headaches or sciatica or other symptoms occur, seemingly inexplicably.
Despite these symptoms, including pain, we may have no injury. The injury may have healed, the life crisis may have passed, but we may remain stuck with the residue of injury and/or stress.
Because tight muscles cause pain and stiffness, because your brain controls your muscles, any therapy, to be effective, must address muscular activity at the brain (i.e., memory) level.
Somatic education has some advantages over drugs or therapy applied to soft tissue and joints: much less pain during therapy and faster improvement. For most cases of chronic musculo-skeletal pain, Hanna Somatic Education® is sufficient as a stand-alone rehabilitation method.
