CRITICAL CLASS UPDATE:
Students and friends,
There will be no 3 pm class at ACHIEVE Fitness on Saturday Oct. 13. Regular 3 pm Saturday classes will resume on October 20 and continue through the middle of December. Please contact me if you have any questions, at renofeldenkrais@aol.com.
Thank you and best wishes,
Carole
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Feldenkrais for Equestrians
Feldenkrais Raises the Bar on Equestrian Excellence
by Carole Bucher, BA, GCFP/T
Riders all over the world have used the Feldenkrais Method® for high level competitive edge and to establish in themselves an exceptionally refined capacity to sense themselves and their mounts. This refined capacity of sensing means that horse and rider are able to create a symphony of movement in which their rhythms blend and combine in a truly extraordinary way. You know it when you witness it--but more important, when you experience it as the rider, you feel it like heaven unfolding in motion and sensation. It defies description, goes far beyond words.
To shed light on this phenomena, I am including an article from the 2008 online journal, Centeredriding.org. Here, the underlying aspects of the Feldenkrais Method® are dissected and explained in a simple yet elegant way, and reveal how the method is able to offer such possibility to riders.
The article also takes the reader through a simple, interesting Feldenkrais® Awareness Through Movement® lesson to provide a taste of what the method is all about, first hand. I hope you enjoy it! Note that the article, with photos, is also linked on my www.facebook.com/RenoFeldenkrais page.
The Feldenkrais Method® and Its Application to Riding
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Author: Margreet Bouwmeester
Do you know that working with Feldenkrais® can make you a better rider?
As a human and rider, we move the whole day. We are unaware of a lot of our movement and we do not think when we move. We are busy with what we have to do and not with how we are going to do the movement. When you are aware of the how of a movement you can experience an easier, more supple way to move. This seems a lot like Centered Riding :>))
This is the idea behind the Feldenkrais Method. The Feldenkrais Method was originated by Dr Moshé Feldenkrais (1904-1984), a Ukrainian-born Jewish physicist and judo practitioner who moved to Israel and eventually became an Israeli. Dr. Feldenkrais presented a view that good health means functioning well---working well, having satisfying relationships with emotional maturity, able to access a full range of responses to any situation ("Awareness Through Movement ®"). He asserted that his method of body/mind exploration leads to improved functioning (health) through individuals becoming more aware and finding improved use; this focus on exploration and awareness is typified by his statement "What I am after is more flexible minds, not just more flexible bodies". Mabel Ellsworth Todd, the woman who worked with Sally Swift, is cited as one of the persons who influenced Dr. Moshé Feldenkrais.
The basis of movement is skeleton anatomy. The muscles are second and are for control. Balance is action. Movement is always the whole movement of horse and rider. Do you know where the movement of your body stops during horse riding? Is your body moving with the horse? Better riding starts with awareness. Good teaching does also. As an instructor, specifically a Centered Riding instructor, watch where the movement of the skeleton stops; then you see were the force stops. The force is moving through the skeleton. The skeleton is the railroad track, the muscles are the train. When the railroad track is working, the muscles are doing their work right.
There are 4 parts in the journey of working with the Feldenkrais Method:
Awareness: if you know how you move, you can change (for example: do you know where your seatbones are?
Differentiate: This means you make the movement smaller. When you start to become aware of the movement, you notice the difference (for example: are your seatbones pointed to the ears, the tail or the back of the horse?)
Choice: If you can differentiate, you have a choice. You can make the choice to change. You can do your movement the old way or the new way.
Freedom: The first three principles give freedom. If you know how you learn, you can learn everything.
How can the Feldenkrais Method help you as a rider?
Working with Feldenkrais helps you to discover how to use your bones in support of the body instead of using your muscles. Feldenkrais teaches you to get a better balance, a better feeling and the experience of more freedom in your body. This means your horse can move better. Communication between horse and rider is affected by how the rider sits and moves. The Feldenkrais Method can also be very helpful when you have pain in the body, back pain, limitations of an old injury or limitations you didn’t know you had. Movement improves with the four parts of the journey as written above. (Photo: The rider's hand is placed on her back for awareness)
Using this method on and off the horse helps you to have more relaxed shoulders, softer hands, hip joints (and other joints) that can move. You will develop awareness of how a neutral pelvis feels, how soft knees and ankles feel. Breathing will be easier. You become more aware in the use of your eyes. The Feldenkrais Method gives choices in movement, awareness and balance which are both very important parts of horse riding.
Here is a simple / easy exercise to do based upon the Feldenkrais Method. The most common position for Feldenkrais lessons is lying on the floor. This exercise is on a chair, however, because it relates to riding. (making turns)
Be aware that you move very slowly, this brings awareness that you need to get a higher quality of movement.
Sit on a chair (not leaning back) and look to the right side over your shoulder. Look to the farthest point (most distal point) you can see. Be aware of the way how you are doing this, what your habit is. Where is your weight in your seatbones? What are your eyes doing? Are you pushing on the ground with one or another foot? Is the movement going freely or does the movement stop somewhere in the body? You will notice this only when you move slowly. Go back to your basic seat. (This is the test move).
Turn your head to the left and shoulders to the right side and look to the left.
Next: Turn your head to the left side, your shoulders to the left side and look to the right side, then: turn your shoulders to the right side, head left and look to the right side,
Next: turn your shoulders to the right side, head left and look to the left side.
Next turn your head, shoulders to the left and look to the left side.
At least turn right again, and let the movement go through the body. Is there a change in the movement? Where is the weight in your seatbones? Do your legs move with the turn? Do you feel the diagonal better? Can you look farther then the first time? If not repeat every movement again and be aware to move slowly.
There are a lot of different movements in The Feldenkrais Method - somewhere around 1000. If you want to know more about Feldenkrais lessons, go to a certified Feldenkrais® practitioner for a lesson. Even if it’s without a horse, your body will learn.
Photos: In the first photo, the rider sits crooked in the saddle. In the second photo, the rider sits straight after the exercises.
by Carole Bucher, BA, GCFP/T
Riders all over the world have used the Feldenkrais Method® for high level competitive edge and to establish in themselves an exceptionally refined capacity to sense themselves and their mounts. This refined capacity of sensing means that horse and rider are able to create a symphony of movement in which their rhythms blend and combine in a truly extraordinary way. You know it when you witness it--but more important, when you experience it as the rider, you feel it like heaven unfolding in motion and sensation. It defies description, goes far beyond words.
To shed light on this phenomena, I am including an article from the 2008 online journal, Centeredriding.org. Here, the underlying aspects of the Feldenkrais Method® are dissected and explained in a simple yet elegant way, and reveal how the method is able to offer such possibility to riders.
The article also takes the reader through a simple, interesting Feldenkrais® Awareness Through Movement® lesson to provide a taste of what the method is all about, first hand. I hope you enjoy it! Note that the article, with photos, is also linked on my www.facebook.com/RenoFeldenkrais page.
The Feldenkrais Method® and Its Application to Riding
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Author: Margreet Bouwmeester
Do you know that working with Feldenkrais® can make you a better rider?
As a human and rider, we move the whole day. We are unaware of a lot of our movement and we do not think when we move. We are busy with what we have to do and not with how we are going to do the movement. When you are aware of the how of a movement you can experience an easier, more supple way to move. This seems a lot like Centered Riding :>))
This is the idea behind the Feldenkrais Method. The Feldenkrais Method was originated by Dr Moshé Feldenkrais (1904-1984), a Ukrainian-born Jewish physicist and judo practitioner who moved to Israel and eventually became an Israeli. Dr. Feldenkrais presented a view that good health means functioning well---working well, having satisfying relationships with emotional maturity, able to access a full range of responses to any situation ("Awareness Through Movement ®"). He asserted that his method of body/mind exploration leads to improved functioning (health) through individuals becoming more aware and finding improved use; this focus on exploration and awareness is typified by his statement "What I am after is more flexible minds, not just more flexible bodies". Mabel Ellsworth Todd, the woman who worked with Sally Swift, is cited as one of the persons who influenced Dr. Moshé Feldenkrais.
The basis of movement is skeleton anatomy. The muscles are second and are for control. Balance is action. Movement is always the whole movement of horse and rider. Do you know where the movement of your body stops during horse riding? Is your body moving with the horse? Better riding starts with awareness. Good teaching does also. As an instructor, specifically a Centered Riding instructor, watch where the movement of the skeleton stops; then you see were the force stops. The force is moving through the skeleton. The skeleton is the railroad track, the muscles are the train. When the railroad track is working, the muscles are doing their work right.
There are 4 parts in the journey of working with the Feldenkrais Method:
Awareness: if you know how you move, you can change (for example: do you know where your seatbones are?
Differentiate: This means you make the movement smaller. When you start to become aware of the movement, you notice the difference (for example: are your seatbones pointed to the ears, the tail or the back of the horse?)
Choice: If you can differentiate, you have a choice. You can make the choice to change. You can do your movement the old way or the new way.
Freedom: The first three principles give freedom. If you know how you learn, you can learn everything.
How can the Feldenkrais Method help you as a rider?
Working with Feldenkrais helps you to discover how to use your bones in support of the body instead of using your muscles. Feldenkrais teaches you to get a better balance, a better feeling and the experience of more freedom in your body. This means your horse can move better. Communication between horse and rider is affected by how the rider sits and moves. The Feldenkrais Method can also be very helpful when you have pain in the body, back pain, limitations of an old injury or limitations you didn’t know you had. Movement improves with the four parts of the journey as written above. (Photo: The rider's hand is placed on her back for awareness)
Using this method on and off the horse helps you to have more relaxed shoulders, softer hands, hip joints (and other joints) that can move. You will develop awareness of how a neutral pelvis feels, how soft knees and ankles feel. Breathing will be easier. You become more aware in the use of your eyes. The Feldenkrais Method gives choices in movement, awareness and balance which are both very important parts of horse riding.
Here is a simple / easy exercise to do based upon the Feldenkrais Method. The most common position for Feldenkrais lessons is lying on the floor. This exercise is on a chair, however, because it relates to riding. (making turns)
Be aware that you move very slowly, this brings awareness that you need to get a higher quality of movement.
Sit on a chair (not leaning back) and look to the right side over your shoulder. Look to the farthest point (most distal point) you can see. Be aware of the way how you are doing this, what your habit is. Where is your weight in your seatbones? What are your eyes doing? Are you pushing on the ground with one or another foot? Is the movement going freely or does the movement stop somewhere in the body? You will notice this only when you move slowly. Go back to your basic seat. (This is the test move).
Turn your head to the left and shoulders to the right side and look to the left.
Next: Turn your head to the left side, your shoulders to the left side and look to the right side, then: turn your shoulders to the right side, head left and look to the right side,
Next: turn your shoulders to the right side, head left and look to the left side.
Next turn your head, shoulders to the left and look to the left side.
At least turn right again, and let the movement go through the body. Is there a change in the movement? Where is the weight in your seatbones? Do your legs move with the turn? Do you feel the diagonal better? Can you look farther then the first time? If not repeat every movement again and be aware to move slowly.
There are a lot of different movements in The Feldenkrais Method - somewhere around 1000. If you want to know more about Feldenkrais lessons, go to a certified Feldenkrais® practitioner for a lesson. Even if it’s without a horse, your body will learn.
Photos: In the first photo, the rider sits crooked in the saddle. In the second photo, the rider sits straight after the exercises.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Feldenkrais Class Updates Fall 2012
AWARENESS THROUGH MOVEMENT® classes Week of Sept. 7-14,
ACHIEVE Fitness and RBC:
Because it is such an important lesson and many people missed it last week, we are repeating the wonderful, foundational Mark Reese lesson from from 'Moving Out of Pain.' The lesson gently addresses differentiating movement in the legs, pelvis and chest; freeing, clarifying and integrating movement in each of these areas. You will feel changes in shoulders, chest, pelvis and overall posture. The lesson also lengthens the spine and opens the ribs.
Starting A NEW PELVIC FLOOR CLASS, based on Deborah Bowes cutting edge pelvic floor system work, on Thursday Sept. 13 at the Reno Buddhist Center. This class is excellent for SCOLIOSIS as well as all pelvic floor system issues, including breathing and balance.
Contact me at renofeldenkrais@aol.com for more information or if you have questions.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Mia Segal, Differentiation and Integration
Defining Differentation of the Arms, Shoulders and Ribs
Another wonderful example of the magic of Feldenkrais from legendary Mia Segal, one of Dr. Feldenkrais' first students. Principles of both Awareness Through Movement and Functional Integration become clear.
Another wonderful example of the magic of Feldenkrais from legendary Mia Segal, one of Dr. Feldenkrais' first students. Principles of both Awareness Through Movement and Functional Integration become clear.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Introduction to the Feldenkrais Method, from Alan Fraser, renowned Feldenkrais teacher, pianist, and practitioner
THE FELDENKRAIS METHOD: difficult to explain, wonderful to experience.
Feldenkrais was aware that movement is controlled by electrical signals from the brain, and that every movement exists as an image in the brain before it actually happens. His unique contribution to science is his discovery of a way to interact directly with these neuromotor processes, literally reprogramming the brain to improve its movement organization. The ramifications for this are immense and still unfolding.
Feldenkrais Method brings improvement to
--stroke victims and patients with cerebral palsy, MS, emphysema and other movement-impairing illnesses.
--athletes, dancers and actors – both those who have suffered injury and those who simply want to improve their skills, i.e., pianists, other instrumentalists, vocalists, conductors – all musicians who seek relief from injury or enhancement of their capacity for fine control of every element of their musical expression
--ordinary people with back pain or any movement limitation
The movements in a Feldenkrais session are exceptionally small and gentle, sometimes even imperceptible. The client often wonders what is going on because she is not used to perceiving the fine differences in sensation on which the learning process of Feldenkrais is based. But that’s the secret of Feldenkrais’s success: instead of using the grosser amounts of energy that make a muscle actually contract (think of the amount of electricity needed to light an incandescent light bulb), it works with the extremely low-energy signals coming from the brain to the muscle (like the signal a computer key sends the processor). An Awareness Through Movement® lesson is not a lesson in movement as we know it at all, but a fine-tuning of the neurological control mechanisms of movement.
Here’s the kicker: the practitioner accesses those neuromotor processes through the client’s skeleton.
When bones are out of alignment, muscles work hard to keep the skeleton in place, and they are not so free to generate movement. When bones are well-aligned, the muscles work less to hold and more to move: movements feel easier but are stronger. If the practitioner moves the client’s body paying attention to the skeletal mechanics within, he begins to be able to differentiate, by sensation, between the bones, muscles and nervous impulses. A physiotherapist will move an injured leg through various configurations to restore the leg’s sense of moveability and limberness. The Feldenkrais practitioner moves the same leg a miniscule amount, and senses how well the bones line up to transmit a force through. He feels with high sensitivity even the smallest resistance, the smallest possible interference from muscles that hold instead of help.
But the practitioner doesn’t then plough through that resistance. The more you resist, the more it persists! Instead the practitioner ‘nudges up’ against the resistance and then backs off again. He makes the brain more aware of what it’s doing. He brings the resistance into the brain’s sensory picture of that part of the body. We are talking of miniscule, virtually imperceptible movements here – movements so small that they are not perceived as intrusive but inquisitive. After some time the neuromotor system miraculously begins to ‘wake up’ and respond to these slight stimuli – the brain literally gets curious, and lowers muscle tone to better perceive the practitioner’s input. The quality of this relaxation is profoundly different from the relaxation of massage or Yoga – there’s a specific neurological component to it that is unique to Feldenkrais.
And the brain returns to the state all our brains possessed in infancy – it actually becomes neurologically more plastic in its efforts to respond intelligently to these tiny but precise and meaningful stimulations. The neurological controls of movement are created anew.
A practical
and scientific way of addressing aspects of movement we seldom even think about
or worry about… until we have a problem.
Moshe Feldenkrais (1903-1984), a scientist with degrees in physics, mechanical and electrical engineering from the Sorbonne, and a student of Jigaro Kano (founder of Judo) who became European Judo champion. Also extremely widely read in physiology, anatomy and neuro-psychology, he was well-acquainted with the development of other movement modalities by pioneers such as Elsa Gindler, Jacques Dalcroze, Gerta Alexander and most important of all, Mathias Alexander with whom he studied in London in the late 40’s.
Moshe Feldenkrais (1903-1984), a scientist with degrees in physics, mechanical and electrical engineering from the Sorbonne, and a student of Jigaro Kano (founder of Judo) who became European Judo champion. Also extremely widely read in physiology, anatomy and neuro-psychology, he was well-acquainted with the development of other movement modalities by pioneers such as Elsa Gindler, Jacques Dalcroze, Gerta Alexander and most important of all, Mathias Alexander with whom he studied in London in the late 40’s.
Feldenkrais was aware that movement is controlled by electrical signals from the brain, and that every movement exists as an image in the brain before it actually happens. His unique contribution to science is his discovery of a way to interact directly with these neuromotor processes, literally reprogramming the brain to improve its movement organization. The ramifications for this are immense and still unfolding.
Feldenkrais Method brings improvement to
--stroke victims and patients with cerebral palsy, MS, emphysema and other movement-impairing illnesses.
--athletes, dancers and actors – both those who have suffered injury and those who simply want to improve their skills, i.e., pianists, other instrumentalists, vocalists, conductors – all musicians who seek relief from injury or enhancement of their capacity for fine control of every element of their musical expression
--ordinary people with back pain or any movement limitation
The movements in a Feldenkrais session are exceptionally small and gentle, sometimes even imperceptible. The client often wonders what is going on because she is not used to perceiving the fine differences in sensation on which the learning process of Feldenkrais is based. But that’s the secret of Feldenkrais’s success: instead of using the grosser amounts of energy that make a muscle actually contract (think of the amount of electricity needed to light an incandescent light bulb), it works with the extremely low-energy signals coming from the brain to the muscle (like the signal a computer key sends the processor). An Awareness Through Movement® lesson is not a lesson in movement as we know it at all, but a fine-tuning of the neurological control mechanisms of movement.
Here’s the kicker: the practitioner accesses those neuromotor processes through the client’s skeleton.
When bones are out of alignment, muscles work hard to keep the skeleton in place, and they are not so free to generate movement. When bones are well-aligned, the muscles work less to hold and more to move: movements feel easier but are stronger. If the practitioner moves the client’s body paying attention to the skeletal mechanics within, he begins to be able to differentiate, by sensation, between the bones, muscles and nervous impulses. A physiotherapist will move an injured leg through various configurations to restore the leg’s sense of moveability and limberness. The Feldenkrais practitioner moves the same leg a miniscule amount, and senses how well the bones line up to transmit a force through. He feels with high sensitivity even the smallest resistance, the smallest possible interference from muscles that hold instead of help.
But the practitioner doesn’t then plough through that resistance. The more you resist, the more it persists! Instead the practitioner ‘nudges up’ against the resistance and then backs off again. He makes the brain more aware of what it’s doing. He brings the resistance into the brain’s sensory picture of that part of the body. We are talking of miniscule, virtually imperceptible movements here – movements so small that they are not perceived as intrusive but inquisitive. After some time the neuromotor system miraculously begins to ‘wake up’ and respond to these slight stimuli – the brain literally gets curious, and lowers muscle tone to better perceive the practitioner’s input. The quality of this relaxation is profoundly different from the relaxation of massage or Yoga – there’s a specific neurological component to it that is unique to Feldenkrais.
And the brain returns to the state all our brains possessed in infancy – it actually becomes neurologically more plastic in its efforts to respond intelligently to these tiny but precise and meaningful stimulations. The neurological controls of movement are created anew.
Monday, July 30, 2012
STUDYING THE FUNCTION OF THE PELVIC FLOOR, 2
Hi everyone,
Just a little interesting feedback about what we are discovering together in the new pelvic floor class, currently being given at ACHIEVE FITNESS. (Please contact me if you want details about the class.)
After only 1 class, 2 people found clear improvement related to incontinence and urinary issues, and everyone had a better capacity to find, sense/feel and contract/relax their pelvic floors. This also helps bring awareness to the whole pelvis, our center of movement power, meaning moving in the direction of stability and strength.
During and after the 2nd class, extreme improvement in balance was noted by one long-time student, and numerous people, especially riders, felt more stability and groundedness in the pelvis in a new way. Everyone experienced continued improvement in ability to contract/relax PF in a more complete way, meaning they will be better able to do it at home and begin to assess the impact more directly on their uro-genitory issues, and upon balance.
Breathing was also generally better, as a widening of the chest and hips is again directly connected with PF work.
To me, the influence of PF work on balance is especially intriguing. I am going to go back into my notes and videos to search for the physiological link up between them and will share what I learn.
But please don't hold your breath...summer in Reno means busy in the garden in addition to Feldenkrais classes and individual sessions. Instead, sense your breathing and breathe into your entire abdominal cavity, PF included!
Take good care!
Carole
Sunday, July 22, 2012
STUDYING THE PELVIC FLOOR FUNCTION
Studying the application of sensing, contracting and relaxing this important part of our anatomy from a Feldenkrais perspective means that we can rather rapidly reap the benefits of greater internal control of our pelvic floor functions. If you want to learn more about this by attending a class, please contact me directly.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Re-post Moving out of pain - functional integration®
The legendary Mia Segal, original pupil of Dr. Feldenkrais, demonstrates a simple and stunningly elegant example of a Functional Integration lesson.
SELF-EMPOWERED HEALTH
WHY CARE ABOUT YOUR PELVIC FLOOR SYSTEM?
Because it directly affects the functioning of your entire body,
including spinal function, elimination processes, urogenital function, your
balance and your breathing. So you can have more control over all these
functions yourself...A few reasons that you MIGHT CARE.
PELVIC FLOOR HEALTH
FACT:
If we think about the pelvic floor as the bottom of the abdominal container
(situated between the sitting bones, the sacrum and the pubic bone), the top of
which is your diaphragm), its easier to grasp why condition of your pelvic
floor affects so many of your important physiological functions.
This container is
attached to the lumbar spine, thus people with SCOLIOSIS always have some
degree of pelvic floor imbalance. Yet another way Feldenkrais helps us work
directly and effectively with SCOLIOSIS.
NEW FELDENKRAIS CLASS:
Learning to Work With Your Pelvic Floor
Next Saturday July 21 at 1:45 pm I am beginning a new series of 6 classes to help people improve the health and well being of this important and poorly understood system. To reiterate, a healthy PF supports improved functioning of everything inside the pelvis, as well as critical components of breathing, balance and spinal function. You must contact me to participate.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
EQUINE SKELETAL DEVIATION
Conscious Deviation?
Look at the sensitive, emotional, intelligent, lovable face of my horse friend below! Could this be the face of a CONSCIOUS DEVIATOR?
The real story (and question!), How my skeletal alignment affects my horse's alignment... and What can I consciously do to improve this situation, using the Feldenkrais approach?
HORSE FACT!
Did you know that when you, the rider, are not aligned vertically with your ears over your hips (the 2 places where the greatest number of our proprioceptors exist), your horse CONSCIOUSLY DEVIATES from its own alignment to try to match yours? Does that sound safe to anyone? This is one of many reasons equestrians do Feldenkrais...so they know that they and their horses are aligned in a safe, stable (:-)) way! Smart they are...
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